CALAMITY REIGNS
‘Uncanny’ hardship makes ‘Greenland’ a perfect ’20
About the only calamity not to hit Earth this year is a comet that could wipe out most of humanity.
That’s where Gerard Butler comes in. Few movies released in this 2020 hellscape have managed to encapsulate what a year of a global plague, deadly blazes and massive protests has felt like. But Butler’s new film “Greenland” captures what it’s like to be ambushed by a worldwide crisis and feel absolutely helpless.
“It’s uncanny,” the action star told the Daily News of the similarities to real life in the film, which hits premium video on demand Friday after months of coronavirus pandemic-related delays and a successful international summer release.
“But then again, it’s not,” Butler added, “because a lot of thought went into that, you know, what would be, where do we feel society would get it right, where do we feel there would be kind of a decay in society, a build in pressure and intensity, and the fact that everybody’s gonna deal with this in a different way.”
Butler, 51, stars as John Garrity, a structural engineer who wants to repair his relationship with wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and ensure both she and their diabetic young son, Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd), get onto a plane that will evacuate them to a bunker in Greenland in the hours before the comet crashes into Earth.
“None of us had the foresight to know how relevant it was gonna be,” Baccarin, 41, told The News. “Every aspect of what’s happened this year [happens in] our film. I had moments of déjà vu where … you’re just like, ‘This is crazy.’ Like I never thought my life would feel like this movie.”
Butler’s résumé has no shortage of action and disaster films — including 2017’s “Geostorm,” and the “Has Fallen” trilogy that began with 2016’s “London Has Fallen.” But the Scotsman viewed “Greenland” as an entirely different animal.
“I had never come across a disaster movie like this,” he explained. “It’s a Hollywood movie, but nothing about it felt Hollywood. It felt so grounded and real and authentic. It starts almost as a family drama, deceiving you, but the advantage of that is you really get to know this family inside out, warts and all … so you’re in for the ride.”
The Brazilian-born Baccarin, known for her work on the TV show “Gotham,” loved the fact that her character was never pushed to the side and had plenty of her own narrative.
“She’s not a victim. She takes matters into her own hands,” said Baccarin. “She’s fighting for her marriage and confused about sort of the state of it and what to do. … She’s terrified and she’s vulnerable and she’s a normal person, but she’s also able to rise to the occasion and be a real fighter.”
The “Deadpool” actress hopes viewers will come away feeling that despite the COVID-19 pandemic and political unrest, “There is hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“We can come out of this together,” she said.