The Day After Tomorrow Revisiting the master of disaster’s climate change catastrophe 20 years on
Yes, it’s still blighted by schmaltzy sentimentality and ridiculous science, but there’s a chilling prescience about some of its weather events.
Having obliterated the White House, stomped all over New York (and a beloved movie monster’s 40-year legacy) and mangled 18th century American history, German film director Roland Emmerich decided it was time to up the stakes.
Inspired by Art Bell and Whitley Streiber’s 1999 book The Coming Global Superstorm, he and co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff (then best known for penning the screenplay for Behind Enemy Lines, a film that tried to make Owen Wilson an action star) wanted to deliver a clarion-call regarding climate change to the masses, via with medium of Hollywood blockbuster.
But while 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow (currently available to stream on Disney+) saw the “Master of Disaster” most definitely deliver a spectacle, its science was dismissed as “enjoyable nonsense” by anyone with a relevant BSc or above.
It’s biggest crime? It essentially over-eggs the pudding, coming up with a ridiculous scenario that posits a cold “snap” that’s more Thanos than any kind of believable alteration in global thermodynamics.
Sure it made for a compelling trailer (iced-over Statue of Liberty and all) and striking visuals, but a more measured approach (that didn’t involve borrowing elements of 1996’s Twister and the climatic equivalent of Batman and Robin’s Mr Freeze’s weaponry) would undoubtedly have delivered a more resonant tale than this flick o’ fantasy (one that’s made all the more galling by its bizarre once-and-done “storm of the myrioi” – once-in-10,000 years – approach to the potentially existential catastrophe, especially having repeatedly told us earlier it was all looking like it would trigger the next ice age).
However, credit Emmerich with not only creating the (then) highest-grossing Canadian-made movie, but also the first carbon-neutral major Hollywood production – thanks to him dipping into his own pocket to the tune of US$200,000 – and one that dared to call out the Bush/ Cheney administration’s opposition to the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by deliberately casting actors (especially the Cheney-esque Kenneth Welsh) who resembled the then US president and vice-president to play the finance-before-science blinkered politicos.
And while adhering to the traditional disaster-that-reunites-a-broken-family/ relationship dynamic that dominated everything from Independence Day and Twister to Outbreak and The Abyss in the decade prior (and later Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, The Rock’s
San Andreas and Emmerich’s own 2012), he also created a field-tripping-teens-in-peril template that arguably inspired Jon Watts’ first two Tom Holland-starring MCU Spider-Man stories.
Twenty years on, though, with the world’s climate clearly more unpredictable, larger and larger chunks of the polar ice caps breaking off or melting away and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation collapse (a key driver of the events in The Day After Tomorrow) increasingly predicted as a nightmarish reality sooner rather than later, has the film gained a extra sheen of authenticity or prescience?
The answer is yes – and no. While still haven’t seen snow in Delhi or helicopters dropping out of the sky due to cold air over Scotland, you can tick off Emmerich’s predictions of giant hailstones in Japan, typhoons troubling Australia (although technically they’ve been tropical cyclones) and a tornado cutting a swathe through Los Angeles (even if it didn’t take out the Hollywood sign). And there genuinely is “an iceberg the size of Rhode Island” now “freely floating north of Antarctica”. That does make certain, once fantastical, claims now more than a little unnerving.
But the chances of seeing the Big Apple almost instantly freezing over in 2024 are still more likely to be at a cinema near you (shout-out to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire for a Gotham makeover eerily similar to Emmerich’s) than on the evening news.
Having said that, New York’s Grand Central Station did flood this past winter, the United Kingdom just months ago faced a week-long “deep freeze” and 15-feet of snow did indeed bury certain parts of Eastern Europe in 2012.
There’s also some interesting, non-climate-related meditations and observations that also have extra frisson given American events of the past two decades. There’s a debate over burning books (and what titles should and shouldn’t be incinerated), a what-seem-snow darkly hilarious scenario of American citizens illegally crossing the border into Mexico to escape the inhospitable elements of their homeland and an Oval Office commander-in-chief expressing that he now has “a profound sense of humility about consuming the planet’s natural resources without consequence”.
The Day After Tomorrow will be viewed by many as a period piece from a time when Jake Gyllenhaal could wear a scarf without ridicule, Emmy Rossum (Mystic River, The Phantom of the Opera, Poseidon) was Hollywood’s It Girl and Dennis Quaid (On A Wing and A Prayer) wasn’t just a faith-based movie star.
But if you can get past the schmaltzy sentimentality, dull domestic dramas (it’s no surprise both a sick child and cute dog become imperiled) and Emmerich’s American flag-waving, this now feels a bit more significant than the “shambles of dud writing” that left The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane “determined to double my consumption of fossil fuels”.
The Day After Tomorrow is now available to stream on Disney+.
In just one year, Sydney Sweeney took on the role of a real-life whistleblower in a sharply executed thriller, breathed new life into the rom-com genre, and transformed into a Marvel hero. Now, with the release of Michael Mohan’s horror film Immaculate, she is adding nun in crisis to her rapidly growing resume.
The 26-year-old has rapidly gone from “young babe on TV” to one of Hollywood’s It Girls – an incredibly varied one at that. Her impressive trajectory has a lot in common with that of major movie stars from the 1990s like Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie.
But can Sweeney achieve their level of stardom, acclaim and influence? Hollywood has changed a lot since then, with streaming fragmenting audiences and fewer people flocking to cinemas, the number of movie stars, as well as their power over audiences, has diminished. If Sweeney can’t replicate the hey-day of Hollywood, who can?
Born to non-famous parents
(her mother was a criminal defence lawyer and her father a hospitality professional), Sweeney’s acting career began the way many do: In tiny guest roles on network TV shows like 90210 and Criminal Minds. She began to attract more attention upon joining larger budget productions alongside recognisable A-listers from 2018 onwards, including HBO’s Sharp Objects, Netflix’s Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid’s Tale and even Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
However, her breakthrough moment was undeniably Euphoria in 2019. Her role as Cassie Howard seems a parallel to Sweeney herself – sex symbol on the surface, but a nuanced, intelligent woman beneath. That image was further consolidated when she starred as Olivia Mossbacher in the first season of Mike White’s The White Lotus, playing a sharp-tongued teen unafraid of questioning her elders.
By this point, it was clear that Sweeney could confidently embody teenage characters, offering strong, controlled performances amid glitzy set productions. It would have been easy to continue riding the acclaimed TV show wave (she earned two Emmy nominations from it). But diamonds are only made under pressure.
Her performance as NSA whistleblower Reality Winner in the understated political drama Reality (2023) marked Sweeney’s shift. With its real-life narrative, and limited theatrical release and promotion campaign, it contrasted starkly with her previous flashy projects.
Her character was also leagues apart from her earlier, largely “sexy” roles. Winner, with her makeup-free face and dressed in casual clothing, was peak ordinary. Sweeney’s performance was hinged on her prior research and modulated facial expressions rather than her sex appeal or youthful energy.
She then went from whistleblower to sardonic love interest in the smash hit Anyone But You. Unlike Reality, this rom-com worked overtime to get its name out ahead of release. Though the film was generally critically panned, it arguably breathed new life into the genre.
It also became the most financially successful film in which Sweeney held a lead role, grossing more than NZ$546 million worldwide. Notably, Sweeney executive produced the film under her production company Fifty-Fifty Films, which she launched in 2020.
Her next film was less of a smash hit and more of a crash. Sony’s Madame Web flopped at the box office, grossing just over NZ$248m globally. Sweeney’s decision to turn to the (rapidly crumbling ) Marvel Universe may have dumbfounded some, but the actress has said it initiated her relationship with Sony – thereby helping her land Anyone But You, which is also distributed by Sony. Clearly, she knows how to play the Hollywood game.
Her most recent project – the upcoming horror film Immaculate, in which she plays an American nun who inexplicably becomes pregnant upon joining an Italian convent – allows her to play with the nunsploitation genre and body horror, as well as reclaim her seat at the producers’ table.
So she’s been in TV and film, has traversed between horror, drama, rom-coms and superhero films, and has produced multiple projects. That’s not even mentioning her extracurricular work, such as her well-received stint on SNL and her ambassadorship of fashion and beauty companies such as Kerastase, Laneige and Tony Burch. The hustle doesn’t end – Sweeney already has three productions lined up, including Echo Valley (which she’ll star in alongside Julianne Moore), the Ron Howard-directed film Eden, and season three of Euphoria.
To a certain extent, every celebrity has to be a multi-hyphenate. Think Margot Robbie, who both acts and produces. Robbie’s stardom is obvious, but Sweeney’s range appears limitless, with a willingness to take risks and delve into the absurd (see the nun horror film).
Other actresses have climbed the Hollywood ranks since the 90s, including Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence. Johansson began her film career at age 9 (she starred in North in 1994), and Lawrence’s fame was largely elevated by well-known IP like X-Men and The Hunger Games. Those are probably the most recent comparisons to Sweeney, but the Anyone But You actress belongs to an even newer generation, being shaped by TikTok more than Hollywood studios.
Yet, Sweeney could be destined for the kind of fame enjoyed by hall-offamer Bette Davis or, more recently, Julia Roberts. Davis wasn’t afraid to get messy in films like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and DeadRinger. Roberts famously traversed between rom-com PrettyWoman and psychological horror Flatliners in the same year (1990), while also co-producing many of her own films.
Like Sweeney, these women refused to be typecast, carving out space for themselves both in front of and behind the camera. But unlike Sweeney, they reached their peak when Hollywood was smaller and cinema still entertainment’s golden child. Sweeney has spoken of the competition in Hollywood, especially between actresses. And while stars multiply, the number of people flocking to cinemas has dwindled since Covid-19.
In such an uncertain environment, celebrities like Sweeney have no choice but to diversify, not necessarily to become the best, but to simply remain relevant. It just so happens that the hustle suits Sweeney better than others. – Sydney Morning Herald