The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film, directed by Roland Emmerich. The story centers Jack Hall, a renowned scientists who studies the planet’s weather patterns. He discovers that climate change will be the cause for a series of extreme weather events usher in global cooling and lead to a new ice age. He desperately tries to air his suspicions to the U.S.A. vice president at U.N. conferences multiple times, but is mocked upon and rejected every single time. Jack’s suspicions were unfortunately correct and the global temperature plummets rapidly, concealing everything under a vast layer of ice. Jack’s new goal is to reunite with his son, who is stuck in the middle of it all in New York City. Will they meet before it’s too late? Can the world survive this freezing apocalypse?
This film was a massive hit in 2004 by displaying a view of what the world could look like if the greenhouse effect and global warming continue. Of course this movie exaggerates it and, like most Hollywood productions, is focused on spectacular effects and individual heroism. Nevertheless, it resulted in viewers having an elevated concern for climate change and even partly encouraged them to engage in social action in order to make climate change a national priority. And this was for good reason, because the movie’s main message was that if we don’t do anything, our children will pay the price, which is a concept that really overlaps with moral values. Director Roland Emmerich did a good job utilizing this fact to force out feelings and an improved understanding of climate change out of the audience.