The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

The American disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow (2004), was co-created and directed by Roland Emmerich. Inspired by the 1999 book The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film follows Jack Hall, an American paleoclimatologist. Together with his colleagues Frank and Jason, they are conducting ice-core sampling in the Larsen Ice Shelf for NOAA. During their research, the ice shelf breaks off into the ocean. At a UN conference in New Delhi, Jack presents his findings on how climate change could potentially trigger an ice age. However, US Vice President Raymond Becker writes it off as insignificant. Meanwhile, Professor Terry Rapson from Scotland’s Hedland Centre shares similar views with Jack about an impending climate shift. As the events unfold, Tokyo is hit by a massive hail storm and astronauts on the International Space Station observe three huge superstorms above Canada, Europe and Siberia.

In Scotland, Rapson’s team notices a drastic temperature drop in multiple buoys from the North Atlantic, proving Jack’s theories correct. However, the climate shift is occurring at an alarming rate. This becomes evident when a hurricane leaves remnants that spawn a series of destructive tornadoes over the LA Basin. In response, three helicopters are dispatched to rescue the British royal family from Balmoral Castle, but tragically crash in Scotland after flying into the eye of the superstorm. Working together with NASA meteorologist Janet Tokada, Jack and Rapson develop a forecast model based on his research, predicting that the impact of climate change will occur within 6-8 weeks (later revised to 7-10 days). Investigating further, Rapson discovers that frozen air siphoned from the upper troposphere is causing flash freezes with temperatures below -150 degrees Fahrenheit (-101 degrees Celsius), which led to the helicopter crash.