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2012(2009)
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) Nov 13, 2009 | Wide
A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind.
Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital,DTS,SDDS
Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English,French,Tibetan,Mandarin,Russian,Hindi,Portuguese,Latin,Italian,Spanish
Showtimes
Your Location or
(U.S. Only)
Summaries
Plot Summary
- In 2009, an American geologist named Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to rapidly increase. Adrian and Satnam visit the Naga Deng Copper mine and go 11,000 feet below the ground. Satnam says that the neutrinos from the sun have mutated into a new kind of particle, which is causing a physical reaction. They study a well in the mine that goes down another 6000 feet, and the water inside it is absolutely boiling.Arriving at a party in Washington, D.C., Helmsley presents his information to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), who takes him to meet the President.In 2010, U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) and other international leaders from over forty-six nations begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. They begin building nine arks in the Himalayas, in Tibet. More than 400,000 people are chosen to board enormous "arks" constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the southwest Chinese Himalayas. A Buddhist monk named Nima (Osric Chau) is evacuated while his brother Tenzin (Chin Han) joins the Ark project. Additional funding is raised by selling tickets for Euro 1 billion per person. By 2011, valuable items are moved to the arks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson (Thandiwe Newton).In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works as a limousine driver for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric). Jackson's former wife Kate (Amanda Peet), and their children Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily), live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman (Tom McCarthy). Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. When they arrive at the park, they find the park fenced off by the military who arrived. They cross over the fence but are captured by the U.S. Army and taken in to see Helmsley, who recognizes Jackson after he published his recent book, Farewell Atlantis. After they are released from military custody, they meet Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), who hosts a radio show from the park (also the person who spotted them enter the restricted area).Later that night, after the military evacuates from Yellowstone, Jackson watches Charlie's video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. The 2012 phenomenon was a collection of beliefs that the world would end on December 21, 2012. The beliefs were based on the Mayan Long Count calendar, which was used in Central America before Europeans arrived. The calendar's "zero date" was set at 11 August 3114 BC, and the 13th Maya date 13.0.0.0.0, marked the end of the current world.Charlie also tells Jackson that those who discovered this and plotted to inform the public were killed in various accidents. After an earthquake hits Los Angeles, the family returns home. At the Santa Monica Airport, after dropping off Yuri's sons Alec and Oleg, who also warn of impending doom as they board a plane, he rents a Cessna 340A and sets out to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins with a magnitude 10.9 earthquake, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as California collapses into the Pacific Ocean.As millions of people die in earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve a map from Charlie (which shows the location of the Arks), escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie stays behind to broadcast the eruption and is killed. Learning that the arks are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas to find a larger plane. They find Yuri, his twin sons Alec (Alexandre Haussmann) and Oleg (Philippe Haussmann), girlfriend Tamara (Beatrice Rosen), and pilot Sasha (Johann Urb).Helmsley, Anheuser, and Laura Wilson are aboard Air Force One, where they are heading to the arks. President Wilson remains in Washington, D.C., to address the nation one last time. The planet's crust shifts, resulting in billions of people dead in disasters worldwide, including President Wilson. Helmsley had promised to evacuate Satnam and his wife Aparna (Agam Darshi), but the rescue helicopters never arrived and Satnam perishes with his family.Harry Helmsley (Blu Mankuma) is Adrian's father who works with Tony Delgatto (George Segal), a jazz singer aboard the cruise ship Genesis. Adrian is helpless as a Mega Tsunami flips the cruise ship over, killing everyone on board.With the presidential line of succession gone, following the death of the Vice President and the disappearance of the Speaker of the House, Carl appoints himself acting commander-in-chief even though he is not in the presidential line of succession. Back in Las Vegas, the group steals an Antonov An-500 aircraft, and they depart for China as the Yellowstone ash cloud engulfs the city. President Wilson is later killed by a mega tsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House.When the group arrives in China, the plane runs out of fuel. As the plane touches down on a glacier, the party uses a Bentley Flying Spur stored in the hold to escape, except Sasha, who stays in the cockpit and is killed when the jet goes over a cliff.They are then spotted by helicopters from the Chinese army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the arks, leaving the Curtis family and Gordon behind, along with Tamara, because Yuri knows she had an affair with Sasha.The remaining group is picked up by Nima and taken to the arks with his grandparents. They stow away on Ark 4, where the United States contingent is aboard, with the help of Tenzin. As a mega tsunami approaches the site, an impact driver becomes lodged in the gears of the ark's hydraulic doors, preventing a boarding gate from closing, which in turn prevents the ship from starting its engines.In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon, and Tamara are killed, and Ark 4 is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the impact driver, and the crew regains control of the ark before it collides with Mount Everest. Jackson rejoins with his family, and he and Kate reconcile.Twenty-seven days later, the waters are receding. The arks travel to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where the Drakensberg Mountain range has now emerged. Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura while Jackson and Kate rekindle their relationship.
Storyline
- Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world. — Jim Beaver