The thing about me is that I love crime and horror movies as much as I love a good romcom film. But there’s another film genre that I love to watch so much even though it’s bad for my mental health – disaster movies. Volcano. Dante’s Peak. Twister. These are just some of the disaster films I’ve seen and enjoyed watching. But if there’s one disaster movie that I will watch over and over again, it’s The Day After Tomorrow.
This disaster movie centers on climate change and it starred Dennis Quaid as a climatologist who warns the world about the looming climate shift. The Day After Tomorrow became a blockbuster hit when it was shown in cinemas. And as one of those moviegoers who’ve seen the film, I can attest to how good this film is.
Reasons I Love Watching The Day After Tomorrow
Jake Gyllenhaal.
A very young, fresh-faced, and super cute Jake Gyllenhaal starred in this movie as Sam Hall, son of paleontologist, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid). In the film, he plays the younger Hall, 17-year-old College student, who gets stranded in New York City when a superstorm hits. I just can’t enough of him in this film. Not only did he play a smart guy but he was also a knight in shining armor to Laura Chapman (Emmy Rossum) whom he’s had a secret crush on. Even with the threat of a storm that could freeze him instantly, he braved going outside to find her medicine when she fell ill.
The Special Effects.
Now the magic of Hollywood is that it can make you believe something is real because of special effects which is especially important in the making of a really good disaster movie. The special effects of this film were so great that it scared the living wits out of me when first watched it and if you’ve seen The Day After Tomorrow, you probably know what I’m talking about. Tornadoes. Tsunami. Snow. Icebergs breaking off. Hailstorm. There was a whole lot of it going on in the movie. It’s unlike other disaster films that focus on just one like a volcano erupting or an earthquake.
The Plot.
So The Day After Tomorrow’s story centers on climate change. It’s the main antagonist of the movie. What I love about it is the story feels so real. After all, we are already experiencing climate change. Glaciers are melting. Super Typhoons are forming. Record-breaking hail stones are raining down in different parts of the world. Although real scientists hate it which is interesting.
The enduring influence of The Day After Tomorrow, 20 years Later
When I rewatched it on Disney+ recently, I didn’t know that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the film. That disaster movie really made a mark on me. Although critics and science experts say the plot was over the top, it opened my eyes to the very real possibility that we could experience such a huge tragedy if we continue to live life without a care for Mother Nature.
Since watching The Day After Tomorrow, I’ve sought out ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle. I’ve kept in mind the battlecry for environmental awareness, Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. And I am sure others like me were enlightened about the seriousness of climate change because of this film. While this disaster movie got some things right and some things wrong about a climate shift, the main thing is that it opened the conversation about the threat of climate change.
What did you think of The Day After Tomorrow? And what’s your favorite disaster movie of all time?