2012 [Blu-ray]

Overview

Disaster movie maven Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) crafts this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller following the prophecy stated by the ancient Mayan calendar, which says that the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012. When a global cataclysm thrusts the world into chaos, divorced writer and father Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) joins the race to ensure that humankind is not completely wiped out. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, and Oliver Platt round out the cast of this end-of-the-world thriller co-scripted by the director and his 10,000 B.C. writer/composer, Harald Kloser.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/02/2010
UPC:	0043396347076
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	SONY PICTURES
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:38:00

Special Features

Include Alternate Ending; Picture-in-Picture: Roland's Vision; Commentary and movieIQ

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

John Cusack	Jackson Curtis
Amanda Peet	Kate
Chiwetel Ejiofor	Adrian Helmsley,Actor
Oliver Platt	Carl Anheuser
Tom McCarthy	Gordon Silberman
Woody Harrelson	Charlie Frost
Danny Glover	President Thomas Wilson
Liam James	Noah Curtis
Morgan Lily	Lilly Curtis
Zlatko Buric	Yuri Karpov
Beatrice Rosen	Tamara
Alexandre Haussmann	Alec,Oleg
Johann Urb	Sasha
John Billingsley	Professor West
Chin Han Ng	Tenzin
Osric Chau	Nima
Chang Tseng	Grandfather Sonam
Lisa Lu	Grandmother Sonam
Blu Mankuma	Harry Helmsley
George Segal	Tony Delgado
Stephen McHattie	Captain Michaels
Patrick Bauchau	Roland Picard
Jimi Mistry	Dr. Satnam Tsurutani
Ryan McDonald	Scotty
Merrilyn Gann	German Chancellor
Henry O	Lama Rinpoche
Patrick Gilmore	Ark Communication Officer
Dean Marshall	Ark Communication Officer
Ron Selmour	Ark Boarding Officer
Viv Leacock	Ark Boarding Officer
Chris Boyd	Ark Boarding Officer
Donna Yamamoto	AF1 Science Officer
Doron Bell Jr.	AF1 Science Officer
David Orth	AF1 Lieutenant
Lyndall Grant	Governor
Jason Diablo	Ark Tech Officer
Ty Olsson	AF1 Officer
Zinaid Memisevic	President Sergey Makarenko
Vincent Cheng	Chinese Colonel
Igor Morozov	Russian Interpreter
B.J. Harrison	Woman Comforting Child
Dominic Zamprogna	Paramedic
Karin Konoval	Sally - President's Secretary
Mary Gillis	Jackson's Neighbor
Rick Tae	Megaphone Officer
Parm Soor	Saudi Prince
Gerard Plunkett	Isaacs - M6 Officer
Paul Tryl	Zultan
Andrei Kovski	Zultan's Trainer
Val Cole	News Reporter - Tikal
Eve Harlow	Cashier
Sean Tyson	Interrogating Officer
Leonard Tenisci	Italian Prime Minister
Michael Buffer	Boxing Announcer
Daren A. Herbert	Ship Waiter,Ship Waiter
Craig Stanghetta	Vegas Rescue Worker
Mateen Devji	Ajit - age 5,Ajit - age 9
Jody Thompson	CNN Anchor
Tanya Champoux	Mrs. Birnbaum
Frank C. Turner	Preacher
Kinua McWatt	Yoko Delgatto
Laara Sadiq	British Newscaster
Gillian Barber	Cruise Ship Lady
Candus Churchill	Cruise Ship Lady
Beverley Elliott	Cruise Ship Lady
Agam Darshi	Aparana
Raj Lal	Gurdeep
Pesi Daruwalla	Dr. Lokesh
Jacob Blair	AF1 Steward
Jay Williams	AF1 Steward
Scott Miller	Ark Naval Officer
Anna Mae Routledge	Ark Naval Officer
John Stewart	Pilot
Ryan Cook	Surfer
Brandon Haas	Surfer
Eddie Hassell	Surfer
Betty Phillips	Elderly Driver
Georgina Hegedos	Elderly Driver
Luis Javier	Vegas Tow Truck Driver
Dean Redman	Vegas Fireman
Gordon Lai	Security Commander
Mark Docherty	Field Reporter - Tikal
Mark Oliver	Fundrariser Security
Andrew Moxham	Policeman
Alexandra Castillo	Paris Reporter
Farouk A. Afify	Saudi Senior Security
Shaun Wilson	US Army Worker
Leo Chiang	Chinese Soldier
Elizabeth Richard	Queen Elizabeth
Kyle Riefsnyder	Cho Ming Platform Officer
John Mee	Angry Billionaire
George Trochta	American Ark Steward
Geoff Gustafson	Ark Bridge Crew
Alex Zahara	Ark Bridge Crew
Jase Anthony Griffith	Ark Bridge Crew,Ark Bridge Crew
Jill Morrison	Ark Bridge Crew
Thomas Parkinson	Ark Bridge Crew
Leona Naidoo	Ark Bridge Crew
Quentin Guyon	Ark Bridge Crew
Nicole Rudell	Ark Bridge Crew
Chad Riley	Ark Bridge Crew
Simon Leung	Ark Bridge Crew
Kevin Haaland	Ark Bridge Crew
Leigh Burrows	US Army Worker
Roland Emmerich	Actor
Thandiwe Newton	Laura Wilson
Zlatko Burik	Yuri Karpov
Han Chin	Lin Pang
Harald Kloser	Composer
Thomas Wander	Composer
Thomas Wanker	Composer

Technical Credits

Roland Emmerich

Harald Kloser

Roland Emmerich	Director,Screenwriter,Executive Producer,Executive Producer,Producer,Producer
Harald Kloser	Screenwriter,Producer
Mark Gordon	Producer,Stunts
Larry Franco	Producer,Producer
Michael Wimer	Executive Producer,Producer
April Webster	Casting
John Stoneham Jr.	Stunts
Mike Vezina	Special Effects
Cam Waldbauer	Special Effects
Aaron Boyd	Producer
Gerald Abraham	Special Effects
Lothar Bellutta	Sound Effects
Michael J. Benavente	Sound Effects
Thom Brennan	Sound Effects
Michael Broomberg	Sound Effects
Graham Crowell	Sound Effects
Kirstin Winkler	Producer
Marco Capparelli	Special Effects
Nick Damico	Special Effects
Ignacio Garcerón	Special Effects
Phaneendra Gullapalli	Special Effects
Robert Hubbard	Special Effects
Pasha Ivanov	Special Effects
Peng Ke	Special Effects
Zsolt Krajcsik	Special Effects
Andres Martinez	Special Effects
Alessandro Nardini	Special Effects
Miguel Salek	Special Effects
Ramprasad Sampath	Special Effects
Jon Tojek	Special Effects
Remy Torre	Special Effects
Joseph Zaki	Special Effects
David Benediktson	Special Effects
Steve Benelisha	Special Effects
Tyler Bilodeau	Special Effects
Eric Bullock	Special Effects
Max Gloeckler	Special Effects
Alan Hawes	Special Effects
Dale Shippam	Special Effects
Mike Splatt	Special Effects
Andre Alexsen	Stunts
Lacy Altwine	Stunts
Ed Anders	Stunts
Brett Armstrong	Stunts
Maja Aro	Stunts
John Ashker	Stunts
Aaron Au	Stunts
Jason Calder	Stunts
Janene Carleton	Stunts
Mike Carpenter	Stunts
Brett Chan	Stunts
Philip Chang	Stunts
Nesta Chapman	Stunts
Alex Chiang	Stunts
Mike Ching	Stunts
Bruce Crawford	Stunts
Austin Dunn	Stunts
Wade Eastwood	Stunts
Paul Lazenby	Stunts
Nicole Lissner	Stunts
Regan Moore	Stunts,Special Effects
Vince Murdocco	Stunts
Shawn C. Orr	Stunts
Efosa Otuomagie	Stunts
Dan Redford	Stunts
Michael Roselli	Stunts
Kevin Rushton	Stunts
Raymond Sammel	Stunts
Kevin Browne	Special Effects
Jeff Shank	Special Effects
Rio Tanaka	Special Effects
Corie Tornack	Special Effects
Brad Zehr	Special Effects
Arthur D. Lindfield	Special Effects
Celia Bond	Stunts
Paul Ottosson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A hulking spectacle of surreal destruction, Roland Emmerich's 2012 is a theme-park ride masquerading as a motion picture -- the only things missing are an exclamation mark in the title and multiplex seat-jostlers to give us a good jolt when the action gets especially intense. Were Irwin Allen still alive today, he'd no doubt marvel at Emmerich's impressive ability to dispatch more people in ten seconds of screen time than Jason Voorhees did in the entire original Friday the 13th film series (albeit much less creatively, of course). You can almost imagine a bulky old clamshell VHS case for 2012 on the shelf of your local video store, its title rendered in a cold, bold giant font over images of a globe cracking in half, and small, sweaty action headshots of all the stars lining the bottom of the box. Like his predecessor in mayhem, Emmerich knows what buttons to push in order to get a rise out of us. Yet despite -- or perhaps because of -- the fact that 2012 presents the ne plus ultra of bummer scenarios, this trip to the end of the world can't quite help but feel like an amalgamation of every disaster script ever written. The end of the world gets under way when an Indian scientist receives evidence of the largest solar eruption in the history of humankind, and that eruption launches a new breed of neutrinos directly into the planet's core. These powerful neutrinos are acting like millions of little microwaves, heating up the planet until the crust begins to crack and all hell breaks loose. As genius scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) keeps President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) abreast of developments, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a divorced, down-on-his-luck author, heads into Yellowstone National Park on a camping trip with his son, Noah (Liam James), and daughter, Lilly (Morgan Lily). Before long the ground is splitting open all around, sending Jackson on a mad dash to save his family as the U.S. government offers salvation to the highest bidders. Thanks to the fanaticism of a conspiracy-theory radio show host (Woody Harrelson), Jackson is able to get his hands on a map detailing the location of several arks that have been constructed to ensure the survival of the human race. But those arks are halfway across the world, and as the earth continues to crumble and the poles begin to shift, reaching China in time to make the final boarding call is going to be no simple task. Let's save space and just be honest. If you paid good money to see 2012, odds are you're not looking for high human drama -- you just want to live out your fantasy of watching the world fall apart without the risk of grievous bodily harm and all the other awkward complications that go with experiencing the apocalypse firsthand. In that respect, Emmerich and his immensely talented team of special-effects artists have succeeded amicably; the apocalypse itself becomes something like the ultimate movie villain as our harried cast of survivors dodge one sensory-shattering catastrophe after another, and everyone does a commendable job of projecting sheer terror when the moment calls for it. The prospect of making a "fun" disaster movie for a post-9/11 society is something of a thankless job, but Emmerich isn't concerned with re-opening old wounds, and the early scenes of California crumbling are thoroughly cartoonish in their shameless excess. To be fair, he and co-screenwriter Harald Kloser do inject a sliver of social commentary in the final 15 minutes of the film, but by that point it comes off as somewhat disingenuous -- a stealthy means of freeing up the previous 143 for sheer end-of-the-world overload. The main problems with 2012 are bloat and repetition; in their compulsion to connect every dot in the story, Emmerich and Kloser put off the inevitable for far too long, and by the third time we witness an airplane zooming down the runway and narrowly averting disaster, our stomachs stay firmly planted in our torsos rather than jutting up into our throats. But when the pacing begins to falter, it's the film's talented cast that keeps us flailing on the hook. Though the characters are nearly all cliché -- the power-hungry government guy, the heroic everyman, and the benevolent scientist, just to name a few -- Cusack, Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, and Zlatko Buric manage to make them engaging and enjoyable. 2012 is junk-food cinema of the highest order: it satisfies your craving for something ridiculous and unhealthy, and makes no claims of having any nutritional value whatsoever. It may not rot your teeth, but there is the risk that upon exiting the theater you might have a few less ounces of grey matter than when you entered.