The audience are on the edge of their seats… The tension is palpable… Which disaster film will beat the rest to be the best of the worst? The results are in for the Geo-Movie Cup 2022!
As detailed in our previous blog, the EGU Seismology ECS team love those geological disaster films that are so bad, they’re good. 2020’s winner, “The Core”, was taken out of the running, and over the last few weeks the geoscience community has whittled down the contenders until only three were left. Would it be earthquakes, volcanoes or extreme climate change that would win the day?
For those stats stans out there (which seismologist isn’t!?!), here are the scores on the doors…
After a few twitter skirmishes, it boiled down to the final three, a triumvirate of terror:
The Day After Tomorrow
Dante’s Peak
San Andreas
In 3rd place – San Andreas
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the part he was born to play! The San Andreas fault finally gives way, and in amongst the toppling skyscrapers and cavernous crevasses, The Rock does his thing, using every conceivable mode of transport to save the people he loves (shame about most of the rest of the population…). CGI and cheesy quotes, and a quirky seismologist, this film has it all (well, it doesn’t, but it sure tries to).
In 2nd place – Dante’s Peak
What is more explosive, the eponymous volcano Dante’s Peak, or the fiery relationship of Linda Hamilton and Pierce Brosnan’s two leads? This 90s hit actually has some good science in (and some less good) and some of the practical effects hold up okay (-ish…) so it’s good to see it in the final three this year.
In 1st place, the 2022 Geo-Movie Cup Winner – The Day After Tomorrow!
A film where climate change induced ice melting causes a new ice age (…), our Geo-Movie winner has a lot of iconic moments that really made an impact when it was first released in 2004. From gigantic hailstones smashing through car windows in Tokyo, to a gigantic tidal wave engulfing New York, and of course the cold front chasing the characters down, held back by doors and the burning of books… The director Roland Emmerich, who also helmed Independence Day, 2012 and Moonfall (got a theme going on there), may not get his science right (see this article) but he has a knack of creating epic global thrillers with ensemble casts that help to show the scale of the disaster. I wonder how he’ll aim to destroy the world next…
So there we have it, the new Geo-Movie winner has been decided, and we can all rest easy. Though the science may be atrocious, perhaps these disaster films can show us the worst case scenarios of world-ending doom, so we’re better prepared for possible ensuing apocalypses. Or maybe they are just mindless popcorn thrillers that blind us to the real problems going on in the world. Who knows!?! Well, at least we do know what we’ll be watching for our next Geo-Movie night!
Thanks so much for voting, and see you next year for the next Geo-Movie Cup (unless earthquakes, volcanoes or climate change have got us first…!)
