灾难片的英文简介

灾难片的英文简介
灾难片的英文简介

灾难片的英文简介
The new climate disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow" looks to be great entertainment.With wildly cool computer-generated tornadoes,mega-hurricane storm surge,and blinding blizzards,this movie is sure to fire the imagination of a public that is constantly beseiged with new worries about global warming and impending climate disaster.
How will "The Day After Tomorrow" affect the public's perception of the reality of climate change?Did past climate change occur,as the movie trailer implies,with a single super-storm that ushered in a new ice age?Is mankind's tinkering with the climate leading to a new and unpredictable weather event that will change the course of human history?
There is increasing evidence that past climate changes could have been abrupt -- changing over maybe 10-50 years.But this is a far cry from what is depicted in "The Day After Tomorrow".Our gradual introduction of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will likely double the pre-industrial levels of this trace gas in the next 100 years.But the expected slow warming trend that results is unlikely to lead to rapid climate change.
Nevertheless,abrupt climate change is suddenly popular again.A recent,widely publicized research study has suggested that the ocean's "thermohaline" circulation that keeps the Earth's north polar region warmed by the flow of tropical water northward could suddenly shut down.This could conceivably lead to rapid climate change in Great Britain and western Europe,where a mini-ice age could develop in as little as tens of years.Indeed,this is the premise in "The Day After Tomorrow",where a wise old scientist (with a British accent,of course,lending credibility) announces that such a climate shift is indeed happening.
Unfortunately,scientists too frequently let fertile imaginations take over when hard facts are lacking.Other modelling efforts do not indicate a future shutdown of the ocean's thermohaline circulation,and some even strengthen it.The climate system is extremely complex,with many poorly-understood feedbacks.Because of this complexity,computerized climate models likely do not contain all of the negative feedbacks that try to restore the climate system to a balanced state.While abrupt climate change (as in "The Day After Tomorrow") is a possible result of global warming,the risk at this point is much more imaginary than real.
At the time of this writing (two months before "The Day After Tomorrow" opens),it seems likely the movie will lead to a new round of global warming hysteria.Our technological ability to create realistic computer-generated scenes of environmental catastrophe lends a certain realism to a movie.While "The Day After Tomorrow" will raise awareness of the global warming issue,it is unlikely to lead to the public having balanced and informed views on the subject.
While global warming is indeed real,it's magnitude is very uncertain.Some part of the 1 deg.F warming over the last century is likely the result of mankind's production of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use,while some is the result of coming out of the "Little Ice Age" of centuries past.The amount of future warming is also very uncertain.Climate models currently do not contain certain feedbacks that could limit the amount of warming in the next century,and so these models could be overestimating the amount of future warming.It is also important to remember that climate is always changing,and humans have always had to adapt to climate change.
What can we do about the problem?It is widely acknowledged that the "Kyoto Protocol" treaty to limit the production of greenhouse gases is too weak to have a measureable effect on global temperatures in the next 50 years.The changes necessary to forestall most of the future warming are so massive,they will require new and abundant sources of energy that don't rely on petroleum or coal.
Some people believe that legislative action is necessary to force industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Of course,to the extent that this costs money,the consumer and the investor will bear the cost.Other people believe that new energy technologies will come as a natural result of economic market forces,without the need for legislative action.In this view,as fossil fuels gradually become more expensive in the coming decades,new technologies will be developed to meet the need.While solar and wind energy sound attractive,their energy intensity is relatively low,and their cost is still relatively high.While they can contribute somewhat to our energy needs,large areas of land would have to be covered with solar collectors or wind turbines in order to generate substantial energy.Unless most countries decide that nuclear power is acceptable (like France has),we will be needing a new energy technology.
But in the meantime,enjoy "The Day After Tomorrow" for what it is -- science fiction entertainment -- not a climate forecast.

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The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 apocalyptic science-fiction film that depicts catastrophic effects of global warmin...

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http://www.answers.com/topic/the-day-after-tomorrow-1?cat=entertainment
The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 apocalyptic science-fiction film that depicts catastrophic effects of global warming and boasts high-end special effects, bending the lines between science, reality and science fiction. Worldwide, it is the 40th top grossing film of all time, with total revenue of US$542,771,772. It is the second highest grossing movie not to be #1 in the US box office (behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding). It currently holds the record for biggest opening weekend gross for any movie not opening at #1 with $68.7 million. The movie was filmed mostly in Montreal, and, as of 2007, is the highest grossing Hollywood film in history to be filmed in Canada.
The Day After Tomorrow premiered in Mexico City on May 17 2004 and was released worldwide from May 26 to May 28 except in South Korea and Japan where it was released June 4 and June 5, respectively. The film was originally planned for release in summer 2003.
Background
The movie was inspired by The Coming Global Superstorm, a book written by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber. Strieber also wrote the film's novelization. The pair used to co-host a paranormal themed talk show. Bell appeared on the show throughout the week on his Art Bell Show (now Coast to Coast AM) while Strieber hosted the weekend segment of the show entitled Dreamland. On both shows, the co-authors/paranormal talk show hosts would delve into such topics with guesses as what life would be like after humans have depleted all of their natural resources and destroyed their environment. There are relatively subtle connections between the book and the film: one being that there is a scene depicting a rescue mission at the New York Public Library.
Shortly before and during the release of the movie, members of environmental groups distributed pamphlets to moviegoers describing what they believe to be the possible effects of global warming.[citation needed] Although the film depicts some effects of global warming predicted by scientists, like rising sea levels, more destructive storms, and disruption of ocean currents and weather patterns, it depicts these events happening much more rapidly and severely than predicted by most scientists, and the theory that a "superstorm" will create rapid worldwide climate change is not widely accepted.[citation needed] When the film was playing in theaters, much criticism was directed at politicians concerning the Kyoto Protocol and climate change.[citation needed]
Synopsis
Global warming causes large areas of the Greenland and Antarctic ice shelves to break off and melt, diluting the North Atlantic Ocean with large amounts of fresh water. This disrupts the ocean's thermohaline circulation and slows the Gulf Stream, causing a rapid cooling of the northern hemisphere. This then triggers a series of anomalies and extreme weather events, eventually leading up to a massive "global superstorm" system consisting of three gigantic hurricane-like superstorms, which result in an ice age for the northern hemisphere within days. One hurricane-like storm is over Canada, one over Scotland, and a third over Siberia. The movie follows Jack, a paleoclimatologist for NOAA; his son Sam, a high school student; and his wife Lucy, a doctor.
The film portrays the “eye” of the superstorms as having such a low pressure that extremely cold air (−150°F or −101°C) from the upper troposphere is sucked downward, instantly freezing to death all who are caught in the eye. A woman in NOAA argues that the freezing air would warm up and rise, such as in regular storms, but Jack simply states that the air is dropping too fast. The storm is headed to New York, where Sam is trapped, and which Jack is trying to reach in the hostile frozen environment with Arctic gear and his survival skills.
Throughout the movie, a subplot involves the refusal of the Vice President of the United States to accept the threat of global warming—despite increasingly extreme weather conditions occurring throughout the world—insisting that measures to prevent it will do too much damage to the economy.
Plot
The story follows Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist. The movie opens with Jack in Antarctica with two colleagues, Frank and Jason, drilling for ice core samples on the Larsen Ice Shelf for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ice shelf cracks and breaks off from the rest of the continent, nearly killing Jack who almost falls into the crevasse while saving the ice cores. The concentration of greenhouse gases contained in the cores is used in a presentation he makes to a United Nations conference held in New Delhi, India on global warming, in which Jack tells the story of the 1,300 year long Younger Dryas cold climate period of the ninth millennium BC in the Northern Hemisphere to a skeptical and deaf audience, including the Vice President of the United States, who dismisses the possibility of such an event recurring. The idea, however, resonates with Dr. Terry Rapson of the Hedland Climate Research Center in Scotland. After the conference, Jack and Dr. Rapson meet for a cup of tea to discuss Jack’s findings, which establishes a relationship between the two that will be needed later.
Shortly after Dr. Rapson arrives back in Scotland from the conference two buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a large drop in water temperature. Other buoys soon begin showing the same. Dr. Rapson concludes that the melting of the polar ice has begun to disrupt the North Atlantic current and calls Jack to see if his paleoclimatological weather model could be used to predict what will happen.
In Tokyo and Los Angeles, the beginnings of the superstorm begin to show. Large hailstones the size of grapefruits (about 5 pounds) fall on Tokyo’s Chiyoda District, causing massive damage and fatalities. In Los Angeles, numerous tornadoes devastate the city, destroying notable landmarks such as the Capitol Records Tower and the Hollywood Sign in a spray of debris[1] and killing a newsreader.[2] Jack approaches his boss, Tom, at NOAA for time on the mainframe to run his paleoclimatological weather model with Dr. Rapson’s data. The results show the global climate will change in 6-8 weeks. A statistic that shows to be greatly underestimated.
Shortly thereafter, a report comes in from Rapson that a bizarre, gigantic hurricane-like storm has formed over northern Scotland sending three helicopters and their crew down as they were going to rescue the Royal Family. At the eye of the storm, temperatures drop 100 degrees in seconds, flash-freezing people. Seeing two more such storms at the same latitude, Hall manages to get a few minutes with the President and suggests that he evacuate two-thirds of the population of the United States to Florida, Texas or Mexico. The population in the 30 other southernmost states can move because snow there is only falling at about a foot a day. In the 18 northernmost states, however, snow is falling at a foot per hour, meaning anyone remaining outside for long periods will probably die. Before the President can act, the pseudo-hurricane in Canada reaches out 4,800 kilometers, its arms overlapping those of the pseudo-hurricane in Scotland, and creates a storm surge which increases the sea level of the north Atlantic Ocean by fifty feet, putting Manhattan underwater (presumably putting an end to the Dunkirk-in-reverse-like scene in southern Britain) and hitting the entire eastern seaboard.[3]
Rapson and his team of researchers, Simon and Dennis, (Simon was the only one that had succeeded in evacuating his family to southern Europe) meet death bravely. When Simon suggests using a bottle of single malt whisky to power the generator, Rapson exclaims in mock horror, "Are you mad? That's twelve year old Scotch!" He then retrieves three glasses and the doomed scientists drink final toasts, to England, Manchester United, and mankind. After their drink, they discuss life, because Simon brought on the subject of his son. He says, "Just I wish, I could've seen him grow up, you know". Rapson then says, "The important thing is that he will grow up". Just as the generator fails, Dennis says "amen".
Back in the library, a homeless man named Luther and his dog Buddha notices people outside walking on the snow and he tells everyone in the building about it. All of a sudden, the policeman inside the library asks everyone when was the last time anyone had a signal on a cell phone, a woman inside the library says that she managed to get a hold on her cousin in Memphis who is being evacuated to the south, i.e. Mexico. After that, the policeman continues to take charge in this situation by telling everyone that they should get moving before the snow gets too deep. Sam remembers the conversation he had with his dad about the storm and the warning to stay indoors and keep warm and try to wait it out in the partly submerged mezzanine, due to the fact that JD was unable to get a signal on his cellphone as he kept trying to call his little brother who is in a boarding school in Philadelphia. Sam then tells everyone to stay indoors and keep warm and try to wait it out. But the policeman mentions the lack of food and supplies and says that it is a risk. Even as people were leaving, Sam tells them they will not make it and "just please stay". Only a few people listen to Sam's warning: his friends J.D, Laura, Brian, the librarian Judith, a man named Jeremy, a woman named Elsa, the francophone tourists Laura helps at the taxi which is surprising because they don't understand English very well, and the homeless man Luther with his dog Buddha.
Reduced to an uncharacteristic mode of begging, the President finally obtains permission from Mexican authorities for the majority of the U. S. population to seek shelter there, and from the military to stay in the White House a few hours longer so he can save another million people. This, however, results in his death when his motorcade can't make the nearest helicopter. Jack takes off to somehow save his trapped son Sam in New York City. Meanwhile, in order to survive and wait for Jack's arrival, Sam leads the remaining people in the library to search for food and gather books for burning much to the horror of Judith and Jeremy, they will eventually give in to burning books because they had two choices the first choice was to freeze to death if they didn't have a fire going or they burn books to keep warm and to stay in inside the boardroom.
While Jack and two other climatologists are on this mission of mercy, the pseudo-hurricane in Canada spreads out and travels south-east, eventually bringing its eye directly over New York City. Laura becomes gravely ill with septicaemia from a cut on her leg when she and her friends outside of the library, so Sam, J.D. and Brian decide to leave the library to retrieve antibiotics from a Russian ship using chairs as snowshoes, stuck fast in the ice right outside the library windows, in order to save Laura's life. There they encounter the wolf pack shown earlier to have escaped from the Central Park Zoo after their enclosure was damaged by the storm. In addition to the medicine, the guys also stop and pick up some food from the mess hall and use a life raft to carry the food and a injured JD due to the fact he gets bitten by the wolves.
They elude the wolves as the "super-cooled" air begins to descend on Manhattan, as the eye of the "super storm" rests briefly over the area. Ice begins to cover the top of the taller buildings in the city including the Empire State Building, moving quickly downward and shattering windows as the wave of super cold air continues to drop toward the ice and snow clogged streets.
During the trek to New York, while crossing the glass roof of a snow-covered shopping mall, the glass begins to crack, causing Frank to sacrifice himself and fall to his death with most of the supplies. Both Jason and Jack are traumatized by Frank's death - Jack had known Frank for 20 years while Jason had known Frank for 2 years. As Jack and Jason near their destination Jason collapses and is unconscious for a couple of hours, Jack hurls the unconscious Jason into a Burger King in an attempt to save him from death when the eye of the storm hits. There, he manages to turn on the grills for heat. [4] When they finally arrive in New York, the entire library is covered in snow except for several blown-out windows in the courtyard.
The movie ends with people emerging onto the roofs of skyscrapers to be rescued, and Jack (with the library group) being picked up by a helicopter, greeted by his boss Tom as the chopper touches down on the sea ice jack and the library group are happy that there are more survivors. Now President Raymond Becker (who succeeded to the office, under the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, when his predecessor was killed in the storm) gives a speech thanking "the countries we used to call the Third World" for sheltering Americans and other First Worlders; he also notes that there are survivors in the north of the country and that he has ordered (the previously seen) rescue operations to commence. His speech also includes an acknowledgment of the alleged overconsumption of natural resources as well as a mea culpa. We are also shown that Jack's wife Lucy and her young cancer patient have survived, making their way to a camp in Mexico. When Jack and the others were on the helicopter heading back home they noticed more survivors on the rooftops on various buildings and they are very happy about it. The film ends in orbit where the space station crew is shown observing the Earth. As the camera zooms out, one of the crew comments that he has "never seen the atmosphere so clear”. We see nearly two-third of the northern hemisphere blanketed with snow. The snow coverage ends near Mexico where the American refugees were staying.

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The Day After Tomorrow 《后天》
starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok, Jay O Sanders丹尼斯-奎德、杰克-吉伦哈尔、艾米-罗森、莎拉-沃德
director: Roland Emmerich 罗兰德-艾默里克
studio: 20th Cen...

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The Day After Tomorrow 《后天》
starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok, Jay O Sanders丹尼斯-奎德、杰克-吉伦哈尔、艾米-罗森、莎拉-沃德
director: Roland Emmerich 罗兰德-艾默里克
studio: 20th Century Fox 发行公司：二十世纪福斯影片公司
级别rating: PG-13
上映时间release date: May 28, 2004
片长runtime: 124 minutes
synopsis 内容大纲
What if we are on the brink