New Scientist - USA (2021-02-20)

20 February 2021 | New Scientist | 31

Film

Greenland
Ric Roman Waugh
Amazon Prime Video

PROLIFIC stunt actor-turned-
director Ric Roman Waugh reunites
with his Angel Has Fallen star
Gerard Butler in Greenland, an
unequivocally bleak and hugely
watchable disaster movie. The film
was originally set to be released in
cinemas in July 2020, but became
another victim of covid-19 closures.
It has now been released online,
so anyone hoping to catch its full
destructive power on the big screen
will have to settle for home viewing.
Written by Chris Sparling and
co-produced by Butler, Greenland
follows a family that must fight for
survival while a planet-levelling
comet races towards Earth.
Structural engineer John Garrity
(Butler) is in Atlanta, Georgia, with
his estranged wife Allison (Morena
Baccarin) and their son Nathan
(Roger Dale Floyd).
Having moved out after an
undisclosed indiscretion, John
has returned to the family
home to patch things up with
his wife. Meanwhile, the whole
neighbourhood have gathered
around John and Allison’s TV to
watch the near-Earth passing of
a recently discovered interstellar
comet, named Clarke.
Shortly before the comet is
supposedly due to miss Earth
by a whisker, John receives an
automated call with instructions
that he and his family have been
selected for imminent evacuation.
When the first fragment of the
comet unexpectedly hits Tampa in
Florida, the couple and their young,

diabetic son scramble to reach a

nearby air force base where they

are due to board a flight to safety

with two days to go before the

most devastating impact.

Since this is a Gerard Butler

movie, things don’t go to plan:

confusion ensues as the family

is separated, and they must try

to reunite to stand a chance of

boarding a flight to safety. You can

guess where the planes are headed!

Butler may have been over the

top in the recent disaster movie

Geostorm, but thankfully there is

more to his performance this time –

and to Greenland. Beyond the poor

science (we are expected to believe

that no one had envisaged that the

comet might even come close to

hitting Earth until it does, and that

its trajectory wouldn’t have been

calculated repeatedly), this is

a spectacular production with

impressive CGI of the comet and

the initial impact and destruction.

Butler does what comes to him

naturally and is hugely likeable

as John, the gruff and not always

squeaky clean hero. Baccarin gives a

sedate and wonderfully understated

performance as Allison, while Dale

Floyd shows once again that he

has a great career ahead of him.

With plenty of soul-searching,

Greenland is reminiscent of

Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact, largely

considered to be far superior to the

brash, over the top Armageddon.

Both those earlier disaster films

were released in 1998 with an

almost identical premise, though

Deep Impact featured nearly

respectable science in places.

Greenland sits comfortably

between the two, being nowhere

as silly and preposterously

sentimental as Armageddon and

undeniably more pessimistic about

the future than Deep Impact. The

film’s plot can get a bit ridiculous at

times with Butler wading his way

through improbable obstacles,

but get past those drawbacks and

it remains a genuinely impressive

and thrilling experience – one that

is far bleaker and more downbeat

than you would expect from a

Hollywood blockbuster. ❚

Panic as comet Clarke
heads for a full-on
collision with Earth

Linda Marric is a film writer

based in the UK

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Watch out for the comet!

Despite the familiar disaster movie premise of a comet hurtling

towards Earth, Greenland is hugely watchable, says Linda Marric

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