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Leah Rose F.

Paras

Natural Sciences II

1st year BS Public Health

February 18, 2016


2012 Movie Review

Ever since time immemorial, the end of the world has been a controversial topic to wise
men and common folk alike. Ancient prophesies and scientific predictions tell us when and how
the Earth will come to ruin. Catastrophe will wreck the land and mankind will cease to exist. It
seems like every single religion has its own version of the judgment day. They urge their
followers to repent for their sins and to be prepared for the worst. But questions still cloud the
minds of many, when it happens, who will survive and who will die?
The possibility of the last day on Earth caused a deep-rooted fear in the masses that it
ultimately inspired the production of the movie 2012 (Emmerich, 2009). In the film, the end
came about due to a series of unfortunate events: strange planetary alignments, end of the
Mayan calendar and for some reason, neutrinos (Vieru, 2009). The last are small, neutrally
charged elementary particles which have the ability to get inside regular matter without any
problem. Scientists in the movie began to panic when they detected unusual activity of these
particles; the neutrinos inexplicably gained electrical charge and started to heat up and melt the
planets solid core. This is impossible in real life, and will never happen, particle physicists state
(Vieru, 2009).
As the Earths core melted, it entailed numerous consequences such as the Crust
Displacement Theory (Vieru, 2009). The movement of the continental and oceanic crust caused
a rotational polar shift on Earth, putting the state of Wisconsin on the South Pole and many
other countries in scattered positions. According to the National Aeronautics and Space
Association (2012), this is unlikely because even though the magnetic polarity of the Earth
changes irregularly, it will not occur for another hundred thousand years to come (taking place
every 400,000 years on average). Also, solar storms and planetary alignments dont cause
severe life-threatening risks to people, only some interruption of satellite communications and
electronics (NASA, 2012).
Moreover, the scenes wherein Jackson and his family escape an earthquake as it
wrecked San Francisco is very hard to believe. If the San Andreas fault line became unstable,
entire tectonic plates would not be lifted hundreds of feet into the air as shown in 2012. The
resulting seismic activity would not strike many times, and there would be no way that a family
in a limo could outrun it (Vieru, 2009). Furthermore, the audience cannot ignore the fact that the
main characters seem invincible because they are not brutally hurt in any way amidst the
dangerous escapade they managed to pull off. Its a surprise that they successfully avoided a
pyroclastic cloud, dodged volcanic lava bombs, and surpassed tsunamis at insane heights and
many more.
Nevertheless, the events in the film 2012 are forgivable because it portrays the violent
ways on how the world will possibly end. It is only fair to applaud the superb special effects of
the movie despite the obvious scientific inaccuracies. 2012 also made the viewers realize the
importance of teamwork in handling disasters and the necessity of making sacrifices to ensure
the safety of the ones you love.

References:
Emmerich, R. (Director). (2009). 2012 [Motion picture]. USA: Columbia Pictures
Vieru, T. (2009, December 01). The shifty science behind the movie 2012: it has only marginal
connections to reality. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://news.softpedia.com
/news/The-Shifty-Science-Behind-the-Movie-2012-128465.shtml
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2012, December 23). Beyond 2012: why the
world didnt end. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://www.nasa.gov/topics
/earth/features/2012.html

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