Greenland-- A Movie Review

 

 Being married almost always mean compromise, as for those rare times it doesn't my wife is usually the victor in whatever discussion or choice that has to be made. Last night was one of the extra ordinary, “Blue Moon” circumstances where I won out on the choice of television programming we watched. That left me in sole command of the television remote and access to Amazon Prime.

As you might expect for the average American male, I picked something with no redeeming qualities nor any artistic significance. My Friday night viewing choice was the new disaster flick called Greenland staring Gerard -”This is Sparta” - Butler and the lovely Morena Baccarin. The trick I will try to perform for you today is to squeeze some philosophical thoughts out of this review. Yes, in the course of expressing my verbal pomposity I will be revealing spoilers.

As the movie starts, Butler, who plays the Scottish-born John Garrity is on a high-rise construction site in downtown Atlanta doing his structural engineering. His face is a mix of emotions as he glances at his phone and sees a picture of his now estranged wife and young son. Garrity and his wife are having marital problems but for the most part it's clear he still deeply loves his spouse and is a dedicated father. Also, understand the reason John Garrity is emotionally upset that day is because it's his son's birthday and that the boy is suffering from diabetes.(1.)

Their difficulties take an immediate backseat to the fact a massive comet is going to skim very close to our Big Blue Marble. Don't worry, just like the pandemic government officials have assured the public all is well and that the dirty iceball will not ruin everyone's lives or businesses. It during this part of the movie I had a momentary nightmare about Trump appointing Ivanka, Jared, or Don Jr. to the top seat at NASA.

As you can guess, the shit hits the fan when it's discovered by the public that the comet, named “Clark” is not in one piece but is actually thousands of shards, with some as big as football stadiums. The other oopsy moment showing Trump-level government incompetence is that one of the shards instead of landing “harmlessly” in the ocean off Bermuda smacks into downtown Tampa, Florida.

Truth be told, there is an earlier scene where Garrity and his kid are in a grocery store parking lot after picking up birthday supplies and look up to see hundreds of American military cargo planes flying off in the same direction. So the bigwigs knew all along that Clark just wasn't going to just whiz by before leaving the solar system.

With Tampa a flaming crater the public learns that the biggest shard of Clark, nine-miles in diameter, is going to hit the Earth in a few short days. And that certain people in the United States have been unknowingly chosen for evacuation to top secret shelters in sunny Greenland.

It's all about the skills and with John Garrity a structural engineer, he gets a literal robo-call during his son's birthday party telling him that he and his family have tickets to Greenland. No one else, not grandparents, uncles, aunts, nor cousins and especially not any of Garrity's neighbors and their children who all in his house about to cut the birthday cake.(2.)

Seriously awkward moments ensue when your neighbors learn they are going to face a planetary extinction event while you, your wife, and son will be chilling in a deep bunker.

No, it wasn't that easy for John Garrity and his family. As they leave behind their neighbors, all slightly disgruntled and totally terrified, lots of bad stuff happens. Garrity and his family reach the Air Force base where they will depart for Greenland but at the last minute lose their son's insulin supply. John has to quickly run back to the car they abandoned at the gates to grab the medicine. During this time John's wife inadvertently spills the beans of their son's diabetes. The military, who didn't know about the boy's condition boots the wife and child out of the line causing the first of several separations.(3)

At one point John's wife and son hitch a ride with a seemingly nice couple heading to Lexington, Kentucky where her father lives. This nice couple learn of their evacuation status, kicks John's wife out of the car and kidnaps the boy with the idea the will assume the Garrity family identity.(4) The nice couple makes it to another Air Force base with the boy who promptly tells the security folks he's been kidnapped and told to lie about them being his parents. The nice couple is taken into custody and never seen again.

Through a couple of favorable events John's wife is reunited with her son and again makes her way to her father's house.

John learns of his wife's destination and hitches a ride on a farm truck heading in that general direction. As you can expect, base level human behavior shows itself with John having to kill a certified redneck who somehow believes, that like the nice couple, he can lie his way into a super secure doomsday bunker. However, while on the farm truck John learns about a Canadian airport where civilians are being flown to Greenland.

The Garrity family eventually links back up, grabs a trunk and defying time and space make it to the Canadian airport to catch the absolute last plane out before the comet hits.

As you can expect with such movies, the Garrity family makes it to the safety of one of the bunkers with only minutes to spare. The comet Clarke then impacts Western Europe sending untold tons of flaming rock and debris all over the world.

The movie ends with the Garrity family and about a couple of hundred others standing in front of the massive bunkers doors as they open. It's at least several months later, if not a year or two, and as you can imagine the world is wrecked. The survivors see the sun and a couple of birds flying among the wreckage.(5) From there the scenes drift from various locations around the planet showing devastated cities and other bunkers making radio contact with other groups.

Observations and thoughts:

1. The character of John Garrity is not some dumbass mechanic, he's a highly competent professional engineer and has a lifestyle to match his education. That being said I can't help but feel this movie plays to the insecurities and irrational fears of the white American middle class. The Garrity house shown in the movie is more than just some McMansion. Set in a truly upper middle class suburb outside Atlanta the Garrity family has never really struggled in the same way a lower income family might. Well, there is John and his wife's marital problems because for some loony reason he decided to have an affair with other woman.

   Since I believe movies like this play on white fears of someone or thing taking away their material lifestyle and affluence, I can't help but wonder how the audience would relate if John Garrity and his family were black.

2. During this scene with Tampa getting hit everyone attending the birthday party learns how bad the situation is globally. Of course you're happy that John Garrity and his family are on the list to be saved. How would such lucky people react to the knowledge that their long time friends and their children will die? Especially heartbreaking is that minutes later the Garrity family is leaving the driveway in their luxury SUV but are stopped by one of their best friends pleading for them to take her small daughter with them to perceived safety.

   The movie scared me in way because I truly do not know how I would react in put in a similar situation. Would I take the little girl knowing it was expressly forbidden by the authorities, or could I drive away leaving her behind to die?

3. As the audience understands, John Garrity was picked for the Greenland bunkers because he had skills needed to rebuild the world. Upon arrival at the Air Force base the authorities learn that John's son is diabetic, which to them is a deal breaker. I had a problem with this since at this point were a couple of days away from the comet hitting the Earth.

   Yeah, ideally you would want healthy people without chronic medical conditions in the bunkers but at that point are you really going to kick out a structural engineer because his young son is diabetic? I highly doubt such a vital professional would be kicked off the list during a literal planetary disaster where the continued survival of the human race is in question.

4. You can't have a disaster movie without some reference to mans inhumanity to each other. You could also frame this as a question of pure survival with the nice couple and the certified redneck just trying to stay alive.

5. This brings up something I noticed during the movie concerning the main characters, John and his wife. Whenever anything bad happens both characters expect everyone else to immediately stop and help them through their troubles. I understand the idea of self-preservation but with the world ending there are millions of individual tragedies occurring. This could also feed back to white privilege with the Garrity couple.

6. You don't have to be a Biblical scholar to understand the birds the bunker survivors saw as the doors to the outside world slide open. I immediately thought of the bird Noah released during the later stages of his floating zoo resort. Don't know the details, but I believe the birdie brought back a twig to show the waters were residing.

Greenland is not a perfect movie but the plot is sound and the acting is better than average. I don't believe I would have gone to a movie theater to see it. But as a pay-per-view film in the middle of a pandemic I'd have recommend it. Going by the five star system, I'd give it a 3.5.