The film Greenland, which was released during the pandemic, captures the views of the audience for a reason. This is a disaster film, a disaster that must be fought together in this world.
From the very beginning, we can understand that this is a rather hackneyed disaster plot that Americans love so much. For example, take the famous and magnificent for its time The Day After Tomorrow, or the fairly recent film 2012. The meaning remains the same, a huge comet is flying to Earth, which can destroy the whole planet. Of course, the only safe place to escape is the bunker, which only a select few of the planet’s inhabitants can enter. A family is sent to such a bunker, for which we will watch the entire film and experience their emotions.
As one would expect, the family around which the action is carried out has its own problems. Parents are divorced, they have a little son. Of course, in a time of trouble, they understand that there is nothing more important in life than their family, and they fight for it to the very end.
The film is not based on the apocalypse itself, it takes place on a secondary plane, namely human relations, they are emphasized. We can watch how some people try to escape no matter what, while others stay at home and enjoy life and moments with their loved ones. It is interesting to watch this human drama and understand how we are all different people, and everyone perceives the pain and fear of the unknown in their own way.
The question of choosing the chosen people becomes very interesting. The protagonist receives a call from the US Government with a list of his family members and an offer to move on to the shelter. The list was formed randomly, which we will learn about later. First, the family will have to leave their neighbors with whom they were going to have dinner, not to take anyone, not even children, because the call made it clear that no one but this list should come to the shelter. This becomes the first test for the family.
When they arrive at the plane’s takeoff point on their way to the bunker, they discover that their son doesn’t have the medicine he needs. The family is separated, the father goes in search of a cure, and the mother and child continue to follow the plane. At the checkpoint they are stopped and not allowed in because of the very disease, because the Government does not need to save sick people, but only healthy ones. Here we learn that the choice was made based on the professional skills and health of the inhabitants of the planet. After that, it is worth considering whether you have chosen the right profession, and if this actually happens, will you be “overboard”.
Then there is a long journey of a mother with a child, a woman’s helplessness in such situations. She agrees to go with the people she met recently, and the family seemed to be kind enough people. But at some point, they realize that they cannot get into the bunker and they only need a boy, and decide to steal him, leaving his mother alone on the street.
And on all televisions, countries continue to announce the news that soon all of humanity will die, but some of the chosen ones will be able to survive and build a new world, and if you were not chosen, then hold on, gentlemen. Can you imagine that in such a situation they would actually broadcast such news? No tears in the eyes of the presidents and farewell speeches, no strict secrecy, no military trying to fight the comet, but just such news.
After a difficult journey for both father and mother, they reunite, find their son and try to continue on their way. They get to the plane that can take them to Greenland and try their best to persuade the pilot to take them all.
The plane is already on its way to Greenland when a fragment of a comet falls nearby. And what do you think? The plane withstands the blast wave and continues to fly, landing very hard and crashing into the glacier at full speed, the plane does not crumple, but only suffers from its “nose”, and only the pilots die.
The survivors get to the bunker, spend happy 9 months there, and then go to the new world. Almost a happy ending, but if you count within the framework of this film, in which we watched the experiences of only one family, then they stay together and understand that they could not live without each other all this time.
The film is very bland, special effects are used to a minimum, mainly because the emphasis is on the human drama, but no one thought that the picture should also look great. Many funny moments, inconsistencies and Hollywood clichés.
If there is not enough human drama, then you can watch it, but don’t expect something grandiose.
