# 2012 (movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459 "2008-11-25T18:12:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/1 "2008-11-25T18:12:09Z")
So[apparently Roland Emmerich (ID4, Day After Tomorrow) has created a new disaster film called 2012 (some reference to the Myan calendar or something).](http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/11/12/must-watch-teaser-trailer-for-roland-emmerichs-2012/) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apparently he is going for the record of the largest CGI wave ever. Question: What are we supposed to assume could cause a wave high enough to swamp the Himalayas? The freakin moon falling out of the sky or something? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/2 "2008-11-25T18:15:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Apparently he is going for the record of the largest CGI wave ever. > > Question: What are we supposed to assume could cause a wave high enough to swamp the Himalayas? The freakin moon falling out of the sky or something? Since it’s two years after 2010, it’s obvious. Monoliths. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/3 "2008-11-25T18:21:09Z")
I see they’ve gone with the standard black president during a world ending catastrophe approach. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/4 "2008-11-25T18:32:52Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I see they’ve gone with the standard black president during a world ending catastrophe approach. Yeah, typical right-wing propagandary. “Sure Bush wasn’t the greatest president, but at least we didn’t have mountain sized tsunami waves during his administration!” ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/5 "2008-11-25T18:37:21Z")
Heh, they even say to google 2012 for the “truth”. Yes, let’s make even more people paranoid about this nondescript future date. I wonder how this movie’s going to sell in 2013 and beyond…assuming we’re still around then of course!! ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/6 "2008-11-25T18:40:06Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I see they’ve gone with the standard black president during a world ending catastrophe approach. Or maybe they made the reasonable assumption that we might have a black president in 2012. [Staff report on 2012 end-of-world nonsense](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2283/does-the-mayan-calendar-predict-the-end-of-the-world-in-2012). ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/7 "2008-11-25T18:46:40Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Apparently he is going for the record of the largest CGI wave ever. > > Question: What are we supposed to assume could cause a wave high enough to swamp the Himalayas? The freakin moon falling out of the sky or something? Well, since I’m sure the movie is 100% rigorously accurate in its science. . . If you could bring the Moon down to, say, 12,000 miles, you’d get a tidal effect 8,000 times as great as the normal Lunar tide. I guess that might do it. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/8 "2008-11-25T19:12:52Z")
My friends and I were chuckling over this one while watching _Quantum of Solace_. My thought, as is typical when anybody brings up a Massive Worldwide Government Conspiracy: a) You seriously expect the current administration to be capable of covering up anything? b) You seriously expect the governments of the world to be able to agree on anything, let alone perpetrate a massive fraud? I love how they tell you to Google it–I haven’t tried it yet, but I have deep suspicions that the 2012 film site will be the first hit coming up. I hate that they replaced the Star Trek trailer with this, thought. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/9 "2008-11-25T19:28:50Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I see they’ve gone with the standard black president during a world ending catastrophe approach. Let’s see, there’s Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact… and now Danny Glover in 2012… and? ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/10 "2008-11-25T19:34:35Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] Question: What are we supposed to assume could cause a wave high enough to swamp the Himalayas? The freakin moon falling out of the sky or something? [/QUOTE] Well, there’s a character called Carl Anheuser so maybe it’s a plot similar to the one in Flushed Away except it’ll be on a Super Bowl/Roland Emmerich scale. Hint: that ain’t just water sloshing over the Himalayas. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/11 "2008-11-25T19:49:54Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Let’s see, there’s Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact… and now Danny Glover in 2012… and? David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside) on 24 I suppose, although the Jack attack prevented any world-ending catastrophes from happening, of course. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/12 "2008-11-25T19:53:08Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > Since it’s two years after 2010, it’s obvious. > > Monoliths. Eight years ago I would not have believed America ready to accept a black monolith… ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/13 "2008-11-25T20:05:16Z")
> [@mack](#): > > David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside) on 24 I suppose, although the Jack attack prevented any world-ending catastrophes from happening, of course. I’m not sure those should count. Deep Impact and 2012 are very different movies from the terrorism plots of 24. Beyond that, Palmer’s blackness was a plot point in season one, so he couldn’t have been white. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/14 "2008-11-25T20:19:00Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Yeah, typical right-wing propagandary. “Sure Bush wasn’t the greatest president, but at least we didn’t have mountain sized tsunami waves during his administration!” Yeah, they were only [100 feet high](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/15 "2008-11-25T20:51:06Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > a) You seriously expect the current administration to be capable of covering up anything? You mean other than 9/11?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/16 "2008-11-25T22:21:27Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Apparently he is going for the record of the largest CGI wave ever. I would say that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard but I’ve seen Roland Emmerich movies. It’s an image, a painting, bits on a disk: the sense of scale is arbitrary. “Largest” has no meaning in that context. To demonstrate here is my Computer Generated Image: ```auto ^~ // ( / | O / \ ) / \ ``` That’s a giant wave about to swamp the milky way galaxy for those of you who can’t translate hastily drawn ASCII characters. My wave is 150,000 light years high and were you to surf it your twin brother would be an old man when you got back. So what kind of prize do I get for holding the record? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/17 "2008-11-25T22:26:06Z")
> [@just some guy](#): > > ```auto > > ^~ > // ( > / | o > / \ ) > / \ > > ``` aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/18 "2008-11-25T22:29:58Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Let’s see, there’s Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact… and now Danny Glover in 2012… and? Tommy Lister in _The Fifth Element_- he was President of the Federated Commonwealth, or somesuch, but hey, close enough. James Earl Jones in _The Man_- a roof collapse kills the President and VP, which is sorta disastery. Chris Rock in _Head of State_- the disaster, of course, being that Chris Rock is President. 😃 Does anything bad happen in _Idiocracy_? I’ve only seen the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/19 "2008-11-25T22:43:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > _snip_ > Does anything bad happen in _Idiocracy_? I’ve only seen the beginning. Yeah, the TV show “Ow my Balls” in Idiocracy did not become a real show here in the real world. Where’s the “Ow I just got kicked in the balls” smiley when you need it? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/20 "2008-11-25T22:43:45Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!! You’re safe. You’ve got a raft. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459.md?page=2)