# 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:** 2
**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, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/21 "2008-11-25T23:45:44Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > 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, though. You can see both (if you choose) at [www.worstpreviews.com](http://www.worstpreviews.com). ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/22 "2008-11-26T00:09:07Z")
Well I googled 2012, and the most prominent thing I got was the wikipedia entry. It says: > [@](#): > > 2012 is claimed by some with New age beliefs to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or alternatively an apocalypse). Showing that having alternatives isn’t always a good thing in and of itself, because sometimes they suck. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/23 "2008-11-26T00:39:41Z")
> [@Tahssa](#): > > Where’s the “Ow I just got kicked in the balls” smiley when you need it? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/24 "2008-11-26T00:46:47Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > 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? Gurren Lagann beat you to it. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/25 "2008-11-26T01:43:37Z")
> [@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? Well, the trailer is a bit misleading in that respect; that particular Tibetan Buddhist lamasery is actually located along U.S. Route 101, a few miles north of the Route 26 interchange near Cannon Beach, OR. Word on the street is that this movie is the unofficial prequel to **Waterworld**. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/26 "2008-11-26T23:46:46Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > You can see both (if you choose) at [www.worstpreviews.com](http://www.worstpreviews.com). Oh dear, thanks for calling that website to my attention. How about that, **Underworld** spawned a prequel! It’s amazing how far werewolf hair-rendering has advanced in 5 years. Frankly I saw no point to even attempting CGI werewolves if you couldn’t even give them a decent coat of hair. The **Harry Potter** movie from that year had the exact same problem. Bald werewolves are just sad. I see that Bill Nighy is still on board with that series. The first **Underworld** was kind of a major turning point in his career, wasn’t it? I wonder if he realized when he was cashing that paycheck that he’d be essaying the role of a squid-human hybrid in a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/27 "2008-11-26T23:50:26Z")
I always thought the black guy as president was to show that this was taking place in the future, where such things would be possible. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/28 "2008-11-27T00:32:41Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Does anything bad happen in _Idiocracy_? I’ve only seen the beginning. There was The Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505 and the world was suffering a severe drought from using Brawndo (with electrolytes) to irrigate their crops because they thought that’s what they crave. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/29 "2008-11-27T01:00:58Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > b) You seriously expect the governments of the world to be able to agree on anything, let alone perpetrate a massive fraud? We were having an in-class discussion in high school about the various weird flunky ideas the CIA has come up with (supposedly they tried to kill Castro with an exploding cigar. That would have been something.) Someone asked why the CIA never seemed to get anything right, and our teacher pointed out that if and when the CIA _did_ pull off some secret plot, of course nobody would _hear_ about it. So yeah, what better way to convince someone you’re not successfully covering anything up than by throwing a bunch of red herring decoy plots out there to make you look like an idiot?🆒 Just throwing that out there to mess with your heads 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/30 "2008-11-27T02:47:38Z")
There are certain things that it really doesn’t even make sense for the government to try to cover up, and the end of the world is one of them. “If we let the public know about this, there’ll be worldwide panic; which means that traffic will be really, really bad on the day the world ends. Also, it could do irreparable harm to the international stock market. We could all lose our jobs.” If you’re certain enough that the world is ending to organize a global conspiracy to cover it up, then you’re not going to spend your precious last days at the office guarding the conspiracy in the first place. Lots of government officials don’t have the moral fiber to avoid media scandals even during years when the world isn’t ending. Somebody’s bound to notice when the leaders of every nation on Earth simultaneously stop showing up for work, withdraw their life’s savings, and embark on a fact-finding tour of Amsterdam’s red-light districts. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/31 "2008-11-27T03:11:59Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > There was The Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505 and the world was suffering a severe drought from using Brawndo (with electrolytes) to irrigate their crops because they thought that’s what they crave. Well, but to be fair … what else would they use? Water? Like in the toilet? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/32 "2008-11-27T04:48:35Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Well, but to be fair … what else would they use? > > Water? > > Like in the toilet? Seriously. I mean, Brawndo has electrolytes. It’s what plants need. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/33 "2008-11-27T05:01:57Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > James Earl Jones in _The Man_- a roof collapse kills the President and VP, which is sorta disastery. Actually, it was the President and Speaker, at a time when the Vice-Presidency was vacant. ---
**Author:** ![Carnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carnick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnick)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/34 "2008-11-27T10:04:51Z")
> [@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!” I’m pretty sure Roland Emmerich is a left winger. Didn’t he also helm The Day After Tomorrow? ---
**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 27, 2008, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/35 "2008-11-27T10:44:53Z")
> [@Carnick](#): > > I’m pretty sure Roland Emmerich is a left winger. Didn’t he also helm The Day After Tomorrow? Sure but it was the Dick Chaney stand-in who somehow managed to be even more over-the-top evil than the real one in that, not Bush. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/36 "2008-11-27T11:58:50Z")
> [@Carnick](#): > > I’m pretty sure Roland Emmerich is a left winger. Didn’t he also helm The Day After Tomorrow? I’d really be curious about his politics myself, since he also produced StarGate and it’s not-sequel, Independence Day, both movies prominently featuring the US military fighting overpowerful aliens (both also feature non-military nerds fighting overpowerful aliens and wooing beautiful women, so its not hard to see why these movies were successful sci-fi films:D) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/37 "2008-11-27T13:11:51Z")
Just a comment that “Day After Tomorrow” was adapted from Art Bell & Whitley Strieber’s “Coming Global Superstorm”. I think this one is based on Strieber’s “2012: The War for Souls”. ---
**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 27, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/38 "2008-11-27T13:31:07Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > We were having an in-class discussion in high school about the various weird flunky ideas the CIA has come up with (supposedly they tried to kill Castro with an exploding cigar. That would have been something.) Someone asked why the CIA never seemed to get anything right, and our teacher pointed out that if and when the CIA _did_ pull off some secret plot, of course nobody would _hear_ about it. “Flunky”? _Funky._ Toxic cigar, not exploding. Did your teacher talk about Chile or Iran? Damnit, I just know my girlfriend will want to see this movie. She’s watches _The Day After Tomorrow_ whenever it’s on cable, even though she acknowledges it’s laughably stupid. The one thing Emmerich has done well is bring archetypal science fiction images to the screen – immense spaceships dropping down from above the clouds; Manhattan frozen in a new Ice Age. If they had good scripts, they’d be excellent movies. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/39 "2008-11-27T14:21:21Z")
Hah, no, but I’ve read about the strategic charlie foxtrot that was the various attempts to rescue the US Embassy hostages in Tehran. You ever hear about the plan to modify a C-130 with rocket packs to allow it to land and take off vertically in a soccer stadium? But I digress. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459/40 "2008-11-27T16:37:56Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Just a comment that “Day After Tomorrow” was adapted from Art Bell & Whitley Strieber’s “Coming Global Superstorm”. I think this one is based on Strieber’s > “2012: The War for Souls”. [Turns out that’s a Michael Bay project in development.](http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/03/15/michael-bay-and-2012-the-war-for-souls/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-movie/474459.md?page=3)