292. 2012

Title: 2012
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Year: 2009

Summary: In 2009, Adrian Helmsley, an American geologist, visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare from the sun are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Adrian reports to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser, who takes Adrian to meet the President of the United States.

In 2010, President Thomas Wilson and other international leaders begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. More than 400,000 people are chosen to board "arks" that are constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the southwest Chinese Himalayas under the guise of building a dam. A Buddhist monk named Nima is evacuated while his brother Tenzin joins the workers in the Ark project. Additional funding for the project is raised by selling tickets to the private sector for €1 billion per person. By 2011, valuable items are moved to the arks to protect them from terrorist attacks with the help of the Louvre director, Roland Picard and the art expert and First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson.

In 2012, Jackson Curtis is a science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for the Russian billionaire, Yuri Karpov. Jackson's ex-wife Kate, and their children Noah and Lilly, live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman.

Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. After an encounter with Helmsley, they meet Charlie Frost, who hosts a radio show from the park. Charlie plays a video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. After an earthquake hits Los Angeles, the family returns home. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a Cessna 340 to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins with a magnitude 10.9 earthquake, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as California collapses into the Pacific Ocean.

As millions of people die in more destructive earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve a map, escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie stays behind to broadcast the eruption and is killed. Learning that the arks are in China, the group lands in a devastated Las Vegas to find a larger plane. They find Yuri, his twin sons Alec and Oleg, girlfriend Tamara Jikan and pilot Sasha. The group secures an Antonov An-500 aircraft and they depart for China as the Yellowstone ash cloud engulfs the city. Helmsley, Anheuser and Laura Wilson are aboard Air Force One, also heading to the arks. President Wilson remains in Washington D.C. to address the nation one last time. With the Vice President dead and the Speaker of the House missing, Anheuser becomes the Acting Commander in Chief. On the way to China, the Antonov group passes through Honolulu to refuel, but find out it has been destroyed by volcanic eruptions. Tokyo, Washington D.C., and Vatican City are later hit by major earthquakes. Adrian's father, Harry, and Tony, Harry's singing partner, are killed by a megatsunami capsizing a cruise ship off Japan and President Wilson is killed by another megatsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House.

Arriving in China in a crash landing that kills Sasha, the group is spotted by helicopters from the Chinese army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the arks, leaving the Curtis family, Gordon and Tamara behind but Yuri leaves Tamara because he knew she has an affair with Sasha. They are picked up by Nima and are taken to the arks with his grandparents. They stow away on Ark 4, where the contingent of the United States is on board, with the help of Tenzin. As a megatsunami approaches the site, an impact driver becomes lodged in the gears of the ark's hydraulic doors, preventing a boarding gate from closing and preventing the ship from starting its engines. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon and Tamara are killed, and Ark 4 is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the impact driver and the crew regains control of the ark before it collides with Mount Everest.

After flood waters from the tsunamis recede, the arks travel to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where the African continent has risen in elevation. Jackson rejoins with his family, and Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura.