2012 AND THE PRESENT
12.
The 2009 science fiction movie 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich, portrays the public’s fear of the end of the world and the Mayan predictions. Dr. Adrian Helmsley, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, discovered that an abnormally large sun flare had begun heating up the Earth’s core. The studies originated from an underground lab in India, where the temperature was getting high enough where it changed the chemical composition of water in the ground. Dr. Helmsley reported his discoveries to his boss Carl Anheuser, played by Oliver Platt, and was relayed to President Thomas Wilson, played by Danny Glover. Keeping this information hidden from the public, all of the governments around the world began preparing for a global catastrophe that could possibly wipe out civilization.
During a camping trip to Yellowstone national park, Jackson Curtis, played by John
Cusack, ran into a government operated science facility and were detained for
trespassing. Upon release Jackson and his kids met a very oddball character
Charlie Frost, played by Woody Harrelson. Frost informed Jackson about the government hiding
information about the end of the world and some spaceships that were going to
take only a fraction of refugees to safety. With this information, Jackson took his ex-wife and her family and headed for Asia to try and get on one of these ships.
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On their
journey they faced many obstacles including flying an air plane through falling
buildings without an experienced pilot. Throughout the movie it was clear that
some of the government officials were only worried about saving themselves
which is why the information was hidden for so long. This thriller brings
together the end of the world and government conspiracies to sum up all of the
fears on the minds of the people today.
Today, there are fears that humans have that differ
greatly from those of the 1960s and 70s. There has been a change from the fear
of a growing reckless human society to the fear of losing society all together.
Since the industrial revolutions, but especially within the past couple
decades, the human race has started to leave its “fingerprint” on the earth.
According to a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
“There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the
last 50 years is attributable to human activities.” These activities include
the burning of fossil fuels resulting in the release of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. This affect is especially harmful because it settles there and
keeps heat from the sun trapped in the Earth, therefore heating its surface,
oceans and atmosphere. Currently, the carbon dioxide levels are higher than any
in the past 650,000 years.
14.  | As humans, we are aware of these damaging affects and are therefore scared that we might actually end up paying for our actions. With warming oceans, and melting ice caps, it is thought that it won’t be long before major cities are drowned by the overflowing ocean water. This fact is illustrated in 2012. One of the first scenes of the world destruction in the movie is of Los Angeles being taken over by massive tsunamis. |
Immediately, devastation occurs:the buildings collapse, millions of people die and it marks the beginning of the end of life as we know it on Earth. The past decades have been characterized by people’s fears that the world will actually end in 2012. Predictions from ancient Mayan calendars have been haunting us for years and our actions of mistreating the planet have even helped to speed up the time in which the planet will no longer exist as planet Earth.
Another fear that is expressed in 2012 is the sort of fear people have of their government. Although we are in a democratic society and it should be true that we know most about what goes on in our society, there are possibly many secrets that the government keeps from us for a multitude of reasons. In the film, the government is shown to have known about the end of the world that was approaching well before they told the general population. The president waits until the destruction has begun in order to address the United States and inform them of what is happening. People are outraged and it sets them into a state of panic, creating more chaos in the country that is already there. Over the past decade or so, there have been many theories of conspiracy about the government. These conspiracies range from dealing with the belief that we are in contact with other galaxies to the beliefs that we played a part in the plane crash of September 11th. The government should be there for us to trust and rely on for full information but the film expresses that it is possible that they hide more from us than they show us. A democracy is a type of government that, according to our Constitution, is “by the people, for the people” and so, people would like to believe that the government has the people in mind over everything else. However, through 2012 it shows the general fear that in America; we cannot trust our government and that in a time of crisis will not have a solid body of authority to rely on.
In 2012 the
characters get more information about the coming of the end of the world though
crazy, homeless people such as Charlie Frost instead of the government. It is a
coincidence that Jackson Curtis stumbles upon Frost and if he hadn’t, he would
not have known a thing about the devastation that was about to erupt. Also,
there is a scene in the beginning of the movie where a homeless person on the
street is holding up a sign reading, “The End is Approaching”. This represents
a fear that the uneducated and unsuccessful might be better off in the long run
if they are the ones that are truly in on the coming disasters. However, the
characters in the movie meet other people trying to save themselves by buying
their way onto the spacecraft that will supposedly save the human population.
This also represents a fear that maybe it is money that will save us, not luck.
The question of whether the government is going to protect the human population
for the right reasons can then be proposed. Will they just be helping us for
money, or is the preservation of the human race really what they are after? | 15.  |
The question of whether the government is going to protect the human population
for the right reasons can then be proposed. Will they just be helping us for
money, or is the preservation of the human race really what they are after?
