Roland Emmerich is the master of the disaster film and in 2012 he delivered his magnum opus. 158 minutes, a $200 million budget, and as much destruction as that money can buy.
What wasn’t a masterpiece: The marketing campaign for the blockbuster that you can see on TV on Saturday.
What is 2012 about?
In 2009, the top politicians of the G8 countries received the message that in 2012 the earth will end. This is proven by numerous research results. The heads of government order the building of arks that can save enough people and animals to ensure the survival of mankind. But by no means all people will survive. This part of the world’s population is represented in the film by John Cusack and his blended family.
What is behind the panic around 2012?
You may remember: In the 2000s, there was a wild theory that in 2012 the world would end. The trigger was the Mayan calendar, which ended in 2012 – a supposedly unmistakable symbol for the fact that this year will also be the last hour of planet Earth. Which of course didn’t happen. The 2012 film used the year of the sinking as its title. And that’s not all.
The first trailer of 2012 urged all viewers “find out the truth”. You should search the Internet for the term “2012”. Whoever did that came across, among other things, a supposed authentic website , which no longer exists today. There you could apply for register a lottery, which raffles tickets for the saving ark. The website was a gimmick.
Sony
2012
Nevertheless, the marketing campaign fell on fertile ground. For supporting conspiracy narratives seriously discussing the 2012 scenario, she was harshly criticized at the time by the Guardian, for example. And rightly so: as the Independent reported in 2009, in the run-up to the 2012 theatrical release thousands of concerned messages to NASA, the US space agency.
A NASA astronomer also criticized the marketing campaign, which would probably be unthinkable today. About the website he said: “She looks very professional. She describes an organization that has been in existence for 30 years and is made up of international scientists, business people and government officials who have found that there is a 94 percent chance that the world will end in 2012. And it’s all made up, pure fiction.”
But some people would take it all seriously. And if you really believed in the end of the world occurring in three yearsthen you didn’t feel like watching the film, but above all one thing: fear.
Teens have written to me saying they are considering suicide because they don’t want to see the end of the world. Lying on the internet and scaring kids to make money is ethically wrong.
Of course, the campaign was a hoax with no malicious intent, just to playfully draw attention to the film. A break of any kind would have been better in hindsight though.
When is 2012 on TV?
ZDFNeo shows 2012 on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. At 1:50 a.m. on Sunday night, the 158-minute ham will be repeated. If you’re interested in the movie, you should take the chance because 2012 isn’t available on a major streaming service.
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