Some films just shouldn’t work. Your idea looks so implausible and silly on paper that you want to laugh at it. Most of the time, films like this fall flat on their face. But sometimes, with a lot of luck, you get the right screenwriters and actors emotionally gripping epic out of here.
Ric Roman Waugh’s Greenland also represents such a stroke of luck. At first it reads like a typical, exaggerated Roland Emmerich disaster film. But what main actor Gerard Butler and his film partner Morena Baccarin get out of this idea is a small miracle. You can now watch this miracle on Netflix.
In Greenland on Netflix, Gerard Butler must save his family from a world-destroying comet impact
Jon’s (Butler) little son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) is excited: a comet is supposed to pass by the earth. According to scientists, only one or two fragments will break off and fall harmlessly but spectacularly into the Atlantic. But the people’s joy is nipped in the bud when the comet splits hundreds of times. Suddenly it rains destruction from the sky.
STX Films
Gerard Butler in Greenland
When the first comet fragment hits Florida and turns the city of Tampa into a burning hellhole, chaos breaks out. But Jon receives a message on his cell phone: He, his wife Allison (Baccarin) and Nathan have been selected to be transported to a military transport secret bunker in Greenland to be brought. There they are supposed to survive the impending extinction of over 75% of life on Earth.
But that is easier said than done. Because the ever-spreading chaos soon tears the family apart. But neither Jon nor Allison are ready to give up. Despite all the adverse circumstances, they continue to fight to bring their family to safety.
More on the subject of epic films:
Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin turn a rarely stupid idea into an emotional fight for survival
Greenland’s great strength is its emotional impact. At every second you can feel how helpless a global catastrophe situation feels – a frighteningly real experience. We see how naked desperation can destroy us or make us grow beyond ourselves. We see the violence and cruelty, but also the unconditional willingness to help that people are capable of.
Tobis
Morena Baccarin and Gerard Butler in Greenland
Butler and Baccarin portray this fantastically and believably. In more than one place they are faced with decisions that actively break our hearts. The pain of a family being torn apart in such a situation is written on everyone’s faces and right now Butler plays more refreshingly honest than he has in a long time.
As a big bonus, the characters here don’t suffer from the common bouts of stupidity that often plague characters in horror or disaster films. Communication is sensible and unnecessary risks are avoided wherever possible. There are exactly one goalwhich everyone consistently works towards: surviving together.
If you would like to experience this pleasantly different version of the end of the world for yourself, you can now do so with a streaming subscription on Netflix.