If you’re expecting a senseless orgy of destruction when you hear the words “comet”, “catastrophe” and “end of the world”, you’re wrong about this Gerard Butler film. Contrary to all expectations, these ingredients have been turned into a truly emotional epic
Some movies just shouldn’t work. Their idea looks so implausible and silly on paper that you want to laugh at them. Most of the time, such films fall flat on their faces. But sometimes, with a lot of luck, the right screenwriters and actors, the result is an absolutely emotionally gripping epic.
Ric Roman Waugh’s Greenland is one such stroke of luck. At first, it reads like a typical, exaggerated Roland Emmerich disaster movie. But what leading actor Gerard Butler and his film partner Morena Baccarin get out of this idea is a small miracle. You can now witness this miracle on Netflix
In Greenland on Netflix, Gerard Butler must save his family from a world-destroying comet impact
Jon’s (Butler) young son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) is excited: a comet is supposed to pass by the Earth. According to scientists, only one or two fragments are supposed to split off from it and crash harmlessly but spectacularly into the Atlantic. But the population’s joy is nipped in the bud when the comet splits a hundred times. Suddenly it rains destruction from the sky
(Gerard Butler in Greenland)
When the first comet splinter hits Florida and turns the big 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 taken on a military transport to a secret bunker in Greenland. There they are to survive the imminent extinction of over 75% of life on Earth.
But that’s easier said than done. Because the ever-spreading chaos soon tears the family apart. But neither Jon nor Allison are prepared to give up. Against all odds, they fight on to bring their family to safety.
Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin turn a rarely stupid idea into an emotional fight for survival
The great strength of Greenland is its emotional power. At every second you can feel how helpless a global disaster situation feels – a frighteningly real experience. We see how naked despair can destroy us or make us rise above it. We see the violence and cruelty, but also the unconditional willingness to help that people are capable of
Butler and Baccarin portray this fantastically and credibly. At more than one point, they are faced with decisions that actively break our hearts. The pain of a family being torn apart in such a situation is written all over their faces and Butler in particular is more refreshingly honest than he has been for a long time.
As a big bonus, the characters here don’t suffer from the usual fits of stupidity that often afflict characters in horror or disaster films. Communication is sensible and unnecessary risks are avoided wherever possible. There is exactly one goal that everyone is consistently working towards: surviving together.
