This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Go east, young man.
Plot Overview
John Garrity
(Gerard Butler) an erstwhile structural engineer
(“I build bridges”) along with his wife Allison (Morena
Baccarin) and their now 15-year-old son Nathan (Roman Griffin
Davis) had in the earlier movie Greenland, made it to safety
in a bunker in Greenland ahead of an impact from asteroid
Clarke. They have been surviving in an overcrowded
situation. Renewed tremors, however, force a precipitous
evacuation (“To the beach!”) via boats washed up on
shore, to head for the Clarke impact crater in southern France
where it is hoped its steep walls will ameliorate the climate,
block radiation, and with injected hydrocarbons from the comet
make possible a new start of life just as happened after the
K-T extinction event
back in the distant past.
This is a reverse migration. Long before Christopher Columbus made his renowned voyage, Norse settlers from Greenland established encampments in Vinland—E or NE Canada—but were repulsed by the natives. They lacked modern ships & weaponry to prevail. It's as author Kurt Vonnegut put it:
Here is how the pirates were able to take whatever they wanted from anybody else: they had the best boats in the world, and they were meaner than anybody else, and they had gunpowder, which was a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur. They touched this seemingly listless powder with fire, and it turned violently into gas. This gas blew projectiles out of metal tubes at terrific velocities. The projectiles cut through meat and bone very easily; so the pirates could wreck the wiring or the bellows or the plumbing of a stubborn human being, even when he was far, far away.
The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their ability to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was much too late, how heartless and greedy they were. (320–21)
Now this family with various taggers-on are headed back to France—who'd historically settled Canada—presently armed and motorized against some mean men along the way. Their fuel-starved lifeboat is conveyed by a favorable current, they get a few lucky breaks, and their vehicles—in this post apocalyptic world—somehow don't lack for gas, diesel, or clear roads. Except for one rickety bridge that nobody trusts except for the bridge builder engineer who says it's safe, but he has to go first.
Ideology
The action in the story lends itself to comparison
with one of Kenny Rogers's songs concerning a chance encounter with
“The Gambler” on a train to nowhere. He offered his
fellow passenger the advice that “the secret to surviving is
knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.” The
refrain of the song goes:
You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
This wisdom of the gambling man's repertoire is old as the hills and was passed on by a raconteur, Agur in Proverbs 30:1, whose four metaphors offered the same life advice as did Rogers's Gambler. That we find in, (Prov. 30:29-31) “There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.”
We have Agur's “lion which is
strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any,” we
have Rogers's “know[ing] when to hold 'em,” and we have the last leg of the
journey where their crater transport gets waylaid by
armed insurgents who want to put them out and stop their progress
in a war zone. John had promised his family that he'd take care of
them. The guerrilla comes within arm's reach of him. Seems to me
it's time to take him or die trying.
We
have Agur's “king, against whom there is no rising up,”
we have Rogers's “Know[ing] when to fold 'em” and we have an
insurmountable obstacle. A humble king doesn't experience
any uprising. Though Clarke has touched down, its ghost ring of
remnant rocks is still circling the Earth. When the family pulls up
by a copse of trees for a pit stop, low-to-the-horizon meteorites
come flying at them like gangbangers. They've got to hit the
deck, in this case hug a tree, until the danger is past. Their
black driver from Nigeria has a different idea.
Civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) had complained of: “when your first name becomes ‘nigger’.” But that use is sanctified by the Bible, (Acts 13:1) “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger.” Niger is the Latin word for black from which are derived several n-words in different languages. Simeon was called that, a term of respect in his day considering he was a prophet or teacher. One of the four sons of Ham (Gen. 10:6) is Cush. Cush in Hebrew means black, who migrated to Africa after Noah's Flood. Cush is an old name for Ethiopia. In fact Egypt is sometimes similarly referenced, (Psalm 105:23) “Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.” More locally we find a similar colorful reference, “the agency was right on the edge of the Nigger part of town. A Nigger was a human being who was black” (Vonnegut 343.) The Nigerian could be taken to designate his being from a land of blacks. That he was, of course, but Nigeria is named for the Niger River whose name derives from local words meaning a nexus of rivers. A clever homographic pun—allowable in an artistic work—gets us there nicely: two words with the same spelling but different sounds & meanings.
The Nigerian had come to London for a better life as a surgeon. Rather than duck the incoming missiles, he decides to outrun them in his van. Bad idea according to Kenny Rogers. One should know when to give in. Those missiles aren't going by speed limits, lane designations, or any other law but gravity. Right to life? Forget it.
We have Agur's
“he goat also,” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing]
when to walk away.” The family in London finds shelter in a
fortified hospital manned by their friend McKenzie. She has
generators, air filter, food supply, water, and extra beds. It's an
alzheimer ward whose residents are blissfully unaware of any comet.
They think it's Christmas as the decorations there are permanent. But this
isn't the place for his family to stay, so John leads them away.
We have Agur's “greyhound” and Rogers's “Know[ing] when to run.” When tremors struck the bunker in Greenland, they had to “Pack your bags” in a hurry. They were lucky to find a place on a boat, while the ones left behind had to run from a tidal wave.
The gambler gave the advice:
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
John had six to eight weeks to live due to radiation poisoning. He should make his last days count.
Production Values
“” (2026) was directed by Ric Roman Waugh. It was written by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling, being a sequel to the first Greenland film of 2020. It stars Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin and Roman Griffin Davis. The acting was okay for an action film.
MPA rated it PG–13 for some strong violence, bloody images, and action. It was filmed on location in Reykjavøk, Iceland. Runtime is 1 hour 38 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
I thought it was a good action/adventure film though somewhat contrived but not too much for a movie—this isn't civil defense. We could relate to the characters and the dangers they faced and the good Samaritans who stepped in. Worth your time if you like the genre.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Bible quotations are from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
King Jr., Martin Luther. Letter From Birmingham Jail. 1963. Print.
Rogers, Kenny. Songwriter Don Schlitz. “The Gambler.” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Pub. LLC. Web.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions, copyright © 1973 by Kurt Vonnegut. Appearing in Three Complete Novels. New York: Wings Books, 1995. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org