LOL is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy film directed and co-written by Lisa Azuelos. It is based on the 2008 French smash-hit, LOL (Laughing Out Loud) (R), which was itself a remake of the French movie La boum, and stars Miley Cyrus as a teen girl navigating through the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship and Demi Moore as her protective mother.

The film was directed by Lisa Azuelos, who had also written and directed the original film. The screenplay was dramatized by Lisa Azuelos and Kamir Aïnouz, based on the film LOL (Laughing Out Loud)(R). Headlined, as stated above, by Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore, the film featured a strong ensemble cast which also included Ashley Greene, Golden Globe nominated actor Thomas Jane, Jay Hernandez, Hollywood legend Marlo Thomas, Nora Dunn, Gina Gershon, Fisher Stevens and Austin Nichols. The cast likewise featured Douglas Booth, Adam Sevani, George Finn and Ashley Hinshaw, whereas newcomers Lina Esco and Tanz Watson made or followed up their respective debuts in it. It was produced by Academy Award-nominated Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher of Double Feature Films (Erin Brockovich, Best Picture, 2000) and Tish Cyrus (The Last Song). Its executive producers were Nathan Kahane, Jerome Seydoux, Romain Le Grand and Lisa Azuelos, and Nicole Brown of Mandate Pictures and Kelli Konop, Taylor Latham, and James Powers of Double Feature Films served as co-producers.

Plot[link]

In a world connected by YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, Lola and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. When Lola's mom, Anne, accidentally reads her teenage daughter's racy journal, she realizes just how wide their communication gap has grown.

Cast[link]

• Miley Cyrus as Lola
• Demi Moore as Anne
• Ashley Greene as Ashley
• Adam Sevani as Wen
• Douglas Booth as Kyle
• Thomas Jane as Allen
• Jay Hernandez as James
• Marlo Thomas as Granny
• Nora Dunn as Emily's Mother
• Gina Gershon as Kathy
• Fisher Stevens as Roman
• George Finn as Chad
• Lina Esco as Janice
• Ashley Hinshaw as Emily
• Tanz Watson as Lloyd
• Austin Nichols as Mr. Ross
• Jean-Luc Bilodeau as Jeremy

Music[link]

These are songs that were featured in the film. They are not to be confused with the incidental soundtrack music.

• You Can't Always Get What You Want performed by The Rolling Stones.
• Somewhere Only We Know performed by Keane.
• Everybody performed by Ingrid Michaelson.
• Heart on Fire performed by Jonathan Clay.
• Houdini performed by Foster the People.
• The Big Bang performed by Rock Mafia.

Production[link]

The film started production on July 16, 2010 and later finished filming and went to post-production on Sept. 14, 2010. It was filmed primarily in the city of Grosse Pointe, a community on the east side of Detroit, MI, and required a year and two weeks of post production before it was completed on November 1, 2011. In January 2012, the film finally got a trailer, and days later, a poster was designed and printed for it.

On February 10, 2012, the film was released for the first time in India, and later, on March 1, 2012, in Singapore. Later, it was announced that the film would be released on limited release on May 4, 2012 in the United States. The film, the announcement went on, would be released as Lola in Brazil, LOL: Laughing Out Loud in Germany, ЛЕТО. ОДНОКЛАССНИКИ. ЛЮБОВЬ (Summer. Classmates. Love) in Russia and Casi 18: LOL (Almost 18: LOL) in Latin America.^{[citation needed]}

Three different trailers were released for the movie—a British trailer, a German trailer, and an American trailer.

Marketing[link]

LionsGate had two years to market the film nationwide, but instead it rushed the movie to only limited theatrical release on May 4, 2012, without substantial marketing, which LionsGate's home entertainment division handled for LOL. The film would have been released directly to DVD if not for a technicality in its distribution contract.^[2]

Reception[link]

LionsGate chose to debut the film, without a formal premiere, to a limited release of 105 theaters in the United States, on May 4, 2012. On the premiere weekend, the movie had proven to be a box-office bomb, making only $46,500 in its limited release - a slight percentage of its $11 million budget.

On March 11, 2012, LOL made $21,000 in Singapore and was only released for two weeks in seven theaters.^[3]

Critically, the film received mixed reviews from critics. As of May 21, it held a rating of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes ^[4] with negative reviews from especially prominent film critics on the site. The movie was panned by users on IMDB, garnering a 1.7 user rating and is currently listed at #22 on the website's Bottom 100.^[5]

Home media[link]

LOL will be available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 31, 2012.

Release dates/country[link]

• India - 10 February 2012 (World Premiere)
• Singapore - 1 March 2012
• USA - 4 May 2012 (Limited)
• Germany – 31 May 2012

References[link]

Modern usage example of LOL (for "laugh out loud") on a Sweethearts candy heart.

LOL, an abbreviation for laughing out loud,^[1][2] or laugh out loud,^[3] is a common element of Internet slang. It was used historically on Usenet but is now widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication, and even face-to-face communication. It is one of many initialisms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including initialisms for more emphatic expressions of laughter such as LMAO^[4] ("laugh(ing) my ass off"), and ROTFL^[5][6][7][8] or ROFL^[9] ("roll(ing) on the floor laughing"). Other unrelated expansions include the now mostly historical "lots of luck" or "lots of love" used in letter-writing.^[10]

The list of acronyms "grows by the month"^[5] and they are collected along with emoticons and smileys into folk dictionaries that are circulated informally amongst users of Usenet, IRC, and other forms of (textual) computer-mediated communication.^[11] These initialisms are controversial, and several authors^{[12][13][14][15]} recommend against their use, either in general or in specific contexts such as business communications.

LOL was first documented in the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2011.^[16]

Analysis[link]

Laccetti (professor of humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology) and Molski, in their essay entitled The Lost Art of Writing,^[12][13] are critical of the terms, predicting reduced chances of employment for students who use such slang, stating that, "Unfortunately for these students, their bosses will not be 'lol' when they read a report that lacks proper punctuation and grammar, has numerous misspellings, various made-up words, and silly acronyms." Fondiller and Nerone^[14] in their style manual assert that "professional or business communication should never be careless or poorly constructed" whether one is writing an electronic mail message or an article for publication, and warn against the use of smileys and these abbreviations, stating that they are "no more than e-mail slang and have no place in business communication".

Yunker and Barry^[15] in a study of online courses and how they can be improved through podcasting have found that these slang terms, and emoticons as well, are "often misunderstood" by students and are "difficult to decipher" unless their meanings are explained in advance. They single out the example of "ROFL" as not obviously being the abbreviation of "rolling on the floor laughing" (emphasis added). Haig^[1] singles out LOL as one of the three most popular initialisms in Internet slang, alongside BFN ("bye for now") and IMHO ("in my honest/humble opinion"). He describes the various initialisms of Internet slang as convenient, but warns that "as ever more obscure acronyms emerge they can also be rather confusing". Bidgoli^[17] likewise states that these initialisms "save keystrokes for the sender but [...] might make comprehension of the message more difficult for the receiver" and that "[s]lang may hold different meanings and lead to misunderstandings especially in international settings"; he advises that they be used "only when you are sure that the other person knows the meaning".

Shortis^[8] observes that ROTFL is a means of "annotating text with stage directions". Hueng,^[5] in discussing these terms in the context of performative utterances, points out the difference between telling someone that one is laughing out loud and actually laughing out loud: "The latter response is a straightforward action. The former is a self-reflexive representation of an action: I not only do something but also show you that I am doing it. Or indeed, I may not actually laugh out loud but may use the locution 'LOL' to communicate my appreciation of your attempt at humor."

David Crystal notes that use of LOL is not necessarily genuine,^[18] just as the use of smiley faces or grins is not necessarily genuine, posing the rhetorical question "How many people are actually 'laughing out loud' when they send LOL?". Franzini^[2] concurs, stating that there is as yet no research that has determined the percentage of people who are actually laughing out loud when they write LOL.

Victoria Clarke, in her analysis of telnet talkers,^[19] states that capitalization is important when people write LOL, and that "a user who types LOL may well be laughing louder than one who types lol", and opines that "these standard expressions of laughter are losing force through overuse". Egan^[3] describes LOL, ROTFL, and other initialisms as helpful as long as they are not overused. He recommends against their use in business correspondence because the recipient may not be aware of their meanings, and because in general neither they nor emoticons are (in his view) appropriate in such correspondence. June Hines Moore^[20] shares that view. So, too, does Lindsell-Roberts,^[21] who gives the same advice of not using them in business correspondence, "or you won't be LOL".

Spread from written to spoken communication[link]

LOL, ROFL, and other initialisms have crossed from computer-mediated communication to face-to-face communication. David Crystal—likening the introduction of LOL, ROFL, and others into spoken language in magnitude to the revolution of Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the 15th century—states that this is "a brand new variety of language evolving", invented by young people within five years, that "extend[s] the range of the language, the expressiveness [and] the richness of the language".^[22][23]

Geoffrey K. Pullum points out that even if interjections such as LOL and ROFL were to become very common in spoken English, their "total effect on language" would be "utterly trivial".^[24]

Conversely, a 2003 study of college students by Naomi Baron found that the use of these initialisms in computer-mediated communication (CMC), specifically in instant messaging, was actually lower than she had expected. The students "used few abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons". The spelling was "reasonably good" and contractions were "not ubiquitous". Out of 2,185 transmissions, there were 90 initialisms in total, only 31 CMC-style abbreviations, and 49 emoticons.^[23] Out of the 90 initialisms, 76 were occurrences of LOL.^[25]

Acceptance[link]

On March 24, 2011, LOL, along with other acronyms, has been formally recognized in an update of the Oxford English Dictionary.^[16][26] In their research, it was determined that the earliest recorded use of LOL as an initialism was for "little old lady" in the 1960s.^[27] They also discovered that the oldest written record of the use of LOL in the contemporary meaning of "Laughing Out Loud" was from a message typed by Wayne Pearson in the 1980s, from the archives of Usenet.^[28]

Gabriella Coleman references "lulz" extensively in her anthropological studies of Anonymous.^[29][30]

Lexical form[link]

The past tense of lol is lolled. The participle form is lolling.

Variations on the theme[link]

For a list of words relating to for Internet laughter slang, see the Internet laughter slang category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Variants of LOL[link]

An animated ASCII art image popularized in 2004 by memes using the word "Roflcopter".

• lolz: Occasionally used in place of LOL.
• lulz: Often used to denote laughter at someone who is the victim of a prank, or a reason for performing an action. This variation is often used on the Encyclopedia dramatica wiki and 4chan image boards. According to a New York Times article about Internet trolling, "lulz means the joy of disrupting another's emotional equilibrium."^[31] Can be used as a noun — e.g. "do it for the lulz.", shortened into "ftlulz" (to distinguish it from "ftl" - "for the lose").^[32][33] See also LulzSec.
• lolwut: lol + wut, used to indicate bemused laughter, or confusion.
• Lawl or Lal: Pseudo-pronunciation of LOL. Saying "lawl" is sometimes meant in mockery of those who use the term LOL, and is not meant to express laughter.
• LOLOLOLOL: For added emphasis, LOL can be appended with any number of additional iterations of "OL". In cases such as these, the abbreviation is not to be read literally (i.e., "Laughing out loud out loud out loud out loud"), but is meant to suggest several LOLs in a row.
• trolololol or trollololol: A portmanteau of troll and LOL iterated. Indicates that the prank or joke was made by internet trolls, or the user thinks the prank or joke qualifies as internet trolling.
• LMAO: For "Laughing my ass off".^[4] Variant: LMFAO ("Laughing my fucking ass off").
• ROFL: For "Rolling on the floor laughing". It is often combined with LMAO for added emphasis as ROFLMAO ("Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off"). Variant: ROTFL.^[34]
• Roflcopter: A portmanteau of ROFL and helicopter and popularized by the website www.roflcopter.com. The website contained the animated gif and nothing else. The term was supposedly first used by a Blizzard Entertainment moderator in the Warcraft III forum in 2003.^{[citation needed]}
• lqtm: For "Laughing quietly to myself".^[35]
• *G* or *g*: For "grins".^[36] Like "lulz" it is used in the initialism "J4G" ("just for grins").^[37]

Commonly used equivalents in other languages[link]

Most of these variants are usually found in lowercase.

• mdr: Esperanto version, from the initials of "multe da ridoj", which translates to "lot of laughs" in English.
• mdr: French version, from the initials of "mort de rire" which roughly translated means "died of laughter", although many French people now use LOL instead as it is the most widely used on the internet.^[38][39]
• חחח/ההה: Hebrew version of LOL. The letter ח is pronounced 'kh' and ה is pronounced 'h'. Putting them together (usually three or more in a row) makes the word khakhakha or hahaha (since vowels in Hebrew are generally not written), which is in many languages regarded as the sound of laughter.
• 555: the Thai variation of LOL. "5" in Thai is pronounced "ha", three of them being "hahaha".
• asg: Swedish abbreviation of the term asgarv, meaning intense laughter.
• g: Danish abbreviation of the word griner, which means "laughing" in Danish.^[40]
• rs: in Brazil "rs" (being an abbreviation of "risos", the plural of "laugh") is often used in text based communications in situations where in English LOL would be used, repeating it ("rsrsrsrsrs") is often done to express longer laughter or laughing harder. Also popular is "kkk" (which can also be repeated indefinitely), due to the pronunciation of the letter k in Portuguese sounding similar to the ca in card, and therefore representing the laugh "cacacacaca" (also similar to the Hebrew version above).^[41]
• mkm: in Afghanistan "mkm" (being an abbreviation of the phrase "ma khanda mikonom"). This is a Dari phrase that means "I am laughing".
• 哈哈哈/呵呵呵: in Chinese, although 大笑 (da xiao; "big laugh") is used, a more widespread usage is "哈哈哈" (ha ha ha) or "呵呵呵" (he he) on internet forums.
• ههههه: in Arabic is a repetition of the "ه" character meaning "Hahahaha" or "Hehehehe". "ه" is equivalent to the letter "H", while the "a" (or "e") is treated as an implied short vowel, and isn't written (as is standard in Arabic and Hebrew).^{[citation needed]}
• (笑): in Japanese, the kanji for laugh (笑) is used in the same way as lol. It can be read as wara and so just w is also used as an abbreviation.^[42]
• ㅋㅋㅋ ("kkk") and ㅎㅎㅎ ("hhh") are usually used to indicate laughter in Korean. 'ㅋ', is a Korean Jamo consonant representing a "k" sound, and 'ㅎ' represents an "h" sound. Both "ㅋㅋㅋ" and "ㅎㅎㅎ" represent laughter which is not very loud. However, if a vowel symbol is written, louder laughter is implied: 하하 "haha" 호호, "hoho." ^[43]
• ha3: Malaysian variation of LOL. ha3 means pronouncing ha three times, "hahaha".
• jajajá: in Spanish, the letter "j" is pronounced /x/.^[44]
• jejeje: in the Philippines is used to represent "hehehe". "j" in Filipino languages is pronounced as /h/, derived from the Spanish /x/. Its origins can be traced to SMS language. It is widely used in a Filipino youth subculture known as Jejemons.^[45][46]

In some languages with a non-Latin script, the abbreviation LOL itself is also often transliterated. See for example Arabic لــول and Russian лол.^{[citation needed]}

Pre-dating the Internet and phone texting by a century, the way to express laughter in morse code is "hi hi". The sound of this in morse, 'di-di-di-dit di-dit, di-di-di-dit di-dit', is thought to represent chuckling.^[47][48]

The word "lol" in other languages[link]

• In Dutch, lol is a word (not an acronym) which, coincidentally, means "fun" ("lollig" means "funny")
• In Welsh, lol means "nonsense" – e.g., if a person wanted to say "utter nonsense" in Welsh, they would say "rwtsh lol"^[49]

See also[link]

Internet portal

Look up LOL or lol in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Internet meme
• Leet
• Lolcat

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Connery, Brian A. (February 25, 1997). "IMHO: Authority and egalitarian rhetoric in the virtual coffeehouse". In Porter, D.. Internet Culture. New York: Routledge. pp. 161–179. ISBN 0-415-91684-4. 
• Russ Armadillo Coffman (January 17, 1990). "smilies collection". rec.humor. (Web link). Retrieved 2006-12-22. —an early Usenet posting of a folk dictionary of abbreviations and emoticons, listing LOL and ROTFL
• Ryan Goudelocke (August 2004) (PDF). Credibility and Authority on Internet Message Boards. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07082004-110035/unrestricted/Goudelocke_thesis.pdf. 

2012 is a 2009 American science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson, among others. It was produced by Emmerich's production company, Centropolis Entertainment, and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Filming began in August 2008 in Vancouver, although it was originally planned to be filmed in Los Angeles.^[3]

The plot follows Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) as he attempts to bring his children, Noah and Lilly (Liam James and Morgan Lily respectively), ex-wife Kate Curtis (Amanda Peet) and her boyfriend, Gordon Silberman (Thomas McCarthy) to refuge and attempt to escape the heightened change in the elements. The film includes references to Mayanism, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar and the 2012 phenomenon in its portrayal of cataclysmic events unfolding in the year 2012. Emmerich has announced that the film will be his last involving disasters.^[4]

After a prolonged marketing campaign comprising the creation of a website from the point of view of the main character, Jackson Curtis,^[5] and a viral marketing website on which filmgoers could register for a lottery number to save them from the ensuing disaster,^[6] the film was internationally released on November 13, 2009. Critics gave 2012 mixed reviews, praising its special effects and tone but criticized its length and screenwriting. Despite this, the film, budgeted at $200 million, has a worldwide theatrical revenue that reached approximately $770 million.^[7]

Plot[link]

In 2009, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an American geologist, visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Adrian gives a report on this to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) who ends up taking Adrian to meet the President of the United States.

In 2010, President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) and other international leaders begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. Approximately 400,000 people are chosen to board "arks" that are constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the Himalayas. At the same time as the People's Liberation Army are gathering volunteers, a Buddhist monk named Nima (Osric Chau) is evacuated while his brother Tenzin (Chin Han) joins the workers in the Ark project. Additional funding for the project is raised by selling tickets to the private sector for €1 billion per person. By 2011, humanity's valuable treasures are moved to the Himalayas under the guise of protecting them from terrorist attacks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson (Thandie Newton).

In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for the Russian billionaire, Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Burić). Jackson's ex-wife, Kate (Amanda Peet) and their children Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily) live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman (Thomas McCarthy).

Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. After an encounter with Helmsley, they meet Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), who hosts a radio show from the park. Charlie plays a video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. He has a map of the ark project in addition to information about officials and scientists from around the world who were murdered after planning to alert the public. The family returns home as seismic activity vastly increases along the west coast of the United States. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a plane to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as the city slips into the Pacific Ocean.

As millions die in catastrophic earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve Charlie's map, escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie stays behind to broadcast the eruption and is killed in the blast of the expulsion of an ash cloud. Learning that the arks are in China, the group lands in a devastated Las Vegas to find a larger plane. They meet Yuri, his twin sons Alec and Oleg (played by Alexandre and Philippe Haussmann), girlfriend Tamara (Beatrice Rosen) and pilot Sasha (Johann Urb). The group secures an Antonov An-225 aircraft and they depart for China. Also heading for the arks aboard Air Force One are Anheuser, Helmsley and Laura Wilson. President Wilson remains in Washington, D.C. to address the nation one last time. With the Vice President dead and the Speaker of the House missing, Anheuser assumes de facto leadership. President Wilson is later killed by a megatsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House.

Arriving in China in a crash landing that kills Sasha, the group is spotted by the People's Liberation Army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the arks, leaving Tamara and the others behind. They are picked up by Nima and are taken to the arks with his grandparents (Lisa Lu and Chang Tseng). They stow away on the ark with the help of Tenzin. As a megatsunami approaches the site, an impact driver becomes lodged between the gears of the ark's hydraulics chamber, preventing a boarding gate from closing and rendering the ship unable to start its engines. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon and Tamara are killed, Tenzin is wounded, and the ark is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the impact driver and the crew regains control of the ark before it can impact Mount Everest.

After flood waters from the tsunamis recede, the arks travel to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa where the Drakensberg Mountains have risen in relation to sea level and become the tallest mountains in the world. Jackson is rejoined with his family, and Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura.

Cast[link]

• John Cusack as Jackson Curtis, a struggling writer who has to work as a limousine driver to make ends meet.^[8]
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dr. Adrian Helmsley, geologist and scientific advisor to the US President. He is also a fan of Curtis' work.^[9]
• Amanda Peet as Kate Curtis, a medical student and Jackson's ex-wife.^[10]
• Liam James as Noah Curtis, Jackson and Kate's son.
• Morgan Lily as Lilly Curtis, Jackson and Kate's daughter.
• Thomas McCarthy as Dr. Gordon Silberman, Kate's current boyfriend, a plastic surgeon.^[11]
• Danny Glover as Thomas Wilson, the President of the United States.
• Thandie Newton as Dr. Laura Wilson, art expert and President Wilson's daughter.
• Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser, the President's Chief of Staff.
• Zlatko Burić as Yuri Karpov, a Russian billionaire.
• Beatrice Rosen as Tamara, Yuri's Russian girlfriend.
• Alexandre and Philippe Haussmann as Alec and Oleg Karpov, Yuri's twin sons.
• Woody Harrelson as Charlie Frost, a fringe science conspiracy theorist and radio talk show host.

Production[link]

The credits cite the bestselling book Fingerprints of the Gods by author Graham Hancock as inspiration for the film,^[12] and in an interview with the London magazine Time Out Emmerich states: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods."^[13]

Director Emmerich and composer-producer Harald Kloser had an extremely close relationship and also co-wrote a spec script entitled 2012, which was marketed to major studios in February 2008. Nearly all studios met with Emmerich and his representatives to hear the director's budget projection and story plans, a process that the director had previously gone through with the films Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).^[14] Later that month, Sony Pictures Entertainment won the rights for the spec script, planning to distribute it under Columbia Pictures^[15] and was produced for less than budgeted. According to Emmerich, the film was eventually produced for about $200 million.^[1]

Filming was originally scheduled to begin in Los Angeles, California, in July 2008^[3] but instead commenced in Kamloops, Savona, Cache Creek and Ashcroft in British Columbia, Canada.^[16] Due to the possible 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike, filmmakers set up a contingency plan for salvaging the film.^[17] Uncharted Territory, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Scanline, Sony Pictures Imageworks and others were hired to create computer animated visual effects for 2012.

Although the film depicts the destruction of several major cultural and historical icons around the world, Emmerich stated that the Kaaba was also considered for selection. Kloser opposed the idea out of fear that a fatwā might be issued against him.^[18][19]

Marketing[link]

The film was promoted in a marketing campaign by a fictional organization, the "Institute for Human Continuity"; this entailed a fictitious book written by Jackson Curtis entitled Farewell Atlantis,^[5] and streaming media, blog updates and radio broadcasts from the apocalyptic zealot Charlie Frost on his website This Is The End.^[5]

On November 12, 2008, the new studio released the first teaser trailer for 2012 that showed a tsunami surging over the Himalayas and interlaced a purportedly scientific message suggesting that the world would end in 2012, and that the world's governments were not preparing its population for the event. The trailer ended with a message to viewers to "find out the truth" by searching "2012" on search engines. The Guardian criticized the marketing effectiveness as "deeply flawed" and associated it with "websites that make even more spurious claims about 2012".^[20]

The studio also launched a viral marketing website operated by the fictional Institute for Human Continuity, where filmgoers could register for a lottery number to be part of a small population that would be rescued from the global destruction.^[6] David Morrison of NASA received over 1000 inquiries from people who thought the website was genuine, and condemned it. "I've even had cases of teenagers writing to me saying they are contemplating suicide because they don't want to see the world end," he said. "I think when you lie on the internet and scare children to make a buck, that is ethically wrong."^[21] Another viral marketing website promotes Farewell Atlantis, a fictional suspense novel by the film's lead protagonist, about the events of 2012.^[5]

Comcast had also organized a "roadblock campaign" to promote the film, where a two-minute scene from the film was broadcast across 450 American commercial television networks, local English-language and Spanish-language stations, and 89 cable outlets within a ten-minute window between 10:50 PM EDT/PDT and 11:00 PM EDT/PDT on October 1, 2009.^[22] The scene featured the destruction of Los Angeles and ended with a cliffhanger, with the entire 5-minute-38-second clip made available on Comcast's Fancast web site. The trade newspaper Variety estimated that, "The stunt will put the footage in front of 90% of all households watching ad-supported TV, or nearly 110 million viewers. When combined with online and mobile streams, that could increase to more than 140 million".^[22]

Soundtrack[link]

The original score for the film was composed by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker. Singer Adam Lambert contributed a song for the film titled "Time for Miracles" and expressed his gratitude for the opportunity in an interview with MTV.^[23]

The film's soundtrack consists of 24 tracks, and it includes the songs "Fades Like a Photograph" by Filter and "It Ain't the End of the World", performed by George Segal and Blu Mankuma, which were featured in the film.^[24] The trailer music was Master of Shadows by Two Steps From Hell.

Release[link]

2012 was originally scheduled to be released on July 10, 2009. The release date was changed to November 2009 to move out of the busy summer schedule into a time frame that the studio considered to have more potential for financial success. According to the studio, the film could have been completed for the summer release date, but the date change would give more time to the production. The film was released on November 11, 2009. It was released on Friday November 13, 2009 in Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Mexico, India and the United States, and was released on November 21, 2009 in Japan.^[25]

The DVD and Blu-ray for 2012 were released on March 2, 2010. The 2-Disc Blu-ray Edition includes over 90 minutes of special features, including Adam Lambert's music video "Time for Miracles", and a Digital Copy for PSP, PC, Mac & iPod.^[26] The European release date of 2012 on DVD was March 26, 2010; it includes the same special features as the North American version.

Reception[link]

Box office[link]

2012 earned $166,112,167 in the USA and Canada and $603,567,306 in other territories for a worldwide total of $769,679,473. It is the 5th highest-grossing film of 2009 worldwide^[7] and the 39th highest grossing film of all time worldwide. It is Emmerich's second highest grossing film worldwide, behind Independence Day. However, it surpassed Emmerich's previous disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, which grossed $544.3 million worldwide.^[27] Worldwide on its opening weekend it made $230.5 million, marking the fourth-largest opening weekend worldwide for a 2009 film.^[28]

In North America, it grossed $65,237,614 on its first weekend, ranking number one and marking the 9th highest-grossing opening weekend for a film released in November. The film grossed $166,112,167 in total^[2] and earned $165.2 million overseas on its opening weekend marking the 7th largest opening weekend of all time.^[29] With $603,567,306 in total overseas earnings, just above the $600-million-mark, it marked the 4th highest-grossing 2009 film overseas.^[30] In Bulgaria, it earned $285,273 on its opening weekend, which is the 6th largest in the country, and it earned $856,915 in total to become the 8th highest-grossing film of all time.^[31] In Greece, it grossed $2,288,288 which is the second highest-grossing opening weekend of all time after 300's opening with $3,087,500.^[32] In Malaysia, it made the second-largest opening weekend ($2,308,796) behind that of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($2,546,774) and became the fourth highest-grossing film of all time.^[33] In Taiwan, it grossed the largest two-day weekend of all time ($2,790,845) and, in total earnings, it is third on the all-time chart.^[34]

Critical response[link]

The film received generally mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 39% of 2012 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5 out of 10.^[35] Among the site's notable critics, 32% gave the film a positive write-up, based on a sample of 37.^[35] The site's consensus is that "Roland Emmerich's 2012 provides plenty of visual thrills, but lacks a strong enough script to support its massive scope and inflated length."^[36] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 49 based on 34 reviews.^[37]

Roger Ebert was enthusiastic about the film, giving it 3½ stars out of 4, saying it "delivers what it promises, and since no sentient being will buy a ticket expecting anything else, it will be, for its audiences, one of the most satisfactory films of the year".^[38] Both Ebert and Claudia Puig of USA Today called the film the "mother of all disaster movies".^[38][39] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticized the film by comparing it to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: "Beware 2012, which works the dubious miracle of almost matching Transformers 2 for sheer, cynical, mind-numbing, time-wasting, money-draining, soul-sucking stupidity."^[40] In 2010, Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain, one of the few comics with a Degree in Science, used his stand up show This is the Show to indicate how ridiculous a concept 2010 is. The concept being that "entire cities tilt and fall into lava" while the only explanation on offer is the single line "the neutrinos have mutated". The science of this, Ó Briain points out, being equivalent to saying that "the electrons are angry" or the sun smells a bit.

Accolades[link]

Danny Glover was nominated for an Image Award for his role in the film.^[41]

North Korean ban[link]

North Korea has reportedly banned possession or viewing of the film. The year 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder, Kim Il-sung, and has been designated by the North Korean government as "the year for opening the grand gates to becoming a rising superpower". Thus, a movie which depicts the year in a negative light is found to be offensive by the North Korean government. Several people in North Korea have reportedly been arrested for possessing or viewing pirated copies of the movie and charged with "grave provocation against the development of the state."^[46][47]

Television spin-off[link]

Entertainment Weekly announced that there was a plan for a spin-off television series entitled 2013 that would have served as a follow-up to the film.^[48] Executive producer of 2012, Mark Gordon told EW that "ABC will have an opening in their disaster-related programming after Lost ends, so people would be interested in this topic on a weekly basis. There's hope for the world despite the magnitude of the 2012 disaster as seen in the film. After the movie, there are some people who survive and the question is how will these survivors build a new world and what will it look like. That might make an interesting TV series."^[48]

References[link]

External links[link]

Film portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 2012 (film)

• Official website
• 2012 at the Internet Movie Database
• 2012 at AllRovi
• 2012 at Rotten Tomatoes
• 2012 at Metacritic
• 2012 at Box Office Mojo
• Movies 2012

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2012

2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday and is the current year. In the Gregorian calendar, it is the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 3rd of the 2010s.

There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various contemporary interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions.^[1]

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 20 – January 28 – A series of co-ordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, results in 185 deaths. The attacks are blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram,^[2] 11 members of which are killed in a shootout in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.^[3]
• January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: The European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of that nation's continued effort to enrich uranium.^[4]

February[link]

• February 6 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marks the 60th anniversary of her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth.^[5][6]
• February 15 – A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras kills 360.^[7]
• February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.^[8]
• February 21 – Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.^[9]
• February 25 – Arab Spring: As a result of ongoing protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi.^[10]

March[link]

• March 4 – A series of explosions are reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.^[11][12]
• March 13 – After 244 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.^[13]
• March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.^[14]

April[link]

• April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.^[15]
• April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.^[16]
• April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands.^[17] The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the republic.^[17]
• April 26 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.^[18]

May[link]

• May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.^[19][20]
• May 12 – The 2012 World Expo begins in Yeosu, South Korea. It is scheduled to end on August 12.^[21]

June[link]

Predicted and scheduled events[link]

June[link]

• June 6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.^[22]

July[link]

• July 27 – August 12 – 2012 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held in London.^[23]

August[link]

• August 6–20 – Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, is scheduled to land on Mars.^[24]
• August 12 – The 2012 World Expo is scheduled to end.^[21]

December[link]