2012 (film)

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. The film was produced by Centropolis Entertainment and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Filming began in August 2008 in Vancouver, although it was originally planned to be filmed in Los Angeles. The plot follows Jackson Curtis as he attempts to bring his family to refuge, amidst the events of a geological and meteorological super-disaster. 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.

After a prolonged marketing campaign comprising the creation of a website from the point of view of the main character, and a viral marketing website on which filmgoers could register for a lottery number to save them from the ensuing disaster, the film was released internationally on November 13, 2009. Critics gave 2012 mostly mixed reviews, praising its special effects and dark tone compared to Emmerich's other work, but criticizing its screenplay and 158-minute length. However, it was a huge commercial success, and one of the highest-grossing films of 2009.

2012

2012 (MMXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (dominical letter AG) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium, the 12th year of the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2010s decade.

2012 was designated as:

Events

January

February

John Cusack

John Paul Cusack (/ˈkjuːsæk/, born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. Cusack appeared in several teen films in the mid-1980s, most notably Better Off Dead (1985), before he starred in Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy-drama Say Anything... in 1989. He later starred in High Fidelity (2000), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. Cusack is also known for his performances in the films Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Being John Malkovich (1999), 1408 (2007), 2012 (2009), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and The Raven (2012).

Early life

Cusack was born to a Catholic Irish-American family in Evanston, Illinois. His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. His father, Richard Cusack (1925–2003), was an actor, as are Cusack's siblings Ann, Joan, Bill and Susie. Richard was also a documentary filmmaker who owned a film production company and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1984, where he met Jeremy Piven, and spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in his belly".

Megatsunami

A megatsunami is a term used for a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water.

Megatsunamis have quite different features from other, more usual type of tsunamis. Most tsunamis are caused by underwater tectonic activity (movement of the earth's plates) and therefore occur along plate boundaries and as a result of earthquake and rise or fall in the sea floor, causing water to be displaced. Ordinary tsunamis have shallow waves out at sea, and the water piles up to a wave height of up to about 10 metres (33 feet) as the sea floor becomes shallow near land. By contrast, megatsunamis can occur in locations where there is a very large amount of material that suddenly falls into water, or anywhere in water (for meteor impact), or may be caused by volcanic activity, and can have extremely high initial wave heights of hundreds and possibly thousands of metres, far beyond any ordinary tsunami, as the water is "splashed" upwards and outwards by the impact or displacement. As a result, two heights are sometimes quoted for megatsunamis – the height of the wave itself (in water), and the height to which it surges when it reaches land, which depending upon the locale, can be several times larger.

Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich (German: [ˈʁoːlant ˈɛməʁɪç]; born November 10, 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films, most of which are English-language Hollywood productions, have made more than $3 billion worldwide, including just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the country's 14th-highest grossing director of all time. He began his work in the film industry by directing the film The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) as part of his university thesis and also co-founded Centropolis Entertainment in 1985 with his sister. He is a collector of art and an active campaigner for the LGBT community, and is openly gay. He is also a campaigner for awareness of global warming and equal rights.

Early life and career

Emmerich was born in Stuttgart, West Germany, and grew up in the nearby town of Sindelfingen. As a youth, he traveled extensively throughout Europe and North America on vacations financed by his father, Hans, the wealthy founder of a garden machinery production company. In 1977, he began attending University of Television and Film Munich with the intention of studying to become a production designer. After watching Star Wars, he instead decided to enroll in the school's film director program. Required to create a short film as his final thesis in 1981, he wrote and directed the full-length feature The Noah's Ark Principle, which was screened as the opening film of the 34th Berlin International Film Festival in 1984.