Greenland (film)

Greenland
File:Greenland poster.jpeg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ric Roman Waugh
Written by	Chris Sparling
Produced by	Gerard Butler Basil Iwanyk Sébastien Raybaud Alan Siegel
Starring	Gerard Butler Morena Baccarin Roger Dale Floyd Scott Glenn David Denman Hope Davis
Cinematography	Dana Gonzales
Edited by	Gabriel Fleming
Music by	David Buckley
Production companies	Thunder Road Anton G-Base
Distributed by	STX Films
Release dates	July 29, 2020 (2020-07-29) (Belgium) December 18, 2020 (2020-12-18) (United States)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35 million
Box office	$37.5 million

Greenland is a 2020 American disaster film directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Chris Sparling. The film stars Gerard Butler (who also co-produced), Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn, David Denman, and Hope Davis. The film follows a family who must fight for survival as a planet-destroying comet races to Earth.

Originally scheduled to be theatrically released on June 12, 2020 in the United States, Greenland was delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film is scheduled to be released domestically by STX Entertainment through video on demand on December 18, 2020, and then play on HBO Max. It was still released theatrically in other territories, beginning with Belgium on July 29, 2020.

Plot

John Garrity is a Scottish architect living in Atlanta, Georgia with his estranged wife, Allison, and their diabetic son, Nathan. He returns home from work to reconcile with his family following a conflict between him and his wife, which the two agree to work to move on from. The family prepares to host a party with their neighbors to watch the passing of an interstellar comet, named Clarke.

Arriving at a grocery store to pick up last-minute items before the party, John and Nathan notice a fleet of military cargo transport jets flying north in formation, much to their bewilderment. In the store, John receives a strange automated phone call from the Department of Homeland Security, informing him that he and his family have been pre-selected for emergency sheltering. Worried by this, John rushes home to the party, just as a comet fragment enters the atmosphere on live television. A shockwave rattles the area and blows out windows as the fragment, previously anticipated to land in the Atlantic Ocean, impacts Tampa, Florida and lays waste to much of the state. John once again receives an automated call, which also displays on the television in front of his family and neighbors with instructions to be at Dobbins Air Reserve Base to make an evacuation flight. Terrified, their neighbors storm out of the house to be close with their families while the Garrity's rush to pack up and leave. Before they can, their neighbor Dale tells them that Clarke is a large cluster of objects that are expected to collide with Earth over the next two days, with the biggest fragment large enough to cause an extinction level event. One of their neighbors desperately try to leave their daughter with the Garrity's to be saved, but John speeds away, knowing she would be turned away.

At Dobbins, a line of traffic prevents the family from reaching the gate and forces them to continue on foot, with Nathan accidentally leaving his insulin in the car. They are allowed in with the QR code on John's phone and their wristbands, where they find they must consolidate their belongings into one bag rather than one per person. There, they also discover that Nathan's insulin is missing. John hurries back to the car to find it while Allison and Nathan wait to board the plane, who are escorted away once a soldier learns of Nathan's disease. Allison begs for them to be let on the plane, but is unsuccessful, and the two are escorted off the base. Oblivious to this, John makes it back to the plane in time, where another passenger confronts him for the insulin pack and learns that his family was turned away, too. John demands to be let off the plane just as the base is breached by an angry mob wanting to be saved. A gunfight breaks out, inadvertently blowing up many of the evacuation planes and killing many while John narrowly escapes.

Upon returning to their car, he finds a note left by Allison that her and Nathan are heading to her father's house in Lexington, Kentucky. Along the way, Allison and Nathan are picked up by couple Ralph and Judy Vento, who are also headed that way. Meanwhile, John is walking on foot through a small city, where looting is taking place in masses as worldwide panic ensues. He comes across a rooftop party and attempts to call Allison, though the signal is spotty. He briefly gets through to her before the call is dropped, and a small comet fragment lands nearby, and an approaching Clarke looms ominously in the night sky.

Through conversation, Ralph and Judy find out that Allison and Nathan were denied entry, and Ralph pulls over to kick Allison out and kidnap Nathan, much to Judy's protest. John manages to hitch a ride on a truck with other survivors, where he learns through a young man named Colin that the military is flying to bunkers in Greenland for refuge. Another survivor, noticing John's wristband, attempts to fight him for it and kills Colin, but is gruesomely killed by John. Meanwhile, Ralph, Judy, and a frightened Nathan later arrive at a FEMA camp where they attempt to pass as Nathan's parents, but are separated when Nathan tells a soldier that he was taken. Allison eventually ends up at the same camp, where a man helps her look for Nathan, and the two are emotionally reunited. The nurse offers a week's worth of insulin to allow them to keep going and puts them on a bus to her father's town.

The following day, John wanders through an empty neighborhood and breaks in to a house to find food and water. He turns on a TV, which shows multiple accounts of cities being destroyed worldwide, and has a countdown to Clarke's final impact in less than 24 hours. He steals a car and continues to Allison's father's house, where he finds her and Nathan to be absent, much to her father's dismay. Allison and Nathan soon get off at a small shop nearby and call the house, and are picked up by John and her father. They return to his house, defeated and accepting their fate as the news continues to report on the approaching apocalypse. However, recalling some information from Colin, John realizes they have enough time to make a last-minute flight in Canada to reach the bunkers. The family agree to leave, emotionally saying goodbye to Allison's father before continuing in his truck.

They reach Upstate New York, where a derailed train has caused a traffic jam, when an emergency alert warns them of molten debris threatening the region. Small fireballs rain from the sky, destroying cars, people, and downing a helicopter as people scramble to escape. John manages to drive them to an underpass for refuge, and receives burns on his arm when saving others from a burning car. The meteor shower ceases, leaving much of the area burning, but allowing the family to continue to Canada as it is revealed that Clarke's largest fragment is 9 miles wide and will make impact somewhere in Western Europe, and what will happen when it does. John drives onto the runway as the plane is about to take off, and an angered pilot confronts the family. He states that the plane is full and cannot take any more passengers, but later agrees to take Nathan and Allison. Allison convinces the pilot to take John, too, so long as he weighs light enough. John lies and they board the plane, taking off just as more people arrive at the airfield too late.

Mere hours before impact, the plane approaches Greenland. However, another fragment strikes off the coast, and the subsequent shockwave causes the plane to crash into a valley near the bunkers, killing the pilots. John leads the survivors to the airbase bunker and brace as Clarke enters the atmosphere and impacts, and military personnel count down for the shock to strike as John's life flashes before his eyes. Nine months later, cities around the world lie in ruin as the Greenland base attempts to make radio contact with other survivors. Meanwhile, the bunker doors open, allowing the survivors to step outside for the first time to see a radically changed landscape. Much to their surprise, birds survived the disaster, and the survivors cheer on as they fly around as the camera pans to an orbital view, showing a massive glowing crater where Clarke impacted and several smaller craters dotting the planet's surface as Greenland finally makes contact with other stations around the world, who say that the atmosphere is finally clearing.

Cast

• Gerard Butler as John Garrity
• Morena Baccarin as Allison Garrity
• Roger Dale Floyd as Nathan Garrity
• Scott Glenn as Dale
• David Denman as Ralph Vento
• Hope Davis as Judy Vento
• Andrew Bachelor as Colin
• Gary Weeks as Ed Pruitt
• Tracey Bonner as Peggy Pruitt
• Claire Bronson as Debra Jones
• Madison Johnson as Ellie Jones
• Merrin Dungey as Major Breen

Additionally, Cole Hauser plays Dennis, a guide, Holt McCallany and Adam Cronan portray the category elite as team otter pilot.

Production

In May 2018, Chris Evans joined the cast of the film, with Neill Blomkamp directing from a screenplay by Chris Sparling. In February 2019, it was announced Blomkamp would no longer direct the film. That same month, Ric Roman Waugh joined the project as director, with Gerard Butler being added to the cast of the film, replacing Blomkamp and Evans respectively, with Butler producing under his G-Base banner. In June 2019, Morena Baccarin joined the cast of the film. In July 2019, Scott Glenn, Andrew Bachelor and Roger Dale Floyd also joined, as did David Denman, in August.

Principal photography began in June 2019 and wrapped up on August 16 of the same year in Atlanta.

David Buckley, who previously worked with Waugh on Angel Has Fallen, composed the film's score.

Release

In March 2019, STX Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. It was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on June 12, 2020, but was delayed to July 30, 2020 and then August 14, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its domestic release was again delayed on July 24, moving to September 25, 2020. The film's release schedule includes Belgium (July 29), France (August 5), and Scandinavia (August 12). On September 14, it was announced the film's American release has been delayed again, this time to an unspecified date later in 2020.

On September 30, the studio announced the film would be skipping theaters and going to be available to buy via video on demand on October 13, before being made available to rent on October 27. The following day, the studio announced the film had its U.S. pay TV and streaming rights sold to HBO for $20–30 million, who will release it in early 2021 and have it stream on HBO Max, and to Amazon Prime for the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia releases. It was later reported the VOD release date had been pushed to December 18.

Reception

Box office

Greenland was first released in Belgium, making $73,112 from 55 theaters on its opening weekend. On its first day of release in France, the film made $255,000 with 31,000 tickets sold, 61% ahead of Butler's Olympus Has Fallen (2013) despite fewer theaters and tight COVID-19 restrictions. Overall, it debuted to $1.09 million in the country, with a 10-day international total of $1.3 million. In its third weekend of international release, the film finished first in nine countries and made a total of $2.82 million. By October 11 the film had a running total of $28.0 million.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on six reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.

External links

• Official website
• Greenland at IMDb
• Greenland at Rotten Tomatoes