Jake Gyllenhaal's End Of The World Sci-Fi Blockbuster Is Netflix's Most Popular Movie
2004 disaster film "The Day After Tomorrow" has hit Netflix and climbed to the top of the service. There are plenty of other great movies on the service, but this 2004 Roland Emmerich apocalypse feature, which holds a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, has captured Netflix's audience, rising to number six on Netflix's top ten movies chart. It beats out "Sing" and its sequel, but still beat out by quality films like "Final Destination: Bloodlines" and the Spanish film "Collision Course." It's estimated the movie has tallied around 9 million watch hours and 4.4 million views, which is quite good for a middling film from over twenty years ago.
"The Day After Tomorrow" stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Sam, the son of the main character, Jack Hall, played by Dennis Quaid. If you've never seen the film, it is about a climate disaster hitting the world. Things go from rain to snow to instant freezing, and a paleoclimatologist (someone who studies climates) and his son tackle it in two different locations. Jack must traverse the tundra that is the U.S. as he tries to make it back to New York to rescue his son. It peaks early, and then you're left with a lot of people talking about how cold it is. While it has some interesting ideas, like the instant-freezing sequence, it never truly makes the entire apocalypse an exciting watch.
There's a reason we don't get many Emmerich disaster films anymore
Gyllenhaal is a high point of the film, even though the cast sometimes feels half asleep. His constant desperation to save people without the backing he needs as the situation gets worse and worse is a solid highlight. Sometimes a movie really needs a vibrant young actor to really commit to the role.
"The Day After Tomorrow" was Emmerich's follow-up to his prior disaster film, "Godzilla" in 1998. Emmerich has dropped a few rungs down in the intervening years. For instance, "The Day After Tomorrow's" high-concept feel and presentation were dumped in favor of ideas like "Moonfall," where the moon might collide with Earth. Emmerich is best known for "Independence Day," as well as its sequel, "Resurgence." While "Resurgence" was somewhat of a success, earning $389.6 million against a $165 million budget, Emmerich's career has not hit the highs of 2009's "2012," which earned nearly $800 million against a $200 million budget.
"Moonfall" was considered a huge bomb, both critically and commercially, while "Resurgence" failed to capture the zeitgeist in 2016 like its original. Emmerich's particular brand of disaster film isn't particularly popular anymore, but it doesn't appear to be stopping him. Two new projects are listed on IMDB as in production by the director. One includes yet another apocalypse-centric idea, with a show called "Space Nation" set to explore a human colony after an alien attack. Another, "Maya Lord," is a historical film, something he has dipped his toes into now and then.