Fundamental plot flaw in "The Day After Tomorrow" (Spoiler)

[CanuckAmok]

Okay, so half the US population, including, one would assume, half the home-based members of the US Armed Services, are told to evacuate to Mexico or freeze to death.

The Mexicans, in an ironic twist of fate, close the Border to Americans, and it takes the President's promise to "forgive all Latin American debt" for the Mexican government to open the Border...?

Here's the reality: If this scenario were to happen, the US gov't would simply over-run the border by force, and kill anyone who attempted to stop the flow of American evacuees. The Mexican government would be overthrown, the Executive Branch would relocate to Mexico, and the entire region would be placed under armed US control, "for it's own protection", of course.

Anyone want to argue this obvious policy move?

[SmileyBoy]

1. The saddest part of the movie was...

That Canada was completely SOL. Canada didn't exist anymore.

[ironflange]

4. Except for most of Manitoba

They enjoyed the nice heat wave.

[SmileyBoy]

8. Oh, you HAVE to bring up Winnipeg again, dontcha???

:D:D:D:D:D:D

[TrustingDog]

13. that would be me too. a winnipeger.

[SmileyBoy]

14. Hey there, I'm in Fargo!!!

Just down (actually up) the river from you!!:hi:

[TrustingDog]

16. you mean the river of '97?

the flood year? heh. I remember it well as I'm sure you do. Grand Forks prolly remembers it better than us. I was freaking out and getting hubby to haul drinking water up to the second floor, rubbing my worry beads and driving everyone crazy with my paranoia. whew.

btw. Love that Coen Bros movie 'Fargo'... hope you don't feel insulted by it as some do.

[SmileyBoy]

18. That's OK. That movie rocked.

I think one reason we didn't get flooded here in '97 was because we're on the highest point on the river (about 15 feet higher than GF and Winnipeg, if I'm not mistaken).

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Yes, but this was a kinder, gentler America...with a much cuter

President. Kennedy like even. I am sure in this alternate universe that the president would have called first. ;)


And now, you're going to let my thread on it drop like a rock...Sob. :cry:

[CanuckAmok]

6. Sorry, Mrs. G...

I didn't even see yours until after I'd posted...

:(

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Just teasing...no worries.

My threads drop all the time. I am not a good subject line writer. :hi:

[mikehiggins]

3. Yeah, I thought the same thing.

Get in our way and we'll nuke Mexico City.

That would just about sum it all up.

[PATRICK]

5. Kept it all quiet

and then told Americans that a killer flu was coming and the only shots were in Mexico. A more realistic scenario.

And yeah, we still got our nuclear subs offshore.

[Boomer]

9. Probably a moot point...

... since I think the movie left out the part where the U.S. population poured into Northern Mexico, which is a hot dry desert, and promptly died of starvation, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases brought on by extreme deprivation in an already impoverished area.

Of course, I watched the movie for the special effects, not to the rediculous and improbably plotting, but the obvious lack of imagination that went into the evacuation scenario was rather amusing.

The deaths in the movie were all sanitized -- the casualities were from the quick, dramatic effects of weather. Supposedly once people got under shelter or left the country, they survived. The horrible truth is all those who died immediately were the lucky ones. Climate change on that order would result in a MASSIVE die-off as populations all over the world were left without adequate food supplies. North America and Northern Europe, as well as northern areas of Russia and China, engaged in the agriculture business that fed most of the world. Disrupted climate means no new food grown for probably a few years and a very painful "correction" to overpopulation.

[MrSandman]

10. The premise of the promise to...

"forgive all Latin American debt"

Uh, enforce that debt you icebound fools.

[CanuckAmok]

11. exactly, "Mr. Superpower-No-More"!

n/t

[The Jacobin]

12. It's a terrily stupid movie

The movie only shows what happens in a remote part of the U.K., Washington D.C., New York, and Los Angeles.

The rest of the world doesn't exist.

But if you want to take it seriously, the U.S. is much stronger militarialy thatn politically and would lead the way south with tanks, not phone calls.

[CanuckAmok]

17. Not just nations not existing, but people....

...I noticed this in the movie "Outbreak", a few years ago, too:

Everything is going to heel in a handbasket, and there are still dozens of 'bit' characters willing to give up everything so the lead characters can survive.

Case in point: a paramedic/fireman shows up at the abandoned hospital "with an ambulance", because he's heard that "someone was left behind". Did he not notice the thousands of people drowning/freezing on his way to pick up Timmy or whatever the hell that cancer kid's name was? And didn't he have a family of his own to be with? I'd be like "screw you, kid and doctor, I'm going home and get it on with Mrs. Firemen one more time".

Oh, and 'cancer kid'?! I mean, the only thing missing from that sub-plot was a heroic, self-sacrificing former Major-Leager, or a super-intelligent German Sheppard. It was almost as cheezy as the movie which gets produced in "The Player".

In "Outbreak" the same thing happens when Dustin Hoffman watches thousands of "unimportant" people die, but we're supposed to feel *good* when he miraculously brings Rene Russo back from the brink of death...

Yeesh.

[Zynx]

15. I said this when the movie came out

It would have said a lot more about actual human nature, and US nature for that matter, to have at the very least some National Guard unit blast Mexicans holding the border closed. At most, I think it would have been good to have seen the government order military force and have the Mexicans cave that way.

The other sequence I hate is "Bad CGI Wolves Of Death!" I'm in some damn library eating nothing but chips for a few days, those wolves are going to be the ones who need to worry about being killed and eaten.

They should have used a single polar bear instead. Watch the kids shit themselves.

I also hate "Bad CGI Frost Of Death."