GEOSTORM
US, 2017, 109 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara, Daniel Wu, Eugenio Derbez, Andy Garcia, Ed Harris, Robert Sheehan, Richard Schiff, Mare Winningham, Zazie Beetz.
Directed by Dean Devlin.
There is always an audience for a disaster movie. Ever since such films as The Poseidon Adventure in the 1970s brought widescreen misadventures, on ships, at airports, on flights, in towering Infernos, rollercoasters, audiences have relished the opportunities for identification with characters in perilous situations.
The star of this film is Gerard Butler who previously had appeared in Olympus has Fallen and London has Fallen. He has always save the day, even saving the American president in peril. Perhaps the writers of this film have had more than an eye on the Has Fallen franchise because once again there is an American president and this film might have been called ‘Earth has Fallen’.
This is the future although the sequences on Earth look fairly familiar.
17 nations have combined to create an extraordinary space station, Dutch Boy, which will be able to control any crisis on Earth, especially those caused by climate change. The person behind the whole project is Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler, who might have been the better choice to portray Jack Reacher!). But, he is one of those individualistic heroes and falls foul of the Washington bureaucracy who sack him. The new man in charge is Jake’s younger brother, Max (Jim Sturgess), more the bookish and bureaucratic type. He is in a relationship with a Secret Service agent (Abbie Cornish proving that any female officer is more than the equivalent of a male officer).
Things begin to go wrong. An isolated village in Afghanistan is frozen. A lot of Hong Kong is destroyed by rising temperatures and ensuing fire. For the record, other cities which we see being destroyed include Tokyo, Moscow and Red Square, the freezing of the beachfront in Rio, a tsunami overwhelming Dubai, storms in Mumbai… For audiences with a penchant for seeing cities destroyed, Geostorm should be high on the list.
Needless to say, who has to go back to rectify everything on Dutch Boy but Jake, with Max supervising him. While Geostorm is something of a Space Odyssey of the 21st century, it is not any HAL computer that is the villain. The villain is an ambitious human – and our options are the US president, Andy Garcia, or the Secretary of State, Ed Harris.
And there is a mercenary agent on Dutch Boy and some rogue activity in the space station. Which means that Jake has a lot to do, discovering the virus that is infecting files, unmasking the villain on the space station, checking with Max as to who is the villain on Earth – with the culmination at a Florida Democratic Presidential Election rally.
If you want to see an enormous space station exploding, here it is.
But, with the new head of the space station, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jake is able to save the day.
It might be much as you would expect, though probably more spectacularly so, plenty of special effects and action, entertaining in its way.
1. The title, expectations? The future, space, earth? Politics? Heroism?
2. The Washington settings, the range of cities destroyed? Special effects, action sequences and stunts? The musical score?
3. The range of the cast, international?
4. A glimpse into the future?
5. The American locations, Washington, Cape Canaveral, Orlando, the East Coast and the quiet waters?
6. The range of destruction, the cities chosen, Europe, Asia, Latin America?
7. Dutch Boy, the idea, the United Nations, the 17 countries contributing, the vast enterprise, keeping the peace? The intention of handing over from the US to the International authorities? The political background?
8. The initial Senate hearing, Jake, late, coming from space, Max listening to him, his communicating the warnings? Jake, outspoken, the reaction of the board? Being fired? Max in charge?
9. Jake, angry, retirement? Working with engines? His daughter, his estranged wife? The clashes with Max? The past, the separation, memories of the parents, his not caring sufficiently for Max?
10. Dekkom, the friendship, support? Secretary of State? The crisis, seeing Max, urging Max to get Jake to go back into space?
11. Afghanistan freezing, Hong Kong burning, the later cities destroyed, Tokyo, Moscow, Rio, Mumbai…?
12. Max, his story, the younger brother, the relationship with Sarah, playful in the White House? Her role in the Secret Service? Max’s contact with the friend in Hong Kong, his computers, his watching the destruction, evading the destruction in his car, coming to Washington, the appointment, his being run over?
13. On Dutch Boy, the technician with the file, hiding it in the cabinet, his being shot and blown out the window? The range of staff, their jobs, the British man and his bitterness against the Americans? His being the villain? The gun, his motives, wanting more money, his death?
14. Fassbender, her being in command, her work, relationship with the staff, her knowing the ship, the rooms? At the end, the code, helping Jake?
15. The codes, Jake and Fassbender going outside, being blown away, saved, rescuing the code? Examining it?
16. The code, on Earth, Max and Dana, her work, interested, going to his home?
17. Max and Jake communicating, the fishing code, the information, suspicions of the president?
18. The political rally, telling Dekkom, his trying to shoot Max? The president being the code, biometric? The disaster, Sarah firing her gun, the escape, the chase, Dekkom’s agents? The final confrontation, car crash, their arresting Dekkom? Confrontation with the president? Dekkom’s motivation?
19. The setting the Geostorm in motion, the consequences? The range of cities destroyed, the countdown?
20. The presence of the code, getting into the computer? Jake staying on the Dutch Boy? The crew getting away? Jake staying for the rebooting, Fassbender staying? The last moment and the stopping of the Geostorm?
21. Jake and Fassbender, the special spacecraft, their being saved?
22. The two brothers and the little girl, sitting fishing, finding it boring? And the future?
