Oliver Platt

A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind. Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world. Only a few years after the American geologist Adrian Helmsley's warnings of an impending global Armageddon by the year 2012, the Earth is devastated from end to end by cataclysmic natural disasters. As the President of the U.S. along with other leaders of the G8 Nations complete their secret project in Tibet to build colossal arks to sustain humanity, at the same time, the struggling Los Angeles author, Jackson Curtis, goes through hell and back to reunite with his ex-wife and their two kids. Inevitably, the unfathomable catastrophes are rapidly escalating, while Jackson strives to give his family a future in Tibet, however, can he make it in time? A middle-aged male who is worried that the world is going to end does everything that he can to save his family from ultimate disasters that are happening all around the world. He discovers that time is running out for everyone and everything if they want to survive. Geophysicist Adrian Helmsley officially visits India's Dr. Satnam Tsurutani, his pretty wife, Aparna, and their son. From thence, he is led to the world's deepest copper mine, where he finds evidence that the Earth's crust is heating up faster than expected. He quickly collects evidence, and presents it before the President of the United States. Expecting the news to hit leading media, he is instead stunned when he learns that the powers-that-be have no intention of publicizing this catastrophe, and are intent on saving wealthy families that can shell out a billion Euros per family on four mammoth arks - without realizing that if the Earth is indeed headed for the prophetic self-destruction on 21 December 2012 - how can arks and it's wealthy inhabitants survive? In 2009, an American geologist named Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to rapidly increase. Adrian and Satnam visit the Naga Deng Copper mine and go 11,000 feet below the ground. Satnam says that the neutrinos from the sun have mutated into a new kind of particle, which is causing a physical reaction. They study a well in the mine that goes down another 6000 feet, and the water inside it is absolutely boiling. Arriving at a party in Washington, D.C., Helmsley presents his information to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), who takes him to meet the President. In 2010, U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) and other international leaders from over forty-six nations begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. They begin building nine arks in the Himalayas, in Tibet. More than 400,000 people are chosen to board enormous "arks" constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the southwest Chinese Himalayas. A Buddhist monk named Nima (Osric Chau) is evacuated while his brother Tenzin (Chin Han) joins the Ark project. Additional funding is raised by selling tickets for Euro 1 billion per person. By 2011, valuable items are moved to the arks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson (Thandiwe Newton). In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works as a limousine driver for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric). Jackson's former wife Kate (Amanda Peet), and their children Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily), live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman (Tom McCarthy). Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. When they arrive at the park, they find the park fenced off by the military who arrived. They cross over the fence but are captured by the U.S. Army and taken in to see Helmsley, who recognizes Jackson after he published his recent book, Farewell Atlantis. After they are released from military custody, they meet Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), who hosts a radio show from the park (also the person who spotted them enter the restricted area). Later that night, after the military evacuates from Yellowstone, Jackson watches Charlie's video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. The 2012 phenomenon was a collection of beliefs that the world would end on December 21, 2012. The beliefs were based on the Mayan Long Count calendar, which was used in Central America before Europeans arrived. The calendar's "zero date" was set at 11 August 3114 BC, and the 13th Maya date 13.0.0.0.0, marked the end of the current world. Charlie also tells Jackson that those who discovered this and plotted to inform the public were killed in various accidents. After an earthquake hits Los Angeles, the family returns home. At the Santa Monica Airport, after dropping off Yuri's sons Alec and Oleg, who also warn of impending doom as they board a plane, he rents a Cessna 340A and sets out to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins with a magnitude 10.9 earthquake, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as California collapses into the Pacific Ocean. As millions of people die in earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve a map from Charlie (which shows the location of the Arks), escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie stays behind to broadcast the eruption and is killed. Learning that the arks are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas to find a larger plane. They find Yuri, his twin sons Alec (Alexandre Haussmann) and Oleg (Philippe Haussmann), girlfriend Tamara (Beatrice Rosen), and pilot Sasha (Johann Urb). Helmsley, Anheuser, and Laura Wilson are aboard Air Force One, where they are heading to the arks. President Wilson remains in Washington, D.C., to address the nation one last time. The planet's crust shifts, resulting in billions of people dead in disasters worldwide, including President Wilson. Helmsley had promised to evacuate Satnam and his wife Aparna (Agam Darshi), but the rescue helicopters never arrived and Satnam perishes with his family. Harry Helmsley (Blu Mankuma) is Adrian's father who works with Tony Delgatto (George Segal), a jazz singer aboard the cruise ship Genesis. Adrian is helpless as a Mega Tsunami flips the cruise ship over, killing everyone on board. With the presidential line of succession gone, following the death of the Vice President and the disappearance of the Speaker of the House, Carl appoints himself acting commander-in-chief even though he is not in the presidential line of succession. Back in Las Vegas, the group steals an Antonov An-500 aircraft, and they depart for China as the Yellowstone ash cloud engulfs the city. President Wilson is later killed by a mega tsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House. When the group arrives in China, the plane runs out of fuel. As the plane touches down on a glacier, the party uses a Bentley Flying Spur stored in the hold to escape, except Sasha, who stays in the cockpit and is killed when the jet goes over a cliff. They are then spotted by helicopters from the Chinese army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the arks, leaving the Curtis family and Gordon behind, along with Tamara, because Yuri knows she had an affair with Sasha. The remaining group is picked up by Nima and taken to the arks with his grandparents. They stow away on Ark 4, where the United States contingent is aboard, with the help of Tenzin. As a mega tsunami approaches the site, an impact driver becomes lodged in the gears of the ark's hydraulic doors, preventing a boarding gate from closing, which in turn prevents the ship from starting its engines. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon, and Tamara are killed, and Ark 4 is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the impact driver, and the crew regains control of the ark before it collides with Mount Everest. Jackson rejoins with his family, and he and Kate reconcile. Twenty-seven days later, the waters are receding. The arks travel to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where the Drakensberg Mountain range has now emerged. Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura while Jackson and Kate rekindle their relationship.

The NDR series robot "Andrew" (Robin Williams) is introduced into the Martin family home in April 2005 to perform housekeeping and maintenance duties. Unfortunately, the elder daughter of the family doesn't accept him, and orders him to jump out the window - injuring his mechanisms severely. The father of the household, Richard Martin, holds a family meeting and stipulates that Andrew is to be treated as a human being, and as a member of the family, rather than a household appliance. They then slowly grow to accept Andrew as a functional member of their family unit. But when Andrew accidentally breaks a glass figurine belonging to "Little Miss" Amanda Martin, to whom he is devoted, he carves a similar figurine out of wood. The family is astonished by this sign of original creativity in a robot and Sir Richard Martin takes Andrew to his manufacturer, NorthAm Robotics, to inquire if all the robots are like him. The CEO of the company sees this development as a problem and wishes to scrap Andrew or, as he puts it, "fix him." Deeply angered, Martin takes Andrew home and allows him to pursue his own development: creating masterpiece clocks and other wood items. He also encourages Andrew to educate himself in the humanities and helps him to understand the concepts. When Andrew is damaged, Martin again takes him to NorthAm Robotics for repairs, but stipulates that if they attempt in any way to alter Andrew's Positronic brain, the company would be liable for the projected revenue Andrew's creativity would generate over his operational lifespan - a sum that would bankrupt the company (since his operational lifespan is essentially limitless). Andrew requests that while he is being repaired his face be altered to convey the emotions, he feels but cannot fully express; thus begins Andrew's outward transformation from robot to android. He is told this would cost an exorbitant amount of money, and prints of a check, to which Andrew replies that the sum is roughly one months of his salary. The CEO of NorthAm Robotics balks and mutters that the sum is "more than he makes in a year". "Sir" Richard is gleeful at this, and says it is quite a "good achievement for...what was it he called you last time we were here, Andrew?" "Household Appliance, Sir." "That's right. Household Appliance." After many years, Andrew has amassed enough money to need a legal adviser and bank account. Andrew eventually asks for his freedom, much to Richard's dismay. Deeply hurt, Mr. Martin grants his request, but banishes Andrew from the house so that he can be 'completely' free. In 2048, Andrew sees Richard Martin one last time, on his deathbed. Mr. Martin apologizes to Andrew for banishing him, telling him it was Andrew's right to have his freedom. Andrew sets out to find other NDR series robots and discover if they have also developed personalities of their own. He spends years searching but finds none functioning. Finally, he stumbles across Galatea, an NDR robot that has been given female attributes and is owned by Rupert Burns, son of the original NDR robot designer. Andrew is attracted to Galatea after seeing her dance, but soon discovers that her personality chip was activated. She becomes a source of great annoyance to Andrew: her personality was implanted by the manufacturers, whereas his developed independently of programming. As it turns out, her owner, Burns, has been working to create a more human looking robot on his own, but has been unable to attract funding for the project. Andrew Martin agrees to finance Burns' research and the two join forces to revolutionize robotics - in the course of which they also revolutionize the field of human prosthetic organs. Over the years, he maintains contact with Amanda, grown-up, married, divorced, and with children of her own - who resent Andrew's friendship with their mother. Eventually, Andrew becomes human enough to fall in love with Amanda's granddaughter, Portia, and she with him. Andrew Martin petitions the World Congress to recognize him as human, which would allow him and Portia to be legally married but is rejected on the grounds that so long as he is in effect immortal, he cannot be human. Over the course of the next 100 years, he proceeds to turn himself into a prosthetic human, thus allowing him to age. Andrew again attends the World Congress, now appearing old and frail. The Speaker of said Congress agrees to debate the issue and asks him why he wants this. He replies: "To be acknowledged for who and what I am; no more, no less. Not for acclaim, not for approval, but the simple truth of that recognition has been the elemental drive of my existence, and it must be achieved if I am to live or die with dignity." Andrew Martin is on his death bed, Portia beside him, when the Speaker of the World Congress finally announces on television the court's decision: that Andrew Martin is recognized as the oldest, non-biblical human being in history, aged 200 years old. The Speaker also finally validates the marriage between Portia and Andrew. Andrew dies while listening to the broadcast. Portia orders their nurse, Galatea, now recognizably human, to unplug her, i.e., shut down her life support machine. The movie ends with Portia about to die hand-in-hand with Andrew, as she whispers to him "See you soon."

A murder trial brings a Mississippi town`s racial tensions to the flashpoint and amidst the frenzy, an idealistic young attorney mounts a stirring courtroom battle for justice.

In Trieste, Italy, Lieutenant Colonel Austin Travis (Steven Seagal) leads an unsuccessful U.S Special Forces raid on a Chechen mafia safe house to recover a stolen Soviet nerve agent called DZ-5 (also known as VX Gas). During the raid one of his men is killed, and the nerve agent is nowhere to be found, leaving the mission a bust. Three months later, Dr. David Grant (Kurt Russell), a U.S. Army intelligence expert, is informed that terrorist leader El Sayed Jaffa was abducted from his daughter's wedding by an unknown entity and anonymously delivered to U.S authorities. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber walks into a luxurious London, England restaurant and blows himself up after warning people to listen to the sound of Al Tha'r. That same day, Oceanic Airlines Flight 343, a Boeing 747-200, leaves Athens, Greece, bound for Washington, D.C., with over 400 passengers on board, including U.S. Senator Mavros (J.T Walsh), and a disguised Nagi Hassan (David Suchet), El Sayed Jaffa's deputy director. Soon after take-off Hassan and his men, having sneaked weapons on the flight, hijack the plane and sends a message under the name Al Tha'r demanding Jaffa's release. An armed deputy U.S Airline Marshal (Richard Riehle) who is on the plane but unable to prevent the hijack quickly conceals his badge and gun to avoid being identified and compromise the security of the passengers. Jean (Halle Berry), a flight attendant takes a huge risk by getting rid of the passengers manifest and lying to Hassan to conceal the Marshal's presence. Meanwhile, David Grant is called away from a tuxedo and gown party to a meeting at the Pentagon to plan an operation to retake the plane. While the secretary of defense and everyone else around the table, including Austin Travis who despises Grant and holds him responsible for the failed mission in Italy, agrees that they must plan for a ground strike on the terrorists as soon as the plane lands, Grant doubts Hassan's demands, suspecting he engineered Jaffa's capture himself, and intends to use the plane to detonate a bomb loaded with the DZ-5 nerve agent into U.S. airspace. Grant strongly advises the secretary not to let the plane reach U.S airspace, much less touch U.S soil. He also reveals that the name used by the terrorists, Al Tha'r, is an ancient Arabic form of the word "revenge". Not willing to destroy the plane and it's 400 passengers without proof that the plane is truly a threat to the United States, The Pentagon opt to send Travis's team on a mission to infiltrate Oceanic Airlines Flight 343 mid-air using the experimental airplane "Remora F117x" invented by DARPA engineer Dennis Cahill (Oliver Platt). Travis requests Grant's presence on the plane for live intel, somehow knowing that Grant is deathly afraid of flying. Grant and Cahill both agrees to join Travis's team to intercept the plane. The Remora intercepts and docks with the 747 in mid-air. The boarding is only partially successful though due to strong turbulence, causing the team's bomb specialist "Cappy" (Joe Morton) to fall and break his neck. Grant boards the plane to assist Cappy just as the 747 pulls up, over stressing the Remora's docking tunnel. Travis sacrifices himself by closing the 747's hatch before it decompresses, saving his team but killing him and destroying the Remora. On the plane, the surviving team members, "Rat"(John Leguizamo), "Cappy", Louie (B.D Wong), and Baker ( Whip Hubley), along with Grant and Cahill reassess their situation: Cappy is alive but immobilized, having fractured some vertebrae. They only have access to half their gear, no sleeping agent and, most importantly, no radio and no communication equipment, leaving the Pentagon completely unaware of their survival. With limited options, the team, now under Rat's command, use spy cameras and microphones to observe, locate and assess the terrorists while covertly searching the plane for the suspected DZ-5 bomb, with the aim of neutralizing it before storming the cabin. During his search for Hassan, Grant accidentally compromises himself to Jean, who keeps quiet about it despite Hassan's suspicions about her. The team finally locates the bomb and Grant is proven right when they find out the bomb has enough DZ-5 to take out half the Eastern seaboard on its own. Cappy analyzes the bomb and reveals it has a barometric detonator, meaning it will detonate upon landing, but assures his team he knows how to neutralize it. They call upon Cahill to assist Cappy, who is still immobilized, with the bomb while Grant and the others take positions all around the plane to hit it as soon as the bomb is neutralized. Cappy guides Cahill and successfully disarms the bomb. He advises his team that the bomb is secured, but just as they're about to attack, Cappy calls off the attack, having found that the bomb has a remote-controlled trigger and someone is testing it, meaning someone on the plane can still detonate the bomb at any moment. Cappy then succumbs to the pain meds he was given earlier and loses consciousness. Meanwhile Jaffa, released by U.S officials in an attempt to resolve the situation, calls Hassan from a private jet to tell him he is free and on his way to Algeria, and extends an offer from the U.S government to acquiesce to all of Hassan's demands in exchange for releasing the hostages. Hassan, while rejoicing in his leader's freedom, informs Jaffa that his mission is not finished as he intends to strike a sword deep into the infidels. Jaffa tries to reason with Hassan but he abruptly ends the call, forcing the Secretary of defense to order an air strike on the plane, having received no updates from Travis' team. Following the phone call, Hassan is confronted by his second in command who is challenging Hassan on his decision not to divert the plane back to Algeria now that their leader is free. Hassan reveals their real mission is to strike a deathblow to their enemies which his lieutenant disagrees with. Hassan assaults and kills his lieutenant and then orders the others back to their position. Grant, having overheard the whole exchange, realizes Hassan's men are unaware of the bomb and Hassan's true intentions. He also aptly deduces that the bomb's trigger-man is not Hassan or one of the armed terrorists, but a sleeping agent hiding amongst the passengers. Grant and the team decide to look for the passenger with cameras hooked to the main cabin while Cahill will attempt to figure out how to neutralize the remote detonator. Just as Cahill is about to execute his own theory and cut a wire, Cappy awakens to stop them and resumes working the bomb with Cahill while Grant rejoins the team to look for the secret trigger-man whom Grant is certain will be Jean-Paul Demou, one of Jaffa's men believed to have built the bomb. Grant uses a camera and having bypassed the plane's phone system to secretly communicate with Jean whom he trusts in assisting them with finding the trigger-man. While he's giving her instructions, she gets attacked and threatened by Hassan who points his gun at her but she's able to lie her way out of it. After catching her breath, she agrees to help Grant. She also takes a moment to covertly advise the Marshal about the presence of soldiers on the plane. While going around, tending to the passengers' needs, she spots a passenger with an electronic device that looks just like what Grant described to her so she silently communicates the seat number to Grant. Back in the cargo area, Cappy and Cahill seems to be making progress with the bomb when a random remote check from the trigger-man causes Cahill to panic and cut several wires he wasn't supposed to touch. The bomb not blowing up and seeming still fully functional make Cappy realize they are working on a decoy. The real bomb's computer is underneath the one they've been working on all along. Meanwhile, the U.S air strike has finally reached the plane and are attempting to divert it from its course by threatening to attack. Hassan refuses to divert and calls upon Senator Mavros who offered himself earlier to negotiate in an attempt to boost his political popularity for the upcoming elections. Mavros asks to speak with the President of the United States directly but is denied by the Secretary of defense. He is then killed by Hassan in a demonstration of his ruthlessness. The plane getting too close to the fail safe line, the Secretary of defense has no choice and orders the fighter jets to attack the plane. Luckily, Grant intercepted the exchange and is able to communicate with the fighter jets through Morse code from the tail lights, that they are on board, requesting an extra ten minutes to neutralize the bomb and retake the plane, despite already crossing into U.S. airspace. As soon as the Secretary overhears the team's mission code as part of the message, he agrees to give them ten minutes through a coded message of his own. Knowing they need to act now, the team gathers behind Grant to allow Cahill and Cappy five more minutes with the bomb and then attack no matter what. Out of desperation, Grant abandons his position and contacts Jean to use her help to enter the main cabin in an attempt to take out the suspected trigger-man by surprise, but he turns out to be an innocent passenger. Grant is then proven right once more by spotting Jean-Paul Demou, sitting on the plane. He shoots the remote away from him and engages him in an intense brawl. Hassan attempts to shoot Grant, but is himself shot by the federal air marshal. The commandos storm the cabin as a firefight ensues. Grant struggles to wrestle the remote detonator from Demou's grip while Baker and Rat gun-down several terrorists. Louie assists Grant by fatally shooting Demou and eliminating the remaining terrorists. Demou, however, manages to arm the bomb before dying, and stray bullets from a terrorist's weapon pierce a passenger window causing explosive decompression and killing three passengers. The bomb is disarmed just in time by Cappy and Cahill as the plane regains stable flight. Grant confronts Hassan and shows him that the bomb is neutralized. In a final act of desperation, a wounded Hassan sprays the cockpit with bullets, killing the pilots, before being shot and killed by Rat. With the pilots dead, over 400 lives on the line and a bomb on-board, aerophobic Grant, despite his limited flying experience and never having flown solo, assumes control of the plane and attempts to land it at the designated runway but misses the approach to Dulles International Airport, forcing him to go around. Knowing he's not good enough to turn the plane around and try another approach, Grant recognizes the area surrounding his training airfield, and decides to head there instead. The landing is sloppy and quite damaging as the airfield was never meant for a 747 but fortunately, none of the damages and impact triggers the bomb and Grant is finally able to safely land onto a sand berm at the runway's safety area, and the passengers are safely evacuated. Having finally exit the plane, Grant witnesses the bomb squad taking away the bomb and Cahill gives him his lucky straw that helped defused the bomb before departing in search of the biggest drink available. Grant then witnesses Cappy getting loaded unto an army ambulance along with the rest of the commando who stops to respectfully salute him before departing. He is then joined by Jean who asks him who he is. Just as he's about to answer, an FBI agent approaches him, addressing Grant by his official title of Doctor Grant and advises him he is being summoned by the Pentagon which causes Jean to leave but Grant calls her back and invites her to a coffee date, which she agrees as long as he is not flying. They both laugh and get into a car on their way to the Pentagon.