Cast: John Cusack (2), Chiwetel Ejiofor (3), Amanda Peet (4), Morgan Lily (5), Thandie Newton (6), Oliver Platt (7), Woody Harrelson (8), Jimi Mistry (9), and Beatrice Rosen (10)
(Watch the trailer)
My favourite quote - "The moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment we lose our humanity"
It's 3rd of January 2013 and I'm still alive! Were you afraid that doomsday would occur on the 21st of December 2012? What were you doing on the 21st and where were you? On the day the world was supposed to end, I was on a holiday in Thessaloniki, Greece with an old friend of mine.
While I wasn't terrified about the world coming to an end on the 21st of December, I did think about it a lot before I made plans to go overseas for a holiday. You see, this recent holiday to Greece marks the first time I've ever spent the Christmas and New Year holiday without my family and close friends. The Christmas season has always been a big thing in my family because I was born and raised a Catholic. Every year, the family would all get together to have Christmas lunch together but this time, everyone was celebrating it without me and I without them. And having experienced this recently, I don't think I want to spend another Christmas away from my family.
When I made plans for this recent holiday, I did ask myself, 'What if the world does end in 2012? Do I want to be away from my family when that happens?' Well, my answer was no. If the events of the film 2012 did occur, I wouldn't want to be away from my family. But I still went anyway because I bet on the odds that the world won't end yet. And thankfully, I was right.
Besides being a disaster film, at the heart of it all, the film 2012 is about what kind of person you want to be when faced with such a situation as well as who and what is important in times like this. When tragedy strikes, men either turn on each other to survive, or turn to each other for support and help. The following dialogue is my favourite scene in 2012. I mean every blockbuster disaster film needs a great inspirational speech about humanity and survival. While this is not my favourite inspirational speech from a disaster film, it's some good stuff. And I feel that this scene is the crux of what the film is trying to say, that saving the human race isn't just about saving it's people and it's culture, it's about what we do and how we treat each other during times of adversity.
Dr Adrian Helmsley: I know we've all been forced to make difficult decisions to save our human civilisation. But to be human means to care for each other, and civilisation means to work together to create a better life, if that's true, then there's nothing human and nothing civilised about what we're doing here.
Carl Anheuser: Dr Helmsley's passion is admirable, but I will remind you that we have very limited resources and extremely limited time.
Dr Adrian Helmsley: Ask yourselves, can we really stand by and watch these people die. I read a quote two days ago, the author is probably dead by now, but he said 'the moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment we lose our humanity.'
Carl Anheuser: And in order to save the human race we have an obligation to stick to this plan, which every nation on this floatilla has signed up for.
Dr Adrian Helmsley: We have to let these people in!
Carl Anheuser: They're in God's hand now! Officer, you turn that off! That is an order sailor, turn it off!
Professor Frederick West: Don't you dare touch that button young man!
Carl Anheuser: Have you completely lost your mind? Look at the clock! We have barely 15 minutes left! Do you want to be responsible for the extinction of the human race? Can you handle that Adrian?
Dr Adrian Helmsley: There's a young astrophysicist from India who's the reason we're all here.
Carl Anheuser: Oh for God's sake.
Dr Adrian Helmsley: He's the one who discovered it all. He connected all the dots, we all owe him our lives. I just learned that he was killed with his family in a tsunami in Eastern India. He was my friend, and he died in vain, everybody out there has died in vain if we start our future with an act of cruelty. What will you tell your children? What will they tell theirs?
I think it's sad that a lot of people only appreciate what they have either when they've lost it or are about to lose it. I will always remember something my secondary school teacher said when we asked him cheekily what plans he had for his wife for Valentine's Day. He said that there was no plan because to him every day is Valentine's Day, why wait for a special day to show someone you love how much you love them. And I think that what he said is true. You could die any day, if you don't want to die with any regrets, you have to live each day like it's your last.
