THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW [2004]

Now It's Fiction, Tomorrow It's Real


 Prof. Hall: We found evidence of a cataclysmic climate shift, which occurred 10,000 years ago.
The concentration of these natural greenhouse gases in the ice cores indicates that runaway warming pushed earth into an ice age which lasted 2 centuries.
Delegation: I'm confused.
I thought you were talking about global warming, not an ice age.
Prof. Hall: Yes, it is a paradox, but global warming can trigger a cooling trend. Let me explain.
The Northern Hemisphere owes its climate to the North Atlantic Current.
Heat from the sun arrives at the equator and is carried north by the ocean.
But global warming is melting the polar ice caps and disrupting this flow.
Eventually it will shut down.
And when that occurs, there goes our warm climate.
Delegation: Excuse me, when do you think this could happen, professor? When?
Prof. Hall: I don't know. Maybe in 100 years, maybe in 1,000.
But what I do know is, that if we do not act soon, our children and grandchildren will have to pay the price.
Vice President: And who's going to pay the price of the Kyoto Accord?
It would cost the world's economy hundreds of billions of dollars.
Prof. Hall: With all due respect, Mr. Vice President, the cost doing nothing could be even higher.
Our climate is fragile.
At the rate we're burning fossil fuels and polluting the environment, the ice caps will soon disappear.
Vice President: Professor Hall, our economy is every bit as fragile as the environment.
Perhaps you should keep that in mind before making sensationalist claims.
Prof. Hall: The last chunk of ice that broke off was about the size of Rhode Island.
Some people might call that pretty sensational.

Tom: I know you're good at rubbing people the wrong way, 
but why would you aggravate the vice president?
Prof. Hall: Because my 17-year-old kid knows more science than he does.
Tom: Perhaps. But your 17-year-old kid does not control our budget.

Prof. Hall: What about the North Atlantic Current?
Tom: What about it?
Prof. Hall: I got a call last night from Professor Rapson at the Hedland Center.
He thinks the current has changed.
Science Officer: Oh, come on, Jack, how could that be?
Prof. Hall: The current depends upon a balance of salt and freshwater.
Tom: We all know that.
Prof. Hall: Yes, but no one knows how much freshwater has been dumped into the ocean because of melting polar ice.
I think we've hit a critical desalinization point.
Janet: It would explain what's driving this extreme weather.
Prof. Hall: Hedland had some pretty convincing data.
They've asked me to feed it into my paleoclimate model to track the next events.
Tom: Are you suggesting these weather anomalies are gonna continue?
Prof. Hall: Not just continue. Get worse.
I think we're on the verge of a major climate shift.

Prof. Hall: We just got these results from our simulation model.
They explain what's causing this weather.
Vice President: I'll read it later. I have a meeting with the director of FEMA right now.
Prof. Hall: This is very urgent.
Our climate is changing violently. It will happen over the next 6 to 8 weeks.
Vice President: You said this wouldn't happen for another 100 years or so.
Prof. Hall: I was wrong.
Vice President: Well, suppose you're wrong this time.
Prof. Hall: I wish I were, but you're aware of what's happening all around the world.
Vice President: We're making all the necessary preparations for this storm.
What more do you expect?
Prof. Hall: You have to start thinking about large-scale evacuations right now.
Especially in the northern states.
Vice President: Evacuations? Have you lost your mind, Hall?
I have to go.
Prof. Hall: Mr. Vice President, if we don't act now, it's going to be too late.

[over the phone]
Prof. Rapson: What I'm about to say is supposed to be confidential.
Several hours ago, 3 helicopters went down over Scotland.
They crashed because the fuel in their lines froze.
Prof. Hall: At what temperature does...
Prof. Rapson: Negative 150 degrees Fahrenheit. We had to look it up.
The temperature dropped phenomenally fast.
On the ground, people froze before they could get out of their cars even.

When this storm is over, we'll be in a new Ice Age.
~Jack Hall

Prof. Hall: What can we do?
Prof. Rapson: Save as many as you can.

Thanks for coming back for me.
It was really brave.
~Laura Chapman

Sam: What is going on out there, Dad?
Prof. Hall: Sam, listen to me carefully. 
Forget what I said about trying to head south, it's too late for that.
The storm is gonna get worse.
It's gonna turn into a massive blizzard with an eye in the center, like a huge hurricane.
Only the air will be so cold, you could freeze to death in seconds.
Sam: What should we do?
Prof. Hall: Do not go outside. Burn whatever you can to stay warm, and try to wait it out.
I will come for you. Do you understand me? I will come for you.

Sam, as Laura hugs him: What are you doing?
Laura: I'm using my body heat to warm you.
If we let the blood from your arms and legs rush back to your heart too quickly, your heart could fail.
Sam: Where do you learn that?
Laura: Some of us were actually paying attention in health class.

Prof. Hall: The basic rule of storms is they continue until the imbalance that created them is corrected.
In this case, we're talking about a global realignment.
This superstorm will last 7 to 10 days.
When it's over, ice and snow will cover the entire northern hemisphere.
The ice and snow will reflect sunlight. 
The earth's atmosphere will restabilize with an average temperature close to that of the last Ice Age.
General: What can we do about this?
Prof. Hall: Head as far south as possible.
Vice President: That is not amusing, professor.
Secretary: Where do you suggest they go?
Prof. Hall: The farther south they go, the safer they'll be.
Texas. Parts of Florida that aren't flooded. Mexico would be best.
Vice President: Mexico? Maybe you should stick to science and leave policy to us.
Tom: We tried that approach.
You didn't want to hear about the science when it could have made a difference.
President: What exactly are you proposing, professor?
Prof. Hall: Evacuate everyone south of that line. [draw the line on the map]
President: What about the people in the north?
Prof. Hall: I'm afraid it's too late for them.
If they go outside, the storm will kill them.
At this point, their best chance is to stay inside, try to ride it out, pray.

Vice President: We can't evacuate half the country because one scientist thinks the climate is shifting.
Secretary: Every minute we delay costs lives.
Vice President: What about the other half of the country?
Secretary: If Professor Hall is right about this storm patterns, 
sending troops north will create more victims.
We need to save the people we can right now.
General: We take the same approach in triage on the battlefield.
Sometimes it's necessary to make difficult choices.
Vice President: I don't accept abandoning half the country as necessary.
Tom: Maybe if you listened to him sooner, it wouldn't be.
Vice President: Bullshit! It's easy for him to suggest this plan, he's safely here in Washington.
Tom: His son is in Manhattan.
I thought you should know that before you start questioning his motives.

Tina: What have you got there?
Bernie: A Gutenberg Bible. It was in the rare books room.
Tina: You think God's gonna save you?
Bernie: No, I don't believe in God.
Tina: You're holding onto that Bible pretty tight.
Bernie: I'm protecting it.
This Bible is the first book ever printed. It represents the dawn of the age of reason.
As far as I'm concerned, the written word is mankind's greatest achievement.
[Tina smirks]
You can laugh.
But if western civilization is finished, I'm gonna save at least one little piece of it.

Jason: What do you think's gonna happen to us?
Prof. Hall: What do you mean?
Jason: I mean us, civilization, everybody.
Prof. Hall: Mankind survived the last Ice Age.
We're certainly capable of surviving this one.
All depends on whether or not we're able to learn from our mistakes.

These past few weeks have left us all with a profound sense of humility in the face of nature's destructive power.
For years, we operated under the belief that we could continue consuming our planet's natural resources without consequence.
We were wrong. I was wrong.
The fact that my first address to you comes from a consulate on foreign soil is a testament to our changed reality.
Not only Americans, but people all around the globe are now guests in the nations we once called The Third World.
In our time of need, they have taken us in and sheltered us.
And I am deeply grateful for their hospitality.
~President


*****

NATIONAL TREASURE [2004]

In Order To Break The Code, 

One Man Will Have To Break All The Rules

 Grandpa: It was 1832, on a night much like this.
Charles Carroll was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.
He was also a member of a secret society known as The Masons, and he knew he was dying.
He woke up his stable boy in the middle of the night
and ordered him to take him to The White House to see Andrew Jackson,
because it was urgent that he speak to the president.
Ben: Did he talk to him?
Grandpa: No. He never got the chance.
The president wasn't there that night.
But Charles Carroll had a secret.
So he took into his confidence the one person he could, my grandfather's grandfather, Thomas Gates.
Ben: What was the secret?
Grandpa: A treasure. A treasure beyond all imagining.
A treasure that had been fought over for centuries by tyrants, pharaohs. emperors, warlords.
And every time it changed hands it grew larger.
And then suddenly, it vanished.
It didn't reappear for more than a thousand years, 
when knights from the First Crusade discovered secret vaults beneath The Temple of Solomon.
You see, the knights who found the vaults believed that the treasure was too great for any one man, not even a king.
They brought the treasure back to Europe and took the name "The Knights Templar".
Over the next century they smuggled it out of Europe
and they formed a new brotherhood called The Freemasons, 
in honor of the builders of the great temple.
War followed.
By the time of The American Revolution, the treasure had been hidden again.
By then, The Mason included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere.
They knew they had to make sure the treasure would never fall into the hands of the British.
So they devised a series of clue and maps to its location.
Over time, the clues were lost or forgotten, until only one remained,
and that was the secret that Charles Carroll entrusted to young Thomas Gates.
"The Secret Lies With Charlotte".
Ben: Who's Charlotte?
Grandpa: Oh, not even Mr. Carroll knew that.
Now look here, Ben.
The Freemasons among our Founding Fathers left us clues.
Like these [showing him a one dollar bill]
The unfinished pyramid, the all-seeing eye, symbols of The Knights Templar, guardians of the treasure.
They're speaking to us through these.
Dad: You mean laughing at us.
You know what that dollar represents? The entire Gates family fortune.
6 generations of fools, chasing after fool's gold.
Grandpa: It's not about the money, Patrick. It's never been about the money.

Ben, the treasure of The Knights Templar is the treasure of all treasures.
I understand your bitterness, I really do.
You've spent your entire life searching for this treasure,
only to have the respected historical community treat you and your family
with mockery and contempt.
You should be able to rub this treasure in their arrogant faces,
and I want you to have the chance to do that.
~Ian Howe

 Riley: Anyone that can do anything is gonna think we're crazy.
Anyone crazy enough to believe us isn't gonna want to help.
Ben: We don't need someone crazy. But one step short of crazy, what do you get?
Riley: Obsessed.
Ben: Passionate.

Ben: Someone's gonna steal The Declaration Of Independence.
Riley: It's true.
Abigail: I think I'd better put you gentlemen in touch with the FBI.
Ben: We've been to the FBI.
Abigail: And?
Riley: They assured us that the Declaration cannot possibly be stolen.
Abigail: They're right.
Ben: My friend and I are less certain.
However, if we were given the privilege of examining the document, we would be able to tell you for sertain if it were actually in any danger.
Abigail: What do you think you're gonna find?
Ben: We believe that there's an... encryption on the back.
Abigail: An encryption, like a code?
Ben: Yes, ma'am.
Abigail: Of what?
Ben: A... cartograph.
Abigail: A map.
Ben: Yes, ma'am.
Abigail: A map of what?
Ben: The location of... of hidden items of historic and intrinsic value.
Abigail: A treasure map?
Riley: That's where we lost the FBI.
Abigail: You're treasure hunters, aren't you?
Ben: We're more like treasure-protectors.
Abigail: Mr. Brown, I have personally seen the back of The Declaration Of Independence,
and I promise you, the only thing there is a notation that reads,
"Original Declaration of Independence, dated..."
Ben: "Four of July, 1776." Yes, ma'am.
Abigail: But no map.
Ben: It's invisible.
Riley: And that's where we lost The Department of Homeland Security.
Abigail: What led you to assume there's this invisible map?
Ben: We found an engraving on the stem of a 200-year-old pipe.
Riley: Owned by Freemasons.
Abigail: May I see the pipe?
Riley: We don't have it.
Abigail: Did Big Foot take it?

 

Ben: Ian's gonna try and steal it. And if he succeeds, he'll destroy the Declaration.The fact is, the only way to protect the Declaration is to steal it.
It's upside down.
I don't think there's a choice.
Riley: Ben, for God's sakes, it's like stealing a national monument, okay?
It's like stealing him. [point at Lincoln statue]
It can't be done. Not shouldn't be done. It can't be done.

Ben: You know, Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2,000 times
to develop the carbonized cotton-thread filament for the incandescent light bulb.
Riley: Edison?
Ben: When asked about it, he said, 
"I didn't fail, I found out 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb.
I only need to find one way to make it work"

Dad: He dragged you 2 into this nonsense?
Abigail: Literally.
Riley: I volunteered.
Dad: Well, unvolunteer, before you waste your life.
Ben: Knock it off, Dad.
Dad: Sure, sure, I know, I'm the family kook.
I have a job, a house, health insurance.
At least I had your mother, for however brief a time. At least I had you.
What do you have? Him? [point to Riley]

Ben: I found Charlotte.
Dad: The Charlotte? You mean she was a ship?
Ben: Yes, she was beautiful. It was amazing, Dad.
Dad: And the treasure?
Ben: No, no, we found another clue that led us here.
Dad: Yeah, and that'll lead you to another clue.
And that's all you'll ever find, is another clue. Don't you get it, Ben? I finally figured it out.
The legend says that the treasure was buried to keep it from the British.
But what really happened was the legend was invented, 
to keep the British occupied searching for buried treasure.
The treasure is a myth.
Ben: I refuse to believe that.

Dad: You stole it?!
Ben: Dad, I can explain, but I don't have time. It was necessary, and you saw the cipher.
Dad: And that will lead to another clue, and that will lead to another clue!
There is no treasure.
I wasted 20 years of my life. And now you've destroyed yours.

Abigail: What do you see?
Riley: What is it? Is it a treasure map?
Ben: It says. "Heere at the wall", spelled with 2 E's
Riley: Why can't they just say, "Go to this place, and here's the treasure, spend it wisely"?

Sadusky: Here's your option.
Door number one, you go to prison for a very long time.
Door number 2, we are going to get back The Declaration Of Independence, 
you help us find it, and you still go to prison for a very long time, but you feel better inside.
Ben: Is there a door that doesn't lead to prison?
Sadusky: Someone's got to go to prison, Ben.

Riley: Looks like someone got here first.
Abigail: I'm sorry, Ben.
Ben: It's gone. It may have even been gone before Charles Carroll told the story to Thomas Gates.
Dad: It doesn't matter.
Ben: I know, coz you were right.
Dad: No, I wasn't right.
This room is real, Ben. And that means the treasure is real.
We're in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history,
because you found what they left behind for us to find and understood the meaning of it.
You did it, Ben. For all of us.
Your grandfather, and all of us.
And I've never been so happy to be proven wrong.
Ben: I just really thought I was going to find the treasure.

Sadusky: I take it you found the treasure?
Ben: It's about 5 stories beneath your shoes.
Sadusky: You know, The Templars and The Freemasons believed, 
that the treasure was too great for any one man to have, not even a king.
That's why they went to such lengths to keep it hidden.
Ben: That's right.
The Founding Fathers believed the same thing about government.
I figure their solution will work for the treasure too.
Sadusky: Give it to the people.
Ben: Divide it amongst Smithsonian, The Louvre, The Cairo Museum...
There's thousands of years of world history down there.
And it belongs to the world, and everybody in it.
Sadusky: You really don't understand the concept of a bargaining chip.
Ben: Okay, here's what I want.
Dr. Chase gets off completely clean, not even a little Post-It on her service record.
I want the credit for the find to go to the entire Gates family, 
with the assistance of Mr. Riley Poole.
Sadusky: And what about you?
Ben: I'd really love not to go prison.
I can't even begin to describe how much I would love not to go to prison.
Sadusky: Someone's got to go to prison, Ben.

*****

POLAR EXPRESS [2004]

This Holiday Season... Believe


 On Christmas eve, many years ago, I lay quietly in my bed.
I did not rustle the sheets.
I breathed slowly and silently.
I was listening for a sound I was afraid I'd never hear.
The ringing bells of Santa's sleigh.
~Hero Boy

Conductor: Well, you coming?
Hero Boy: Where?
Conductor: Why, to the North Pole, of course.
This is the Polar Express.
Hero Boy: The North Pole?
Conductor: I see.
Is this you? [show the boy the clipboard]
Hero Boy: Yeah.
Conductor: Well, it says here,
no photo with a department-store Santa this year, no letter to Santa.
And you made your sister put out the milk and cookies.
Sounds to me like this is your crucial year.
If I were you, I would think about climbing on board.

Christmas may not be important to some people, but it is very important to the rest of us!
~Conductor

Hero Boy: I want to believe. But...
Smokey: But, you don't wanna be bamboozled.
You don't wanna be led down the primrose path.
You don't wanna be conned or duped, have the wool pulled over your eyes.
Hoodwinked.
You don't wanna be taken for a ride, railroaded.
Seeing is believing, am I right?
Hero Boy: But what about this train?
Smokey: What about it?
Hero Boy: We're all really going to the North Pole, aren't we?
Smokey: Aren't we?
Hero Boy: Are you saying that this is all just a dream?
Smokey: You said it, kid, not me.

 

There's no greater gift than friendship.~Santa

This bell is a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas as am I.
Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart.
~Santa

Conductor: That is some special ticket.
Lonely Boy: Sure is.
 Conductor: So, can you count on us to get you home safe and sound?
Lonely Boy: Absolutely.
Me... and my friends.

One thing about trains,
it doesn't matter where they're going, what matters is deciding to get on.
~Conductor

At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell.
But as years passed, it fell silent for all of them.
Even Sarah found, one Christmas, that she could no longer hear its sweet sound.
Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me.
As it does for all who truly believe.
~Hero Boy

*****