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2012 | 2009 | PG-13 | - 3.7.5

Disaster movie postulating that an ancient Mayan prediction about the world coming to an end in 2012, will come true even earlier. As humanity struggles to survive the global cataclysm, a single dad (John Cusack) finds himself in a unique situation, which might allow him to save his family. Also with Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson. Directed by Roland Emmerich. [2:38]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man and a woman embrace and kiss passionately. A man is embraced by a woman and she kisses him passionately. A man embraces a woman and kisses her.
 A man embraces a woman from behind, whispers in her ear that he wants to "make a baby" with her, the woman giggles and says no, and the man responds that women pay him "thousands of dollars just to touch them" (referring to his being a plastic surgeon). A man walks up behind a woman and places his hands around the woman's torso, pulling her close to him.
 In a party setting, women are seen wearing shoulder-exposing dresses and form-fitting, cleavage exposing dresses. A woman wears a short, form-fitting dress, which exposes her entire back. Two men are seen bare-chested while boxing. Two women are seen wearing bikini-style tops and short shorts as they model. A woman holds a bustier over her clothed chest, modeling it for a small dog. A small portion of a woman's stomach is visible when she is seen wearing a mid-drift exposing shirt. We see a small portion of a man's bare upper buttocks when he bends over and his pants sag slightly.
 A man looks a woman up and down and smiles without the woman noticing. An older man tips his hat to a small group of older women, winks at one of them, after looking her up and down, and the women giggle and wave at him. A woman looks at another woman's chest, then to her own, and remarks that the other woman had her chest surgically augmented.
 In a party-like setting, a few couples are seen slow-dancing. A man and a woman are seen lying in bed together, fully clothed (the woman is wearing a form-fitting tank top) and not touching.
 A man jokes to another man that he saw him make eyes at a woman and that he should act on his desires. A woman tells a man that she had been unfaithful to her boyfriend, that she did it because he was "less of a man," and that he had insisted that she get breast implants, which she did not want or like. A man tells a boy and a girl that he is going to take them to "the spot" where he and a woman used to go; the boy remarks that he does not want to know where the woman and the man had sex. A man jokes that he had gone through high school without a girlfriend. A man tells a woman that he had attempted to take a boy and girl to "their spot" but was unable to find it. A man comments to another man that the man's wife gets "more and more beautiful."

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man slips and his leg is ground away in heavy gears, leaving behind a bloodied stump: the man screams, and a woman and a child apply pressure to the bloodied leg using their hands, which become covered in blood. A man panics as a mechanical gate lowers, threatening to crush him; another man loses his footing and is crushed in the gears that lower the gate (no blood is seen). A man walks over the dead, blood-covered, body of a man.
 A man screams as he falls to his death, after throwing his two sons to safety: the two boys watch as their father tumbles down a mountainside, and scream for him.
 A massive earthquake shakes the ground, a man and countless other people fall to the ground, a monument cracks and collapses, killing the people under it, we see many people who appear to be dead, and a man watches as a massive wave, carrying a huge battleship, crashes onto land, destroying everything in its path. A massive eruption and explosion knocks a man to the ground, flattens trees and a fireball roars towards him, presumably killing him. A massive structure falls to the ground, collapsing on top of thousands of people and causing a massive hole in the earth. A man, with cuts on his bloodied face, sees a tidal wave racing towards him and a huge group of people crowding past him and the wave crushes him and others. A massive vessel shifts, we see the passengers begin to slide, it turns on its side, capsizes and a wave envelops it. Massive waves crash through a mountainside as a man watches from inside a building that is also completely destroyed. Masses of people push forward, knocking multiple people from a platform and tumbling down a mountainside to their death.
 We see and hear a massive explosion, as a room where several people are standing shakes violently, throwing them against the walls and to the floor; the screen then goes black. A car, with two men in it, swerves to avoid an on-coming car, flips over and ignites -- we hear that the two passengers were killed, that there had been another fatal car accident at that spot and we see the crushed car resting on its roof.
 A huge earthquake rips through the store where a man and a woman are standing, a massive fissure develops, tearing through the store and almost sucking the man into it (we see a massive crack stretching a city block and hear that there were no injuries).
 A man drives an RV recklessly with a girl in the passenger seat (neither are wearing seat belts), an explosion rocks the area behind them sending chunks of molten lava through the air, there are more explosions, a giant cloud of black smoke which billows toward the RV, the ground shakes, the RV narrowly stays away from a growing fissure, a large chunk of debris hits the RV ripping off part of the back, the girl panics and screams, the passengers get out, the fissure expands and the RV is swallowed by the earth.
 A man pushes his way past a guard, bringing several others with him toward an airplane that is partially submerged in a giant fissure; the pilot struggles to get the plane airborne, he narrowly avoids hitting two large buildings and nicks the bottom of the plane against another large structure. Several people are seen in an airplane, it is barely able to pull off the ground, the ground collapses into a giant fissure, and fiery explosions are seen swallowing buildings, cars, freeways and people.
 A car filled with people rolls out of the back hatch of an airplane, it is steered to safety, the plane crash lands, other cars in the plane fall out and almost hit the car that's already out, and the plane careens over the edge of a massive valley and blows up, killing the pilot.
 An airplane flies close to a crumbling building and narrowly avoids a light rail train that has come off its tracks and is flying through the air, and it narrowly escapes two falling buildings (we see people falling from the open windows and hanging out off the building).
 A massive earthquake causes streets to buckle and fall away, highways and buildings collapse and crumble, people are seen hanging from buildings and falling from the collapsing freeways and crumbling office buildings, and a car crashes through a falling building and through to the other side, narrowly avoiding hitting two people.
 An earthquake shakes a house, three people inside hide under a kitchen table, objects crash around them, another man runs into the room and shouts that they need to follow him if they are going to survive, portions of the ceiling crash behind them, narrowly avoiding on of them, and they watch as the house collapses. A man runs toward an airplane in mid takeoff, he's pulled onboard by a woman, they look down and see the entire area collapse into a fiery pit with thick, black smoke billowing.
 A report is heard that over two million people are dead while video footage shows people rioting in the streets; we hear that people are fighting over supplies after most of South America has been destroyed and we see the Christ the Redeemer statue crumbling to the ground. We see riots in the streets, crowds being controlled by armed military, a man slams a pole into the back window of a car, it shatters and he is tackled. Armed military personnel surround a man, a boy and a girl and order them to get into a vehicle. People are shown being loaded into military vehicles and driven away, while others must be restrained by armed military personnel.
 Two men are shown during a boxing match: one man hits the other in the face, knocking him to the ground. A man shouts at another man to stand back, the man shouts back, and then punches the man in the face, knocking him to the ground and causing mass pandemonium as people pour past the fallen man and onto a large platform, shouting and screaming.
 A pilot announces that he needs to stop to refuel, and the passengers see that the small island where were supposed to refuel is now an erupting volcano, with fire and magma pouring over the surface, collapsing buildings and burning the ground cover. In an airplane lights begin to flash, the pilot announces that they have only 15 minutes before they must land; a boy shouts that they are all going to die and the pilot begins to crash-land. We see water pour through an airport, crushing the buildings and sweeping up airplanes.
 People on board an ark-like ship shout and scream in panic when they are told that they are about to hit a large mountain, after striking the side of another vessel. A helicopter swoops down, military personnel pour out, they demand to know the identification of people on the ground, and they draw their guns, and escort two boys and a man aboard the helicopter.
 A woman presumably drowns after she is caught in a locked-off room and water rapidly fills the room (while her death is not seen, it is implied). A woman panics and pushes a young girl into another room as the room she is standing in fills with water (the two are reunited later).
 A man throws a car into reverse, knocking another car into a large fissure; he cuts the wheel, one of the rear doors flies off and he speeds away while the ground collapses behind them. A car speeds down a street, swerving around a slow moving vehicle and through a yard. A car crashes into a large boulder that erupts through the street. A gasoline tanker slides into a gas station, causing a massive fireball. A man driving a cab with another man in the backseat nearly hits a young boy playing by the roadside and sprays him with muddy water. A man recklessly drives through a crowded city street. A woman is almost crushed as she enters a vessel at the last moment and the door seals itself off.
 People take a vote to determine if they want to allow additional people to live by boarding a boat. A news report shows a mass suicide: we see the lifeless bodies of over 50 people lying on the ground and the reporter explains that they killed themselves in anticipation of the "solar climax" which will result in the end of the world.
 Three people walk onto a steaming, muddy hole that presumably was once a lake, they see the decaying corpse of an elk with flies swarming around it. A woman holds a hatchet to the neck of a chicken, raises it, pauses, and we hear the crunch of bone and tissue (nothing is shown). Many people are seen covered in thick ash, coughing and struggling to walk. Countless people are seen on gurneys.
 An announcement on TV (seen in NY's Time's Square, as well as at a packed airport) states that a catastrophe has struck and that people are certainly headed for destruction; people panic, they are calmed by a prayer, the broadcast abruptly ends and people panic.
 A man announces to a small group of people that a massive wave is going to hit them earlier than they thought, and that the end is near. A man makes an announcement to a group of people that the world is going to end in only a few days and that the evacuation of the planet should start. A man tells another man that the Earth's crust is disintegrating rapidly, and that soon the world as we know it will be over. A man tells a small group of people that he expects tsunamis to destroy the entire world, eliminating all life as we know it. A man announces to a small group of people that he has been informed that the world is going to end soon. A man announces that a massive ash cloud (the result of a volcanic explosion) will arrive in less than six hours. A man tells another man that he must take responsibility for announcing the impending global disaster if he wants to save lives. A man tells another man that people have the right to know if they are going to die. A woman tells a man that people have a right to know that the world is going to end. Two men discuss that certain anarchy will prevail if people are alerted that the end of the world is coming, and therefore they cannot let anyone know. Two men discuss solar eruptions, and that they are causing a physical reactions to the Earth's core, which will result in a massive global disaster.
 A man and a woman argue, the man shakes the woman's arms, pushes himself away from her, and she shouts and cries. A man shouts, and throws his cell phone to the floor shattering it as he stomps out of the room. A man shouts at another man, telling him to shut up. A man shouts at a man to hand over his jacket. Two men get in a heated altercation. A man raises his voice at another man in front of a group of people.
 A woman says, "A man has been killed." A man announces that an earthquake had destroyed an entire city. A man reprimands another man for not talking to his son simply because he had married a Japanese woman. A man shouts that there is going to be pandemonium, riots and genocide as the end of the world comes and that the government has ordered the death of any person who would interfere with keeping the information a secret. A man pleads that another man go on a "suicide mission" to free jammed gears that are holding a door open and allowing water to rush into a ship. A man tells another man during a phone conversation that he would probably be shot if people knew what he was telling him. A man tells another man, "If someone wants you dead, you will have to kill me first." A woman tells a man that she did not receive her first kill until she was in college. A radio announcer talks about where he'll be "when it all blows." We see a man holding a sign that says, "REPENT, THE END IS NEAR." A man broadcasts that he hopes that people have made their peace, since the world is coming to an end. A man jokes with a boy that mosquitoes are biting the boy because he has "sweet blood." A boy tells a man that they have tickets, which will allow them to live, while he will die. A man frankly discusses his wife's death with another man. A man offers a woman condolences for the death of her father. A woman discusses with a man that fanatics might blow up great pieces of art. A woman asks a man if the people left behind are going to die, and the man says that they are left to their own devices now. A man tells another man that they "must save what they can." A boy makes a snide remark to a man, who acts hurt and then announces that the boy had hurt his feelings.
 A cruise ship lurches and pushes against the side of a dock, causing people boarding to fall down (everyone seems to be fine). People stand around a long, narrow fissure in the pavement, children playfully jump across it and we hear a radio announcer stating that the earthquake had been "minor" and it's nothing to worry about. Three men in an old elevator screech to a halt at the bottom of a mine by using a handbrake to stop (sparks fly). A man throws a rock at a truck and misses.
 The ground begins to shake, car alarms blare, a man wakes up with a start and shouts aloud, "I'm a dead man!" multiple times. A man jumps from behind a bush and startles another man, a boy and a girl.
 Computer images show massive eruptions on the sun's surface and we hear a man saying that the explosions are larger than they have ever been, which will result in the shifting of the earth's surface. We see massive, man-made, explosions in a mountain range, causing rocks to tumble to the ground. We see the panicked face of a giraffe as water begins to pour into its cage.
 A man watches an animation depicting the world exploding, as well as a sun smoking what appears to be a marijuana joint and shooting large missile-like devices at the earth.
 A man and a woman discuss a young girl's need to wear nighttime diapers. A man comments that his wife's cooking "stinks." A man comments to another man that he will probably wish he had taken a shower since they are going to meet a very important person.

LANGUAGE 5 - 1 F-word, 1 obscene hand gesture, 6 scatological terms, 3 anatomical term, 14 mild obscenities, name-calling (fanatics, old fool, stupid, idiot, crazy, nut-job, cheap), two different instances have male adults pantomiming curse words, 7 religious profanities, 13 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man watches an animation depicting a sun smoking what appears to be a marijuana cigarette.
 People hold drinks in their hands in a party setting, a man quickly drinks an alcoholic drink, a man offers another man a drink and they both open cans of beer and drink, a man drinks from a beer can, a man takes a beer can from another man and drinks it, a server carries an alcoholic drink on a tray, people are seen drinking alcohol in a bar, a man hands another man a drink, a man orders a drink from a server who hesitates to serve him when he hears that the man had been sober for 25 years, a man acts inebriated and with obviously impaired judgment, and a man takes a swig of an alcoholic drink.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Cataclysmic disaster, Mayan predictions, end of the world, volcanic eruptions, failed authors, alcoholism, racism, divorce, political powers, conspiracy, earthquakes, natural disasters, prophecies, G8 Summit, apocalyptic, self sacrifice, political secrets, mass suicide, genocide, Vatican, statue of Christ the Redemption, tectonic plates, Earth's core, Buddhism.

MESSAGE - Some humans won't give up even when the end of the planet is imminent.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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