A disaster film about a potentially planet-destroying comet impact for “only” $35 million? Compared to other Hollywood productions of the same genre, “Greenland” was made a few years ago for a living. But often it is precisely such (financial) restrictions that bring out a particular level of creativity from those involved. And actually: Unlike the big-budget cucumber “Geostorm,” which also featured action star Gerard Butler, “Greenland” was able to surprise us positively. FILMSTARTS editor Björn Becher was pleased to note in his review that the end-of-the-world spectacle was “enthralling with tension and emotions instead of a storm of effects”.
But then “Greenland” experienced its own catastrophe: Due to the Covid pandemic, the film could only be shown briefly in cinemas in many countries and not at all in the USA (the worldwide revenue of at least 52 million dollars was a small miracle under the circumstances). But everything went well for the actioner: “Greenland” became such a mega hit in streaming that the studio responsible for the sequel even allocated almost three times the budget for the sequel. Director Ric Roman Waugh had an impressive $90 million at his disposal for “Greenland 2” – enough to direct a “typical” Gerard Butler hit this time. Luckily he resisted this temptation.
Rejoice too soon: With the arrival in the supposedly safe bunker, the hellish journey for John Garrity (Gerard Butler) and his family is far from over.
It has now been five years since the comet nicknamed “Clarke” destroyed more than 75 percent of the Earth's surface. But the impact was only the beginning of the catastrophe: electrical storms, huge tsunamis and radioactive radiation still make (longer-term) survival in the open air practically impossible. As a civil engineer, John Garrity (Gerard Butler) was selected by the Department of Homeland Security for one of the limited places in a shelter in Greenland. But even there, it is no longer safe for John, his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) and their teenage son Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) due to constant volcanic earthquakes.
Their plan: There is supposedly a comet crater in the south of France where the air is better, the radiation is lower and something like a “normal” life is supposed to be possible. But because there is no way to check the truth of the rumor, the family sets off on another dangerous, this time even transatlantic trip with a completely uncertain outcome…
Get out of the bunker
“Greenland 2” is showing in cinemas less than a month after the start of the second season of the Amazon series hit “Fallout” – and presents itself as a somewhat more realistic variant of the get-out-of-the-bunker-after-an-apocalyptic-event scenario: Ric Roman Waugh (“Shelter”) and his screenwriters Mitchell LaFortune (“Kandahar”) and Chris Sparling (“Buried”) have advance notice Scientists were consulted to think about what the world might look like five years after such an “extinction event” with massive sea level rise.
While in Liverpool only the higher floors protrude above the water, the 34 kilometer wide English Channel has now been drained. The former water border between Britain and France is now a ghostly desert landscape, with Spanish galleys lying here and there that sank centuries ago. Of course, something like this cannot be achieved without CGI. But instead of simply filming in the studio in front of green screen, the crew went to Iceland, where such post-apocalyptic-looking places can actually be found.
You can see in “Greenland 2” that the post-apocalyptic ash landscapes don't just come from the computer, but were actually taken in locations in Iceland that actually looked like that.
However, Waugh does not stop at such disturbingly beautiful landscapes. In addition, there is a gap in the middle of the English Channel that forces the protagonists to go on a climbing adventure suitable for “Jumanji” (anyone with a fear of heights be warned!). He also brings trench warfare back to Europe after more than 100 years in a short but incredibly intense, hand-made battle sequence. “Greenland 2” avoids overly pathetic heroic posturing – instead, it always shows that any hint of civilization is only minutes away from monstrous chaos.
“Greenland 2” is really nasty and nihilistic at times. Unfortunately, he doesn't only allow shades of gray: As is usual in the post-apocalyptic road movie genre, there are numerous stations, obstacles and encounters on the journey – but you always know at first glance whether someone means good or bad towards you. “Greenland” also took two hours to travel from Atlanta to Greenland, while “Greenland 2” rushes out of the bunker via England to France in just 96 minutes. Some of the encounters that were supposed to have a deep emotional impact don't have the desired effect – and at the very end the events even turn into something unnecessarily cheesy and even unintentionally comical.
Conclusion: A post-apocalyptic road movie in which the massively increased budget was fortunately not used for a mindless storm of effects, but for filming at breathtaking locations in Iceland. However, the short running time of 96 minutes is both a blessing and a curse: the audience has no chance of getting bored in between, but some of the stops on the dangerous and unpredictable journey also seem very rushed.