---
title: "2012"
year: 2009
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/2012"
fi1m_id: "2012"
imdb_id: "tt1190080"
tmdb_id: 14161
wikidata_id: "Q184605"
fi1m_score: 57
critics_score: 55
critics_reviews: 14
published: "2026-10-05T11:19:35.104523+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-05T11:19:35.873747+00:00"
region: "IL"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# 2012 (2009)

Directed by Roland Emmerich · 2h 38m · Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

## Identity

2012

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/2012
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** 2012
- **IMDb ID:** tt1190080
- **TMDB ID:** 14161
- **Wikidata ID:** Q184605
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/14161, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q184605

**Fi1m score: 57** · Critics 55 from 14 reviews

*In a sentence:* Woody Harrelson eats a pickle while Yellowstone explodes, and the other 150 minutes could learn something from him

> Roland Emmerich knocks the planet down with skill for an hour, then spends ninety minutes asking us to care about the people he has knocked it down on. The destruction is as good as he has ever managed; the rest is the usual.

## Synopsis

The title is the date and the tagline is the warning: the world is going to end, and governments have known for some time. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the scientist who works out how little time is left and has to tell Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) and President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover). Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a divorced writer with a weekend to spend with his children, Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily), while his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) stays in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Gordon Silberman (Tom McCarthy). On the road Jackson meets Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), a broadcaster who has been saying for years that the ground is about to give way, and that the rich, Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Burić) among them, have bought their way out.

## Review

Roland Emmerich has ended the world with aliens in [*Independence Day*](https://film.one/film/independence-day) (1996) and with weather in [*The Day After Tomorrow*](https://film.one/film/the-day-after-tomorrow) (2004). In *2012* he does it with the planet itself. We go to Emmerich films to watch cities fall over, and for about an hour *2012* does that as well as it has ever been done. The trouble is that it runs 158 minutes, and once the cities are down it has no clear idea what to do with the people who were standing in them.

The Los Angeles escape is the reason to see it. Jackson Curtis collects his children, his ex-wife and her boyfriend in a limousine as the ground opens, and for ten minutes the car threads between falling office blocks and a street that tips sideways towards the Pacific. Dean Semler shoots it in hard California daylight, with no night and no smoke to hide behind. Then a light aircraft takes off from a runway breaking up beneath it and flies at roof level through a city sliding into the sea. We laughed out loud, and it was admiring laughter. Each disaster arrives half a second after the car has passed, and the timing is so exact that the sequence becomes slapstick with a budget.

Yellowstone is nearly as good, and better acted. Woody Harrelson’s Charlie Frost broadcasts from a camper van, lives on pickles, and greets the eruption of the largest volcano on the continent as the best day of his life. Shay Cunliffe gets him right at a glance, bucket hat and a vest with too many pockets. When the caldera goes, in a wall of black ash that fills the sky behind him, it is the one moment where the spectacle and a human being point the same way. The loudest thing in the film is not Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander’s score, all brass and timpani, but the rumble under that eruption, which we felt in the seat.

Then everyone has to get to China, and the people start to matter, and this is where it goes wrong. Emmerich and Kloser’s script gives Jackson a divorce, two children and a book nobody bought; John Cusack plays him with a tired decency that gets lost in a film this size. Amanda Peet’s Kate exists to look at her ex-husband and slowly reconsider. Tom McCarthy’s Gordon is the most useful person in the car and the script treats him as a joke because he is not the father. Zlatko Burić’s Yuri Karpov is written as a cartoon and Burić gives him a weary grandeur the writing has not earned. We could have told you in the first half hour which of these people the film means to keep.

The Washington half is better written, because Chiwetel Ejiofor and Oliver Platt are in it. Ejiofor’s Adrian Helmsley has to tell powerful men what they do not want to hear, and he plays it straight until the script makes him deliver a sermon. Platt’s Carl Anheuser has done the sums on who can be saved and will not apologise for the answer. He is the only character whose view the film finds inconvenient, and Platt argues it so well that the film has to shout him down. Danny Glover’s President Thomas Wilson is grave and kindly, and Thandiwe Newton, as his daughter Laura, gets an interest in Ejiofor and not much else.

David Brenner and Peter S. Elliot cut between Los Angeles, Yellowstone, Washington and the arks, and for the first hour the cross-cutting builds pressure. After that it becomes a timetable. Barry Chusid’s arks are vast grey hulls in a hangar cut into a mountain, smooth and with nothing in them to break, so the last forty minutes have none of the detail of the Los Angeles streets. Somewhere in the second hour we stopped counting cities and started counting minutes. By then we had seen the planet crack three times, and the fourth did not frighten us, and the script’s answer was to have people make speeches about humanity. We were bored, and the speeches made us cross.

*Independence Day* was just as silly and got away with it because it had a joke for every explosion. *2012* has the explosions. See it for the first hour, and at home, where you can stop it once Yellowstone has finished going off and tell yourself the rest was a sequel. It carries a 12A and runs 158 minutes, of which about sixty are the ones you want.

*Fi1m score 57, published 5 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews split almost evenly, and the one thing nearly every critic agrees on is where the money went. The digital destruction is praised by those who enjoyed the film and by those who did not: the Los Angeles escape sequence is singled out, and even the harsher notices concede the effects are expensive and often spectacular. The warmer reviews take the film as a knowingly ridiculous disaster picture, dumb but exhilarating, and judge it a success on those terms.

The spread is wide, from near-raves to dismissals. Reservations cluster on the script, the running time and the thin human story, and several critics find the destruction grows monotonous before the end. The sharpest dissents come from Slant Magazine and NME, who find it tedious or unintentionally funny rather than entertaining, while The AV Club thinks even the spectacle looks stale. The Evening Standard alone finds it thoughtful, crediting a political satire nobody else mentions.

## Straight answers

**Is 2012 worth watching?**

*2012* is worth watching for the first hour, in which Roland Emmerich knocks over Los Angeles and Yellowstone as well as he ever has, and we scored it 57. The remaining ninety minutes ask us to care about a divorced writer and his family, and the speeches about humanity left us bored and then cross. Watch it at home and stop once the volcano has finished.

**How long is 2012, and what is it rated?**

*2012* runs 2h 38m. It is an action and adventure film.

**Where can I watch 2012 in Israel?**

*2012* is streaming on Netflix in Israel, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV from ₪16.90. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is 2012, and is it suitable for children?**

*2012* carries a UK 12A certificate, and its violence is cities falling over rather than people being hurt on screen in close detail. The scale of the destruction, the rumble under the Yellowstone eruption and the sight of whole streets tipping into the sea could frighten younger children, but there is little gore. Teenagers who enjoy watching the world end should manage it comfortably.

**How does 2012 compare to Independence Day?**

*2012* has bigger and better destruction than [*Independence Day*](https://film.one/film/independence-day), but the earlier film is the better evening because it has a joke for every explosion and a cast that makes saving the world cheerful. *2012* has the explosions and then ninety minutes of family drama and sermons. If you want spectacle alone, *2012* for an hour; if you want to enjoy the whole film, *Independence Day*.

**What should I watch after 2012?**

After *2012*, try [*Independence Day*](https://film.one/film/independence-day) (1996, Fi1m 75): Emmerich’s earlier apocalypse, with the jokes this one forgot to pack. Then [*The Towering Inferno*](https://film.one/film/the-towering-inferno) (1974, Fi1m 68): One building, one night, and a cast that takes the fire seriously; and [*Shin Godzilla*](https://film.one/film/shin-godzilla) (2016, Fi1m 74): Tokyo is flattened and then the real drama begins: the committee meetings.

### Reviews we read (14)

- **Evening Standard** (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film thrilling, ridiculous and unexpectedly thoughtful. They single out its spectacular effects and political satire, while praising the cast’s humanity. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/could-2012-be-the-greatest-disaster-movie-ever-7417450.html)
- **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (4/5): Huddleston acknowledges the film is infantile but presents it as a near-perfect disaster movie. The available text offers no further detail on what the review singles out for praise. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/2012-1)
- **The Guardian**, Xan Brooks (70/100, inferred): Brooks finds the film dumb and over-the-top but exhilarating, and expects it to be a hit. He praises its relentless, gut-wrenching action set-pieces, while faulting its lack of nuance and schmaltzy moments. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/31/2012-film-review)
- **Screen Daily**, Mike Goodridge (64/100, inferred): The review text is behind a paywall, so its verdict cannot be determined. No praise or complaint from the critic is visible. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/2012/5007581.article)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (2.5/4): Ebert finds the film entertaining as a disaster spectacle, though its human story is weak. He singles out the elaborate visual effects as its chief strength. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/2012-2009)
- **Empire**, Kim Newman (60/100, inferred): Newman calls the film fundamentally terrible but almost irresistibly entertaining, with its horrors growing monotonous in the middle. He praises its spectacular, value-for-money destruction and finds the overblown disaster spectacle hard to resist. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/twenty-twelve-review/)
- **Radio Times**, Jamie Russell (3/5): Russell finds Emmerich firmly in his comfort zone. He praises the expensive, dramatic and genuinely awesome CGI destruction. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-i73yhb/2012/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Stephen Farber (60/100, inferred): Farber finds the film entertaining despite its excessive running time, but says its cheesy script fails to match its grand production. He praises the spectacular effects and set pieces while criticizing the predictable character fates and unclear climax. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/2012-review-movie-93745/)
- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (D): Phipps finds the film’s destruction-heavy spectacle stale and its story overstuffed with aimless subplots. He singles out the soundtrack’s rumbling low end as more impactful than the visuals. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/2012-1798207449)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (30/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film visually spectacular but ultimately silly and without a meaningful point of view. He singles out the cutting-edge visual effects for praise, while criticizing the overlong, confusing final act. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/reviews/2012-1200477500/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Simon Abrams (15/100, inferred): The critic finds the film soulless and tedious rather than entertaining disaster spectacle. He especially faults its hollow moralizing and implausible, poorly grounded science. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/two-thousand-and-twelve/)
- **Den of Geek**, Rupert de (4/5): The critic finds 2012 an enjoyable, over-the-top spectacle despite its plot holes and diminishing returns. He singles out the spectacular visual effects and the frantic Los Angeles escape sequence for praise. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/2012-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Stephen Carty (30/100, inferred): Carty finds the film overlong, repetitive and weighed down by weak writing and clichés. He praises the impressive special effects, while noting that the destruction quickly loses its impact. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/2012-film-review-by-stephen-carty)
- **NME**, Owen Nicholls (15/100, inferred): The critic delivers a sharply negative verdict, treating the film as an unintentionally hilarious failure. They single out its exhausting destruction scenes and implausible attempts at emotional drama. [Read](https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/2012-the-end-of-the-world-has-never-been-so-funny-43217)

## Details

- **Director:** Roland Emmerich
- **Director:** Roland Emmerich
- **Writer:** Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
- **Cinematography:** Dean Semler
- **Editor:** David Brenner, Peter S. Elliot
- **Music:** Harald Kloser, Thomas Wander
- **Production design:** Barry Chusid
- **Costume design:** Shay Cunliffe
- **Producer:** Larry J. Franco, Mark Gordon, Harald Kloser
- **Cast:** John Cusack as Jackson Curtis; Amanda Peet as Kate Curtis; Chiwetel Ejiofor as Adrian Helmsley; Thandiwe Newton as Laura Wilson; Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser; Tom McCarthy as Gordon Silberman; Woody Harrelson as Charlie Frost; Danny Glover as President Thomas Wilson
- **Runtime:** 2h 38m
- **First release (Belgium):** 10 October 2009
- **Genres:** Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
- **Budget:** $200 million
- **Box office:** $791 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce0N3TEcFw0

## Where to watch in Israel

- Netflix: streaming
- Apple TV: rent ₪16.90, hd
- Apple TV: buy ₪29.90, hd

*Checked 2026-10-05.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Independence Day* (1996), Fi1m 75: Emmerich’s earlier apocalypse, with the jokes this one forgot to pack. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/independence-day.md)
- *The Towering Inferno* (1974), Fi1m 68: One building, one night, and a cast that takes the fire seriously. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-towering-inferno.md)
- *Deep Impact* (1998): The quieter end of the world, more interested in goodbyes than collapsing freeways.
- *The Wave* (2015): A Norwegian fjord, a landslide and ten minutes to get uphill; tight and local.
- *Shin Godzilla* (2016), Fi1m 74: Tokyo is flattened and then the real drama begins: the committee meetings. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shin-godzilla.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/2012