2012

In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley travels to India to meet his friend Dr. Satnam Tsurutani, who has discovered that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are acting as microwaves and causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Adrian informs White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser and US President Thomas Wilson that this will instigate a chain of events that will bring about the end of the world. At the G8 summit in 2010, other heads of state and heads of government are made aware of the situation. They collaborate to begin a secret project intended to ensure the continuity of human life, strategically choosing 400,000 people for admission on a series of gigantic ships to be constructed in the Himalayas. To help fund the venture, additional individuals are allowed to purchase tickets for one billion euros apiece. In 2012, Jackson Curtis is a writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for wealthy Russian businessman Yuri Karpov. Jackson's ex-wife Kate and their children Noah and Lily live with her new boyfriend, plastic surgeon and amateur pilot Gordon Silberman. Jackson takes Noah and Lily on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park, where they meet Charlie Frost, a conspiracy theorist living as a hermit and hosting his own radio show live from the park. Charlie supports a theory that suggests the Mayans predicted the world would come to an end in 2012, and claims he has knowledge of the secret "space ship" project and possesses a map of the ships' location. The family returns home as cracks begin to develop along the San Andreas Fault in California and earthquakes occur in the San Francisco Bay area. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a private plane to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon when the Earth's crust displacement begins and they escape Los Angeles as it collapses into the Pacific Ocean. As millions begin dying in apocalyptic earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve Charlie's map. The group narrowly escapes as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie, who stayed behind to make a live broadcast of the eruption, is killed by the blast. Realizing the ships are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas (destroyed by a chasm that cuts through the Strip, and an ash cloud from the Yellowstone eruption), where they meet Yuri, his twin sons, girlfriend Tamara, and pilot Sasha. They join the group and secure an Antonov An-225 to head across the Pacific where they pass Hawaii already obliterated by volcanic eruptions. Also bound for the ships aboard Air Force One are Anheuser, Adrian, and First Daughter Laura Wilson. President Wilson chooses to remain in Washington D.C.(already hit by massive earthquakes, one that destroys the Washington Monument) and is soon killed by a giant tsunami that sends the USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House. With the Vice President dead, his helicopter having gone down near Pittsburgh, and the Speaker of the House missing, Anheuser appoints himself acting US President. Upon arriving in China in a crash-landing that kills Sasha, Yuri and his two sons are taken to the ships, stranding the Curtis family, Gordon, and Tamara, all of whom do not possess tickets. Jackson and the group witness helicopters carrying multiple animals to the ships' location which Jackson later reconciles as "arks". After leaving the crash site, the abandoned group is picked up by Nima, a Buddhist monk. Together, they begin sneaking onto an ark through its hydraulics chamber with the help of Nima's brother Tenzin, a welder for the ark project. In his last moments, Satnam calls Adrian to inform him that a previously uncharted tsunami is engulfing India from the East and heading towards the arks. Learning of this, Anheuser orders the arks be sealed, trapping thousands outside. Adrian manages to convince the other G8 leaders to let the remaining people on board. As the ark's tailgate is lowered and then raised, Yuri falls to his death getting his two sons on in time, and both Gordon and a large electrical power drill fall in between the gears. Gordon is killed, and the lodged drill prevents the gate from closing, rendering the ship unable to start its engines. The tsunami arrives and begins to flood the ark, drowning Tamara and setting the ark helplessly adrift. Jackson and Noah work together to free the drill and its cable from the closing mechanism. The gate closes and the crew regains control of the ark, preventing a fatal collision with Mount Everest. When the floodwater from the worldwide tsunamis eventually recedes, satellite data shows that Africa rose in relation to sea level, and the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu Natal are now the highest on the planet. As three arks set sail for the Cape of Good Hope, Jackson reconciles with his family, and Adrian starts a relationship with Laura. The movie ends with a view of the Earth revealing a geographically different African continent.