What would you do if the world was about to end? Would you be the selfless hero? Or would you crumble and become the selfish survivor?

2012, another “end-of-the-world” movie from the producers of The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, questions humanity in the face of adversity.

With jaw-dropping movie effects, car rides through a crumbling California, plane flights through crashing skyscrapers, an exploding Yellowstone Park… this movie is one big adventure.

As with any “end-of-the-world” movie, 2012 tells the story of Earth in its final days. Due to a solar explosion, the Earth starts heating up like a microwave, causing the Earth’s crust to crumble into pieces, and killing millions of people along the way.

Though scientists discover the devastating effects of the solar explosion and come up with an evacuation plan for the human race, the world starts crumbling a little earlier than they projected. Land literally disappears as the world falls to pieces in a “great flood”.

The world’s political leaders and top scientists are given a seat (together with animals, two by two — sound familiar yet?) on each of the “arks” — ships built by the Chinese government to sustain humanity when the great flood hits.

In a materialistic twist to this retelling of the Biblical tale of Noah’s Ark, one final ark is built and seats upon it offered to the richest of the rich in the world. If you can’t afford a place on the ark — it’s priced at 1 billion euros per person — well, you die.

It makes you wonder, if the Earth really does end the same way (of course, we know it won’t), would the last beings of the human race be the enormously rich and enormously important people of the world (all of whom are mostly old)? Would there be no succession plan for the human race?

2012 presents an interesting assumption on how the world will end, its plot, centered on the author Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and their two children (and his ex-wife’s new husband who is conveniently killed off). 2012 does call for suspension of disbelief — how many times can you cheat death? — but still, it gives hope that even in the worst disaster, you might be the hero who lives through it all.

Stunning effects, this movie puts you at the edge of your seats — or could it be the fact that you have to go to the bathroom after two-and-a-half hours of explosions and tsunamis?

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