2012 Movie (2009) Interesting Facts, Mistakes

Updated on November 28, 2023

2012 Movie Story Summary

A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind.

2012 Movie Stars

John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor

2012 Movie Storyline

Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.

2012 Movie Mistakes

The news reports of riots in London is actual footage of the poll tax riots which occurred in 1989.
When already in 2012, we see almost exclusively old analog television sets everywhere: on board Genesis cruise ship, in a Yellowstone convenience store, etc. As we know now, after the 2009 digital transition, old analog sets were very quickly phased out because prices for LCD and LED sets dropped almost 100% within less than 2 years, so by 2012 it is highly unlikely than a state of the art cruise ship had an analog set even in the kitchen. All hotels, ships, restaurants, were retrofitted with flat panels in 2012. During the making of the film, even in 2008-2009, they should have easily predicted that by 2012 all sets would have LCD panels.
The light twin plane's engine sounds like a piston engine, but when shut down, it spins slowly to a stop. A piston engine would stop quickly, much like a car engine.
When the Tibetan village is evacuated in the beginning of the movie, the ridge for the arks is shown. A massive explosion from the ridge is simultaneously seen and heard in the village. Because of the distance, the explosion should be seen first, then heard a few seconds later; light travels faster than sound.
Phones go dead a few times due to the communications network being destroyed. When the line cuts, the phone makes a rapid high pitched beep, typical of a land-line phone left off the hook for a while. Cell phones don't make that sound, they just go silent.
The scientific paper on crustal shifting is said to have been published in 1958, and Albert Einstein agreed with it. Einstein died in 1955.
In the Antonov plane, Jackson scans FM frequencies on the Bentley's radio. FM frequencies are relatively short-range, and can't be heard at all when flying over open ocean. Jackson may not realize that.
With the watertight bulkheads closed in front of her and behind her Tamara would be in the few safe places in the Arch. Yet the water still comes in after the closure of both doors rendering them useless.
At the G8 summit, the U.S. President enters the conference room and asks to be left alone with the other heads of state. The Russian President whispers to his interpreter to stay put ("Ti ostajes") in Serbo-Croatian, not Russian. When the U.S. President asks again, the Russian interpreter can be heard in the background, translating in Russian. The Russian President tells his interpreter he is free to go ("Mozes ici") in Serbo-Croatian, not Russian.
When descending into the copper mine in India, Satnam tells Adrian that the mine is over 11,000 ft. deep. Scientists worldwide, including those from the United States, have formally adopted the Metric System, so he should have used meters instead of feet.
When the Antonov is departing from Las Vegas, the tower calls on the radio: "Tower to Antonov." Standard radio format is "[You] this is [me]." Also, if the radio is on the tower frequency, there's no reason for the tower to say who's calling.
When Jackson shows his driver's license in Yellowstone Park, his name appears on the card as "Jackson, Curtis." It should be either "Curtis, Jackson" (Last name, First name) or be written without the comma.
Satnam calls Helmsley and says he sees a tidal wave approaching. A geophysicist would know the difference between a tidal wave, and a tsunami.
During several conversations characters refer to "heads of state". Although every country has a de facto head[s] of state, they are generally not sent to summits or engaged in diplomatic exchanges as they are "figureheads". Instead almost all countries would send their heads of government who actually exercise executive power; such as a prime minister (in countries with parliaments) or a chancellor (in German-speaking countries). The US and France are two countries who send their presidents.
For example during the G8 summit closed session, only the American and French presidents are heads of state. All others would be prime ministers/chancellor (for Germany). Similarly, the Italian prime minister would be the comparable Italian figure who chose to stay behind with his people not the president.
Japan appears to have the same Prime Minister in 2010 and in 2012. In reality, Japan often has a different Prime Minister each year.
Russians Orthodox Christians do not cross themselves from left to right as Catholics do, they do it from right to left.
The Antonov that takes off at the Las Vegas airport is clearly a 124 model, with its two engines on either side and its normal tail. When they are in the air it is an Antonov 225, which has three engines on either side, and a double tail made to carry the Russian Mryia space shuttle.
When Curtis is driving back to the light aircraft in the RV as he puts his foot to the floor he is wearing Nike Shox trainers in black. However, when he gets out of the RV he is wearing other black shoes.
When Jackson Curtis' children call him to the tent, he places his laptop in the folding chair in front of him and moves to the tent. In the next shot, the laptop is on top of the ice chest. It moves back to the chair for the following shot.
When Jackson and his kids arrive at the lake in Yellowstone, Lilly is on Noah's left. In the next shot, Lilly is on Noah's right.
When Laura Wilson is sitting in her cabin in Air Force One talking to Adrian Helmsley, she is clutching a blanket. In the next shot, the blanket is also covering her leg.
When the sheikh is offered a contract for passage on one of the arks by Mr. Isaacs, he is wearing a keffiyeh (headscarf) held in place with two turns of black elastic rope as a headband. The two turns of rope on the headband are touching. As he lifts his head to address Mr. Isaacs, the bottom rope of the sheikh's headband rolls downward and separates from the top rope, revealing the white headscarf between them. The camera then cuts to Mr. Isaacs. When it cuts back to the sheikh, the two turns of rope on his headband are touching, again.
The time lines in the movie imply that Yellowstone and Los Angeles are a few hours from each other. Yellowstone is 1,000 miles from Los Angeles.
The Antonov could fly from Las Vegas to Shanghai (for example) without refueling if it departed Las Vegas fully fueled. If it had to stop at some intermediate point, it would go to Alaska or the eastern tip of Siberia, not Hawaii. Using either Anchorage or Honolulu as intermediate destinations, it would add about 1,100 miles to the trip to head for Hawaii instead of Alaska. The movie makers should have glanced at a globe instead of a Mercator map. It would be about 7,716 miles via Honolulu, but only about 6,629 miles via Anchorage.
Yellowstone is 1,100 miles from the Los Angeles area where Jackson & the kids live. Yet when they drive there & back it seems to take a few hours. This drive would take at least 18 hours and would have arrived late at night at Yellowstone even if they left at sunrise from L.A.. As well Jackson would never be able to pick up Charlie's amateur radio broadcast in L.A. when Charlie is broadcasting 1100 miles away in Yellowstone Park.
When the cruise ship Genesis surges against the pier, the Golden Gate bridge is shown where the San Francisco Bay Bridge should be.
When Curtis looks at the map of Yellowstone on his laptop, Yellowstone Lake takes up about half the park. In real life, it's a small feature in the park's southeastern quadrant.
After the Tibetan family rescues the other family, all of the signs are in Traditional Chinese characters. Tibet is part of the PRC, and Mandarin is not a native language in Tibet, so all signs would be written with Simplified Characters.
When Charlie is broadcasting in Yellowstone, he says he is at the top of Mount Bighorn. He also passes the wooden sign that says "Mount Bighorn - Elevation 2500 feet". Not only is Mount Bighorn completely fictitious, the lowest elevation in Yellowstone is 5,314 feet.
When the camera pans to Caesar's Palace on boxing night, the Bellagio is to the south. When the camera pans to the south of Las Vegas Strip, showing the destruction of Vegas, the building to the south becomes Paris Las Vegas.
The Genesis started its voyage in San Francisco, which does not make sense for a ship being sunk in the middle of the Sea of Japan or anywhere on the Japanese seaboard a few days later.
The film is about the apocalypse predicted on the Mayan calendar. In one of the first trailers/previews, the calendar moving and forming into position at the beginning is Aztec, not Mayan.
The twin-engine plane is shown to be engulfed by the pyroclastic cloud, before flying out and continuing to fly for several hours. Even if the super-hot low-Oxygen air in the cloud didn't stall the engines, the abrasive ash dust would severely damage them.
A background character can be heard warning that the ship's compartments are flooding progressively. But all ships have been built with truly watertight compartments for nearly a century. Certainly a futuristic ship of this size couldn't sink due to 1 door being open.
After Jackson Curtis returns to Los Angeles after his trip to Yellowstone, he picks up Charlie Frost's pirate radio station, 1,000 miles away. While some high-powered 50,000 watt AM stations skip their signals off of the ionosphere and reach listeners 1,000 miles away, it would be impossible for a personal radio transmitter to reach that far. Given the instruction to 'download my blog', it was more likely, even with modern tech, that the broadcast was being streamed on Internet radio site. It is far less clear how it was picked up on car radio in 2012 with normal AM/FM tuning.
Caldera eruptions do not occur as a single, massive explosion as depicted; they occur as a series of eruptions along a circular series of fissures.
At the G8 summit, the U.S. President enters the conference room and asks to be left alone with the other heads of state. A few moments later, an interpreter turns a button on her console to switch it off, puts down her headset, and leaves. The console is a genuine, contemporary piece of equipment, actually used by interpreters in 2010, but there's no need to switch it off (it's actually impossible). The knob is for selecting the language channels.
Several large waves are shown in the deep ocean, resulting from earthquakes. Tsunami means "harbor wave" because it only rises as it makes landfall. In the deep ocean, these waves are measured in millimeters.
All of the waves shown crashing onto land, through snowy mountain passes, and into vehicles would be cold enough to induce hypothermia in minutes, and too dirty to see through. Even calm ocean water is too murky to see through at the distances and scales shown.
Likely there would have been damage to most or all cell phone towers rendering cell phone useless for most of the movie.
The Sistine Chapel has 9 pictures displayed horizontally. In the movie, the "Creation of Adam" is immediately after "God separating day from night." In reality, there are 2 pictures between them.
When Jackson Curtis drives back in the RV, the radio is tuned to AM 745. In the U.S., A.M. frequencies are divisible by 10. He should be listening to AM 740 or 750.
Seismic cracks appear suddenly, with no consideration of roads or buildings.
Described as the AN-500 on the ground, in the air it is an AN-225. The AN-225 loads all cargo into the nose of the aircraft. It has no rear loading deck, therefore, making it impossible for the cars to drive out the rear of the aircraft.
In the many shots of the light twin aircraft, the ailerons are fully deflected during turns, but the aircraft's bank angle remains the same. When ailerons are deflected, the bank angle will continue to increase, eventually rolling the aircraft upside-down.
The VC-25A aircraft that are used as Air Force One have no windows on the left side of the upper deck behind the cockpit. The Air Force One aircraft portrayed in the film has multiple windows on the upper deck, more like the commercial version of the 747-200 that the VC-25A is based upon.
Arnold Schwarzegger is shown to be Governor of California, as evidenced by the Governor's Germanic accent and him being referred to as an 'actor'. However, constitutional term limits meant that Schwarzenegger would have to leave after his second term in 2011.
In all of the shots of the Antonov 500 plane flying, you can see the navigation lights flash (red on the left wing tip, green on the right wing tip and white on the tail). Navigation lights do not flash. Only strobe lights (white on wing tips) do.
The Antonov AN-225's flight range is 15,400 kilometers, more than enough to reach China from Las Vegas. Considering the panic on the ground, the plane may not have been fully fueled when it left.
The events are scheduled for December 2012, but someone explains that they're occurring much earlier. Therefore, the Summer Olympics in London could be happening.
Yuri says the Antonov "An-500" aircraft is Russian. The Antonov is actually a Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer. Many Russians who were adults before the fall of the Soviet Union refer to the entire former Soviet Union as Russia.
Yellowstone is normally freezing at night. However the military is there because it is a new "global hot spot", meaning the temperature is far above normal.
When Jackson is camping with the kids, Kate calls and tells him to bring them home early. He does, then says he is late for work. Jackson had at least one more night of vacation planned, but he could've spoken to Yuri during the drive back and said he could come to work.
The latest Antonov model is the 225. The only completed AN-225 does not have a rear access door, but an uncompleted 225 airframe was built with this feature. Yuri Karpov may be rich enough to buy, finish, and re-designate the abandoned aircraft. Alternatively, it may be meant as an aircraft of "the future".
On TV, the Governor's press conference appears to violently shake from an earthquake at the same time a massive earthquake hits Los Angeles, even though the Governor's office is in Sacramento. It's likely there were several earthquakes happening around California state, at the same time the massive one hit Los Angeles.
While the USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned and sent to the inactive ship facility, Philadelphia, in 2008 and, US Navy aircraft carriers do not have their names painted on their deck, only a two digit number on the bow; it is possible that the filmmakers assumed that by 2012 she would have been made into a museum ship which would explain the writing on the deck and the various planes on board. When she was decommissioned, multiple groups were developing proposals to make her into a museum ship like the Intrepid, Midway, Hornet, and Lexington.
During the Presidential scenes, there is no mention/indication given of any election, even though 2012 is an election year (and election years are busy for the government). It's likely they were all 'holding-off' on the election, knowing an apocalypse would be happening that year.
An old portable TV (with rotary dial tuner) has a distorted picture on screen, as if it's been watched recently. The June 2009 Digital Television switchover should have rendered it useless without a ATSC converter. While full-power NTSC broadcasts in America ended in June 2009, the TV could be tuned to a low-power regional, religious, or foreign-language station, which were still broadcasting in November 2010. It would also explain the poor reception.
When the camera pans to Caesar's Palace before the boxing match, you can see for a small moment the Las Vegas Strip and the Caesar's Palace marquee showing Bette Midler's "The Showgirl Must Go On" poster. While Midler's last show was slated for January 2010, it is entirely possible that in the movie's world, Midler's show had a second run in 2012.
Charlie tells Jackson to "download his blog", but the small red X over the monitor icon (near the clock) clearly shows that the computer is not online. If the computer is setup to allow VPN connections, the red X means no users connected (via VPN) to the machine. Furthermore, Charlie's blog is probably stored locally on his laptop.
"Mutating neutrinos" are changing or changed neutrinos. Mutation, from the Greek 'Mutatis', simply means 'change.' The dialogue in the film indicates that the neutrinos have changed to a different type of nuclear particle, so the term 'mutating' is correct.
At 47m 18s the group make their escape using a two engine light aircraft. The pilot has his headphones on as if he is going to talk to air traffic control (ATC) while the runway collapses into the abyss. Even though ATC may not have been operating, other aircraft would likely have been in the air attempting to escape as well, thus the pilot would need to be able to hear and/or communicate with them.
An officer says that all communications from Earth have stopped. Later, Dr. Satnam Tsurutani is able to call Dr. Helmsley to tell him about the tsunami.
When the Ark 4 engines are started, clouds of soot emit from the exhaust stacks, indicating the engines are diesel powered. Requiring a ship designed to survive an apocalyptic flood, with no set duration to how long it may be at sea, to rely on such a limited consumable as diesel fuel would be an incredibly poor design choice.
Jackson removes the strap holding the Bentley's front tire in place, but he never removes the strap from the back tire. It's still in place when Gordon gets in the car. How were they able to leave?
Much is made of the engines being non-functional while a door is open, with no explanation even suggested why the vessel would have been designed or built that way. In fact, it would require engine power to repeatedly close & open the doors, as well as powering all the electronic & hydraulic systems shown. It is eventually shown to be underway with EVERY door open.
While escaping Los Angeles, Gordon is reluctant to pilot the plane (a twin-engine Cessna 340), stating he's only had "a couple of lessons". Yet almost immediately afterward he's shown executing advanced maneuvers and nearly flawless landings, even somehow navigating to Las Vegas. Multi-engine aircraft are much more complex than single engine, which is why beginner pilots are almost invariably start their training on single engine aircraft. Even if Gordon had been receiving training in a multi-engine aircraft, a "couple of lessons" would not begin to account for the skills displayed in the movie.
When the film first shows Yuri, Tamara, Sasha and the boys in Vegas, their plane is on a hoist and Sasha shakes his head at Yuri, indicating his private plane isn't going to be able to fly (it's never revealed what happened to it, presumably a bumpy landing screwed up the landing gear). Then, while they're in the terminal, Sasha hurries in and says he's found an Antonov that was just about to take off but the tower wouldn't let them. So the Antonov isn't Yuri's plane, but the cars in the hold apparently are -- the Bentley's programmed to start at his voice command.
When Curtis is racing to get his family out of their neighborhood and the limo flies into the air, the wheels aren't moving.
In at least one of the flooded compartments at the end there are stairs in the background leading to a small balcony above the water line. Yet the various characters insist on standing in the cold water.
When the Cessna leaves the cloud, a moment later, it should be pushing air downward in order to achieve lift. However, it leaves the dust cloud completely undisturbed behind it.
When Curtis drives the Bentley out of the Antonov's cargo hold, he fights to retain control of the vehicle and bring it to a stop. He should be able to see the Antonov and the other driverless cars move away from him in the same direction. Instead, they move away from the plane toward him.
When Jackson returns to the Yellowstone airstrip in the burning camper, the transmission is clearly in park.
The director of the Louvre drives a Citroen DS, but the views inside the car show a different model. The rear-view mirror is located at the top of the windshield; a DS would have it near the dashboard.
While flying in the twin engine plane (A Cessna 340) taken from Los Angeles, characters are shown conversing normally inside the quiet aircraft. In reality, the noise from the engines would make it impossible to carry on a normal conversation in the cabin without headphones.
Jackson goes to his wife's house to rescue his family. The back door of the limo is torn off as he drives erratically to get away from the destruction. His wife and daughter are in the back seat, un-belted in the car. Yet as the car swirls violently, they never slide on the leather seats.
When the wave first strikes the ark, a tech on the bridge reports "collision pressure just below 80 Pascals, Captain". Air pressure at sea level is 101,325 Pascals, and during the day can vary 50-100 Pascals. Water pressure increases 101,325 Pascals for every 32 feet of depth. With water and air pressure alone, pressure on the ark would be closer to a 1 million Pascals. If he meant 80 kiloPascals (1kPa=1,000 Pascals), it would still be a relatively low pressure change.
When Adrian Helmsley talks about the people dying outside of the arks, and Carl Anhauser interrupts, the time on the clock says 6 minutes 10 seconds to impact. In the next shot, the clock says 15 minutes 52 seconds.
The ash cloud eruption at Yellowstone Park is big enough to put the entire world in nuclear winter for years. However, a month after the eruption the sky is already clear.
The supervisor holds Yuri Karpov and other Green Boarding Pass holders. Karpov hits the supervisor out of the way, then runs to the departing Ark. In the next scene, when Adrian Helmsley and Carl Anheuser argue about letting Yuri Karpov and other Green Boarding Pass holders on the Ark, the supervisor is behind Laura Wilson, watching the argument.
When Jackson is in the hydraulic chamber, trying to get the door closed, Helmsley gets a video feed, and reports to the captain "We have a visual, I think we found the problem." Prof. West then shouts "Show us the Hydraulic Chamber". The video screen shows Ark 006 (in the upper left corner); however they are on Ark 004. Then next time we see that screen, it says Ark 004.
When the scientist tells the captain to open the bay door, the clock says 14:39 until impact. In the next shot, when the captain responds, the clock says 14:42 until impact.
When the Arabian sheik reads a contract on the laptop (obviously the contract enabling him to board an Ark), the screen shows the sum of 1,000,000,000 with Arabic characters all around. In the next scene, when the characters are reflected in the sheik's glasses, the number 13-10 is clearly visible right above the 1,000,000,000 as the text scrolls down.
If Africa has risen "several thousand feet" and the roof of the world is in Africa's southern mountains, the south coast of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope would look nothing like they do now.
The tsunami carrying the USS John F. Kennedy as it destroys the White House is shown approaching from the left of the White House, as seen from the South Lawn. The Atlantic Ocean is east of the White House, not west, so it should be approaching from the right.
Helmsley views a computer screen showing a wave surging into India's West coast. Then he sees one arriving on its East coast. Then the display zooms out to show the whole of India, with Tibet and the arks to the North. Any water approaching from the South would have already passed Everest, so the ark couldn't be washed against its North face.
Chinese helicopters airlift a rhinoceros and a giraffe (among others) to the tunnels where the Arks are located. They fly over the Himalayas, in weather cold enough for a thick layer of snow to remain unfrozen on the ground. Between the extremely high altitude, the temperature, and the frigid wind blowing past them in flight, the African animals would die of either hypothermia or oxygen deprivation.
The Arks are high in the Himalayas, (up near 8000 meters, too high for all but specialist helicopters), certainly too high for a helicopter carrying 2 tons of (frozen) rhinoceros. It has been suggested that height above sea level should be considered, and the helicopters would be able to operate. However, the concerning factor is altitude above *average* sea level. The massive waves would leave massive troughs behind them. Even with lava and coastal collapse, it would still be too high for helicopters.
After Ark #4 collides with the mountain, the captain orders "hard to port", but the helmsman pushes the port side engine control full ahead. In a twin screw vessel, "hard to port" means pushing the starboard engine full ahead while idling or backing the port engine.
The Antonov runs out of fuel, and goes down. But several engines are still emitting smoke, and at least one has fire visible from the front.
A 9.4 magnitude earthquake hits Washington D.C. destroying the Washington Monument, but the White House is shown in one piece afterwards. The White House is more prone/vulnerable to massive earthquake destruction than the Monument.
The Antonov puts down on a glacier visible from miles away at mountaintop level, meaning the airplane is approaching it uphill. The top of a glacier is a snowy mountain pass; not a cliff.
When the Ark crew realizes the are going to hit Mt. Everest the next shot shows the Ark moving forward against the current towards Everest without propeller power.
Giraffes make sounds during the ark scenes. It's a myth that giraffes do not have vocal chords. They can make soft bleating sounds, like sheep or goats, but they usually rely on body language to communicate.
The White House Chief of Staff would normally never be in a position to succeed to the office of President of the United States. There is always a designated survivor amongst the line of succession to maintain continuity of government. However, the Vice President is dead and the House Speaker is missing. Considering the amount of confusion, we must assume that no cabinet members were able to board Air Force One before it left Washington. Otherwise, he wouldn't have appointed himself Acting President.
The Cape of Good Hope is actually hundreds of miles from Kwa-Zulu Natal. The cataclysms could have changed that.
When Ark #4 almost collides with the north face of Mount Everest, the mountain is a massive pointy pyramid with pretty steep slopes on the uneven ridges, jagged pinnacles, and colors strewn across most of the mountainside. In real life, the northeast ridge forms a massive wall, with a large amount of snow covering its north face. However, seismic activity severe enough to make southern Africa "the roof of the world" could certainly change the shape of Mt. Everest.
The Antonov crashes because of engine failure due to thick dust in the air, not because of empty fuel tanks. When it finally hits the ground after falling of the cliff, a large amount of fuel could be left in the tanks.
When the USS John F. Kennedy is washed towards the White House, multiple aircraft are on the deck, then washed overboard. During storms all aircraft are stored on the hanger deck. If they are close enough to land to leave the carrier, they would do so. However, most aircraft carriers have more aircraft than can be stored in the hanger. If it wasn't possible for all of the aircraft to be sent ashore, some would remain tied down on deck.
While Queen Elizabeth II's net worth in 2011 was about £325 million and she could not have afforded to go on this trip, it is suggested that heads of state and government didn't have to pay for their tickets. As would be the same with essential staff like Dr. Helmsley.
After Curtis fixes the hydraulics, a cut is on Anheuser's lip. In a deleted scene, Anheuser insults Laura Wilson, and Helmsey punches him.
The Genesis Ark is set adrift when a floating Air Force One damages one of its docking clamps. If the clamp was designed to withstand the impact of several billion metric tons of water, it should've survived the comparatively small impact of a plane.
Even rural Chinese workers and monks would know that a massive construction project in a high Tibetan mountain pass is not a dam.
When the Antonov plane arrives in Hawaii, Gordon and Sasha realize that they cannot land because the entire archipelago has been affected by volcanic eruptions. Shortly afterwards, Gordon says that they lost the landing gear in Las Vegas. How did they intend to land with no landing gear?
The Antonov is shown just above the snow-covered glacier as the 2 pilots open the rear ramp. Even running, it takes close to 2 minutes to get from the cockpit to the back of such a large & loaded airplane - much longer than the plane could remain in flight that close to the ground without power.
When the ark containing the main characters is being tumbled on at least 2 axes, the water level in the semi-flooded rooms remains stable, as if the ark were over calm waters.
When the Antonov goes over the cliff, it starts to explode a split second before the front of it even hits the ground.
When Jackson and Gordon are in the back of the truck, driving to the arks very fast, their hair doesn't move.
Just before Gordon and the Chinese man fall, the safety wires supporting them are clearly visible.

2012 Movie Interesting Facts

The doomsday theory arose from a non-Maya Western idea, not a Mayan one. Mayas insisted that the world would not end in 2012. The Mayas had a talent for astronomy, and enthusiasts found a series of astronomical alignments they said coincided in 2012. Once every six hundred forty thousand 640,000 years, the sun lines up with the center of the Milky Way galaxy on the winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon. The last time that happened was on December 21, 2012, the same day the Maya calendar expired. The modern doomsday myth was bolstered by several ostensibly scientific reasons for a disaster, including a pole shift, the "return" of Planet X or the Sun's sinister counterpart Nemesis, a galactic, planetary, or other celestial alignment, global warming, global cooling, a massive solar flare, or a new ice age. None had any basis in real science. For example, the "galactic alignment" between the sun, Earth, and galactic center happens every December. The best alignment was reached in the 1990s, and was accompanied by its own set of doomsday theories. Alignments since then have been increasingly poor.
The film was banned in North Korea because 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of First Great Leader Il-Sung Kim. Several people were arrested for watching pirated copies of the film.
Some theaters started the film at 20:12 (8:12 p.m.).
The great disasters of the "galactic alignment" in 2012 were supposed to have occurred on December 21st, the day of the solstice. The filmmakers decided to move those events up a few months, to midsummer. This relieved them of having to decorate the sets for the winter holidays.
In the movie, New York City was flooded in summer 2012. In real life, parts of New York City flooded due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.
Charlie Frost's animation about the end of the world heavily references the animated Internet meme, "The End of ze World", which centers around the idea that humanity will kill itself as a whole before any natural disaster would ever have the time to destroy it.
John Cusack ad-libbed the line "That guy's an actor, he's reading a script!", when talking about the California Governor (who appears to represent Arnold Schwarzenegger), the original line in the screenplay was "The Governor's a Meathead, how could he know anything? You gotta trust me over some politician. come on". Some felt the line would be a bit too hard on Arnold Schwarzenegger.
When Jackson rents a plane, he gives the pilot his watch as payment. He tells the pilot that it was given to him by his manager when he thought he was going to be someone, and that it's worth something. The watch is a Classic Pilot Mark XVI, and sells for at least $3,000.
The President's first and last names are the same as the 28th President in real life. Woodrow Wilson's first name was actually Thomas.
When Jackson goes to pick up the Russian oligarch's boys, he drives up to the Fleur de Lys estate in Bel Air. At the time, it was one of the most expensive real estate listings in the country, with an asking price of $125 million.
Dr. Charles Hapgood, spoken about in Charlie Frost's video, died on December 21, 1982. Despite what is said in the film, Hapgood is something of a fringe figure, and his views have been denounced as pseudoscience by his detractors.
The character Jackson Curtis is the real name of 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) backwards. Executive producer, co-writer, and director Roland Emmerich is a big fan of rapper 50 Cent, and wanted to name his lead character after him.
Roland Emmerich told MTV the cover-up name for this film was "Farewell Atlantis", which is the title of lead character Jackson Curtis' book.
In an interview in USA Today, Roland Emmerich said that this will be his final disaster film, "I said to myself that I'll do one more disaster movie, but it has to end all disaster movies. So I packed everything in." He ended up doing several more, including Independence Day: Resurgence (2016).
Seth Rogen turned down the role of Adrian Helmsley.
The character of Charlie Frost seems loosely based on David Johnston and Harry Glicken, volcanologists killed in the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Johnston was able to broadcast, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" as a warning before he died. Glicken was so eccentric and disorganized that the U.S. Geological Survey only offered him temporary positions, despite his incredibly thorough research on Mount St. Helens.
The "Russian plane" was a Antonov An-225 Mriya. Although they marked this plane as an Antonov 500, there's no such plane. Also, the plane is from Ukraine, not Russia.
The title refers to the end-date of the 13th b'ak'tun of the Long Count calendar, used by the Mayan Meso-American civilization. In their creation myth, we live in the fourth "attempt" at creating the world, while the third attempt was dismissed as a failure after its own 13th b'ak'tun. Though Mayan documents contain no such information, a popular myth stated that the calendar "ended" on that date, and certain religions predicted an apocalyptic event on that date. The Long Count calendar can express dates from about 3000 B.C. (their date for the creation of the world) to about forty octillion years in the future. It's almost impossible to express that date in a mortally comprehensible fashion.
As Gordon flies away from from Los Angeles, a Comcast sign falls into an abyss. Comcast owns Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures' competitor.
Gerard Butler was first considered for the role of Jackson Curtis. He turned it down because of scheduling conflicts.
Air Force One was a Boeing VC-25A. Probably CGI, but the actual Air Force One doesn't have windows on the top deck (port side).
Professor West bears a visual and vocal resemblance to author Graham Hancock, whose book "Fingerprints of the Gods" inspired the movie.
This is the second movie that features John Cusack as a limousine driver. The first was Identity (2003). Amanda Peet was in both movies.
John Cusack and Amanda Peet appeared in Identity (2003) and Martian Child (2007).
Very similar plot to The Day After Tomorrow (2004) which was also directed by Roland Emmerich.
The film's title plays upon the myth of the Mayan calendar ending in 2012. It actually ends in 3770 and doesn't predict any end of the world. New Age hoaxers claimed the calendar ended in order to make money. Mayas never claimed that and were annoyed by outsiders pestering them with questions about it.
The music in the teaser trailer is the same music that was used for the trailer for The Shining (1980).
At 2 hours 38 minutes, this movie is Roland Emmerich's second-longest film, behind The Patriot (2000), starring Mel Gibson. Coincidentally, Gibson directed the Mayan-themed movie Apocalypto (2006), which was also shot by Dean Semler, the cinematographer for this film.
A television shows an Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike as the Governor of California explaining the situation. In real life, Schwarzenegger's term ended in 2011, and the events in this movie took place presumably in the midsummer of 2012 (though the filmmakers have stated it's December 2012 by the normal Mayan Calendar).
The eighth film released in select D-BOX enabled cinemas.
Gordon's car was a 2006 Porsche Cayman [987c].
Oliver Platt and Morgan Lily both later appeared in X-Men: First Class (2011) (albeit, they share no scenes in either one of these films).
Wisconsin is mentioned three times in the film. Executive producer Michael Wimer, Roland Emmerich's friend and business partner, is from Neenah, Wisconsin.
Woody Harrelson and Karin Konoval both later starred in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).
In addition to the Mayan Calendar, Revelation 20:12 is somewhat apocalyptic in nature here it is from the International version of the Bible. "I saw the dead, both unimportant and important, standing in front of the throne, and books were open. Another book was opened-the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books".
The first name of the Curator of the Louvre in this movie is Roland, which is the same first name as Roland Emmerich.
The plane Gordon flies them to Vegas in was a Cessna 340A with the registration number of N340SB. Was manufactured in 1979.
Jackson chauffeurs in a, 2003 Lincoln Town stretch car limousine.
Charlie's RV was a 1984 Winnebago Chieftain.
Kates car was a Volvo XC70, Gen.3.
The lesson about having clear, uncluttered thoughts as taught by the Lama Rinpoche (Henry O) when he over-pours tea for his pupil Nima (Osric Chao), is actually an old Zen koan (a thought-provoking question or riddle) also detailed in Joe Hyam's 1982 book, Zen in the Martial Arts in a chapter appropriately entitled "Empty Your Cup."
Body count: 6.4 to 7.6 billion (the African continent probably did not flood).
Originally, Harry Helmsley (Blu Mankuma) was to have survived the film. In the end, he calls his son Adrian (Chiwetel Ejiofor) alive and well from his cruise ship, which was merely run aground by the tsunami, rather than capsized and sunk. Also, Adrian finally got so fed up with Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) and his cold reasoning that he knocks him down. Both scenes were filmed, but deleted from the movie. They were added as bonus material on the Blu-ray edition.
In the film, a pope is shown to die in a massive earthquake. The original script called for it to represent Pope Benedict XVI, but the filmmakers felt it would be too offensive, so the pope was only shown from behind. Ironically, Pope Benedict XVI ended up abdicating only two months after the presumed-setting of the Apocalypse events.
When Adrian arrives at the copper mine near the start of the movie, the car hits a puddle and capsizes a toy boat. This is foreshadowing the capsizing of the boat on which Adrian's father works.
The film contains various references to the Biblical flood. For example, Jackson's son is named Noah, the cruise ship where Adrian's father Harry performs is called Genesis, and humanity is saved by the use of "arks". At one point, animals are lifted aboard the arks.
During the destruction of the Sistine Chapel, the cracks forming on the roof directly between God and Adam in the Creation of Adam symbolize two aspects related to the Bible: the transition between the first and second circles of life (specifically, breaking the connection between humans and God), and God's reversal of creation of humanity in Genesis 6-9.
During the destruction of Los Angeles, Gordon's Porsche Cayman falls into the Earth after getting pushed by Jackson's limo upon fleeing from the Curtis residence. This foreshadows Gordon's own death, as he falls into the gears later in the film.
If the tickets for the arks cost 1 billion euros per person, less than 2,100 families in the world would be able to affort it. At one point, Carl claims they can save around 400,000 people in the arks. It means most passengers of the arks were politicians, scientists, doctors, technicians or "useful people" and not millionaires, as most people think.
Wisconsin is referenced three times: at the start of the movie, when the old woman insists she and her husband move back to Wisconsin, When Dr. Helmsley and Mr. Anheuser discover the magnetic poles have shifted, and at the end, when Laura Wilson finishes "Farewell Atlantis."
At one point, the president of the United States says his wife suggested a lottery so all people had a chance to board the arks. This is a clear reference to "Deep impact", another Doomsday movie.

Useful External Links

2012 (Movie) on Wikipedia

2012 (Movie) on IMDB