Greenland (film)

John Garrity is a structural engineer living in Atlanta, Georgia, with his estranged wife, Allison, and their diabetic son, Nathan. He returns home to watch the near-earth passing of a recently-discovered interstellar comet named Clarke, with his family and neighbors.

At a grocery store, John receives a strange automated phone call, informing him that he and his family have been pre-selected for emergency sheltering. Concerned, he returns home just as a comet fragment enters the atmosphere on live television. Previously anticipated to land near Bermuda, the fragment instead strikes Tampa, Florida, vaporizing the city and a large part of Florida. John once again receives an automated call with instructions to be at Warner Robins Air Force Base to make an evacuation flight. The Garritys then learn from their neighbor Ed, that Clarke is actually a giant cluster of objects that are expected to bombard Earth over the next two days, with the biggest fragment expected to cause an extinction level event. The family packs up and leaves, reluctantly leaving Nathan's friend, Ellie, when her mother desperately begs them to take her, as Ellie would be denied boarding.

At Robins AFB, when forced to consolidate their belongings into one bag, the family discovers that Nathan accidentally left his insulin in the car. John hurries back to get it, while Allison and Nathan are told that they cannot be evacuated due to Nathan's ailment, and are subsequently escorted off the base. Realizing what happened to them upon boarding one plane, John leaves the base as a panicked mob breaks in, causing a gunfight that inadvertently ignites jet fuel, destroying several evacuation planes.

Upon returning to their car, he finds a note left by Allison that she and Nathan are heading to her father's house in Lexington, Kentucky. Allison and Nathan get medical supplies from a looted store and are picked up by couple Ralph and Judy Vento, who are also headed that way. Ralph kidnaps Nathan, to Judy's horror, after Allison tells them of what happened at the base. John manages to hitch a ride on a truck with other survivors from the base, where he learns through a young man named Colin that the planes are flying to Greenland. Another survivor notices John's wristband and attempts to fight him for it, causing the truck to crash. Colin is killed and the hostile man is then killed by John with a hammer. Meanwhile, Ralph and a reluctant Judy unsuccessfully attempt to pass as Nathan's parents at a FEMA camp and are arrested. Allison and Nathan reunite shortly afterward.

The following day, John watches the worldwide destruction and a countdown to the final impact on TV. He steals a car and finally reaches the home of his father-in-law, Dale, and reunites with Nathan and Allison shortly afterward. The family initially decide to accept their fates, but upon learning about the underground bunkers near Thule Air Force Base in Greenland where those being evacuated are taken to, John remembers that Colin's group was trying to get to Osgoode, Ontario where several private planes were flying people to them. Realizing they might have just enough time to make it there, the family then leaves, saying goodbye to Dale before continuing in his truck.

Hours later, they reach Upstate New York and get caught in a traffic jam when molten debris begins to rain down, destroying cars, people, and a helicopter. John manages to drive them to an underpass for refuge and they continue to Canada, learning that Clarke's largest fragment will make impact somewhere in Western Europe. They arrive at the airport and persuade the pilot of the last plane to take them.

The next morning, the plane approaches Greenland. However, another fragment strikes off the coast and the subsequent shockwave causes the plane to crash land into a valley, killing the pilots. John, his family and the survivors are picked up by a military truck that takes them to Thule, and are quickly ushered inside right as Clarke enters the atmosphere. Nine months later, the Greenland base attempts to make radio contact with other potential survivors as various cities are shown in total ruin including Sydney, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Paris, and Chicago. The Garritys and other occupants of the shelter exit to see a radically-changed landscape, while Greenland finally makes contact with other stations around the globe. Each are relieved to hear each other and report that the atmosphere is finally clearing, potentially giving humanity the chance to rebuild civilization.

• Gerard Butler as John Garrity
• Morena Baccarin as Allison Garrity
• Roger Dale Floyd as Nathan Garrity
• Scott Glenn as Dale, Allison's father
• David Denman as Ralph Vento
• Hope Davis as Judy Vento
• Andrew Bachelor as Colin
• Merrin Dungey as Major Breen
• Gary Weeks as Ed Pruitt
• Tracey Bonner as Peggy Pruitt
• Claire Bronson as Debra Jones
• Madison Johnson as Ellie Jones

Additionally, Holt McCallany and Adam Cronan portray the pilots who transport the Garritys to Greenland.

In May 2018, Chris Evans joined the cast of the film, with Neill Blomkamp directing from a screenplay by Chris Sparling.[3] In February 2019, it was announced Blomkamp would no longer direct the film.[4] That same month, Ric Roman Waugh joined the project as director, with Gerard Butler being added to the cast of the film, replacing Blomkamp and Evans respectively, with Butler producing under his G-Base banner.[5] In June 2019, Morena Baccarin joined the cast of the film.[6] In July 2019, Scott Glenn, Andrew Bachelor and Roger Dale Floyd also joined,[7] as did David Denman, in August.[8]

Principal photography began in June 2019 and wrapped up on August 16 of the same year in Atlanta.[9]

David Buckley, who previously worked with Waugh on Angel Has Fallen, composed the film's score.

In March 2019, STX Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film.[10] It was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on June 12, 2020, but was delayed to July 30, 2020 and then August 14, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11][12] Its domestic release was again delayed on July 24, moving to September 25, 2020. The film's release schedule includes Belgium (July 29), France (August 5), and Scandinavia (August 12). On September 14, it was announced the film's American release has been delayed again, this time to sometime later in 2020.[13]

On September 30, the studio announced the film would be skipping theaters and going to be available to buy via video on demand on October 13, before being made available to rent on October 27.[14] The following day, the studio announced the film had its U.S. pay TV and streaming rights sold to HBO for $20–30 million, who will release it in early 2021 and have it stream on HBO Max and Amazon Prime for the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia releases.[15] It was later reported the VOD release date had been pushed to December 18.[1]

• Official website
• Greenland at IMDb