At the opening of Greenland, families around the world gather in front of their TVs to see the spectacle of pieces from a comet entering the Earth's atmosphere. Then structural engineer John Garrity (Gerard Butler), a man preoccupied with mending his marriage to Allison (Morena Baccarin), receives a startling government alert telling him to take his family (they are the parents of a sweet seven-year-old boy) to a nearby Air Force Base for emergency evacuation.
When the first chunk destroys Tampa, Florida in a harrowing firestorm, the reason why becomes clear. The biggest chunk will cause an Extinction Level Event in 48 hours and John, Allison, and son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) is plunged into the best and worst of humanity on their survival odyssey. Greenland (named after the location of the survival bunker) offers on a gritty portrait of human desperation in the face of potential annihilation and leans on what a real-life, military-led evacuation of select folks to a secure location might look like in a time of chaos and complete suspension of social norms and emergency services.
It's the science around the comet strike itself that is pure Hollywood fantasy, from the failure of scientists around the world to anticipate any danger from a potential strike to the idea that the ramifications of the deadly strike are over in mere months. Director Ric Roman Waugh (who directed Butler in the action thriller Angel Has Fallen) offers enough disaster spectacle to convince us of the stakes involved but keeps the film grounded in the nuclear family as it sets out for salvation. When they are separated in the chaos and violence and their golden ticket to salvation is unexpectedly yanked (due to son's diabetes, a real-world issue that creates added complications), the parents put themselves on the line to protect their son and one another. It becomes a crucible that pulls them together after their separation.
The timing of this end-of-the-world disaster thriller wasn't optimal, to say the least. The film was released to theaters in other countries in the summer and fall of 2020 and landed on VOD in the U.S. in December, months into the Covid pandemic. It still may be too soon for some viewers to find escape in a film that imagines the end of the world but the human story—not just the Garrity family but the civilians and servicemen and women left behind in the evacuation—powers the film and keeps us riveted through the often familiar beats of the disaster genre. The DVD and Blu-ray release feature filmmaker commentary, a brief promotional featurette, and three deleted scenes. The Blu-ray release also includes a bonus DVD and a UV digital code. A strong option purchase.