Highlights
- The Day After Tomorrow, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, balances cheesy moments with fun, action-packed scenes.
- Gyllenhaal’s character Sam is intelligent and compassionate, thrown into a crisis when an ice age hits NY.
- The movie’s special effects make the ice age scenario believable, enhancing Gyllenhaal’s engaging performance.
While there are several underappreciated movies starring Jake Gyllenhaal, the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow is one of the best. The story of New Yorkers dealing with climate change leading to another ice age may be cheesy at times, but the serious message is balanced with some fun, action-packed scenes.
While Jake Gyllenhaal is known for starring in dramas like Brokeback Mountain and thrillers like Nightcrawler, he has a few sci-movies on his resume, including the 2017 release Life. In The Day After Tomorrow, Jake Gyllenhaal proves that he can star in any genre and that he’s always a likable and compelling presence onscreen.
What Happens In Jake Gyllenhaal’s Sci-Fi Movie The Day After Tomorrow?
In The Day After Tomorrow, Jake Gyllenhaal played Sam Hall, the son of Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a paleoclimatologist who is at the forefront of the crisis currently happening. After Jack realizes that an ice age is coming, he is ignored, but he turns out to be right when a huge, terrifying storm begins.
Much of the cheesy but charming 2000s sci-fi movie sees Sam and his pals Laura Chapman (Emmy Rossum) and Brian Parks (Arjay Smith) hiding in the New York Public Library while trying to figure out if they can wait out this storm. Since they were running a race in New York City at the beginning of the movie, their lives take a sharp turn and they are suddenly tasked with survival.
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The Day After Tomorrow Director |
Roland Emmerich |
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Writers |
Screenplay by Roland Emmerich, Jeffrey Nachmanoff |
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Based On |
The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber
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Cast Members |
Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Emmy Rossum, Ian Holm, Sela Ward |
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Release Date |
May 28th, 2004 (United States) |
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Runtime |
123 minutes |
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Rotten Tomatoes Score |
45% |
The Day After Tomorrow is not only an underrated 2000s sci-fi movie, but it also showcases Jake Gyllenhaal’s acting talent. After growing up with a father like Jack, who is an environmental and climate change expert, Sam innately knows what to do. He is an intelligent and compassionate character who throws himself into the center of the action. It’s also interesting watching his relationship with Laura develop. Unlike other stories with an obvious happy ending, The Day After Tomorrow is fairly scary given the serious subject matter.
The Day After Tomorrow wasn’t the only time that Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid appeared in a movie together. They both voiced characters in the 2022 Disney film Strange World. However, Gyllenhaal didn’t recall that they had already acted together. According to Variety, when Quaid brought it up, Jake Gyllenhaal said:
“Wow that’s cool. You know we’ve been doing a lot of interviews and you just blew my mind.”
The special effects in The Day After Tomorrow really do look like a real ice age is happening, and the setting makes Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal’s performances believable. As screenwriter Roland Nachmanoff told SyFy of the effects:
“Early on, Roland very smartly said, ‘Jeffrey, we have to sort of personify or make manifest the danger as if it were a monster. We don’t have an asteroid, we don’t have aliens, so it has to be something that feels like that,'” states Nachmanoff. “And even the way he shot it, sometimes the camera’s chasing [the characters] down those corridors … it feels like a monster pursuing you.”
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Best Quotes From The Day After Tomorrow
Jake Gyllenhaal’s The Day After Tomorrow character Sam Hall has some memorable quotes, especially when talking to his father Jack Hall. In one significant scene, the characters talk about Sam failing a Calculus class. This exchange proves they are both candid, clever, and rebellious. The most underrated 2000s sci-fi action movies have well-developed characters along with exciting scenes, and so does The Day After Tomorrow. Sam explains that he didn’t write down the solutions to problems, but he works them out in his head. When Jack asks if Sam let his teacher know, Sam says:
“I did. He didn’t believe me. He said if he couldn’t do them in his head then I must be cheating.”
Jack says, “Well, that’s ridiculous! How can he fail you for being smarter than he is?” When Sam explains that he said that, Jack asks what happened. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character Sam replies:
“He flunked me, remember?”
Sam has other great quotes in The Day After Tomorrow that show his funny and honest personality. When J.D. (Austin Nicols) gives a tour of the Natural History Museum, Sam says:
“It’s the world’s finest collection of stuffed animals.”
The Day After Tomorrow might be corny, but it’s a fun watch for Jake Gyllenhaal fans who have loved seeing the actor in roles like Mysterio in Spider-Man Far From Home that show his versatile talent.
