| Geostorm | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Dean Devlin |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Roberto Schaefer |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Lorne Balfe |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures[1] |
Release dates | March 29, 2017 (Phoenix Film Festival)
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Running time | 109 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $120–130 million[3][4] |
| Box office | $221.6 million[3] |
Geostorm is a 2017 Americanscience-fictiondisaster film directed, cowritten, and coproduced byDean Devlin (in his feature directorial debut). The film starsGerard Butler,Jim Sturgess,Abbie Cornish,Ed Harris, andAndy García. It follows asatellite designer who tries to save the world from a storm of epic proportions caused by malfunctioningclimate-controlling satellites.[5][6]
Principal photography began on October 20, 2014, inNew Orleans,Louisiana. After poor test screenings, reshoots took place in December 2016 under executive producerJerry Bruckheimer, writerLaeta Kalogridis, and new directorDanny Cannon.[7] To date, the film is the only co-production betweenSkydance Media andWarner Bros. Pictures.
Geostorm was released in the United States on October 20, 2017, in all formats, andheavily underperformed at the box office, grossing only $221.6 million worldwide against a $120–130 million budget, losing Warner Bros. $71.6 million.[8][9] The film was also widely panned by critics for its muddled storytelling, underdeveloped characters and lackluster visual effects.
In 2019, following many catastrophicnatural disasters, an international coalition commissions "Dutch Boy", a system ofclimate-controlling satellites. After it neutralizes atyphoon inShanghai, aUS Senate subcommittee reprimands chief architect Jake Lawson, who brought Dutch Boy online without authorization. He is replaced by his brother Max, who works underUS Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom. Three years later, aU.N. team stationed in theRegistan Desert discovers a frozen village. Mahmoud Habib, an Indian engineer working on the International Climate Space Station (ICSS), copies data from the satellite responsible forAfghanistan onto a hard drive before being killed in a supposed accident when window panels are blown off. After convincingUS President Andrew Palma to conduct an investigation, Max persuades Jake to go to the ICSS to investigate. InHong Kong, a satellite severely increases temperatures, causesfire whirls, and collapses multiple buildings. Scientist Chen Long survives.
Jake arrives at the ICSS to examine the malfunctioning satellites, which were damaged and their data erased when a robotic arm smashed them. He works with station commander Ute Fassbinder and her crew, consisting of engineer Eni Adisa, systems specialist and programmer Duncan Taylor, technician Al Hernández, and security officer Ray Dussette. They recover the hard drive but hide it from the crew, suspecting a traitor. Examining the data, they discover that avirus has been introduced, causing the malfunctions and wiping out the login access of key senior people to the satellite. Back on Earth Cheng Long discovers that he and Max have lost login access and warns Max of a global cataclysm known as a "Geostorm" if the malfunction continues. Suspecting Palma is using Dutch Boy as a weapon, Jake tells Max he needs to reboot the system to eliminate the virus, requiring the kill code held by Palma.
Cheng is pursued toWashington, D.C. by a team of rogue government agents led by Rico, who kills him in a traffic incident, but not before he says "Zeus" to Max. Discovering Project Zeus simulates extreme weather patterns to create a Geostorm, Max enlists his girlfriend,Secret Service agent Sarah Wilson, to acquire the code.During this time, the ICSS team loses control of all operations as the virus initiates theself-destruct program. The ICSS staff neutralizes malfunctioning satellites by deliberately knocking them offline via collisions with replacement ones. During theDNC inOrlando, Florida, Max uses the files for Project Zeus to discover Orlando is next to be targeted after a massivehailstorm hitsTokyo and an offshorecold snap takes out a portion ofRio de Janeiro. Max requests Dekkom's help, who instead tries to kill him, revealing himself as the saboteur.
Max informs Sarah, so they kidnap Palma to protect him from Dekkom's agents and secure the kill code. As they escape from the arena before alightning storm destroys it, Max discloses their activities and Dekkom's treachery to Palma. After outsmarting Dekkom's mercenaries, the three arrest Dekkom and confront him about his plan to eliminate the other elected officials in America'sline of succession, allowing him to dominate the world while eliminating America's enemies.
Duncan is actually the traitor who masterminded Habib's death and created the storms on Dekkom's orders, and Jake confronts him. Duncan is killed in the ensuing fight when three stray bullets destroy a window, while Jake escapes. As the crew evacuates the station, Jake and Ute stay behind to ensure the system's reboot, eliminating the virus and transferring satellite control toNASA, thus preventing the Geostorm at the last second.
Max and Sarah escort Palma to theKennedy Space Center and transmit the code, but learn that the self-destruct sequence cannot be stopped. More weather disasters occur globally.They then escape in a replacement satellite as the self-destruct sequence completes. After they use the replacement satellite's thrusters as a beacon, a nearby shuttle piloted by Hernández picks them up. Six months later, Jake is working as the head engineer for Dutch Boy once more, now administered by an international committee that rebuilt the space station.
Katheryn Winnick had been cast as Olivia Lawson, Jake's ex-wife and the mother of Hannah, but during reshoots, her role was recast withJulia Denton [de].
AsDean Devlin explainedclimate change to his daughter Hannah, she asked why a machine could not be built to fix that. Devlin went on to imagine such a thing, and how it could be used for evil purposes. As he struggled to develop his script, he asked the help of Paul Guyot, specially to write the brother dynamics.[10] In 2013,Skydance Productions purchased the filming rights.[11] After Skydance's distributing partnerParamount Pictures put the project intoturnaround,Geostorm was pitched and accepted byWarner Bros.[12]Pre-production began on July 7, 2014.[13] With an initial budget of $82 million,[14]principal photography began on October 20, 2014, inNew Orleans,Louisiana,[15][16] and lasted through February 10, 2015.[16] Filming began on Loyola Avenue on the first day.[17] Some NASA scenes were filmed ata NASA Rocket Factory in New Orleans in November 2014 and January 2015.[18][19]
After poor test screenings in December 2015, $15 million reshoots were conducted in Louisiana in early December 2016, under new producerJerry Bruckheimer, writerLaeta Kalogridis and directorDanny Cannon. Winnick's role was recast with Julia Denton during reshoots, while new characters were added into the script.[7]
On October 16, 2017, Warner Bros. released a promotional video on itsYouTube channel. In the video, aNew York taxicab outfitted with hidden cameras drives onto a street apparently affected by an ice storm, much to the shock of its unwitting passengers.[20]
The film was originally set for release on March 25, 2016,[21] but in August 2014, Warner set this date for the release ofBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice instead.[22] On December 11, 2014, WB shifted its live-action animated filmMowgli to 2017 and gave its previous date from March 25, 2016, then October 21, 2016, toGeostorm.[23] In September 2015, the studio again moved back the film from October 21, 2016, to January 13, 2017.[24] In June 2016, the studio announced the release had been moved back from January 13, 2017, to October 20, 2017. The film had an IMAX 3D release.[25]
The theme song for the Japanese release is "Dinosaur" byB'z.[26][27]
Geostorm was released onDVD,Blu-ray andBlu-ray 3D on January 16, 2018.[28][29]
Geostorm grossed $33.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $187.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $221.6 million, against a production budget of $120 million.[3] Box office analysts estimated that the film needed to gross $300–350 million worldwide in order tobreak even.[30]
In North America, the film was released alongsideBoo 2! A Madea Halloween,The Snowman andOnly the Brave, and was expected to gross $10–12 million from 3,246 theaters in its opening weekend.[31] After not holding Thursday night preview screenings, the film made $4.2 million on Friday. It went on to debut to $13.3 million, finishing second at the box office.[32] The week after its release, it was reported the film would likely lose the studio around $100 million.[33] In March 2018,Deadline Hollywood calculated the film lost Warner Bros. $71.6 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[8]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 18% of 96 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Lacking impressive visuals, well-written characters, or involving drama,Geostorm aims for epic disaster-movie spectacle but ends up simply being a disaster of a movie."[34]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 21 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[35] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B− on an A+ to F scale, whilePostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 67% overall positive score and a 49% "definite recommend".[32]
TheWrap gave the film a negative review and stated, "Disaster movies might have just flatlined with director and co-writer Dean Devlin's chaotically stupid bid to emulate his old partner, catastrophe peddlerRoland Emmerich."[36] Matt Singer ofScreenCrush gave the film 2 out of 10, calling the film a "slog, but the final act achieves a kind of transcendent idiocy."[37] Peter Debruge ofVariety gave the film a negative review and stated, "The only thing more reliable than bad weather is bad movies, and in that respect,Geostorm is right on forecast."[38]A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times gave the film a negative review and stated, "Geostorm uses digital technology to lay waste to a bunch of cities and hacky screenwriting to assault the dignity of several fine actors."[39] Peter Sobczynski ofRogerEbert.com gave the film 1.5 out of 4 and stated thatGeostorm "really could have used aSharknado ortwo to liven things up."[40]
The Arizona Republic gave the film 2 out of 5 and criticized its lack of "exciting action", "chintzy visuals", and "without enough Gerard to go around".[41]Entertainment Weekly gave the film a 'D' score and sarcastically summarized the film as "a bunch of supposedly connected scenes that don't seem to even know each other and were maybe shot years apart."[42]Mike D'Angelo ofThe A.V. Club gave the film a score of 'D+' and praised its "15 minutes worth of impressive annihilation", but criticized its "dramatic monotony".[43]Anna Smith ofTime Out gave the film 2 out of 5 and found it to be "appealing to scientists looking for a good laugh."[44]Los Angeles Times praised its "clever premise", but cited its result as "mostly dull-witted".[45]The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 and remarked that audiences "have been sold a false bill of goods."[46] Donald Clarke ofThe Irish Times gave the film 2 out of 5 and stated, "Geostorm feels like the sequel to a slightly better, slightly more expensive, significantly moreTom Cruisey film that made all its money in foreign-language territories."[47]
The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review and stated, "Big, dumb and boring, [Geostorm] finds the co-writer ofIndependence Day hoping to start a directing career with the same playbook – but forgetting several rules of the game."[48]Robbie Collin ofThe Daily Telegraph gave the film 1 out of 5 and stated, "Watching Gerard Butler solve a whodunit is like watching ... chimpanzees move a piano downstairs: a kind of teeth-baring, flea-picking burlesque of recognizable human behavior that's funny for a while until you start to worry about the ethics of it."[49] Alissa Wilkinson ofVox gave the film 0.5 out of 5 and stated, "The level of boredom I experienced duringGeostorm ought to qualify as at least a second-degree felony in the state of New York."[50]Mark Kermode ofKermode & Mayo's Film Review gave the film a negative review and stated, "It is the kind of film in which having aBritish accent will get you punched in the face, but the fact that Gerard Butler talks likeSean Connery in that weird sequence fromThe Untouchables? Nobody cares."[51]Empire gave the film 2 out of 5 and called it "not quite the geostinker people were expecting, but the outlook is far from unfavorable."[52]
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