The Day After Tomorrow, by director Roland Emmerich, is a thriller that blends a common plot with science fiction. The special effects save the production from its cliché plot and somewhat corny ending.

When tornados rip apart Los Angeles (not sparing the Hollywood sign), when a wall of water roars into New York, when a Russian tanker floats down a Manhattan street, when snow buries skyscrapers, when the crew of a space station can see nothing but violent storm systems — well, the audience tends to pay attention. The plot, based on the script written by Emmerich and Jeffery Nachmanoff, could not save the movie alone. As cataclysmic events dispose of uncounted lives, the movie zeroes in on only a few people, who of course survive, although many thousands of innocent people are killed off. What’s amusing in movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" is the way the screenplay veers from the annihilation of subcontinents to the main characters exposing their true emotions towards each other.

This movie stars Dennis Quaid as the climatologist Jack Hall, whose computer models predict that global warming will lead to a new ice age fairly soon. He issues a warning at a New Delhi conference, but is sarcastically dismissed by the American vice president (Kenneth Welsh), who interestingly resembles incumbent vice president Dick Cheney. "Our economy is every bit as fragile as the environment," the vice president says, dismissing Jack’s "sensational claims."

Soon after, snow begins to fall in India, and hailstones the size of softballs plummet through the skies of Tokyo. Birds, which are always wise in matters of global disaster, fly south double-time. Turbulence rumbles airplanes in the sky. The president (Perry King) learns that the FAA wants to ground all flights and does.

Meanwhile, young Sam Hall (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes to New York with an academic decathlon team, which includes his crush, Laura (Emmy Rossum of "Mystic River"), and Brian (Arjay Smith). All decathlon teams, as well as the several survivors soon become stranded there by the disastrous weather conditions. Ominous portents arise and Jack finally gets his message through to the administration.

Jack draws a slash across a map of the United States, and writes off everybody north of it. He issues a warning that drastically-cooled air will kill anybody exposed to it, and advises those in its path to stay inside. Thereafter, he sets off to walk from Philadelphia to New York to rescue his son from his demise.

Viewers start to wonder. Why walk to New York when his expertise is desperately needed to save millions? Anyone familiar with the formula will know it is because he feels guilty about neglecting his son by spending all his time working. So, OK, the human subplots decrease the credibility of the film somewhat, but isn’t the point of a subplot to make the viewer focus on the human element? In this case, apparently so, since the scientific predictions are to a certain degree unfounded. Quaid and Gyllenhaal and the small band of New York survivors do what can be done with an awkward dialogue and an unlikely situation. Dr. Lucy Hall (Sela Ward), Jack’s wife and Sam’s mother, struggles nobly in her subplot, which involves her saving a little cancer patient named Peter. She stays by his side after the hospital is evacuated, calling for an ambulance, which seems a tad optimistic. Soon enough, however, the ambulance arrives. We then learn that this movie is made with Disney-like style, since the good guys survive and everyone escapes.

Despite its flaws, the unlikeliness of the plot makes for a fun movie. Americans becoming illegal immigrants in Mexico is fairly humorous, and the vice president addresses the world via the Weather Channel. "The Day After Tomorrow" is ridiculous and spectacular– and the special effects are stupendous.