Greenland: Bunker mentality
When Armageddon arrives, will you have what it takes to be spared?
John Garrity’s just a regular Dad like you or me — I mean, ok yeah, he’s handsome, and built like a bulldozer and he erects skyscrapers for a living and he’s Scottish —- but other than that, he’s just a normal guy.
So, when’s he’s spending another average Saturday at the grocery store while his young son skitters about asking for juice boxes, you can relate. But when his phone gives off an ominous tone, and he receives a message from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security telling him to report to a local military base as soon as possible, things go from normal to sideways just like that.
Garrity (Gerard Butler) is no secret agent. But he has a skill —like I said, he’s a builder— that might come in handy if, you know, all civilization were to be destroyed. Like tomorrow. Turns out, Garrity has been pre-selected by the government to be spared in the event of global catastrophe and needs to get his family to safety in specially built bunkers below ground in, you guessed it, Greenland. In this case, the impending disaster stems from a comet set to strike the earth. But it could just as soon be something else like a nuclear war.
Garrity has been given the terrible burden of advanced knowledge of the apocalypse. The people around him have been told nothing.
It might come as a disappointment to some of us to discover we don’t possess the attributes required in a post-apocalyptic society. But like highly paid veterans on a rebuilding ball club, we just aren’t necessary. As a reporter and former lawyer, I’ve long realized I lack skills that might be useful to tackle the more basic challenges in everyday life such as building, hunting, cooking, or fishing. Not to mention anything involving science, medicine, engineering or construction. It’s a long list.
If I were thrown back in time to Medieval days like Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee, I would have absolutely no way to prove I came from the future except maybe for my bizarre Midwestern accent. And they would probably just assume I was from Gaul. I have no idea how anything works. I couldn’t predict an eclipse or construct a rudimentary firearm or fashion a lightning rod. And without access to contact lenses, I’d probably end up a street beggar and possibly the first person to get knocked off by the Black Death. (“Pray thee, what is this ‘ibuprofen’ of what you speak, lad?”)
Basically, I’m going to be pretty useless in the government bunker unless they’re looking to start a camp newspaper. But back to Mike Garrity. Just as he returns home to grab his kid and estranged wife (Morena Baccarin)1, word gets out that a comet that was expected to fly close to Earth will smack into the planet instead, ending all life in the process.
The movie smartly includes a background thread featuring cable news channels that flip on a dime from happy talk about the spectacle of the comet fly-by to a sober play-by-play analysis of the impending end of all life on earth. (“The story here is sheer hopelessness and dread. Back to you in the studio, Wolf!”)
Word of the impending cataclysm does eventually get out. Garrity’s neighbors in his tony Atlanta subdivision aren’t thrilled when they discover he’s been spared and they haven’t. In a truly tense scene, they beg him to come along or at least for him take along their young children. He can’t. There’s no space on the evacuation planes. Even as the Garrity family hits the road, there are already signs of the societal fabric fraying and order collapsing. Getting to safety will be no small task.
Although that isn’t its context, the film is a thematic echo of the Cold War effort to ensure the United States would survive a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets. As the arms race escalated in the 1950s, the government developed a “continuity-of-government” plan that involved the construction of several self-sustaining underground bunkers across the country, including one code-named “Raven Rock” in southern Pennsylvania. 2
The rub is that, unlike in Greenland, the bunkers were designed for government officials and military personnel, but no civilians. After the bombs dropped, “America” would still survive, but with precious few Americans.
At the same time, the federal government encouraged citizens across the United States to take it upon themselves in the 50s and 60s to build underground “bomb shelters” equipped with beds, food and water so that they might survive a nuclear exchange and wait for atmospheric radiation levels to drop before returning to the outside. Authorities also identified thousands of sites across the country that might serve as “fallout shelters” in the event of a sudden attack, with the idea that people would be safer inside those structures than outside (although “safer” was probably a relative term).
Switzerland, famously, did the U.S. one better and built a fallout shelter intended to house 20,000 of its citizens. In fact, there were shelters built across the country in order to ensure the nation’s survival. Had a nuclear war actually occurred, the Swiss might have emerged as the greatest world power left standing — with a lot of money in its vaults from Americans and others who no longer would be needing it. Neutrality has its rewards.
But Greenland, oddly enough, was released during a different kind of global calamity — the COVID pandemic — and likely acquired some accidental resonance in the process. But that also meant a lot of people didn’t see it. I discovered it on MAX. As such, I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but it makes for a pretty good Saturday night popcorn feature.
It’s also the rare item: the intelligent disaster film. Its modest budget meant that the film remains a human scale and is never overwhelmed by special effects. No shots of the White House or the Golden Gate Bridge being leveled. The movie is so much better for it. The focus remains on one family’s journey as the end of world approaches. Butler made his movie bones as an action star, and his straightforward single-mindedness is an asset to the story. But he also infuses his character with enough warmth and humanity that he’s intensely relatable, as are many of the supporting characters who largely choose to do the right thing when it matters most.
And to its credit, the movie isn’t afraid to ask some tough questions as to which people are truly worth saving. It suggests that when the end approaches, the true character of an individual will emerge, be it good or bad. That may also pertain to governments, as well. If the end draws near and they don’t pick me to survive, I hope at least they’ll let me know.
WHERE CAN I WATCH IT: Greenland is available on HBO Max and rentable on other platforms.
HEY ISNT THAT? You may remember Morena Baccarin from the late, lamented sci-fi series “Firefly” — but you probably don’t. That’s why it was canceled. And hey. that’s Hope Davis, once the indie darling of the 1990s in films such as Next Stop Wonderland. There is also a cameo near the end that I won’t spoil, but he’s a welcome presence.
ARMAGEDDON INDEX: 10/10. I will spoil this, however: The comet doesn’t miss.
DUST CLOUDS: The United States actually has a military base in Greenland under the command of the U.S. Space Force. Once known as Thule Air Base, it now carries the name Pituffik Space Base to reflect the local culture. It largely serves as a part of the U.S. missile early-warning system, but during the Cold War allowed for easy reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. Given its proximity to the Arctic Circle, I would guess it routinely ranks at the top of the list of Worst Postings in the Armed Forces and subject of numerous threats by superior officers toward their subordinates.
WHAT I’M ALSO WATCHING: TV “The Tourist” (S1, Netflix), “Ripley” (S1, Netflix), The Ladykillers (Mackendrick, 1955), Only God Forgives (Refn, 2013)
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS: nucleartheater@gmail.com.
LAST ENTRY: High Noon (1952)
NEXT ENTRY: Red Dawn (1984)
Wives in these movies are always estranged, because the husband has to prove his bona fides all over again to them. That’s the point. See also Spielberg’s War of the Worlds.
Other worst postings include Grand Forks AFB in ND; unless you want to live in places like Fargo. I met someone stationed there. He hated it. Also Adak Alaska (USCG I think) unless you like very remote parts of the largest state.
Ladykillers, great movie, classic actor combo of Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers. I think Sir Alec is slowly fading from memory (except for Star Wars). If you haven't seen it I would recommend The Man in the White Suit and for Peter Sellers I'm All Right Jack. English comedies from the 1950's were the best
Might I recommend "Blast From The Past"?
It's nothing like the film you just shared, but it's 'almost' post-apocalyptic, and with a great cast including Brendan Fraser, Sissy Spacek, and Christopher Walken you really can't go wrong. Oh, and it's a romantic comedy, with music...and some dance sequences.