End Day

Interesting but flawed. The effects are fairly well done. Not a lot of new info here that most people don't know.

Entertaining and short.

This is a BBC docudrama featuring several scenarios that could herald the end of civilisation as we know it . The premise sees a scientist involved with particle acceleration waking up and catching a plane to a conference in New York only to have his travel plans disrupted because of several different scenarios

1 ) A volcanic eruption in the Atlantic causes a massive tsunami to hit the Esatern seaboard of America killing millions

2 ) A series of explosions in the Middle East aren't the work of terrorists but are in fact fragments of an approaching meteor that crashes in to Berlin killing millions

3 ) A passenger arriving from the Far East is found dead at Heathrow airport , the first victim in Britain of a virus that will eventually decimate continents

4 ) A supervolcano erupts at Yellowstone park throwing thousands of tons of soot and ash in to the atmosphere leading to a " volcanic winter "

5 ) The particle acceleration experiment goes ahead leading to the creation of a black hole that will eventually destroy the planet

It's interesting in hindsight that one scenario , the one involving a particle accelerator has been and gone with no bad consequence to humanity where an experiment took place with the Haldron Collider in Switzerland in March 2010 which is something the programme pointed out . There's always a fear of the unknown where science is concerned and science always gets a bad rap since it tells humanity things they don't want to hear such as God is not only dead but he never existed in the first place . Likewise bad things happen such as viruses , earthquakes and meteors that can destroy whole species but science will probably never evolve enough to defeat these forces of nature

Certainly it's a thought provoking docudrama but perhaps pulls it punches a little too much . None of the scenarios apart from the speculation of the particle accelerator leads to what scientists describe as an " extinction event " where mankind dies out overnight . It's within the realms of possibility that a extinction event of any kind could happen within our lifetimes however remote this might be but didn't seem hammered home enough

There are five possible endings and two levels of the movie.

The first level is science fiction, ie. fiction based on science. Scientists do comment the different possible scenarios: Super tsunami, super eruption, meteor collision, virus outbreak and strangelet creation. Most of these happenings do not lead to the end of the world, some of them are displayed actually in very mild manner (like the meteoric impact which would be way way more devastating that displayed). But never worry, it is worthy of your time anyway.

The second level is pure scifi, ie. story about the man who wakes every day to experience another end of the world. The parallel stories are actually very well connected and it is extremely enjoyable. You can even see these little details like references to dinosaurs in meteorite plot. I would say this was done better that many "real" scifi movies. It worked for me, I really enjoyed it several times. I could watch another set of scenarios, maybe even darker ones.

Way to go, BBC, great work!

This is a great made for TV disaster movie. If you love the genre you should see it. No, it's not a billion dollar budget, but it can still be an 8 for what it is. Maybe a 7.5 but I always round up if I think the general rating is too low.

I don't get the low rating for this well done little movie. In the style of "Groundhog Day" , it presents several possible mega-catastrophes, two of which have actually occurred since this docu-drama was made, in 2004. The last catastrophic event dramatized in the movie is a physics experiment gone wrong. It is the most catastrophic of all, but, No Spoilers, you'll have to watch the movie.