• From: istanbul
  • Registered: 2004-05-13

Topic: The day after tomorrow - revisited

Hi all,

At last I've been to The Day After Tomorrow and really amazed at the amount of the symbols/metaphors that has been used in the film. I think it contains some of expected things to happen as metaphors.

NOTE: If you didn't watch it and you want to, you may not want to proceed because of some spoilers below.

First of all, the tide that sweeps Manhattan directly reminded me of C's Wave material. In Sufi teaching water is the symbol for knowledge. When I looked from that point, some great wave of knowledge is headed this way and anyone who is not ready for it will be swept away. Ones still struggling for material world for example (e.g business men on the bus and the bus driver who took extra money from them).

All the scenes in NYC library were simply amazing. First of all, people who could escape to the building saved themselves - to one point. This means science and culture as we know it will cover us for some time, but then we have to BURN all the knowledge coming from the past to survive. Only Bible were spared and every other book were burned in the library. I think Bible was a symbol for sacred texts. Also the homeless character was very interesting. This reminded me ones who seemed as "outsiders" or "non-adapts" to today's society will adapt the changes much more easily. And main characters were in NYC for a high-school competition, after things happened, one of them said the competition they were there to attend seems very insignificant and foolish now. An open symbol nearly needs no explanation: 3rd density life full of rat race and competition has that importance among the things to come.

"Eye of the storm" had some interesting symbols too. In the library, when people saw that the storm seemed to be finished wanted to go outside. This maybe a symbol for times to come - an artifical peace, harmony time which will trick people to get their defenses down. And then comes the worst of all - sudden freeze. (Stay in 3rd density again & again when the "harvest time" comes??)

But the most amazing scene was the last one - seemingly very unrelated to general flow of the film - but very precious as a symbol: when they looked to planet earth from the space it was never that bright. Light will come after dark times...

Ferit

Change we must, to live again
- Jon Anderson
  • Registered: 2004-04-21

Re: The day after tomorrow - revisited

That's an amazing commentary, Ferit!  I haven't seen the movie yet, and I'm enjoying hearing from those who have.  When we look to the future through our spiritual eyes, what we feel is not fear of destruction but anticipation of liberation.

3 Reply by lyra (edited by lyra 2004-06-06 08:24:58)

  • lyra
  • lyra
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  • From: my own private idaho
  • Registered: 2004-03-25

Re: The day after tomorrow - revisited

Well, here's a copy of a post I submitted on the Goro forum, (started a thread, actually)  called "Symbolisms in "The Day After Tomorrow" on Saturday, May 29th.  It generated a lot of interest for a short bit, and people contributed their own observations, which I'll also post after this one.   But here's my post:

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Many people will watch this movie and only see a movie about an Ice Age hitting Earth -- but I think there's secondary symbolism intermixed with the movie, and those with "eyes to see and ears to hear" will pick it out amongst all the action and the main surface level plot.

Here's a small list of some symbolims or possible symbolisms that I caught in the movie or which I remember reading about here on this forum. I'd be interested to hear if others noticed anything else I may have missed. Add to the list if you can think of something, and maybe we can get a little list compiled.

Warning! -- Spoilers! If you haven't seen the movie and you don't want to get any details before you see it, then maybe this isn't for you!  wink

- The "666" storms - This one was mentioned here on the forum yesterday, so I made sure to look for it in the movie. Sure enough, there are three massive storm systems in the movie shown on the Earth which form these 6-shaped spirals. 6 6 6 . Thought that was very interesting indeed.

- The whole "Where Will You Be?" slogan, featuring the toppled Statue of Liberty. Again, this was pointed out on the forum yesterday, and I find it very intriguing, almost as if they're not really talking about the movie when they say this. "Where will YOU be when the U.S. (lady liberty) falls?"

- The President in the movie gets killed, paving the way for the Dick Cheney- lookalike VP to take his place. But yes, they have an actor playing the VP who's a dead ringer for Dick Cheney. And this dead ringer lookalike gets to become Prez by default, due to the President dying early. I thought THAT was interesting.

- Taking refuge in the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue in Manhatten. Libraries represent knowledge, storehouses of information. Of all the buildings to be in, this was where the writers chose to have the characters wind up? Also, the characters must burn books to keep the fireplace going to stay alive. One book which gets rescued though is the Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed, from the rare books archive. The librarian guy who saves it is ironically an Atheist, but says "If Western Civilization as we know it is destroyed, then I want to save one little piece of it."

- A **RUSSIAN** tanker ship floats down 5th Avenue, coming to a convenient rest in front of the New York Public Library. You don't find out that it's Russian until three of the characters in the movie need to get onboard in search of medicine. Then it's revealed when one of them says that he can't read anything because "it's all in Russian." Russian?? Why Russian? They could have made this boat be ANYTHING, including an American tanker...........so why is it Russian?!!? Then of course there's the symbolism of 5th avenue.

- While onboard the Russian tanker, the three guys find themselves facing three roaming wolves. The wolves escaped earlier in the movie from the New York Zoo after s*** started hitting the fan with the weather and the animals panicked and chewed their way out of some fencing. So of course, there's the big convergence scene where the roaming, frenzied wolves cross paths with the three guys in search of medicine, and the guys have to fend off the wolves who try to attack them. All the while, as the characters also simultaneously try to "beat the clock" to get back to safety at the library across the stree before the flash-freeze storm hits, instantly freezing everything.

This entire scene was absolutely wacked, (but not in a bad way) But it was wacked. When I woke up this morning it was the first thing that popped into my head. If there's something important I miss during the day, it'll usually "pop" into my mind when I'm first waking, when my mind is relaxed and my subconscious can take over. I suddenly thought "Wait a minute", and had the realization about the *Russian* tanker, the confrontation with Wolves onboard the Russian tanker, the tanker being on 5th avenue in general, and all the other possible symbolisms.

- The message of the movie in general regarding those who help others and show selflesness and altruism will be helped themselves, and will live. Those who are selfish and only care about themselves will die. Period.

- Little digs at the "establisment", such as the Jake Gylanhaal character at the beginning telling his dad how he was flunked in Calculus because he refused to show his work on his exam, because he does all the math in his head. His professor didn't believe him, and flunked him. The Jake character is supposed to be a smart cookie, so it was a a dig at the way the Establisment is. At the end, one of the girl student characters is telling Jake about how everything she worked so hard for in school was for nothing, it was for a future which no longer exists.

- I also got the feeling the movie offered a crash course in "Survivalism." Showing everybody what you're going to need to do in the event that things start hitting the fan. Stuff like, keep in mind your location -- *think ahead* -- be resoureful, and be on your toes. Plan, and be prepared. You will walk away from this movie thinking in terms of survival, probably even taking some prepatory measures in your own personal life.

Those are just some highlights. If I think of more, I'll add them. And if anybody here knows of anything, please add it!  smile
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More to come from others..........

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit ... what a ride!"  - Anonymous
-----
"I get by with a little help from my (higher density) friends."
-----

lyra's Website

4 Reply by lyra (edited by lyra 2004-06-06 08:38:13)

  • lyra
  • lyra
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  • From: my own private idaho
  • Registered: 2004-03-25

Re: The day after tomorrow - revisited

Continued....

Some of the better comments from the Goro board worth posting here:


From a poster named Lamm:

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There are a lot of 3’s that dominate the movie.
3 storms
Main characters grouped into 3’s
Family of 3 who are seperated into 3 groups of 3
3 buoys which drop 13 degrees
3 helicopters freeze and fall from the sky
Pay attention to the background and 3’s are all over. Most of the pictures in the background are in vertical groups of 3. As the tornadoes hit LA you will see a group of 3 palm trees. This list can go on and on!

Pay attention to the groupings of 3’s, as they are placed into pyramid configurations constantly. Even the characters are continuously shown in a pyramid shape. Their positions are straight from a Renaissance aesthetic.

I also agree that there is something reverse taking place in the movie. This is very apparent as Americans are forced to “swim the river“? and cross into Mexico as illegal immigrants.

Without question there is a black and white thing going on. Each group of characters (which were grouped In 3’s) consisted of 2 white people and 1 black person. Then there is the homeless black guy who has the black and white dog, which creates another grouping of 3. However, I find it interesting that this grouping becomes 2 black and 1 white.

Note that there are 3 character groupings of 3 which are black and white people. The only group of three that is all white is the hero father's group.

The color blue dominates the movie. Of course this is intended to give the viewer a cold feeling. Everyone is pretty much dressed in blue. The walls are often blue. The coffee cups are blue. The curtains blue. This list also goes on and on. Due to all of this blue, the 666 storms stand out, as they are often shown on screens in red.

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From Goro himself (!) :

"Haven't seen the film yet, but in terms of symbolism it's almost a given that the 'earth changes' aspect should be treated as a metaphor. You gotta be able to remove/transpose that most obvious context in the first place to really start getting into the symbolic clues."

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From Geminis:


"I guess we're on foot from here."

Notice that this was repeated 6 times throughout the movie thereby strengthening that particular phrases importance/symbolism.

Just because I wasn't paying attn to the context prior - I would be curious as to what I'd missed in terms of the meaning. I remember once it was said in teh beginning, once in the flooding scene, once when the kids were going for the PENICILLIN on the Russian tanker (more symbolism?)

Hmmmm...the symbolism is everywhere in this movie!

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From chaosphoenix:


"Anyone think that the russian tanker symbolized the end of oil or maybe even Peak Oil?

I mean, it floats down the street, virtually nobody onboard, like a ghost ship...

...and Sam & company burns books (knowledge) instead of anything else that they could possibly burn, like furniture, to stay warm. What about all the oil on the tanker???
The more I think about it, the more like it seems to be a deliberate choice, as if to say, "look, we can't live like this anymore (using oil). we need to forget everything we know (knowledge=books) and start over." So it could be said that Sam and company survive because they chose to turn away from their former way of life, because they were capable of understanding that the only way forward is to let go of everything we "know."
Sam even says to the librarian, "what else are we gonna burn?" lol.

Look how all the people died in the storm in the film; the cop orders everyone to start moving south because they "know" the rest of the country is evacuating south. Those that clinged onto what they "knew" died in the storm.

As I'm writing this I just had another thought; I hope somebody here knows the 4 digit numbers of the 4 buoys (or was it 3 of them?) that registered the 13 degree water-temperature drops, we should see if they match up with any passages in Revelation or other Bible texts, or if they match up with key dates in history. Remember that when the first buoy went off, it functioned as the first of several warnings of what was to come.


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From Goro again:

"Yeah, Peak Oil. As Gemini said, if there is emphasis placed on the phrase "I guess we're on foot from here," that sounds like saying 'we're out of gas, we gotta start walking now'.  "

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From phlux (also a member of this forum):


"As for the 13 degree temp drop - it is an allusion to significant numbers as a poster pointed out on montalk.net...

13*3=39/2=19.5

19.5 is the latitude that a circle is circumscribed by a traingle and as Goro can tell you - rather significant with regards to sacred geometry sites such as found on the Yucatan and Cairo etc..."

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From me, lyra:

"I'm thinking that it's quite possible that Roland and the other makers of the movie didn't consciously plan much of the symbolism we're noticing. But something may have worked through them to get it in there and get a message out. I just scratch my head and wonder how these guys with such a tin-ear for dialogue and lack of understanding about how real people interact can create movies littered with so much symbolisms.   It's kinda like they're aliens masquerading in human bodies who can make great looking movies with lots of symbolic meanings and important messages, but lack experience in how humans talk and interact.  hehe wink "

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"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit ... what a ride!"  - Anonymous
-----
"I get by with a little help from my (higher density) friends."
-----

lyra's Website

  • From: istanbul
  • Registered: 2004-05-13

Re: The day after tomorrow - revisited

Wow! Thanks lyra! So it seems I'm not the only one around that saw all of these in the movie (I didn't tell these anybody after the film because my friends were saying the movie was a crap - but you were allready talking about these on a forum!) 

Glad to know you're all out there somewhere... ummm.. or should I say "in here"?  smile

Change we must, to live again
- Jon Anderson