Continuity mistake: When Jackson and the kids are at the dried up lake in Yellowstone park, they walk past the carcass of an elk. We change to the long shot, and when the army arrives, the carcass has gone. (00:21:35 - 00:22:05)
2012 (2009)
1 picture
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, Danny Glover, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Plot hole: Given the amount of destruction all over the world, it is HIGHLY unlikely the use of phones by general public would be possible, especially internationally. If any lines of communication were working, they would be completely jammed.
Jackson Curtis: When they tell you not to panic... That's when you run!
Trivia: "Farewell Atlantis" was the fake working title of the film, the same name as the book written by Jackson Curtis in the story.
Question: At the end of the movie, it is stated that the Drakensberg mountain range in South Africa now has the highest altitude in the world, since the "entire plate of Africa has lifted". Isn't this highly unlikely, seeing as the Drakensberg is incredibly far away from any tectonic plate lines? Wouldn't it rather be Mount Kilimanjaro, which is not only already the highest point in Africa (the continental plate of which is implied to have been raised as a whole), but is also a volcano (thereby being more likely to be raised should there be lifting within the plate itself)? I am South African myself, and though I am incredibly proud of our mention, I wonder if it really is plausible.
Answer: It's really impossible to say, given all of the massive land shifting seen in the film. We see the entire coast of California fall into the ocean. It's reasonable (in the film) to assume some cataclysm struck Kilimanjaro to lower or destroy it, or that the continent has been tilted.
In the movie, it was implied that the continent of Africa as a whole remained unflooded. So it stands to reason that the millions of inhabitants of the various countries may have survived intact. And so, the animals and plant life as well. So the question of saving the human species may be moot in this scenario. It's ironic, since most of the scientific community believes that modern humans evolved there first anyway.