Introduction

Geostorm is a 2017 American science-fiction disaster film directed, cowritten, and coproduced by Dean Devlin (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Ed Harris, and Andy García. It follows a satellite designer who tries to save the world from a storm of epic proportions caused by malfunctioning climate-controlling satellites.

Outline

In 2019, following many catastrophic natural disasters, an international coalition commissions “Dutch Boy”, a system of climate-controlling satellites. After it neutralizes a typhoon in Shanghai, a US Senate subcommittee reprimands chief architect Jake Lawson, who brought Dutch Boy online without authorization. He is replaced by his brother Max, who works under US Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom.

Three years later, a UN team stationed in the Registan Desert discovers a frozen village. Makmoud Habib, an Indian engineer working on the International Climate Space Station (ICSS), copies data from the satellite responsible for Afghanistan onto a hard drive before being killed in a supposed accident.

After convincing US President Andrew Palma to conduct an investigation, Max persuades Jake to go to the ICSS to investigate. In Hong Kong, a satellite severely increases temperatures, causes fire whirls and collapses multiple buildings.

Jake arrives at the ICSS to examine the malfunctioning satellites, which were damaged and their data erased. He works with station commander Ute Fassbinder and her crew, consisting of engineer Eni Adisa, systems specialist Duncan Taylor, technician Al Hernandez, and security officer Ray Dussette. They recover the hard drive but hide it from the crew, suspecting a traitor. Examining the data, they discover that a virus has been introduced, causing the malfunctions and wiping out the login access of key senior people to the satellite.

Suspecting Palma is using Dutch Boy as a weapon, Jake tells Max he needs to reboot the system to eliminate the virus, requiring the kill code held by Palma. The ICSS staff neutralises malfunctioning satellites by deliberately knocking them offline via collisions with replacement ones.

Back on Earth, Cheng Long discovers that he and Max have lost login access and warns Max of a global cataclysm known as a “Geostorm” if the malfunction continues. Cheng is pursued to Washington, D.C. by a team of rogue government agents, who kill him in a traffic incident, but not before he says “Zeus.”

Discovering Project Zeus simulates extreme weather patterns to create a Geostorm, Max enlists his girlfriend, Secret Service agent Sarah Wilson, to acquire the code. During this time, the ICSS team loses control of all operations as the virus initiates the self-destruct programme.

During the DNC in Orlando, Florida, Max discovers Orlando is next to be targeted after a massive hailstorm hits Tokyo and an offshore cold snap takes out a portion of Rio de Janeiro. Max requests Dekkom’s help, who instead tries to kill him, revealing himself as the saboteur.

Max informs Sarah, so they kidnap Palma to protect him from Dekkom’s agents and secure the kill code. As they escape from the arena before a lightning storm destroys it, Max discloses their activities and Dekkom’s treachery to Palma. After outsmarting Dekkom’s mercenaries, the three arrest Dekkom and confront him about his plan to eliminate the other elected officials in America’s line of succession, allowing him to dominate the world while eliminating America’s enemies. Max and Sarah escort Palma to the Kennedy Space Centre and transmit the code but learn that the self-destruct sequence cannot be stopped.

More disasters strike around the world (including tornadoes in Mumbai, a heat wave in Moscow, and a megatsunami in Dubai). Duncan is actually the traitor who masterminded Habib’s death and created the storms on Dekkom’s orders, and Jake confronts him.

Duncan, who receives a meagre salary as a software engineer, is doing it for the money from Dekkom. Jake tells him that if he does not stop the Geostorm, Earth will be decimated, to no avail. Duncan is curious to see how the world would end.

Jake escapes in the ensuing confrontation, and Duncan accidentally ejects himself into space. As the crew evacuates the station, Jake and Ute stay behind to ensure the system’s reboot, eliminating the virus and transferring satellite control to NASA, thus preventing the Geostorm at the last second.

They then escape in a replacement satellite as the self-destruct sequence completes. After they use the replacement satellite’s thrusters as a beacon, a nearby shuttle piloted by Hernandez picks them up.

Six months later, Jake is working as the head engineer for Dutch Boy once more, now administered by an international committee.

Cast

• Gerard Butler as Jake Lawson, a satellite designer, former ICSS commander, and Hannah’s father
• Jim Sturgess as Assistant Secretary of State Max Lawson, Jake’s younger brother and Hannah’s uncle
• Abbie Cornish as US Secret Service Agent Sarah Wilson, Max’s fiancée
• Alexandra Maria Lara as Ute Fassbinder, the commander of the space station and DLR/ESA astronaut
• Ed Harris as US Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom
• Andy García as US President Andrew Palma
• Richard Schiff as Virginia Senator Thomas Cross
• Robert Sheehan as Duncan Taylor, a British crew member of the ICSS and UKSA/ESA astronaut
• Eugenio Derbez as Al Hernandez, a Mexican crew member of the ICSS and AEM astronaut
• Adepero Oduye as Eni Adisa, a Nigerian crew member of the ICSS and NASRDA astronaut
• Amr Waked as Ray Dussette, a French crew member of the ICSS and CNES/ESA astronaut
• Daniel Wu as Cheng Long, the Hong Kong-based supervisor for the Dutch Boy Programme
• Zazie Beetz as Dana, a cybersecurity expert, and good friends with Max
• Talitha Bateman as Hannah Lawson, Jake’s daughter and Max’s niece. She is the beginning and end narrator of the film.
• Billy Slaughter as Karl Dright
• Tom Choi as Chinese Representative Lee
• Mare Winningham as Dr. Jennings
• Jeremy Ray Taylor as Emmett
• Gregory Alan Williams as General Montgaff
• Drew Powell as Chris Campbell

Katheryn Winnick had been cast as Olivia Lawson, Jake’s ex-wife and the mother of Hannah, but during reshoots, her role was recast with Julia Denton.

Production

As Dean Devlin explained climate change to his daughter Hannah, she asked why a machine could not be built to fix that. Devlin went on to imagine such a thing, and how it could be used for evil purposes. As he struggled to develop his script, he asked the help of Paul Guyot, specially to write the brother dynamics. In 2013, Skydance Productions purchased the filming rights. After Skydance’s distributing partner Paramount Pictures put the project into turnaround, Geostorm was pitched and accepted by Warner Bros. Pre-production began on 07 July 2014. With an initial budget of $82 million, principal photography began on 20 October 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and lasted through 10 February 2015. Filming began on Loyola Avenue on the first day. Some NASA scenes were filmed at a NASA Rocket Factory in New Orleans in November 2014 and January 2015.

After poor test screenings in December 2015, $15 million reshoots were conducted in Louisiana in early December 2016, under new producer Jerry Bruckheimer, writer Laeta Kalogridis and director Danny Cannon. Winnick’s role was recast with Julia Denton during reshoots, while new characters were added into the script.

Marketing

On 16 October 2017, Warner Bros. released a promotional video on its YouTube channel. In the video, a New York taxicab outfitted with hidden cameras drives onto a street apparently affected by an ice storm, much to the shock of its unwitting passengers.

Release

The film was originally set for release on 25 March 2016, but in August 2014, Warner set this date for the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice instead. On 11 December 2014, WB shifted its live-action animated film Mowgli to 2017 and gave its previous date from 25 March 2016, then 21 October 2016, to Geostorm. In September 2015, the studio again moved back the film from 21 October 2016 to 13 January 2017. In June 2016, the studio announced the release had been moved back from 13 January 2017 to 20 October 2017. The film had an IMAX 3D release.

Home Media

Geostorm was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on 16 January 2018.

Box Office

Geostorm grossed $33.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $187.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $221.4 million, against a production budget of $120 million. Box office analysts estimated that the film needed to gross $300–350 million worldwide in order to break even.

In North America, the film was released alongside Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, The Snowman and Only the Brave, and was expected to gross $10–12 million from 3,246 theatres in its opening weekend. After not holding Thursday night preview screenings, the film made $4.2 million on Friday. It went on to debut to $13.3 million, finishing second at the box office. The week after its release, it was reported the film would likely lose the studio around $100 million. In March 2018, Deadline Hollywood calculated the film lost Warner Bros. $71.6 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

Trivia

• Some of the NASA scenes were filmed at the NASA facility in New Orleans.
• Andy Garcia’s daughter stars in this film with him (She plays Mickey).
• When Jake Lawson arrives on the ISS, he mentions that he and his brother Max were born in the UK but lived in the US.
  • In real life, Gerard Butler is Scottish and Jim Sturgess is English.
• Catastrophic consequences of weather control by space-based stations is also a major plot point in The Noah’s Ark Principle (1984), Roland Emmerich’s directorial debut.
  • Emmerich and Dean Devlin were long-time collaborators.
• One satellite is called RocknRolla, and later the film mentions Mount Olympus.
  • Gerard Butler appeared in RocknRolla (2008) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013).
• On the trip from Earth to the ISS Jake is called “Major Tom”.
  • This is a reference to David Bowie’s 1969 song “Space Oddity”.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Dean Devlin
• Producer(s):
  • Chen On Chu … line producer: Hong Kong
  • Dean Devlin … producer (produced by) (p.g.a.)
  • David Ellison … producer (produced by) (p.g.a.)
  • Herbert W. Gains … executive producer
  • Dana Goldberg … producer (produced by) (p.g.a.)
  • Don Granger … executive producer
  • Cliff Lanning … co-producer
  • Rachel Olschan … co-producer (as Rachel Olschan-Wilson)
  • Marc Roskin … executive producer
• Writer(s):
  • Dean Devlin
  • Paul Guyot
• Music:
  • Lorne Balfe
• Cinematography:
  • Roberto Schaefer
• Editing:
  • Chris Lebenzon
  • John Refoua
  • Ron Rosen
• Production:
  • Warner Bros. (Warner Bros. Pictures, presents)
  • Skydance Media (Skydance presents)
  • RatPac-Dune Entertainment (in association with)
  • Skydance Media (Skydance)
  • Electric Entertainment
  • Twisted Media (uncredited)
• Distributor(s):
  • Warner Bros. (US)
• Release Date: 12 October 2017
• Running time: 109 minutes.
• Rating: 12A.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.

Video Link(s)