More than 20 years later, fans can not get enough of Jake Gyllenhaal in this 2004 hit science fiction film.
The Day After Tomorrow became available for Netflix subscribers on Sunday, Nov. 1. According to MovieWeb, the movie climbed the ranks quickly, becoming the streamers No. 1 watched movie in the United States.
The disaster film takes place as a new ice age freezes the planet. It follows a father who travels from Philadelphia to New York City to rescue his son (Gyllenhaal) after he becomes trapped in the New York Public Library. The 123-minute movie starred Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward, and Ian Holm.
The Day After Tomorrow was a major box-office hit, earning over $552 million with a $125 million production budget. It became Roland Emmerich‘s highest-grossing film. It was based on the 1999 non-fiction book, The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber.
The movie was enjoyed by audiences, but received mix reviews from critics. It earned a 44% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Respected film critic Roger Ebert gave The Day After Tomorrow three stars out of four in his review. He was impressed with the technical work done in the film.
“What surprised me is that it’s also very scary,” he wrote. “The special effects are on such an awesome scale that the movie works despite its cornball plotting…The Day After Tomorrow is ridiculous, yes, but sublimely ridiculous — and the special effects are stupendous.”
The movie was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Special Visual Effects and a MTV Movie Award for Best Action Sequence.
The Day After Tomorrow is now available to stream on Netflix.