WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Greenland, now available on premium video on demand.
Greenland is a disaster film starring Gerard Butler as John Garrity, a construction manager, who's picked by the government for a top secret bunker in Greenland. Fragments of a comet are hitting Earth and families are being selected based on their health and ability to help rebuild society, with John's household fitting the bill.
However, as they race across America to hop on a plane to this facility, a series of unfortunate events separates them and threatens their lives due to selfish nature of humanity. As all this drama unfolds, though, the movie has a few plot holes too ridiculous to ignore.
John gets separated from his wife, Allison, and son, Nathan, at a Georgia military facility when he tries to get Nathan's meds from the car. The soldiers don't want a sick kid on board, so it's all a mix-up, which ends with Allison and Nathan being picked up by a couple after a riot. The man, Ralph, throws Allison out and heads back to the facility so they can pretend to be the chosen family.
This makes no sense, because Allison already told them they got flagged for Nathan being sick. Thus, he won't be let back into Greenland, nor would Ralph's wife, Judy, if she pretends to be Allison. In addition, Ralph doesn't have a military band, so there's no way he would be let inside. Ralph and Judy have already been turned away for having no bands, so they know how the process works. It's also odd they just expect Nathan to remain quiet about being kidnapped.
As John hitches a truck ride to the next military compound, word spreads that secret planes are leaving various airfields and heading to Greenland. John eventually gets his family back and at his father-in-law's home in Lexington, the news reports other planes are heading there. It's supposed to be secret, so it's unclear why these are being reported as fact. It's also unclear who leaked the information and why the plans aren't being labeled as unsanctioned.
Obviously, this plot convenience is meant to convince John and his family -- as well as many others -- to head to Canada to get a flight over. There must be repercussions, because the government wouldn't want this being published. Also, one has to think they'd shut the stations down if their secret plan is being leaked across all media.
Greenland makes it seem like a bunch of small planes are flying to the bunker, but when John's family gets to the airfield, there's no security or anything to stop anyone from taking over the planes. Riots have broken out in Georgia, so these places should be overrun -- especially with media reporting on flight locations and routes.
It's odd that the military lets these unsanctioned planes land and are all too eager take the refugees into Greenland. They went out their way to ensure no sick people, such as John's kid, could be included in their new society, yet they don't shoot down the planes or reject people, which seemingly goes against the entire premise of the film.
Being so welcoming nullifies the order and numbers involved in the entire project, which was supposed to be clean and exact. There's nothing in place to really stop invaders from coming in, so it's just weird knowing the bunker went from selective to an all-inclusive affair where anyone who made it over is automatically included in the group.
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh and starring Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd and Scott Glenn, Greenland is now available on premium video on demand.
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