The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

1 commented-on entry since 21 Dec '24, 02:04

(14 votes)

Question: Why would Sam and his friends go to the library?

Answer: Possibly because it was the closest building with height to it as they are about to be hit by a gigantic wave of water. There was no snow yet, so I don't believe burning books or snow was on anybody's mind yet. It turned out to be a great idea as snow soon starts to fall and those books were literally a life saver.

Susan D. Santos

Answer: It was the closest building they could access. While the smarter move would have been to just go back to JD's apartment (which Brian and Laura suggest) it may have been too far a walk to get out of the flooding streets.

Answer: Big building with lots of space and lots of books to burn for heat.

Ssiscool

Why did they burn the books and not the wooden shelves that the books were on?

As for burning books rather than shelves, it was just easier. They would have had to expend more energy to break down the shelves into manageable size.

They burn books instead of the wooden shelves because burning books is a quicker and more efficient way to generate heat in a desperate situation, as the paper readily catches fire and produces a substantial amount of heat compared to solid wood, which might take longer to burn properly.

Other mistake: At the end of the film when they arrive in NYC looking for the library, we know that they survived because they are inside with a roaring fire burning. But where is the smoke up above, as Jack Hall approaches? There must be a chimney, or else they would have all died of asphyxiation.

kiazersoza

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: As already corrected, just because we can't see an outlet for the smoke doesn't mean there isn't one. White smoke against white snow is very hard to see.

Nik Rolls

But they were still burning the books, which meant the smoke should be black, if they stop burning the books, the smoke would have been white, which isn't the case in the movie.

Just looked at a boatload of videos of burning books, including one in a fireplace, and the smoke was indeed white.

More mistakes in The Day After Tomorrow

Sam Hall: Look, I got every question right on the final, and the only reason Mr. Spengler failed me is because I didn't write out the solutions.
Jack Hall: Why not?
Sam Hall: I do 'em in my head.
Jack Hall: Did you tell him that?
Sam Hall: I did. He said he didn't believe me. He said that if he couldn't do them in his head, then I must be cheating.
Jack Hall: Well, that's ridiculous! How can he fail you for being smarter than he is?
Sam Hall: That's what I said.
Jack Hall: You did? How did he take it?
Sam Hall: He flunked me, remember?

More quotes from The Day After Tomorrow

Trivia: Before the film was released, N.A.S.A. sent a memo out to all of its employees stating that they were not allowed to comment on the likelihood of the events portrayed in this movie.

Bowling255

More trivia for The Day After Tomorrow

Question: On which continent does the movie start?

Answer: Antarctica.

Friso94

More questions & answers from The Day After Tomorrow

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