the 2012 movie in summary
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In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley visits astrophysicist Satnam Tsurutani at a copper mine in India and learns that neutrinos from a huge solar flare are heating Earth's core. Helmsley presents his information to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser, who brings him to meet the U.S President Thomas Wilson.
In 2010, Wilson and other world leaders begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. China and the G8 nations begin building nine arks, each capable of carrying 100,000 people, in the Himalayas near Cho Ming, Tibet. Nima, a Buddhist monk, is evacuated and his brother Tenzin joins the ark project. Funding is raised by selling tickets at €1 billion per person. By 2011, articles of value are moved to the arks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Laura Wilson.
In 2012, struggling Los Angeles science-fiction writer Jackson Curtis is a chauffeur for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. Jackson's former wife Kate and their children Noah and Lilly live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon and pilot Gordon Silberman. Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. When they head into an area fenced off by the Army, they are caught and brought to Adrian, who has read Jackson's books. After they are released they meet conspiracy theorist Charlie Frost, who hosts a radio show from the park.
That night, after the military evacuates Yellowstone, Jackson watches Charlie's video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar predict a 2012 phenomenon and the end of the world as we know it. Charlie reveals anyone who attempted to inform the public was killed. Soon after Jackson and his children return home, earthquakes begin in California; heeding Charlie's warning, Jackson rents a private plane. He rescues his family as the Earth-crust displacement begins, causing a 10.9 magnitude earthquake, and Jackson and his family escape from Los Angeles by air as the city collapses and sinks into the Pacific Ocean, killing millions of residents.
They fly to Yellowstone to retrieve a map from Charlie with the arks' location. As they leave, the Yellowstone Caldera erupts; Charlie is killed when he stays behind to cover the eruption. The group lands in Las Vegas to find a larger plane and meet Yuri, his twin sons Alec and Oleg, his girlfriend Tamara and their pilot Sasha. Sasha and Gordon fly them out in an Antonov An-500 as the Yellowstone ash cloud envelops Vegas. An attempted refueling stop in Hawaii is abandoned after seeing the islands consumed by flows of lava as a result of the erupting volcanos.
Adrian, Carl, and Laura fly to the arks on Air Force One. Knowing that his daughter will survive, Wilson remains in Washington, D.C. to address the nation for the last time while millions of people die in earthquakes and megatsunamis worldwide, including himself. With the presidential line of succession gone, Carl assumes the position of acting commander-in-chief.
When Jackson's group reaches China, their plane runs out of fuel. Sasha continues flying the plane as the others escape on a Bentley Continental Flying Spur stored in the cargo hold. Sasha is killed when the plane crashes, and the others are spotted by Chinese Air Force helicopters. Yuri and his sons (who have tickets) are brought to the arks and the Curtis family, Tamara and Gordon are left behind as Sasha and Tamara were having an affair. The remaining group is picked up by Nima and brought to the arks with his grandparents. With Tenzin's help, they stow away on Ark 4, where the U.S. contingent is located. As a megatsunami breaches the Himalayas and approaches the site, an impact driver lodges in the ark-door gears, keeping a boarding gate open, which prevents the ship's engines from starting. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Tamara, and Gordon are killed. Tenzin is injured, the ark begins filling with water and is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the tool and the crew regains control of the Ark before it strikes Mount Everest. Jackson is reunited with his family and reconciles with Kate.
A year later in 2013, the waters are receding. The arks approach the Cape of Good Hope, where the Drakensberg mountains (now the tallest mountain range on Earth) of KwaZulu-Natal is emerging. Adrian and Laura begin a relationship, and Jackson and Kate rekindle their romance.