The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 apocalyptic science-fiction film that depicts catastrophic effects of global warming and boasts high-end special effects, although the science the story is based on has little credibility.

The Day After Tomorrow premiered in Mexico City on May 17, 2004 and was released worldwide from May 26 to May 28 except in South Korea and Japan where it was released June 4 and June 5, respectively.

Global warming destabilises the climate causing a series of anomalies, eventually leading up to a massive "global superstorm" system containing three "hurricanes", which result in an ice age within days for the northern hemisphere. The movie follows Jack, a paleoclimatologist for NOAA; his son Sam, a high school student; and his wife Lucy, a doctor.

The movie is based on the idea that the Gulf Stream (or North Atlantic drift), an ocean current which circulates warm water from the tropics to the Northern Hemisphere, is disrupted by the melting of the polar ice caps.

This leads to catastrophic changes in the Earth's climate, as the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere stabilises into a new pattern. The changes manifest as three interconnected hurricane-shaped storms spread across the entire northern hemisphere. Although not believed at first, the initial predictions are that this will take some six to eight weeks to take effect. However, these combine over the space of a week to form a huge planet-wide storm system. The eye of the three cells sucks supercooled air from the upper troposphere, causing anyone caught outside to be flash frozen.

The story follows Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist, who has forecasted such an event, though he expects it to happen much more slowly (on the order of 100 or 1,000 years). The movie opens with Jack, in Antarctica, with two colleagues, Frank & Jason, drilling for ice core samples for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The concentration of "greenhouse gases" (e.g., carbon dioxide) contained in the cores is used in a presentation he makes to a United Nations conference held in New Delhi on global warming. In that scene, snow is falling on New Delhi, where it rarely, if ever, snows. Present at this conference is Dr. Rapson of the Hedland Climate Research Center in Scotland. After the conference, Jack and Dr. Rapson meet for a cup of tea to discuss Jack's findings, which establishes a relationship between the two that will be needed later.

Shortly after Dr. Rapson arrives back in Scotland from the conference two buoys in the North Atlantic simultaneously show a large drop in water temperature. Other buoys soon begin showing the same. Dr. Rapson concludes that the melting of the polar ice has begun to disrupt the North Atlantic current and calls Jack to see if his paleoclimatological weather model could be used to predict what will happen.

In Tokyo and Los Angeles, the beginnings of the superstorm begin to show. Large hailstones fall on Tokyo, causing massive damage and fatalities. In Los Angeles, numerous tornadoes devastate the city (and the Hollywood sign). Jack approaches his boss, Tom, at NOAA for time on the mainframe to run his paleoclimatological weather model with Dr. Rapson's data. The results show the global climate will change in 6-8 weeks.

Meanwhile, the FAA stops all air traffic in the U.S. because of the unusual weather. However, two planes didn't get the order in time and crashed in the midwest due to heavy turbulence.

Sam, Jack's son, with his friends Laura Chapman and Brian Parks are attending an academic decathlon in Manhattan. When a severe rainstorm hits Manhattan, Sam calls his father. (According to the DVD commentary, the woman on the other side of Sam from the phone is Kirsten Dunst.) Jack convinces Sam to head back to Washington, D.C. via train the following morning. In the meantime, Sam, Laura and Brian stay at J.D.'s, a fellow decathlete's, apartment in Manhattan. While they are in the apartment, the rain continues and they see on TV that the train terminal has been flooded and service suspended on all trains; this changes their plans to driving. Their plans change once again when flooding continues and car transportion is no longer an option. On their way out of the apartment, electricity goes out in the entire area.

Stranded in Manhattan, and with a waist-high level of water, the group seeks a higher location: the New York Public Library. Before they get there, Laura helps an African woman and her daughter, who are trapped in a taxi by the rising water (both of them can only speak French, and Laura translates for a cop who is trying to help them), and the women get to the library in time The impending storm over North America drastically raises the water level in the Atlantic Ocean, which then floods Manhattan. (Although the height of the water is shown to be up to the armpit of the Statue of Liberty, which is approximately 225 feet (69 meters), the height of the water in the city appears to be substantially less.) In their race to get away from the storm surge, Laura cuts her leg, which will result in blood poisoning later. They make it to the library in time, although thousands have drowned in the wake of the wave.

Trapped in the library (with many others) with no power, Sam manages to call his father on a payphone about what to do. Jack tells Sam about the superstorm and its flash freezing, which was discovered when three helicpters and their crews were flash frozen in Scotland (the fuel in their fuel lines froze), and he tells Sam to stay in the library and burn anything to stay warm, and wait for Jack to come to Sam. While waiting, a Russian ship floats down the street and stops just past the library.

Prior to Jack leaving for Manhattan, he advises the President to evacuate the southern half of the country to Mexico, which he does (while saying that it is too late for people in the north due to the proximity of the storm). Jack's wife, Lucy, however, stays behind to care for a boy with cancer that she is treating until an ambulance arrives. It later does, after everyone leaves, and Lucy and the boy make it to Mexico. As the superstorm approaches, the rain turns to snow and the water freezes. Most of the people in the library leave as they see hundreds of others in Manhattan heading south despite Sam telling them of the dangers. The only people left in the library are Sam, Laura, Brian, J.D., Judith the librarian, African woman Jama and her daughter, neither of whom speak English (the people in the taxi whom Laura stopped to help), a man named Jeremy, a woman named Elsa, and homeless man Luther with his dog Buddha.

In order for this group to survive, Sam successfully convinces them to burn books. Sam (with Brian and J.D.) ventures out to the Russian ship to get Penicillin for Laura's blood poisoning. While they do so, the eye of the storm begins to develop above the city, leading to a race against time to avoid a somewhat incongruous wolfpack and return to the warmth of the fire in the library, in order to survive the flash freezing effects of the descending cold air.

Meanwhile, Jack Hall and his buddy Jason Evans come to grief with their truck just north of Philadelphia as the ice and snow become too deep. They resort to walking from there, and as they do they face brutal hardships from the arctic conditions, and at one point one of their comrades falls into a deserted shopping mall, leading to his death. Eventually, they reach a frozen suburban Wendy's restaurant at the time the eye of the storm passes, leading them to hurriedly get inside and light stoves and fires as the supercooled air descends. Afterwards, near the end (Staten Island, New York) they discover the dead bodies of those who ignored Sam's plea to stay in the library.

The mass evacuation of the southern half to Mexico results in a political drama after Mexico closes the border. In order to get Mexico to open the border, the President agrees to forgive all Latin American debt.

Hall finally reaches New York and finds that his son and the rest of their group have survived. The movie ends with people emerging onto the roofs of skyscrapers to be rescued and Jack (with the library group) being picked up by a helicopter.

The movie was inspired by The Coming Global Superstorm, a book written by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber. The pair used to co-host a paranormal themed talk show. Art appeared on the show throughout the week on his Art Bell Show (now Coast to Coast AM with George Noory) while Whitley hosted the weekend segment of the show entitled Dreamland. On both shows, the co-authors/paranormal talk show hosts would delve into such topics with guests as what life would be like after humans have depleted all of their natural resources and destroyed their environment.

Shortly before and during the release of the movie, members of environmental groups and former Vice President Al Gore distributed pamphlets to movie-goers describing what they believe to be the possible effects of global warming, which generally did not agree with the film.