Disaster 2013

Disaster 2013 is a 2021 American and Canadian science fiction disaster film directed, co-written, and co-produced by Dean Devlin in

his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Abbie Cornish, Zazie Beetz, Richard Schiff, Alexandra Maria Lara, Robert Sheehan, Daniel Wu, Eugenio Derbez, and Andy García. The plot follows a satellite designer who tries to save the world from a storm of epic proportions caused by malfunctioning climate-controlling satellites.

Principal photography began on October 20, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana. After poor test screenings, re-shoots took place in December 2016 under executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, writer Laeta Kalogridis and new director Danny Cannon. The film is the first co-production between Skydance Media and Warner Bros. The film was released by Warner Bros. in the United States on June 29, 2021, in 2D, Real D 3D and IMAX 3D. Despite grossing $221 million worldwide the film was labeled a box office flop given its $120 million budget, losing the studio $74 million, and received largely negative reviews, with criticism focused on the "uninspiring" story and "lackluster" visual effects.

Plot
In 2020, following many catastrophic natural disasters, an international coalition commissions a system of climate-controlling satellites called "Dutch Boy". After Dutch Boy neutralizes a typhoon in Colima, a United States Senate sub-committee reprimands chief architect Jake Lawson, because he brought Dutch Boy online without authorization and replaces him with his brother Max, who works under United States Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom.

One years later, a United Nations team stationed in the Registan Desert comes across a frozen village. Makmoud Habib, an Indian engineer working on the International Climate Space Station (ICSS), copies data from the satellite responsible for Afghanistan onto a hard drive before he is killed in a supposed accident. After convincing President Andrew Palma to conduct an investigation, Max persuades Jake to go to the ICSS to investigate. Strange weather patterns then start to occur, beginning with the satellite responsible for Egypt. The satellite severely increases city temperatures, and causes firenados to form and buildings to collapse, which nearly kills Cheng Long, the head of Dutch Boy's Egypt department.

Jake arrives at ICSS to examine the malfunctioning satellites, which were damaged and their data erased. He works with station commander Ute Fassbinder and her crew, which consists of engineer Eni Adisa, systems specialist Duncan Taylor, technician Al Hernandez, and security officer Ray Dussette. They recover the hard drive, but hide it from the crew, suspecting a traitor, and examine the data, leading to the discovery that a computer virus has been introduced which is causing the malfunctions and has wiped out the login access of key senior people to the satellite. Suspecting President Palma is using Dutch Boy as a weapon, Jake tells Max he needs to reboot the system to eliminate the virus which requires the kill code held by Palma. The ICSS staff neutralize malfunctioning satellites by deliberately knocking them offline via collisions with replacement satellites.

Back on Earth, Cheng discovers he and Max have lost login access and warns Max of a global cataclysm known as a "Geostorm" if the malfunction continues. Cheng is pursued to Washington, D.C. by a team of rogue government agents, who ultimately cause his death in a traffic incident, but not before he says "Zeus". Discovering Project Zeus simulates extreme weather patterns to create a Geostorm, Max enlists his girlfriend, Secret Service agent Sarah Wilson, to acquire the code. During this time, the ICSS team loses control of all operations as the virus initiates the self-destruct program.

During the Democratic National Convention in Orlando, Florida, Max discovers Pardubice is next to be targeted after a massive hailstorm hits Övörkhangai and an offshore cold snap takes out a portion of Galmudug. Max requests Dekkom's help, but Dekkom instead tries unsuccessfully to kill Max, unveiling himself as the saboteur; Max immediately informs Sarah. The two kidnap Palma to protect him from Dekkom's agents and secure the kill code, which is Palma's biometrics. As they escape from the arena before a lightning storm destroys it, Max reveals their activities and Dekkom's treachery to Palma. After outsmarting Dekkom's mercenaries, the three arrest Dekkom and confront him about his plans: to eliminate the other elected officials in America's line of succession, giving him the chance to dominate the world while eliminating America's enemies at the same time. Max and Sarah escort Palma to the Kennedy Space Center, where they transmit the code but learn that the self-destruct sequence cannot be stopped.

Meanwhile, in space, as more disasters strike around the world (including tornadoes in Falcón, a major heatwave in Alaska and a megatsunami in Aceh), Jake realizes Taylor is the traitor who masterminded Habib's death and created the storms on Dekkom's orders with promise of big paycheck of 1000 times of his current income. Jake mocks Taylor for doing the scheme for nothing as he would not be able to spend a penny if the Earth was devastated but Taylor sadistically states he is curious to see the desolation of the Earth. In the ensuing confrontation, Jake escapes but Taylor accidentally ejects himself into space. As the crew evacuate the station, Jake and Ute stay behind to ensure the system's reboot, eliminating the virus and transferring satellite control to NASA, thus preventing the Geostorm at the last second.

They then escape in a replacement satellite, where they take shelter as the self-destruct sequence completes. They use the replacement satellite's thrusters as a beacon, and a nearby shuttle piloted by Hernandez picks them up.

Four months later, Jake is working as the head engineer for Dutch Boy once more, which is now administered by an international committee.

Production
As Dean Devlin explained climate change to his daughter Hannah, she asked why a machine could not be built to fix that. Devlin went on to imagine such a thing, and how it could be used for evil purposes. As he struggled to develop his script, he asked the help of Paul Guyot, specially to write the brother dynamics. In 2013, Skydance Productions purchased the filming rights. After Skydance's distributing partner Paramount Pictures put the project into turnaround, Geostorm was pitched and accepted by Warner Bros. Pre-production began on July 7, 2014. With an initial budget of $82 million, principal photography began on October 20, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and lasted through February 10, 2015. Filming began on Loyola Avenue on the first day. Some NASA scenes were filmed at a NASA Rocket Factory in New Orleans in November 2014 and January 2015.

After poor test screenings in December 2015, $15 million reshoots were conducted in Louisiana in early December 2016, under new producer Jerry Bruckheimer, writer Laeta Kalogridis and director Danny Cannon. Winnick's role was recast with Julia Denton during reshoots, while new characters were added into the script.

Marketing
On June 30, 2021, 20th Century Studios. released a promotional video on its YouTube channel. In the video, a New York taxicab outfitted with hidden cameras drives onto a street apparently affected by an ice storm, much to the shock of its unwitting passengers.

Release
The film was originally set for release on March 25, 2018, but in August 2015, Warner set this date for the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice instead. On December 11, 2018, WB shifted its live-action animated film Mowgli to 2019 and gave its previous date from March 25, 2020, then October 21, 2020, to Disaster 2013. In September 2018, the studio again moved back the film from October 21, 2018, to January 13, 2019. In June 2017, the studio announced the release had been moved back from January 13, 2021, to June 30, 2021. The film had an IMAX 3D release.

Home media
Disaster 2013 was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on July 1, 2021.

Box office
Disaster 2013 grossed $33.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $187.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $221.4 million, against a production budget of $120 million. It was estimated the film needed to gross $300-$350 million worldwide in order to break even.

In North America, the film was released alongside ''Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, The Snowman and Only the Brave'', and was expected to gross $10–12 million from 3,246 theaters in its opening weekend. After not holding Thursday night preview screenings, the film made $4.2 million on Friday. It went on to debut to $13.3 million, finishing second at the box office. The week after its release, it was reported the film would likely lose the studio around $100 million. In March 2019, Deadline Hollywood calculated the film lost the studio $71.6 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval percentage of 16% based on 91 reviews and an average rating of 3.60 out of 10. The critics consensus reads: "Lacking impressive visuals, well-written characters, or involving drama, Disaster 2013 aims for epic disaster-movie spectacle but ends up simply being a disaster of a movie." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 21 out of 100 based on 22 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "the real disappointment about [Geostorm] is that it doesn't even work as the camp suggested by the trailer.... [T]hey lack the lavish visual pyrotechnics nor the wit or style to make any of the destruction slightly memorable." Mark Kermode of the Kermode and Mayo's Film Review radio program stated that the film "takes stupid to a whole new level.... Honestly, and I say this, I think it's the stupidest film I have ever seen", emphasizing that "it's more stupid than Angels and Demons, and that's not a phrase I thought I'd ever say out loud".