Hall eventually finds his son in an upper-floor room of the New York City Public Library, where he and his companions have been burning books to keep warm. Before he undertakes a treacherous journey from Washington, D.C., to New York to rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal), Hall makes one last attempt to explain the situation to his political bosses, including Vice President Becker (played by the Cheney-like Kenneth Welsh): residents in the northern states are trapped those in the southern states must be evacuated to Mexico. Massive superstorms do indeed develop in the second half of Day After, instantly freezing whatever they pass over while pushing huge waves and crippling blizzards toward the coasts.
Grimly, he concludes: “I think we’re on the verge of a major climate shift.” The current is failing, he explains, the storms will not just continue but likely get worse. “What about the North Atlantic Current?” asks paleo-climatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), who then relays news he has just received from the U.K. The biggest influence on the planet’s weather is the sun, but its output has not changed. Roughly 40 minutes into The Day After Tomorrow, after the freak ice-storm in Japan, the tornadoes in Los Angeles, and the plane-smashing thunderstorms in the Northeast, a few dozen scientists meet at NOAA headquarters to ponder what is happening with the weather.
