OPENING THE FLOODGATES 'THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW' HEATS UP DEBATE OVER GLOBAL WARMING AS IT SEEKS TO OFFER SUMMER ESCAPISM.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

In ``The Day After Tomorrow,'' Los Angeles is leveled by tornadoes, New York and New Delhi are buried by snow, and massive storms lay waste to most of Europe. Sounds like (ahem) fun, huh? In case you hadn't already guessed, the film is made by German disaster movie enthusiast Roland Emmerich, who likes to - in the words of his enthusiasts - ``blow things up good,'' as evidenced by previous gleefully destructive efforts like ``Independence Day'' and ``Godzilla.''

The difference here is that it's Mother Nature, not space aliens or a giant contaminated lizard, doing the damage, and that one plot point has environmentalists seizing the day in an effort to push their agenda in front of a larger audience. Their message: Climate change can be a very scary thing.

Twentieth Century Fox has done nothing to dissuade activist groups from hitching their wagons to the $125 million movie. As studio spokesman Jeffrey Godsick puts it: ``You can't argue with free publicity.''

There certainly hasn't been any shortage of it. ``The Day After Tomorrow'' has received more coverage on editorial pages than in entertainment sections, with everyone from ABC News to Time magazine focusing on the film's goofy global-warming scenarios.

The attention on the film's politics has almost made its entertainment value a secondary issue, which may be just what Fox wants. The studio has been keeping the movie largely under wraps; those who have seen it have come away using the word ``disaster'' - and not in the sense that the filmmakers intended.

But the movie's critical merits don't concern environmentalists. When the film opens Friday in multiplexes nationwide, the liberal advocacy group moveon.org hopes to have volunteers outside theaters handing out fliers with information about global warming. The idea is to use the movie's sci-fi scenario as a jumping-off point to promote awareness of an issue that, for most Americans, isn't exactly a top priority right now.

Future imperfect

``The purpose of the film is to entertain people - we know that,'' says Dr. Daniel Lashoff, the science director of the climate center for the Washington, D.C.-based National Resources Defense Council. ``But if it also makes people think about what we are doing to cause global warming and, more importantly, what we can do to stop it, then that's a huge bonus.''

During a telephone conference call, former vice president Al Gore heightened the politicization of the movie, saying: ``There are two sets of fiction to deal with. One is the movie, the other is the Bush administration's presentation of global warming.'' Later he added, ``It's an emergency that seems to be unfolding in slow motion, but it is actually occurring very swiftly - not as swiftly as the movie portrays, but swiftly in the context of human history.''

If you go to Fox's ``Day After Tomorrow'' Web site, you'll find a mixture of movie information, dire climate warnings and calls for environmental activism. Under the heading: ``Global Wake-Up Call,'' there are illustrated alarms about a future where we'll be ``saying goodbye to the Colorado ski season,'' not to mention Venice, New York and Buenos Aires, as well as the Baltimore Oriole (the bird, not the baseball team) and Montana's Glacier National Park. In their place: rampant disease, destruction and hardship.

Scientists and climatologists on the other side of the global warming debate are less than impressed.

``After I saw 'Godzilla,' I wasn't looking out my back door wondering if a giant lizard was going to step on my house,'' says Dr. Robert Balling, director of the office of climatology at Arizona State University and author of three books on global warming. ``This movie is in the same class. It's science-fiction.

``I read where Emmerich said he was hoping it would move politicians to act,'' Balling continues. ``I have a feeling he's hoping all this controversy puts $125 million worth of people in the seats. Whether people act is second on the list of concerns.''

Melting plot

Using the standard disaster-movie formula, ``The Day After Tomorrow'' takes scientific doomsday scenarios to create horrific situations and then steps back and lets its cross-section of human characters try to deal with the problems. There's a balding, dying child trying to stay warm. There's a heroic scientist trying to save his son trapped in frozen New York. And there's a balding (and dying?) vice president, beholden to corporate interests (doesn't remind you of anyone, does it?), ignoring dire climactic warnings with the planet's fate hanging in the balance.

That sort of thing.

From the time a huge piece of ice breaks off the Antarctic Ice Shelf, the weather changes faster than J.Lo swaps engagement rings. (``You can't have people growing old waiting for climate change,'' Balling says. ``You have to get after it!'') The film's accelerated time line has produced universal derision among scientists, but many believe that the movie's core issue is no laughing matter.

``My first reaction was, 'Oh my God, this is a disaster because it distorts science so much,' '' says Harvard University paleoclimatologist Dan Schrag. ``But unlike other Hollywood science movies like 'The Core' and 'Jurassic Park,' this movie involves a scenario that's very likely to happen - not in the way you see it in the movie, but every bit as calamitous all the same.''

Not that most people who buy tickets for ``The Day After Tomorrow'' are going to be thinking about that - even after they leave the theater. Internet movie columnist David Poland, who runs the Movie City News Web site, believes ``America's deep disinterest in global warming, the lack of truly charismatic voices pushing the agenda and the general sense that the weather shift could never happen as quickly as it does in the movie makes the issue a nonstarter.''

``Ultimately, Fox is counting on an audience that wants to see the Statue of Liberty wiped out,'' Poland adds. ``The only message here is: 'We've found a new way of destroying iconic national landmarks that is really, really cool.' ''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- cover -- color) POLARIZED 

`The Day After Tomorrow' sparks gobal - warming debate

(2 -- 3) Global warming? It's more like global boiling as major cities are flooded out of existence in ``The Day After Tomorrow.''