Geostorm

Geostorm is a 2017 American science fiction disaster film about a satellite designer who tries to save the world from a storm of epic proportions caused by malfunctioning climate-controlling satellites.

Directed by Dean Devlin. Written by Dean Devlin and Paul Guyot.

Some Things Were Never Meant to Be Controlled  (taglines)

Jake Lawson

• Think of it like I'm taking a vacation.
• Yeah, sorry about that. I literally had to fly in from outer space.
• We built a system of satellites to stop natural disasters and someone is using it to create them.
• This was my life's work, Max. You know, they said it was impossible, but we pulled it off. And it worked perfectly, without failing, day after day, year after year, so what do people do with it? Turn it into a gun.
• Yeah, I think we’ve established that. This is not a Chromebook; you don't just hit the power button. You need the kill codes, and the only one who has them is the President.

Assistant Secretary of State Max Lawson

• I don't need to remind you how many people died from catastrophic climate conditions.
• Not a satellite, all of them.
• We have to shut the system down!
• Jake, if you can't stop it, no one can.
• Look, I know you think I'm a weasal, someone who moves pieces around a chessboard for a living. And you know what? You're right. I am. But that is how you get 17 countries to agree to build a space station. Now, you build things, right? Well, there is something wrong with the thing that you built, and people are dying. And if you think you're the best, which I know you do, then how can you stand there and say no?
• It's worse than we thought.
• Having me and my brother lead the investigation was a setup from the start. I mean, think about it. He hired us to fail.

Secret Service Agent Sarah Wilson

• Assistant Secretary Lawson, I'm not permitted to engage in casual conversation while I'm at a post. We are being watched. We're always being watched. [Max Lawson: Well, if we're always being watched, then what's the point of hiding anything?] You're interfering with my duties. I'd rather not shoot you. [Max Lawson: Well, it would be an honor to be the first person that you kill.]

Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom

• The President is the kill code.
• What the hell is Dutch Boy if not playing God?

President Andrew Palma

• Thanks to a system of satellites, we can control our weather.
• United, we stand! United, we can!
• You realize you’re committing treason!

Hannah Lawson

• [Narrating] Everyone was warned, but no one listened. A rise in temperature, ocean patterns changed. And ice caps melted. They called it extreme weather. They didn't know what "extreme" was. In the year of 2019, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and droughts unleashed a wave of destruction upon our planet. We didn't just lose towns or beachfronts. We lost entire cities. The East River swallowed Lower Manhattan. A heat wave killed two million people in Madrid in just one day, but in that moment, facing our own extinction, it became clear that no single nation could solve this problem alone. The world came together as one, and we fought back. Scientists from 17 countries led by the U.S. and China worked tirelessly, not as representatives of their nations, but of humanity. They found a way to neutralize the storms with a net of thousands of satellites each deploying countermeasures designed to impact the basic elements of weather, heat, pressure, and water. All overseen by the International Space Station. They gave the satellite net a technical name, but we all came to call it Dutch Boy after the story of the child who plugged a dam with his finger. This is what saved us all, and it was built by a team led by one man: My father.
• Are you going back up to space?
• To a place two hundred and fifty miles straight up and negative four hundred and fifty degrees. Some holiday.
• [Narrating] You can't undo the past. All you can do is face what's ahead. NASA maintained the satellites while we rebuilt the space station. We made it safer, made it stronger. It belongs to all of us now. One planet, one people. And as long as we remember that we share one future, we will survive.

Dialogue

Max Lawson: My access has been blocked.

Dana: So a satellite has a bad comm, that happens.

Max Lawson: Not a satellite, all of them.

---

Cheng: There’s potential for catastrophic weather events on a global scale. A geostorm.

---

Sarah Wilson: Seriously? We're kidnapping the president in a self-driving cab?

---

President Andrew Palma: You are implicating the Secretary of State in this. Do you realize you’re committing–

Max Lawson: Treason? Oh, yeah. I've kidnapped the president, I’ve stolen state secrets. (to Sarah) Yeah, anything I’m forgetting honey?

President Andrew Palma: Honey?

Max Lawson: Guilty.

[A bridge is about to collapse above them.]

Sarah Wilson: Hold on!

[Sarah manages to swerve the car away from the collapsing bridge.]

President Andrew Palma: Marry her.

---

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: How the hell did you–

President Andrew Palma: How? Because I'm the goddamn President of the United States of America. You're done, Leonard.

[they are immediately surrounded by Florida State Trooper cars and an Orlando Police helicopter.]

Sarah Wilson: He's all yours. [Releases Dekkom to two officers]

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: I've given you an opportunity, Mr. President, you should take it.

President Andrew Palma: An opportunity? Let him go! [The officers release Dekkom] It's GENOCIDE, Leonard!

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: You say "genocide", I say "pre-emptive strike".

President Andrew Palma: You've lost your mind!

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: Tomorrow, the sun will rise, all our enemies will be gone. Wiped away as if by the Hand of God.

President Andrew Palma: Why would you do this?

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: Because no-one else would. I'm turning the clock back to 1945, when America was a shining city on a hill, not just a bank disguised as a country.

President Andrew Palma: By playing God?

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: What the hell is Dutch Boy if not playing God? Ask Max, he knows. Science is all about playing God. Sometimes God doesn't play so nice.

Max Lawson: Yeah, well, you know what my brother would say?

Secretary Leonard Dekkom: What?

[Max punches Dekkom.]

Taglines

• Some Things Were Never Meant to Be Controlled
• Control the Weather, Control the World
• Brave the Storm

Cast

• Gerard Butler as Jake Lawson
• Jim Sturgess as Assistant Secretary of State Max Lawson
• Abbie Cornish as U.S. Secret Service Agent Sarah Wilson
• Ed Harris as U.S. Secretary of State Leonard Dekkom
• Andy García as U.S. President Andrew Palma
• Richard Schiff as Virginia Senator Thomas Cross
• Alexandra Maria Lara as Ute Fassbinder
• Robert Sheehan as Duncan Taylor
• Daniel Wu as Cheng Long
• Eugenio Derbez as Al Hernandez
• Zazie Beetz as Dana
• Adepero Oduye as Eni Adisa
• Amr Waked as Ray Dussette
• Talitha Bateman as Hannah Lawson
• Billy Slaughter as Karl Dright
• Tom Choi as Chinese Representative Lee
• Julia Denton as Olivia Lawson