My boyfriend is a total film buff, so he always has the perfect movie recommendations for my niche moods. On a recent date night, I was craving something scary, but not supernatural, jump-scare scary; something that would get my pulse racing but not have me waking up in the middle of the night with a vision of a possessed nun standing in front of my bed. He suggested 2020's Greenland, starring Gerard Butler, but refused to elaborate on what it was about. "Trust me, you'll like it," he said. I definitely did—but to say that it didn't have me waking up in a cold sweat for nights after would be a lie.
I went in totally blind, but when the film started dropping hints (via radio broadcasts in the car, unassuming chatter in the background) about an impending comet "passing by Earth," I quickly saw where it was going. Greenland is indeed an apocalyptic disaster movie, but it's much more subdued than your typical big-budget blockbuster. In fact, while there is plenty of fiery space fragments and bone-chilling footage of cities destroyed, much of the drama and tension comes from the human aspect of a family navigating (and trying to survive) the end of the world.
