San Andreas Information

San Andreas is a 2015 American disaster film directed by Brad Peyton and written by Carlton Cuse, with Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore receiving story credit. The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, and Paul Giamatti. Its plot centers on an earthquake caused by the San Andreas Fault devastating Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Principal photography of the film started on April 22, 2014 in Queensland, Australia and wrapped up on July 27 in San Francisco. The film was released worldwide in 2D and 3D on May 29, 2015, received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $473 million worldwide.

Plot

Raymond "Ray" Gaines is a Los Angeles Fire Department Air Rescue pilot in the midst of a divorce from his wife Emma, and planning a trip to San Francisco with his daughter Blake. Meanwhile, Caltech seismologist Dr. Lawrence Hayes and his colleague Dr. Kim Park are at Hoover Dam doing research for a new earthquake predicting model when a nearby and previously unknown fault ruptures. This triggers a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that collapses the dam and kills Park after he rescues a little girl and throws her to Hayes as he falls to the collapsing ground. When Ray is called into work because of this, Blake goes with her mother's new boyfriend Daniel Riddick to San Francisco, instead of Ray.

Hayes discovers that the entire San Andreas Fault is shifting and will soon cause a major earthquake, thereby destroying cities along the fault line.

In San Francisco, Daniel brings Blake to his office where she meets Ben, an engineer from England seeking employment and his brother, Ollie. Daniel and Blake leave the premises, but they become trapped in their car in the parking garage after a string of earthquakes, with Blake getting her legs pinned in the event. Daniel leaves the car and abandons Blake. Soon after, she is found by Ben and Ollie, who help her escape. They then find a working phone in Chinatown and Blake calls Ray and Emma, who fly to San Francisco to save her.

En route, Ray's helicopter fails, forcing him to make an emergency landing at a shopping mall in Bakersfield. Amid the chaos of looting, he steals a Ford F-150 and he and Emma escape. They come across an older couple broken down on the side of the road where the San Andreas Fault has opened up, blocking the road and the couple, who happen to own an airplane, agree to give it up in exchange for Ray's truck.

In San Francisco, Blake, Ben and Ollie are trying to find a place to signal Ray, as the point they agreed to meet at, Coit Tower, is engulfed in flames. On approach, Ray and Emma are forced to parachute at AT&T Park when a 9.6 magnitude quake hits, becoming the largest earthquake in history. Much of the city is left in ruins and Blake, Ben and Ollie narrowly survive. Ray and Emma, realizing they cannot make their way through the destroyed city, are able to commandeer a boat only to see that the water in the bay is beginning to recede, indicating that a megatsunami is approaching.

As it approaches, Blake, Ben, and Ollie run into a building under construction which Daniel helped design. Ray and Emma, accompanied by dozens of other people in boats, manage to make it over the wave before it crests, barely avoiding a huge cargo ship getting caught up in the wave. They then watch in horror as the giant tsunami hits the Golden Gate Bridge with the enormous cargo ship, which snaps the center span cleanly in two; Daniel is among those killed when a loose shipping container crushes him. The wave then proceeds into the ruined city, swamping cruise ships, killing thousands and flooding the building Blake is in. Emma and Ray make their way through the flooded downtown area and are finally able to locate Blake, Ben, and Ollie as the building begins to sink beneath the water. Ray dives into the building to save Blake as she becomes unconscious while trapped underwater, while Emma breaks into the building with the boat and rescues everyone just as the building also collapses; however, it appears too late as Blake has seemingly drowned. Ray, however, manages to resuscitate her, and the family is happily reunited.

They head to a relief camp where the reconciled Ray and Emma talk about their future; on the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge, an American flag unfolds, giving hope that the city will recover and rebuild as rescue vehicles descend on the radically altered landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area. Then the camera zooms out to see the whole Bay Area, showing that the bay now extends south from San Jose to Santa Cruz, turning the San Francisco peninsula into an island.

Cast

• Dwayne Johnson as Chief Raymond "Ray" Gaines, a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter-rescue pilot.
• Carla Gugino as Emma Gaines, Ray's estranged wife.
• Alexandra Daddario as Blake Gaines, Ray and Emma's daughter.
• Hugo Johnstone-Burt as Ben Taylor, an English engineer and Blake's love interest.
• Art Parkinson as Ollie Taylor, an English boy and Ben's younger brother.
• Ioan Gruffudd as Daniel Riddick, Emma's boyfriend & owner of a civil engineering firm.
• Paul Giamatti as Dr. Lawrence Hayes, a Caltech seismologist.
• Archie Panjabi as Serena Johnson, a news reporter.
• Will Yun Lee as Dr. Kim Park, a Caltech seismologist and Lawrence's partner and closest friend.
• Alec Utgoff as Alexi, Lawrence's student.
• Marissa Neitling as Phoebe, Lawrence's student.
• Kylie Minogue as Susan Riddick, Daniel's sister.
• Todd Williams as Marcus Crowlings, a fellow Los Angeles Fire Department member.
• Colton Haynes as Joby O'Leary, a fellow Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter-rescue pilot.
• Arabella Morton as Mallory Gaines, Ray and Emma's other daughter and Blake's sister, who drowned in a rafting accident.

Production

Development

On December 1, 2011, it was announced that New Line Cinema was developing an earthquake disaster film, "San Andreas: 3D", from a script by Jeremy Passmore and Andre Fabrizio; Allan Loeb polished the script. On June 5, 2012, the studio set Brad Peyton to direct the film. On July 18, 2012, New Line tapped Carlton Cuse to re-write the script for the earthquake disaster film. On July 18, 2013 The Conjuring writers Carey Hayes and Chad Hayes were tapped by the studio to re-write the film again. The film was also produced by New Line and Village Roadshow Pictures, along with Flynn Picture Company and Australian limited Village Roadshow.

Casting

On October 14, 2013, Dwayne Johnson closed a deal to star in the film, playing the role of a helicopter pilot searching for his daughter after an earthquake. On February 4, 2014, Alexandra Daddario joined the cast. On March 12, 2014, Carla Gugino joined the cast, reuniting with Dwayne Johnson, with whom she starred in Race to Witch Mountain and Faster. On March 14, 2014, Game of Thrones actor Art Parkinson joined the film's cast. On April 1, 2014, Archie Panjabi joined the earthquake film. On April 5, 2014, Todd Williams also joined the film, to play Marcus Crowlings, an old Army friend of Johnson's character. On April 15, 2014, Colton Haynes was added to the cast of the film. On April 29, Ioan Gruffudd joined the cast of the film. Gruffudd played Daniel Reddick, a wealthy real estate developer who is dating Johnson's character's estranged wife. On May 28, Will Yun Lee joined the cast to play Dr. Kim Park, the co-director of the Caltech Seismology Lab in the film. On June 11, Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue joined the film to play Gruffudd's sister.

Filming

On December 17, 2013 Variety reported that the film would be shot at Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The production was set to start in April 2014 in Queensland, with locations including Ipswich and Brisbane. On March 20, 2014, it was announced that Gods of Egypt had started production in Australia, and San Andreas was set to begin soon after. On April 16, 2014, Johnson tweeted photos from the training for the film.

Filming began on April 22, 2014 in Australia and was also shot in the Los Angeles area, Bakersfield, and San Francisco. On May 12, shooting took place in the Lockyer Valley. On May 10-11, shooting was taking place in Los Angeles and then production went back to Australia to complete the rest of shooting. On May 17, second unit was filming scenes in Bakersfield where a helicopter was spotted, while Johnson was busy in Gold Coast. On June 22, the crew was spotted filming disaster scenes on Elizabeth Street in Brisbane.

The film's second-unit started shooting on July 8, in San Francisco, while the first unit began shooting on July 21, wrapping up on July 27. On July 15-16, first unit was filming in Fisherman's Wharf, while a second unit was also filming in Embarcadero on July 16. On July 21, the filming was taking place at AT&T Park, where the crew shot a scene during a San Francisco Giants game. On July 22, they filmed an earthquake with fake victims and fake garbage at Hyde and Lombard streets in Russian Hill. On July 23, crews were filming disaster scenes in The Armory. On July 26, they filmed some scenes near the Fairmont Hotel, with the last day of filming spent shooting on the California Street in Financial District, wrapping up filming on July 27, 2014.

Music

On July 24, 2014, it was announced that Andrew Lockington would be composing the music for the film.

Three teasers were revealed and two of them include Robot Koch & Delhia de France and Sia singing "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas.

Release

On December 5, 2013, Warner Bros. set the film for a June 5, 2015, release, in 2D and 3D. On October 21, 2014, Warner Bros. moved up the film's original release date from June 5, 2015 then to May 29, 2015. It was the company's first film to be released in Dolby Cinema.

Home media

San Andreas was released on Digital HD and Blu-ray/DVD on October 13, 2015. Upon its first week of release on home media in the U.S., the film topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, and debuted at number 2 at the Blu-ray Disc sales chart with 40% of unit sales coming from Blu-ray, a surprisingly low ratio given the film's over-the-top special effects. It was blocked by the Diamond Edition Blu-ray Disc edition of the 1992 animated classic Aladdin. As of 2016, it is available in 4K UHD Blu-ray.

Marketing

An image from the film featuring Johnson was released on March 17, 2014. The film's first trailer was released on December 9, 2014. Warner Bros. spent a total of $39.4 million on TV advertisement for the film.

Reception

Box office

San Andreas grossed $155.2 million in North America and $318.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $474 million. It became the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 2015, and the fourteenth highest-grossing film worldwide overall. Deadline.com calculated the net profit of the film to be $88.07 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.

North America

San Andreas opened in North America across 3,777 theaters including a total of 3,200 3D locations. Several days prior to the film's release various box office pundits were predicting a $40 million or more opening in North America. It made $3.1 million from Thursday night showings and $18.2 million on its opening day. It earned $54.5 million in its opening weekend which was well above the tracking and predictions. It was Johnson's biggest opening as a lead actor, surpassing the $36 million debut of his The Scorpion King in 2002 even after adjusting for inflation. Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman commented about the successful opening, saying that audiences never get tired of disaster films, even going back to The Poseidon Adventure (1972). He added, "What also gets tiring is when you start to do sequels of the same thing. It needs to be fresh, and you have to have the right chemistry in the cast", pointing out the originality of the film, and the performances of Johnson and the other cast, as some of the factors behind the film's successful opening. In its second weekend, it fell gradually by 52% earning an estimated $26.4 million, falling in second place (behind Spy) as a result of major competition with newly released films. However, the fall was less than that of other disaster movies.

Outside North America

Outside North America, the film opened in a total of 60 countries in the same weekend, including France, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Australia. It opened Wednesday, May 27 in 4 countries, added 38 countries on Thursday and 18 more countries on Friday, May 29 and through Sunday, May 31 earned a 5-day opening weekend total of $63.9 million from 15,420 screens in 60 countries debuting at first place in 55 of those countries as well as at the international box office. In its second weekend, it added $97.7 million. It topped the box office outside of North America for two consecutive weekends before being overtaken by Jurassic World in its third weekend.

It had the biggest opening for a disaster movie and second-biggest for Warner Bros. in Mexico with $10.1 million from 3,100 screens. In China, it had a three-day opening weekend of $35 million and six-day opening total of $51.8 million from 8,795 screens, although Chinese box office analysts site Entgroup reported a $55 million opening. Despite health concerns over the MERS virus, which resulted in the plunge of theater admissions, the film opened to $7.2 million in South Korea (including Wednesday sneaks) and topped the box office. It had similar successful openings in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.2 million), Russia and the CIS ($5.3 million), Brazil ($3.2 million) France ($3.1 million), India ($ 2.5 million), Australia ($2.4 million), Hong Kong ($2.2 million) and Germany ($2 million). It became Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film of all time in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, and in China it is the fourth highest. As of June 28, 2015 in total earnings, its largest market outside of North America are China ($99.3 million) and Mexico ($29.4 million).

Critical reaction

On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 220 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "San Andreas has a great cast and outstanding special effects, but amidst all the senses-shattering destruction, the movie's characters and plot prove less than structurally sound." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

IGN awarded it a score of 7.5 out of 10, saying, "There are some cracks in the foundation, but San Andreas is solid popcorn fare thanks to sharp visuals and The Rock."

Writing in Variety, Andrew Barker wrote, "Of the many charges that can be levied against Brad Peyton's San Andreas, false advertising is not one of them. The disaster pic promises nothing more than the complete CGI destruction of California as foregrounded by Dwayne Johnson's jackfruit-sized biceps, and it delivers exactly that". Andrew O'Hehir wrote in Salon, "Considered as pure spectacle, San Andreas is gripping and effective, as well as a somewhat interesting form of counter-narrative: A vision of near-term apocalypse that has nothing to do with climate change, monsters or alien invaders". Entertainment Weekly's critic Chris Nashawaty wrote, "As patently preposterous, scientifically dubious, and unapologetically corny as director Brad Peyton's orgy of CGI devastation is, its popcorn prophecy of the inevitable is a blast of giddy, disposable fun". Mick LaSalle wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Some movies are easy to mock, but hard to resist. This is one of them". Kevin C. Johnson echoed the sentiment in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "San Andreas is an action film that hits viewers over the head. Again and again. But isn't that exactly why you'd want to go see it?".

The American Geosciences Institute's Earth Magazine called the film "dreadful" and criticized it for "perpetuat[ing] geologic absurdities", also pointing out that "despite the notoriety of the San Andreas Fault, it is not the greatest seismic threat to the Bay Area", with the nearby Hayward Fault presenting a much bigger threat.

Accolades

Award	Category	Recipient	Result
MTV Movie Awards	Best Action Performance	Dwayne Johnson
	Best Hero
Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie: Action
	Choice Movie Actress: Action	Alexandra Daddario
	Choice Summer Movie Star: Male	Dwayne Johnson
Visual Effects Society	Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature	Colin Strause, Randall Starr, Bryan Grill, Nordin Rahhati, Brian Coxu
	Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature	Joe Scarr, Lukas Lepicovsky, Yves D-Incau, Marcel Kern
	Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature	Sandro Blattnber, Hamish Schumacher, Nicholas Kim, Mario Rokicki

Sequel

On February 18, 2016, New Line announced a sequel is in development and its plot will reportedly focus on the Ring of Fire. Neil Widener and Gavin James were hired as screenwriters, while Brad Peyton and Beau Flynn will return as director and producer, respectively. Johnson is set to reprise his role, while Gugino, Daddario and Giamatti are expected to return as well.