Greenland 2: Migration (2026) Lionsgate/Action-Adventure-Thriller RT: 98 minutes Rated PG-13 (some strong violence, bloody images, action) Director: Ric Roman Waugh Screenplay: Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling Music: David Buckley Cinematography: Martin Ahlgren Release date: January 9, 2026 (US) Cast: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roman Griffin Davis, Amber Rose Revah, Trond Fausa, Tommie Earl Jenkins, Ken Nwosu, Sophie Thompson, William Abadie, Neila Valery Da Costa, Susan Elijack, Raoul Denez.
Rating: ***
Here we are. Another January, a whole new batch of movies dumped in cinemas by studios hoping for a hit by default. Some titles are more of a gamble than others. While I have no doubt the bloody killer chimp movie will do very well, others like Greenland 2: Migration aren’t a sure bet. It’s the sequel to a 2020 movie I didn’t even know existed until I saw the trailer for the new one. It came out during the pandemic and did reasonably well which is surprising given that it deals with a world-ending natural catastrophe. It wasn’t exactly an escape from reality.
I’m sure many of you are surprised that the studio greenlighted Greenland 2: Migration. Did Greenland really need a sequel? It looks like somebody thought so because here we are. Gerard Butler (Geostorm) reprises his role as John Garrity, the structural engineer chosen for prioritized sheltering at a bunker in Greenland with his family, wife Allison (Baccarin, Deadpool 1-3) and son Nathan (Davis, Jojo Rabbit). It was a journey fraught with peril and obstacles, but they made it in the nick of time. The movie ends like most disaster movies, with the vow to rebuild what was lost.
As the new movie opens, it’s been five years and the world rebuilding hasn’t even started. The after-effects of the comet still remain. The radiation level is still high. Electrical storms are earth tremors are frequent occurrences. Supplies are running short. The people try to make the best of it, but they’ve had enough.
Then it happens. A huge tremor causes the structure to collapse. Everybody panics. John and his family are among the lucky few who end up on a lifeboat that takes them away right as a tidal wave hits. It’s decided that they should head to Europe in hopes of finding a place that might or might not exist, a place called “The Crater”. Created by one of the comet’s fragments and located in the south of France, it’s an idyllic place containing all the basic necessities of life (i.e. fresh water, breathable air, arable soil). It’s their only hope of survival.
To get to The Crater, the dwindling group of survivors must make their way through a hostile wasteland where death could strike at any moment. If it isn’t sudden storms, it’s trigger-happy soldiers or insurgents. In one scene, they have to cross a worn rope bridge and rickety ladders over a huge gaping chasm. All the while, the Garritys have to deal with a personal (and unfixable) crisis involving a character’s health.
Greenland 2: Migration is one of those rare cases where the sequel is better than the original. I know, I’m shocked too. So help me, I enjoyed this one. Directed again by Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen), he dials down the human drama and puts the focus on action and thrills. In other words, it’s more like a traditional disaster movie complete with supporting characters we know are doomed from the outset and cheesy CGI effects. We get the usual scenes of destruction, sudden violence and the principals barely escaping with their lives. Waugh pretty much scraps the whole family angle. It barely even registers that the son is diabetic. That brings up one of the film’s biggest plot holes, where have they been getting the teen’s insulin for five years? The government wouldn’t have stocked up on it in the bunker. There wasn’t supposed to be anybody with a medical condition. And it’s not like CVS stayed open after the apocalypse.
I’d like to walk back what I said about human drama (or the lack thereof) in Greenland 2: Migration. There is some, but it’s not about the Garritys. They run into a French guy (Abadie, Emily in Paris), who takes them in for a night in exchange for taking his teenage daughter (Da Costa, Last Summer) with them when they go. It’s the one thing treated with any amount of gravitas. It’s cliched, but it works.
I’m not even going to comment on the acting. It’s okay. It’s just what you’d expect in a movie like this, one populated by stock characters. Butler grunts his way through another movie, playing action hero like he always does. Davis is a fine replacement for Roger Dale Floyd as the now-teenage Nathan. Okay, here’s another plot hole. The kid was 7 in the first movie; he’s 15 in the sequel which takes place five years later. How can this be? Where did the other three years go?
I’m willing to cut Greenland 2: Migration a lot of slack. Sure, it’s dumb, cliched and unoriginal. The screenplay by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling cobbles together story elements from 28 Days Later (2003), Children of Men (2006), The Road (2009) and Sorcerer (1977). Yes, the effects look cheesy in spite of the $90M budget. On the upside, it’s entertaining and moves along at a nice pace. It’s fun as far as movies like this go. It’s definitely better than one would expect from a January release.
