Flirting With Disaster

By the end, the filmmakers -- and the new effects shops they employed -- had to jam 18 months' work into six. ''We [went] a week over -- [the studio] was all freaking out,'' Emmerich says. ''They were, like, storming our editing room, 'Give us the film!''' All in all, Emmerich says he's pleased, although he admits ''there are still 5 or 10 shots [when] I have to close my eyes.''

A passel of environmental groups is hoping to use ''DAT'' to ''open'' some eyes: They're latching onto the film as a high-profile bully pulpit, particularly in the wake of a New York Times report that NASA forbade its scientists to speak about ''DAT'' (the ban was later lifted). ''The Day After Tomorrow,'' accordingly, is now the Film the White House Doesn't Want You to See, as the left-leaning grassroots group MoveOn.org has dubya'd it. On May 24 at Manhattan's Town Hall -- a stone's throw from ''DAT'''s premiere -- MoveOn held a rally for liberal luminaries like Al Gore, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Al Franken to promote environmental awareness (and blast Bush policy). Green-minded volunteers will paper ''DAT'' audiences with global-warming fact sheets opening weekend; the Natural Resources Defense Council is using the film to urge Americans to support global-warming legislation now in Congress.

While the boosters acknowledge that the film's science isn't entirely solid, they maintain that it offers a can't-miss opportunity for discussion. Said Gore in a teleconference: ''The Bush administration is in some ways even more fictional than the movie in trying to convince people that there's no real problem.'' The film's cast and crew, for their part, seem pleased (and slightly puzzled) with ''DAT'''s environmental side effect. ''I can't believe a movie has to be the warning,'' Gyllenhaal says. ''I mean, fly into Los Angeles one day and look at the smog.''

Aided by rising temperatures -- literally and figuratively -- ''Day After'' is poised to be a Memorial Day weekend smash, and Gyllenhaal is remarkably unruffled at the possibility of becoming America's next action star: ''I'd never want to do anything if I looked at it like that -- I'd be like, F -- - it, I'll just stay home,'' he says. ''I'm really tired of people taking big summer movies too seriously, you know? We should all have a little fun.'' It's the end of the world, people. Lighten up.