What is scarier than an atomic bomb? Keanu Reeves with a cause.

In the upcoming remake of the Day the Earth Stood Still, the actor will step into the role of Klaatu, delivering the message that if we as a species do not act now, global warming will destroy us–changing the original agent of our destruction from war and nuclear weapons.

“The first one was borne out of the cold war and nuclear détente. Klaatu came and was saying cease and desist with your violence. If you can’t do it yourselves we’re going to do it. That was the film of that day,” Reeves explained. “The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s more about man against nature. My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth.”

Though I kind of doubt he used the word detente, Keanu makes sense. After all, what’s more frightening, the skin-searing, city-leveling instant death of nuclear bombs, or the idea that in 500 years time we’ll be able to walk outside without jackets in early March? EARLY March! The horror! The horror!

The new version also, perhaps unwittingly, hits the environmentalist-nail on the head, highlighting their core belief– that nature is more important than the lives of men.

On review though, this switch-over to global warming doesn’t really seem as smooth as I first thought. I haven’t read the story, nor have I watched the original movie, but it seems that the aliens in the original version had some real cause to worry about humanity engaging in ever increasingly sophisticated warfare…I mean, it is conceivable that we would one day create weapons with a range that might endanger other planets.

But global warming? Not so much. Why would aliens feel the need to regulate us destroying our own planet? It just doesn’t jibe. Unless they try to claim that humans in the future will spread the effects of global warming to affect other planets (like the way Halliburton totally caused the mars ice caps to melt).

Then again, I am trying to make sense out of a Keanu Reeves movie, which can sometimes feel like working with an alien rubik’s cube.

Filed under: Freedom on Film, Pop! Goes the Culture