San Andreas (2015)

Elevator Pitch: The San Andreas fault on the coast of Californnia is found to be acting up, with a devastating earthquake taking place, destroying much of Los Angeles and then travelling up to San Francisco and destroying the city centre. Ray Gaines, a LA Fire Service helicopter pilot is fortunately in his helicopter when the devastation starts and so is able to fly to the rescue of his estranged wife. Thereafter the two go north, first in the helicopter and then by various other means to rescue their daughter who has travelled to the city with her future stepfather. She has been deserted but with the help of a young Brit contacts her father.

Content: No sex, but with a bit of contrivance Alexandra Daddario gets down to her vest. Otherwise, almost continuous action. Ray rescues a woman whose car has fallen down a hole and thereafter starts about rescuing his family. Buildings fall into the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco. When Ray and his almost ex-wife have taken to a small craft they have to overcome a tsunami and dodge an enormous freighter which is washed past them, eventually destroying the Golden Gate bridge and incidentally killing Ray’s wife’s cowardly boyfriend. Then Ray is required to rescue his daughter from a flooded building.

A View: This is a pretty standard devastation film, with skyscrapers collapsing all over the place and the streets full of vehicles being crushed. It was quite well liked by the critics, but other than the presence of Dwayne Johnson there was little to distinguish it from many other devastation films, most of them also featuring the flattening of LA. However, if you like catastrophe movies this one is as good as any other.

Additional Info: In the first scene Ray uses the “automatic hover” on his helicopter to rescue a driver. Is this possible people have asked. The answer seems to be “yes” but probably not is such restricted situations.