During his wrestling career, Dwayne Johnson often referred to himself as "The Most Electrifying Man in Sports and Entertainment". It's a title he more than lived up to, especially in the early 2010's as he became a pillar of multiple franchises. Whether it was helping turn the Fast & Furious films into a blockbuster behemoth with Fast Five or attempting to juice up G.I. Joe Retaliation's box office prospects, Johnson was slowly building himself into a bankable star. The film that arguably cemented him as a bona fide movie star, though, is the disaster thriller San Andreas.
Like the title suggests, San Andreas centers on a series of earthquakes triggered by a massive shift in the San Andreas Fault, which causes cataclysmic damage to California's biggest cities. Caught in this chaos is Johnson's Ray Gaines, a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter pilot. San Andreas focuses on Ray's efforts to save his ex-wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), while his daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario), also struggles to survive. San Andreas has all the thrills and stars you'd expect in a disaster epic, but you'll only have a few weeks to catch it before it departs Netflix on October 21.
'San Andreas' Pits Dwayne Johnson Against The Forces of Nature
The biggest draw of San Andreas, other than its jaw-dropping scenes of Los Angeles and San Francisco being wrecked by nature, is its star-studded cast. Johnson and Gugino's chemistry as Ray and Emma is palpable, giving off the sense of two people who drifted apart yet are slowly remembering everything they used to love about each other. Daddario, rather than falling into the stereotypical "helpless teenage daughter" stereotype most action movies thrive on, gets her own standout moments during Blake's scenes. Rounding out the cast is Paul Giamatti, lending a unique gravitas as a seismologist, and Ioan Gruffudd, dripping with smarm, as Emma's rich boyfriend.
San Andreas also poses a different challenge for Johnson, as he must fight against the forces of nature itself. Up to that point, most of his opponents were humans who were able to fight him hand-to-hand. You can't fight an earthquake or a tsunami, though, meaning that San Andreas shows Ray utilizing his brains to outrun the disaster that's literally ripping the ground out from under his feet. The best disaster movies also establish a connection with their audience through the protagonist, which San Andreas achieves. Ray's need to reunite with his family is a relatable one, and Johnson sells the desperation of a man who wants to hold his wife and daughter in his arms, even as the world ends around them.
A 'San Andreas' Sequel Never Materialized, Despite Its Blockbuster Success
San Andreas was a significant success in multiple ways. Not only did it cement Dwayne Johnson as a bona fide movie star, but it was also one of the highest-grossing original movies of the 2010s. That's a feat that seems nigh impossible to pull off in an age where IP was becoming king, but it's awe-inspiring considering San Andreas was less than popular with film critics. A sequel quickly entered development, with Johnson slated to return alongside Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, and director Brad Peyton.
That sequel has yet to manifest. Hiram Garcia, the president of production at Johnson's Seven Bucks label, did reveal in a Collider interview that the company tends to focus on what's next on their slate rather than crank out sequels:
It's a matter of our slate and the stories we want to tell. We're very calculating in what we want to tell, but, look, if our studio partners had their ways, they want a Journey 2: Mysterious Island sequel, they want a San Andreas sequel, they want a Rampage sequel. It's like all of those movies, the studio was clamoring for a sequel, but we felt collectively, "Look, we told a great version of the story. Now, we want to go to tell another story somewhere else."
Whether it receives a sequel or not, San Andreas is still a standout in Dwayne Johnson's career. It proved he was a star, and that disaster movies can still work in the right hands. Fans of Johnson's work have a few weeks before San Andreas leaves Netflix to check out its star-studded, earth-shaking spectacle for themselves.
4.0/10 San Andreas 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like PG-13 Thriller Drama Action Release Date May 29, 2015 Runtime 114minutes Director Brad Peyton Writers Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, Carlton Cuse, Allan Loeb Cast See All Carla Gugino Alexandra Daddario Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY
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