January 16, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh
Culture Representation: Taking place in Europe, the sci-fi action film “Greenland 2: Migration” (a sequel to 2020’s “Greenland”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A structural engineer, his wife and their teenage son seek out an almost-mythical crater paradise after their underground bunker is destroyed by post-apocalyptic earthquakes and explosions.
Culture Audience: “Greenland 2: Migration” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the 2020 “Greenland” movie, and formulaic disaster action flicks that don’t want viewers to think about all the plot holes in the story.
The apocalyptic action sequel “Greenland 2: Migration” is stupidly contradictory with science and survival techniques. The movie wants viewers to forget that people can’t survive without masks in the toxic air that’s supposed to be everywhere. The first third of the movie is spent over-explaining that apocalypse survivors are living in an underground bunker in Greenland because the air is filled with radiation and ash, making it too dangerous in the world to go outside without a mask. And yet, for the rest of the movie, all you see are people without masks outside and not dying from the supposedly deadly air.
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh, “Greenland 2: Migration” was written by Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling. It’s a sequel to 2020’s “Greenland,” which was directed by Waugh and written by Sparling. Waugh is one of the producers of “Greenland 2: Migration,” which was filmed in the United Kingdom, where much of the movie’s story takes place.
The first “Greenland” movie wasn’t outstanding, but it was entertaining and had plenty of suspense and mostly believable scenarios in its story about an Atlanta-based family of three (a husband, a wife and their son) who are involuntarily separated during an environmental apocalypse (caused by the Clarke interstellar comet), as they and other survivors from around the world try to make their way to an underground safety bunker in Greenland. This bunker, which is located in a place called Thule Airbase, was built years before, in case of this type of emergency.
“Greenland 2: Migration” takes place five years after the events in “Greenland.” John Garrity (played by Gerard Butler), his wife Allison Garrity (played by Morena Baccarin) and their 15-year-old son Nathan Garrity (played by Roman Griffin Davis) have been living in the bunker with various people from around the world, although it looks like people from the U.S. military are mostly in charge. Roger Dale Floyd had the role of Nathan in the first “Greenland” movie, which made Nathan’s diabetes a big part of the drama. In “Greenland 2: Migration,” Nathan’s diabetes barely gets mentioned.
Before the apocalypse, John (who is originally from Scotland) worked as a structural engineer. His experience and skills come in handy when he is sent as a scout to look for places above-ground that might be inhabitable. John has to wear what can only be described as an astronaut suit with a gas mask for these scouting expeditions. The air is supposedly so toxic, he can only spend a limited time outdoors because (as shown in the movie’s first big action scene), he can get caught in a radioactive storm and has to run for his life. John is one of the few people from the bunker who has the authority to go outdoors.
One day, John finds out that Nathan went outside for a few minutes. John yells at Nathan, even though Nathan says he wore a mask. The beginning of the movie mentions multiple times that people inside the bunker are dealing with a lot of stress that’s affecting their mental health. It’s also mentioned that the number of therapists chosen to be in the bunker are far more than the number of surgeons in the bunker.
In the beginning of the first “Greenland” movie, the marriage of John and Allison was on the verge of divorce, but the disaster brought them back together. Five years later, in “Greenland 2: Migration,” the marriage of Allison and John is still going strong, but they are feeling restless about how long they have to live in an underground bunker. John is convinced that it’s possible to live safely above-ground somewhere on Earth.
John has heard stories that the Clarke comet caused a giant crater, known as the Clarke crater, located in the south of France, which is supposedly a paradise that is immune from the toxic air, and people have started rebuilding there. There is no Internet service or cell phone service in the bunker. John has heard these Clarke crater reports through word of mouth and the short-wave, two-way radios that are being used in this post-apocalyptic world. The bunker has video monitors and computers that are somehow connected to what’s left of the U.S. government.
Allison is a mid-level leader of some type of community task force inside the bunker. This task force consists of people such as government officials and scientists. The leader of the scientists is Dr. Casey Amina (played by Amber Rose Revah), whose specialty seems to be geophysics. One day, the bunker gets a distress signal from unknown refugees, and the task force has to vote on whether or not to let the refugees in the bunker, even though resources (such as food and fresh water) are running low. A narrow majority of the task force, including Allison and Dr. Amina, vote to allow the refugees in the bunker.
John’s plan is to find a way to the Clarke crater, but he knows this decision will be controversial to many people in the bunker. It’s mentioned in the beginning of the movie that getting to the Clarke crater is very difficult because Iceland, Canada, and most of Europe have been destroyed in the apocalypse. There is also a lot of violent unrest in the United Kingdom and in France because wealthy people and politicians have taken shelter in bunkers and have left everyone else to fend for themselves. “Greenland 2: Migration” doesn’t bother to explain that although this Clarke crater paradise might not have toxic air, it’s still vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or possibly more comets.
And that’s exactly what happens to the bunker. Just as the new refugees arrive by tank, multiple earthquakes cause the bunker to collapse and then get destroyed by a massive fire from the explosions that ensue. This isn’t spoiler information because the rest of the movie is about how the Garrity family and others escape from the bunker. John becomes even more determined to find the Clarke crater, by way of what used to be the English Channel. Butler, who is one of the producers of “Greenland” and “Greenland 2: Migration,” does his usual action hero schtick in this sequel.
“Greenland 2: Migration” has adequate performances and sufficient visual effects, but the movie has a very lazy and nonsensical screenplay. “Greenland 2: Migration” characters who aren’t members of the Garrity family are not in the movie long enough to get a sense of who they are. The Garrity family gets devastating news during their refugee journey, but this plot development just seems like one in a checklist of the movie’s unoriginal life-threatening battles that are in the movie. “Greenland 2: Migration” isn’t completely awful, but it commits the worst sin for an action movie: It’s so formulaic, it’s often downright dull.
Lionsgate released “Greenland 2: Migration” in U.S. cinemas on January 9, 2026. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on January 27, 2026. “Greenland 2: Migration” will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 31, 2026.
