I would argue that Brad Peyton’s 2015 blockbuster San Andreas, in addition to serving as something of a celebration of knowing what to do when disaster strikes, is, more importantly, a showcase of just how important it is to surround yourself with and/or defer to people who know more than oneself. This is because the knowledge such individuals possess can frequently provide one with a greater chance of survival when a natural disaster, such as the earthquakes that happen throughout the film, occurs. I would also argue that not being around or knowing someone with greater expertise than yourself is far more likely to get oneself or others seriously hurt, or in worst-case scenario, killed, during crises such as what is depicted onscreen.
For instance, when the first ‘main’ earthquake begins to wreak havoc in Los Angeles, California, main protagonist Ray Gaines instructs his estranged wife Emma, who has informed him of the situation, to make her way to the roof of the Tate Weston building she’s currently in. What Ray tells Emma to do proves to be the wisest course of action, as it better enables the former, who is in a helicopter, to spot Emma and get her to safety. Conversely, the large majority of people who ill-advisedly try to get to the ground floor of the building instead of following Emma to the roof (so as to not risk being in the structure when it collapses) are inferred to have met unpleasant ends when the Tate Weston finally comes crashing down. Later on, after Ray and Emma have parachuted into the AT&T baseball stadium in San Francisco, another quake begins causing chaos in their immediate vicinity. At first, most of the people around them begin either fleeing in random directions or fruitlessly huddling around parked cars (even as a building before them shows clear signs of being about to collapse), but Ray directs as many of these people as he can to get out of the street and to the side of the AT&T stadium; this ultimately saves the lives of those who heed his directions when heavy debris eventually crumbles to the ground. Additionally, during the climax, Ray notices the bay waters are receding to an abnormal degree, which he identifies as a sign that a tsunami is coming. Instead of trying in vain to outrun the titanic surge of water (as at least two boats can be seen attempting to do in a wide shot of the tsunami wave approaching San Francisco), Ray uses the boat he and Emma have commandeered to get over the forming wave before it peaks, which saves them both from being caught in the subsequent destruction instigated by the tsunami. An article by ScienceDirect pertaining to being prepared for earthquakes establishes that, “Most people will not directly experience a large damaging earthquake in their lifetimes. They instead need to rely on experience of small earthquakes, experience of different disasters, adverse life experiences (e.g. accidents), or vicarious experience.” (Becker et al.) While it is not made explicitly clear onscreen if Ray has had prior experience with earthquakes during his time as part of the Los Angeles Fire Department (let alone anything on the scale of what’s seen in San Andreas), his efficiency at the beginning of the film during the rescue of a young landslide victim, Natalie, suggests to viewers that Ray has dealt with a large variety of perilous circumstances as a member of the department, thus lining up with what the ScienceDirect article details. It is ultimately this experience Ray has obtained that enables him and Emma (who is shown to defer to his judgment) to survive the devastation wrought by the San Andreas Fault.
In contrast, Emma’s boyfriend, Daniel Riddick, serves as a more blatant example of how not being with/knowing anyone who comprehends more than you when it comes to dealing with something on the level of an earthquake can be detrimental not only to your own well-being, but to that of others. For example, when Ray’s daughter Blake gets trapped in the car she and Daniel tried and failed to escape in, Daniel leaves Blake stuck and merely informs a single security guard (who would likely be ill-equipped for such a scenario) about Blake’s dilemma. However, before they can do anything, a piece of the ceiling comes falling to the ground, with Daniel narrowly avoiding getting crushed. Rather than try to recruit anyone else who could be helpful in rescuing Blake, such as a concerned Ben Taylor, Daniel instead resorts to self-preservation, making his way out of the building; this would’ve left Blake to face a grim end had it not been for Ben and his little brother Olie finding and liberating her from the car just moments before the roof of the vehicle gets caved in by debris. Later on, after California has been ravaged to a substantial degree, Daniel and the crowd of people he’s with find themselves in the path of a large dust cloud that’s been produced by the collapsing of a nearby building. Rather than try to find an empty spot in which to take refuge from the oncoming wave, Daniel throws a pedestrian from the part of a structure he’s holding on to in order to claim it for himself; while Daniel survives thanks to this action, it also results in the man whose spot he took becoming one of many civilians who literally get blown away when the cloud of dust finally hits them. If Daniel had someone more knowledgeable (regarding how to address this sudden danger) with him whom he could turn to, a way for him to survive the dust cloud without causing an innocent person to get killed could have potentially been found.
On the other hand, like her father, Ray, Blake herself displays multiple instances of knowing how to approach the challenges encountered by her as well as Ben and Olie. Firstly, after the three of them have escaped from the parking garage Blake had previously been trapped in, she finds out from Ben that no cell phones are working; as such, in order to contact her parents to let them know she’s now safe, Blake has Olie find an electronics store in the book on San Francisco he carries with him. Upon reaching the store, Blake declares, “Anything running on electricity isn’t gonna work, so we have to find a rotary or a push button phone.” After Olie succeeds in finding a push button phone, Blake locates a landline for the device, finally enabling her to get in touch with her parents (and receive instructions from Ray on where to meet, Coit Tower). Had it not been for Blake’s knowledge in this scene, there’s a good chance Ben and Olie would have next to no idea of what to look for specifically in the electronics shop. A short time later, the trio come across a fire truck on their way to Coit Tower; Blake is the first to begin searching through the vehicle’s side components for a supply box, as she establishes that it’ll contain items the three of them can utilize. After Olie finds the box in question, the first thing Blake searches for and retrieves is a walkie-talkie; she explains to Olie, “Every city has a tactical channel that first responders use to communicate on. We can listen in and we can see what’s going on.” Obtaining the walkie-talkie ultimately proves to be beneficial for the triad, as it enables them to learn about the tsunami heading their way in the film’s climax. Later in the second act, when an additional quake occurs, Blake rushes herself and Olie next to an empty car, crouching behind the vehicle with their backs turned to the buildings behind them; Blake also holds Olie close to her, which lowers the chances of the latter getting hit by any debris. Ben, on the other hand, assumes a fetal position nearby a building with multiple glass windows, covering his face with his hands. While this strategy does prevent him from suffering any injuries to his head or face, it leaves the lower half of his body somewhat exposed, which results in Ben getting a piece of glass gruesomely embedded in his left leg after the windows above him shatter due to the earthquake. Fortunately for Ben, after the tremors cease, Blake succeeds in carefully removing the shard, using some of her apparel as an improvised tourniquet in order to stop the bleeding. Had Blake not been there to use her know-how to get the glass out of Ben’s leg, he would’ve been much worse off, as prior to removing the glass fragment, Blake states that, “If you try walking with it, it could cause more damage.” If Blake hadn’t met Ben and Olie during San Andreas’ first act, it’s quite feasible none of them would have made it out of the entire calamity alive, something that Ben himself acknowledges at the end of the movie, stating, “It was more like, she was there for us.”
Finally, in addition to Ray and Blake Gaines, seismologist Dr. Lawrence Hayes has his ‘moments to shine’ in terms of making smart decisions when the earthquakes occur. For example, when the first of the quakes abruptly starts off, reporter Serena Johnson initially takes refuge in the doorway of an office, which would leave her vulnerable to falling debris; however, Hayes is quick to grab her by the hand and hurry her underneath a table whilst instructing everyone else present to, “Drop, cover, and hold on!” It is this course of action (which is repeated later when the second earthquake hits Caltech) that saves himself, Johnson, her cameraman Dylan, and two of Hayes’ students, Alexi and Phoebe, from possible injury or death. Additionally, following the conclusion of the first earthquake, Hayes’ group find themselves in need of a way to get a warning out to the rest of the people of California that the tectonic activity is anything but finished, but Johnson is quick to point out, “There’s no way to upload a signal.” While any other person facing this dilemma might’ve been at a loss for what to do next, Hayes is the one to recruit Caltech’s Media Lab students to hack into one of the media outlets so he and Johnson can broadcast a warning about the upcoming deadlier earthquake to not just Californians, but to the citizens of the rest of the United States; after all, in the broadcast, Hayes cautions, “It will be so big, that even though it’s happening here in California, you will feel it on the East Coast.” Had it not been for Hayes’ expertise and quick thinking, there’s a chance not all of the other four people with him (particularly Johnson and her cameraman) would have survived the whole ordeal or known how to get word out about the imminent, more dangerous earthquake.
For instance, when the first ‘main’ earthquake begins to wreak havoc in Los Angeles, California, main protagonist Ray Gaines instructs his estranged wife Emma, who has informed him of the situation, to make her way to the roof of the Tate Weston building she’s currently in. What Ray tells Emma to do proves to be the wisest course of action, as it better enables the former, who is in a helicopter, to spot Emma and get her to safety. Conversely, the large majority of people who ill-advisedly try to get to the ground floor of the building instead of following Emma to the roof (so as to not risk being in the structure when it collapses) are inferred to have met unpleasant ends when the Tate Weston finally comes crashing down. Later on, after Ray and Emma have parachuted into the AT&T baseball stadium in San Francisco, another quake begins causing chaos in their immediate vicinity. At first, most of the people around them begin either fleeing in random directions or fruitlessly huddling around parked cars (even as a building before them shows clear signs of being about to collapse), but Ray directs as many of these people as he can to get out of the street and to the side of the AT&T stadium; this ultimately saves the lives of those who heed his directions when heavy debris eventually crumbles to the ground. Additionally, during the climax, Ray notices the bay waters are receding to an abnormal degree, which he identifies as a sign that a tsunami is coming. Instead of trying in vain to outrun the titanic surge of water (as at least two boats can be seen attempting to do in a wide shot of the tsunami wave approaching San Francisco), Ray uses the boat he and Emma have commandeered to get over the forming wave before it peaks, which saves them both from being caught in the subsequent destruction instigated by the tsunami. An article by ScienceDirect pertaining to being prepared for earthquakes establishes that, “Most people will not directly experience a large damaging earthquake in their lifetimes. They instead need to rely on experience of small earthquakes, experience of different disasters, adverse life experiences (e.g. accidents), or vicarious experience.” (Becker et al.) While it is not made explicitly clear onscreen if Ray has had prior experience with earthquakes during his time as part of the Los Angeles Fire Department (let alone anything on the scale of what’s seen in San Andreas), his efficiency at the beginning of the film during the rescue of a young landslide victim, Natalie, suggests to viewers that Ray has dealt with a large variety of perilous circumstances as a member of the department, thus lining up with what the ScienceDirect article details. It is ultimately this experience Ray has obtained that enables him and Emma (who is shown to defer to his judgment) to survive the devastation wrought by the San Andreas Fault.
In contrast, Emma’s boyfriend, Daniel Riddick, serves as a more blatant example of how not being with/knowing anyone who comprehends more than you when it comes to dealing with something on the level of an earthquake can be detrimental not only to your own well-being, but to that of others. For example, when Ray’s daughter Blake gets trapped in the car she and Daniel tried and failed to escape in, Daniel leaves Blake stuck and merely informs a single security guard (who would likely be ill-equipped for such a scenario) about Blake’s dilemma. However, before they can do anything, a piece of the ceiling comes falling to the ground, with Daniel narrowly avoiding getting crushed. Rather than try to recruit anyone else who could be helpful in rescuing Blake, such as a concerned Ben Taylor, Daniel instead resorts to self-preservation, making his way out of the building; this would’ve left Blake to face a grim end had it not been for Ben and his little brother Olie finding and liberating her from the car just moments before the roof of the vehicle gets caved in by debris. Later on, after California has been ravaged to a substantial degree, Daniel and the crowd of people he’s with find themselves in the path of a large dust cloud that’s been produced by the collapsing of a nearby building. Rather than try to find an empty spot in which to take refuge from the oncoming wave, Daniel throws a pedestrian from the part of a structure he’s holding on to in order to claim it for himself; while Daniel survives thanks to this action, it also results in the man whose spot he took becoming one of many civilians who literally get blown away when the cloud of dust finally hits them. If Daniel had someone more knowledgeable (regarding how to address this sudden danger) with him whom he could turn to, a way for him to survive the dust cloud without causing an innocent person to get killed could have potentially been found.
On the other hand, like her father, Ray, Blake herself displays multiple instances of knowing how to approach the challenges encountered by her as well as Ben and Olie. Firstly, after the three of them have escaped from the parking garage Blake had previously been trapped in, she finds out from Ben that no cell phones are working; as such, in order to contact her parents to let them know she’s now safe, Blake has Olie find an electronics store in the book on San Francisco he carries with him. Upon reaching the store, Blake declares, “Anything running on electricity isn’t gonna work, so we have to find a rotary or a push button phone.” After Olie succeeds in finding a push button phone, Blake locates a landline for the device, finally enabling her to get in touch with her parents (and receive instructions from Ray on where to meet, Coit Tower). Had it not been for Blake’s knowledge in this scene, there’s a good chance Ben and Olie would have next to no idea of what to look for specifically in the electronics shop. A short time later, the trio come across a fire truck on their way to Coit Tower; Blake is the first to begin searching through the vehicle’s side components for a supply box, as she establishes that it’ll contain items the three of them can utilize. After Olie finds the box in question, the first thing Blake searches for and retrieves is a walkie-talkie; she explains to Olie, “Every city has a tactical channel that first responders use to communicate on. We can listen in and we can see what’s going on.” Obtaining the walkie-talkie ultimately proves to be beneficial for the triad, as it enables them to learn about the tsunami heading their way in the film’s climax. Later in the second act, when an additional quake occurs, Blake rushes herself and Olie next to an empty car, crouching behind the vehicle with their backs turned to the buildings behind them; Blake also holds Olie close to her, which lowers the chances of the latter getting hit by any debris. Ben, on the other hand, assumes a fetal position nearby a building with multiple glass windows, covering his face with his hands. While this strategy does prevent him from suffering any injuries to his head or face, it leaves the lower half of his body somewhat exposed, which results in Ben getting a piece of glass gruesomely embedded in his left leg after the windows above him shatter due to the earthquake. Fortunately for Ben, after the tremors cease, Blake succeeds in carefully removing the shard, using some of her apparel as an improvised tourniquet in order to stop the bleeding. Had Blake not been there to use her know-how to get the glass out of Ben’s leg, he would’ve been much worse off, as prior to removing the glass fragment, Blake states that, “If you try walking with it, it could cause more damage.” If Blake hadn’t met Ben and Olie during San Andreas’ first act, it’s quite feasible none of them would have made it out of the entire calamity alive, something that Ben himself acknowledges at the end of the movie, stating, “It was more like, she was there for us.”
Finally, in addition to Ray and Blake Gaines, seismologist Dr. Lawrence Hayes has his ‘moments to shine’ in terms of making smart decisions when the earthquakes occur. For example, when the first of the quakes abruptly starts off, reporter Serena Johnson initially takes refuge in the doorway of an office, which would leave her vulnerable to falling debris; however, Hayes is quick to grab her by the hand and hurry her underneath a table whilst instructing everyone else present to, “Drop, cover, and hold on!” It is this course of action (which is repeated later when the second earthquake hits Caltech) that saves himself, Johnson, her cameraman Dylan, and two of Hayes’ students, Alexi and Phoebe, from possible injury or death. Additionally, following the conclusion of the first earthquake, Hayes’ group find themselves in need of a way to get a warning out to the rest of the people of California that the tectonic activity is anything but finished, but Johnson is quick to point out, “There’s no way to upload a signal.” While any other person facing this dilemma might’ve been at a loss for what to do next, Hayes is the one to recruit Caltech’s Media Lab students to hack into one of the media outlets so he and Johnson can broadcast a warning about the upcoming deadlier earthquake to not just Californians, but to the citizens of the rest of the United States; after all, in the broadcast, Hayes cautions, “It will be so big, that even though it’s happening here in California, you will feel it on the East Coast.” Had it not been for Hayes’ expertise and quick thinking, there’s a chance not all of the other four people with him (particularly Johnson and her cameraman) would have survived the whole ordeal or known how to get word out about the imminent, more dangerous earthquake.
According to a Journal of Education and Health Promotion article, “As emergencies and disasters, along with their destructive effects, are rising all over the world acquiring knowledge and its uses are regarded as the most effective way to prevent disasters or reduce its effects.” (Torani et al.) This is a statement that I found applicable to a sizable number of the characters in San Andreas, as their knowledge pertaining to how to handle the assorted disaster-based challenges they are confronted with proves to be invaluable in surviving the catastrophe as a whole. If it wasn’t for Ray, Blake, and Hayes’ savviness in navigating the earthquakes, tsunami, and the other challenges resulting from these natural disasters, several more innocent lives, such as those of Serena Johnson and the Taylor brothers, would have likely been lost. Daniel Riddick, however, is an exception to this, as his questionable actions led to Blake being put in serious danger as well as the death of the man Daniel threw aside to save his own skin, which could have been averted if he had someone with him who knew more than he did about how to manage the situations.
Becker, Julia S., et al. “The Role of Prior Experience in Informing and Motivating Earthquake Preparedness.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 22, June 2017, pp. 179–193., doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.03.006.
Peyton, Brad, director. San Andreas. Performance by Dwayne Johnson, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2015.
Torani, Sogand, et al. “The Importance of Education on Disasters and Emergencies: A Review Article.” Journal of Education and Health Promotion, vol. 8, 24 Apr. 2019, doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_262_18.
Thank you for reading, and I'll see you all in my next review (yes, I'm returning to my usual reviews with this analysis series now concluded)!
Works Cited
Becker, Julia S., et al. “The Role of Prior Experience in Informing and Motivating Earthquake Preparedness.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 22, June 2017, pp. 179–193., doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.03.006.
Peyton, Brad, director. San Andreas. Performance by Dwayne Johnson, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2015.
Torani, Sogand, et al. “The Importance of Education on Disasters and Emergencies: A Review Article.” Journal of Education and Health Promotion, vol. 8, 24 Apr. 2019, doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_262_18.
Thank you for reading, and I'll see you all in my next review (yes, I'm returning to my usual reviews with this analysis series now concluded)!
