Original subtitles

Hey, Dad?

Yes?

Can we do this again? Man, what a game.

Too bad Mom didn't come. She really missed a good one.

Call her. Rub it in, maybe she'll come next time.

Do we have to land in Newark?

Can we land on Long Island? Please?

What for?

Because. Then we can do my favorite thing... Fly over the best city in the whole world.

You've got to ask the man.

Okay.

You've got to ask him nicely. Okay?

Bill?

Yeah, sport?

Dad says he wants to fly over Manhattan, land on Long Island.

That'll be closer to home, anyway.

He does, does he? Okay, well, we'll have to see if I can get you some clearance.

1214 requesting clearance to land at MacArthur. Over.

Okay, buddy, we're climbing back up to cruising altitude. Diverting.

Whoa! Buddy...

Hey, what was that?

Whoa, what the hell? I've got her. Check wind vectors.

Can't be. We've got a 100-mile-an-hour crosswind.

We can't buck that. Coming off AP, turning to run with it.

Bill, what's going on?

Miller Alpha-Victor 1214, Air Traffic Control.

Why are you turning right? Respond.

Air Traffic Control, Miller 1214. We're getting a very high crosswind at 345.

Cannot maintain vector young-five.

Request right turn.

Right turn approved.

Wind speed's all over the dial. Holding north-The instruments are a blur...

No... Damn it!

We're crosswinded again, wind due east!

Can't hold 180. Turning right!

Bill?

We're getting some unexpected turbulence, sir!

I'd make sure you're both strapped in back there.

Okay, let's snug this belt down, buddy.

Approved. Climb and maintain 2-0-thousand.

Copy that. Trying to climb out of it.

I've never seen anything like this.

His track has taken him all the way around, 360.

New York, I'm right back where I started from! Returning...

...to original course. How many times am I going to have to ride this merry-go-round?

Miller 1214, stand by one.

New York, I'm now at 20,000, no change in conditions.

New York? Do you copy?

We're thinking the next shift in wind vector, you might want to try and punch through.

The decision's yours.

Understood. Decision is mine.

Sir, it's going to get a little more turbulent

while we try and fly our way out of this.

Okay.

Hey, babe. Somebody wants to talk to you.

Mom, I'm... I'm scared. It's getting really rough.

Okay. I'll be a big boy.

Tell your mom you love her.

I love you, Mom.

I'll see you in a couple of hours, babe.

I love you, too.

Hold it... Hold... Ken, get your feet on the pedals and push!

Hold it! It's freezing up!

Hold it!

There's nothing to hold on to!

Pull up. Pull up.

Pull up. Pull up. Pull up. Pull up.

Name your poison, friends! We've got blueberry, we've got buttermilk...

...and we've got whole wheat!

Secret family recipes, passed down through the generations.

I'll have whole wheat, please.

Are you new to company 12?

Yes, sir. Just cleared probation four months ago.

How was that probie time?

Well, they made me work for it, that's for sure.

Didn't you guys get called out to the plane crash?

No, 18 caught that, and not a pretty one, they say.

Nobody seems to know what happened up there.

No, I know.

Hey, is Lonnie still cooking his awful chili on Friday nights?

Yes, sir, it is pretty awful. How do you know about that?

My husband used to run the 12th. Thats before City Hall turned his pretty head.

This is my wife, Cassie, Dr. Cassandra Lawrence.

Her niece, Lori.

Hi.

Hi. I'm, uh... Brian Flynn. Nice to meet you.

Lori's here from Iowa, looking at colleges.

Oh. New York's a great college town. I did my Master's here.

Oh, yeah? Well, I'm considering my options, but, with my major, I don't know.

Lori, why don't you take a break? We can handle this mob from here, eh?

Yeah?

Yeah, sure, go on.

Okay. Thanks.

It's amazing how they grow up, huh?

What'll it be? We've got blueberry. We've got buttermilk.

Hey, Norman! Look at you, you big boy!

He scares me, how fast he's growing.

His father says he's getting calls from pro-wrestling scouts.

Aw, look at the bright side. Sports scholarship. Right?

So, how's life in the working world, Cass?

What do you do, Cassie?

She's a weather person... expert. She's a partner in Advanced Meteorology Associates.

We're under contract from the city to provide a daily forecast. Can I hold him?

Sure!

Basically, if the Pope comes to town...

...we tell the Mayor if His Holiness needs an umbrella.

Hey, I'm surprised you can tell this mayor anything. How does Jim get along with him?

You don't get along with Mayor Johnny Leonardo. You get out of his way.

I think he has a crush on you. Mom can tell. He only drools on women he likes.

Yeah, sounds like most of the men I know.

Hi!

You look pretty good with a baby in your arms.

Yeah? Mm.

Aunt Cassie? Hi. Um, Brian asked if I wanted to go see the Statue of Liberty with him.

Really?

I worked on the grounds crew out there for two summers, Dr. Lawrence.

So I can show her things the average tourist would never see.

Okay. So, when?

Right now. Please? It's one of the places I really want to see.

All right. Back what time?

Um, midnight?

10:30.

11:00?

All right, 11:00. Have a good time.

Thanks.

Bye, guys.

Okay, were they that hot when we were in school?

As I recall, they were.

Wow...

Can you believe this?

What are those things?

I don't know, but they're really strong for their size. It's almost like...

Get back! Everyone, into the woods!

Everybody, take cover!

Move! Move! Everyone move! Go!

Just make sure everybody knows.

Okay.

No, I really can't comment.

I saw it, but I don't know what it was, and I don't want to start a lot of speculation.

Okay, thanks, Mark.

The News?

Yeah.

What the hell were those things?

I've never seen anything like it before.

Well, the Mayor will want to know.

I know. I'll call you as soon as I have some kind of analysis.

Did the guy take any useful pictures?

Oh... this must be his little girl. Look at her.

That's tough.

And that must be his wife. Did you know them?

No.

They look familiar to me.

Come on, keep scrolling. I thought we were looking for something that could help us?

I am.

I see.

Linda Itzicupo has a new baby. Did you see him?

No.

I got to hold him. It felt really nice.

Oh, Jim. Can't I even talk about babies?

What do you mean? You talk about them all the time.

That's not fair.

I'm sorry.

Keep going. There.

Wow.

Baby tornadoes, skinny tornadoes. What is all this?

Like I said, I have no idea.

If you don't know...

Oh. This is me.

All right.

Okay.

I'll call you.

Okay.

I love you.

I love you, too.

The Mayor was saddened today by the death of...

...his longtime advisor and supporter, Ken Hartsell.

Hartsell and his young son were killed in this morning's plane crash.

Meanwhile, in Central Park, weather has been...

...making news as tiny white whirlwinds touched down.

They seemed quite harmless at first...

...but a couple minutes later, they suddenly grew up and turned mean.

One man was killed as he was lifted off his feet.

You guys were in the park. Did you see this?

We saw it up close. City Hall wants an assessment ASAP.

This belongs to the guy who died.

Once you download the images, we can try to find his family.

Is it true that the, uh, temperature inside the vortexes was sub-freezing?

That's the result of the basic stick-your-hand-in test.

How can they just appear like that, out of nowhere?

They can't. They have to be part of a bigger system. See?

I've never seen anything like this.

You know what? I have.

You have? Where?

I can't remember exactly. Something in the graduate program. Something about...

Herbert, I'm going to be in the library. Okay? I don't want any interruptions.

Unless...

Unless what?

Unless little white tornadoes start surrounding the building.

She's kidding.

Violently shifting winds aloft...

No, no... it crashed outside of my jurisdiction.

That's what they were, tiny little tornadoes.

About five feet tall, white, cold to the touch.

No, I am perfectly sober.

Okay. Okay, I'll catch you later.

Coast Guard on three.

Commander. Hey. Right.

Oh, you heard about that, huh? No, we still don't know what caused it.

So call my wife and crack the whip. Man, I can tell you've never been married.

Hey, Phil, I've got to go. I've got to go! Talk soon.

The Mayor spent part of the morning offering his support and condolences...

...to the widowed wife of his longtime friend and supporter, Ken Hartsell.

We caught up with him afterwards to find out his thoughts...

...on the strange weather phenomenon.

Mr. Mayor? Airplanes falling out of the sky, miniature tornadoes in Central Park...

is global warming coming to New York?

Global warming is a pet theory that got off the leash.

Why does he say things like that?

Because he can.

I understand who you are, Ms. Lawrence...

...but I am not sure that I can release that information to you.

What do you mean? Weather conditions aloft are not confidential data.

You're not asking me that. You're asking me if the private jet crash this morning...

...was due in any way to close-order multidirectional wind-shifts.

And that's a State secret?

Until Traffic Safety Board figures it out, yes.

There has been a plane crash here, Ms. Lawrence.

Yes, and maybe I can help them figure it out.

Mr. Brackett, this is not idle curiosity on my part.

I've been tasked by the City of New York...

...to provide an explanation of certain abnormal

weather phenomena. This is an official request.

Hey, come on. It's the same air over all our heads.

Actually, it's not. We have had some reports of violent shifting winds aloft.

We took the clear-air turbulence radar off-line for a few seconds this morning.

And pointed it straight up.

Straight up, no horizon?

30 miles. Edge of space. I'm going to send you the image of what we saw.

We're pretty certain that this is what brought down the Hartsell flight,

But nobody here has any idea what it is.

Unfortunately, I do.

Thanks, Otis. I owe you one.

Thank you.

Wow, that was amazing. The actual guts of the Lady.

Thank you!

Brian, what are those?

I don't know. Let's go see.

Wow, that's cold.

The skin of the statue is made out of pure copper sheeting over a framework of steel.

With the exception of the flame, which is made out of pure gold leaf.

The flame stands 151 feet and one inch above the pedestal.

Which is itself about 154 feet above the earth.

The Statue of Liberty's classical appearance is -

What are you doing? Come on, run!

No! Where? We're on an island.

Come on, right here!

Go down!

What?

Go down!

The devastation is widespread.

There are going to be fatalities out of this. I don't see how there can't be.

And one of our greatest losses is the disfiguring

of one of our nation's most enduring symbols.

Lori? Lori! Are you there? Answer me. Lori, are you hurt?

My head.

Where are you? I can't see anything.

Just a sec!

No... ow.

You're okay. You're going to be fine.

What...

We made it into this manhole just in time.

Something fell...

I think it was the arm.

Whose arm?

The statue. Here. Let me see.

What do you see?

Down here... look. We're under the arm, all right, 200 tons of it.

Help! Help!

Somebody!

Down here! Help!

Please!

Help!

Please! Somebody!

Help!

Please!

In here!

Please? Hello!

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I think there's a way out, if we back out. Come on.

Ow! My leg! It's stuck! It's stuck.

Okay, okay, okay. If I lift, will you pull up?

Yeah, yeah.

Ow! Okay, it's out.

Okay. Okay. You're going to be okay.

Okay.

You'll be okay.

Okay.

Okay? Follow me.

Cass.

Jim.

They'll be all right, I'm sure of it.

I just feel so... That's my sister's little girl out there. She may even be hurt.

I know. I know.

I told her that you were doing everything possible.

I am. She wasn't in the first triage.

The best responders in the city are out there.

They will not leave until they find them.

Find them how?

Don't go there.

I can't help it. What does this say? About me?

It says nothing about you.

It says I'm not ready to have a child. That's what it says.

Okay, who's going to tell me why my favorite statue is missing an arm?

What?

Sir, Jim and Cassie's niece is amongst the missing on Liberty Island.

Aw, Jim, Cassie, I'm so sorry, I didn't know.

That's okay, sir. It's been a hard day on all of us.

I'll brief you, John. I can't promise you're going to like what I have to say.

This is the jetstream

a fast-moving current of air that circles the globe at 36,000 feet.

Now, as some of you know, a river of water on the Earth's surface often meanders...

...leaving loops.

Well, the same thing happens with the jetstream.

Usually, these loops dissipate pretty quickly.

But things have changed. Blame it on global warming.

Sure. Why not?

It appears that the air around the earth...

...has separated into a high atmosphere and a low atmosphere...

...each with its own phenomena and patterns.

Some hours ago, a detached loop above New York...

...became an independent feature of the atmosphere, a high-altitude vortex.

Jupiter has the Red Spot... and now we have this.

Okay, okay. This is crazy. Now, what's causing this, and why is it over my city?

Sorry, sir, I don't know that yet.

Well, then, how do we get this "loop" moving again?

Probably, sir, the goal would be to break it up,

as opposed to just pass it along to the next guy.

Look, I don't care what you do...

I just don't want this thing breathing down my neck. Okay? Not in an election year.

What can we expect?

It could happen any time. Out of the clear, blue sky.

And the tricky part is, the first phase of it is so damn cute and cuddly.

But once that higher-altitude air works its way down,

we're looking at a clear-air Force 2 or higher

tornado, made up of freezing stratospheric air.

Three minutes of real terror.

It will be loud, deadly, unexpected, and impossible to predict.

In fact, beyond what we've already seen, we have no idea what could happen.

You okay?

Yeah.

Watch your leg.

I got you. I got you. Are you okay?

My phone...

What? It's dead!

There's no power! I charged it this morning.

Me too. The storm must have shorted them or drained them or something.

I guess we see where this leads.

I hate this. It's so creepy in here.

I know, it's awful. There has to be a way out.

I hated working in these tunnels. I always tried to get out of the job.

As a result...

you don't really know where we're going?

Yeah.

Great.

Anything yet, Steve? Okay, keep me posted.

Is this the latest report?

Where is that?

Yeah, we have it right here.

What's this? Down here, in midtown?

Okay.

We're not sure. Reports are contradictory.

I need to go there.

No.

What do you mean, no?

This is no time to be up on the streets, chasing mini-tornadoes.

Jim, I need to see one of these things develop, start to finish.

You need to stay here and help me predict.

There is no way to predict these things, not until we can understand them better.

That's why I have to go.

Cass...

I'll call you.

Jim. What the hell are we going to do?

We still have no idea how much more this thing not until we can understand them better.

We need to be proactive.

Meaning what?

A first-stage alert.

A first-stage alert? You call a first stage when a hurricane is coming.

This is a hurricane, John, and it's six miles away.

I called the Air Force, I got straight to the top.

They said this thing's going to blow itself out in 12 hours.

What do you think they're going to say to a Mayor? Sorry, your city is doomed?

Jim, I pay you to save lives, not make political judgments.

Okay, I'm putting on my life-saving hat now. We need a first-stage alert.

No!

What?

Excuse me? Excuse me. Are you okay?

I'm working for the City. Can you tell me what happened here?

They're frozen, they're all frozen. There.

911? Yes, I need to report an emergency. 59th Street, near the subway station.

Casualties on the ground. No, I don't know what caused it.

But the damage seems to go right across the plaza.

Lawrence... Dr. Cassie Lawrence.

The latest and most deadly of these "clear air" tornado disasters.

Now, the culprit, we are told, is the Red.

Spot... a huge vortex of upper-atmosphere air...

...that is sending down very strong and deadly whirlpools.

Because of global warming, the earth now has two atmospheres.

The question that I want to know is the question...

...that's on everyone's mind. What is going on here?

What is happening to our city?

What was it? What did you see?

Like a... a tornado. Wind whipping... cold, so cold... So bright...

I hid, like a rat.

What was bright?

The wind. So bright...

Our highest priority, sir. We're pulling in people from everywhere on this.

Well, these are unique occurrences, Mr. Mayor.

Now, you need to trust that we're going to tap every resource here.

That's right, sir. Our best people are on it. Thank you.

Great.

That was the weather guy from NASA.

Dr. Quinn.

That's right. He says they're studying the problem.

Well, they can study the problem all they want. This thing is just growing stronger.

We may be looking at a permanent or semi-permanent feature...

...of a profoundly altered weather system.

All right, well, how do we bust it up?

Bust it up? John, I don't think you understand. This is a world-sized phenomenon.

Well, this is a world-sized city!

Well, then, why don't we start with something easy, like reversing the tides?

My friends, look. I'm only yelling because I don't know what else to do. Okay?

It's an old politician's habit.

Please, come on, put this egghead and this

fireplug together and come up with something.

All right? Something.

What about...

Yeah, I thought about that, but that would take years to set up.

Unless the Chinese... or... I wonder?

Do you think?

Could be.

Come on! Come on! Enough with the mental telepathy. Tell me.

You are talking about...

You know who.

Oh, that's insane. He's insane.

And this whole thing is what, a stroll down Mental Health Lane?

See, the problem is, the upper weather system is not connected to the lower.

If we can get the moister bottom clouds to expand upward, it could break it up.

Like sticking your hand in a whirlpool.

Even my arm isn't that long.

Cloud-seeding.

Cloud-seeding? Why don't you just beat a drum and sacrifice a lamb?

I admit, it hasn't been done in a long time, but if it's planned right, it could work.

Planned by whom?

John, I bet not even you knew that New Jersey has its own Cape Canaveral.

Its owner is the only private citizen...

NASA ever legally enjoined from sending objects into orbit.

Get the hell out of here!

Lars? Dr. Liggenhorn, you remember us?

Jim and Cassie Lawrence.

Who?

We signed a petition for you a few years back.

Yeah. Fireman and the weather girl.

That's right.

Yeah, I remember.

Dr. Liggenhorn, we may have a job for you.

Well... come on in.

You can drop the "doctor" bit. The only title

I ever felt comfortable with was "Sergeant."

You were in Vietnam, right, Sergeant?

Four long years. 54th Weather Recon Squadron.

That was my first assignment.

You know what my first mission was? I made mud.

"Make mud, not war," that was our slogan.

One winter, in the Mekong Delta.

I made so much freaking rain that nothing could move, not even Charlie.

Mud... is the secret to world peace.

Because it's hard to wage an illegal and unjust war when you're up to your ass in ooze.

Up to me, I'd make Baghdad a swamp.

When was the last time you fired a rocket from this place?

You mean the Garden State Spaceport?

Yes, sorry, the Spaceport.

No, it's been years.

Between those poaching bastards at NASA and the yuppies and NIMBY...

I'm pretty much boxed in here... ceased, desisted and enjoined to death.

What's the big deal? I'm just trying to run a

little launch facility. Come on, I'll show you.

How'd you like to get into space again?

Yeah. You got a magic wand?

Kind of. We need your help.

Can you make this injunction bullshit go away?

I'll try... me and Mayor of New York, Johnny Leonardo. Right, Jim?

Absolutely. You have my word on it.

Leonardo, huh? Well, at least he's got guts. What's the deal?

How many rockets you got?

Well... I got a few.

All right, seed at each of these points.

I'll get as close as I can.

Make that very close. I don't care much about co-ordinates...

...but altitude is critical... Not below 60,000 feet.

And what will I be seeding? Co2? Silver lodide?

Yeah, I don't know yet. I've got to get back to my lab and run some models.

The sooner, the better.

Take the first right after the tunnel.

These models I have to run are going to take a while. Jim?

What?

I want to go back to the Midtown site.

Why?

Something that woman said. And then I want to go back to Liberty Island.

Oh, Cassie...

My sister is...

I know. I know.