Characters / 2012

Ark Project

US

President Thomas Wilson

Played By: Danny Glover

• Heroic Sacrifice: He decides to remain behind in the U.S., knowing full well it will be destroyed, to atone for his mistakes and to help keep as many people alive as possible.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Wilson gives the Arks the support they need while also remaining behind to try and do what he can for the common people who aren't being evacuated.

Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser

Played By: Oliver Platt

• Anti-Villain: Anheuser is forced to be a pragmatist and let hundreds die, but his primary concern is the survival of humanity, and he does show a softer and nobler side on occasion.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: His seizing command of the American government personal fleeing to the arks after the deaths of the President and Vice-President has shades of this.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Though he boasts about how pragmatic he was to leave his mother behind, his choking up a bit clearly indicates he’s very shaken about it nonetheless.
• Jerkass: Regardless of how correct his statements are, it's his delivery that is utterly atrocious. Probably one of the best examples is the discovery that the workers of the Arks will be left to die and various mega-rich purchased tickets to the boats. That the fact that they charged said mega-rich thousands of millions of Euros each helped get the project made? Point. Telling Adrian "life isn't fair" about the workers in the most smarmy tone Oliver Platt can deliver? Sheesh. Unfortunately, the part where Adrian finally breaks his nose ended up on the cutting room floor.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Adrian chastises him for not providing the workers with tickets to the arks, he shoots back by telling him and Laura that if they wish to do so they can give their tickets to some of those workers, and to stop complaining that life isn't fair.
• Oh, Crap!: When he reads Helmsley's alert he takes it very seriously and with concern.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Zig-Zagged. While he initially brushes off Adrian's report, once he reads it, he immediately takes it seriously and gives him an audience with the President to begin planning for the end of the world.

Dr. Adrian Helmsley

Played By: Chiwetel Ejiofor

• Formerly Fat: His father gave him an ice cream cone for every book he read as a child and became overweight as a result. He ended up losing the extra weight as he got older.
• Nice Guy: A kindhearted, moral, selfless man concerned only with saving as many lives as he can.

Laura Wilson

Played By: Thandiwe Newton^*credited as Thandie Newton

Dr. Frederick West

Played By: John Billingsley

• Mauve Shirt: He’s pretty much just a background character who pipes up when someone needs to help Helmsey say scientific exposition.
• Mr. Exposition: Just there for exposition.

Scotty

Played By: Ryan McDonald

• Beleaguered Assistant: He has a bit of this to Helmsley and West, having to give up his jacket to Helmsley can enter a black-tie affair to tell Anheuser his discoveries and later having a somewhat stressful time monitoring the effect of the cataclysm.
• Lovable Coward: When it looks like everyone aboard Ark 4 is going to die, he starts freaking out, but doesn’t interfere with the rescue operation. To be fair, he regains his composure and decides to Face Death with Dignity.

Passengers

Yuri Karpov

Played By: Zlatko Burić

• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite being a smug asshole, the last and the only good thing he does is to save his own son at the cost of his own life.
• Asshole Victim: Downplayed, in that he dies in a noble Heroic Sacrifice.
• Disney Villain Death: He falls to his death throwing one of his sons aboard the Ark 4.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Literally, though it doesn’t kill him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His sons.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He seems to mellow out and bond with Jackson while they make their way to the Arks, but then he leaves him and his family behind to die. Subverted, since his Heroic Sacrifice shows he does have redeeming qualities.
• Smug Snake: When Sasha dies saving everyone aboard the plane, he smugly tells Tamara he knew they were having an affair and insincerely says “God bless his soul”. Then he leaves everyone except his kids behind to die, leaving with a smug “Good luck!”
• Villain's Dying Grace: His last act is to save his son.

Alek and Oleg Karpov

Played by: Alexandre and Philippe Haussmann

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: They're not evil but were shown to Jerkasses to Jackson. When they're nearly left behind Alek tries his hardest to pull his twin brother and father onboard. When Yuri dies after tossing Oleg onto the ark, they're visibly heartbroken by this.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied that their parent's divorce hasn't had a positive impact on their behavior. The fact that their mother is being left to literally sink or swim on her own isn't really making them any happier.
• Rich Jerk: They're sons of a billionaire and are spoiled jerks towards their limousine driver. When Jackson picks them up to take them to the airport they treat him like shit and smugly tell him that he'll be left to die once the apocalypse begins.
• Spoiled Brat: They're rich and were shown to be smug jerks towards Jackson.
• Took a Level in Kindness: They become nicer towards the Curtis family after bonding with them on their way to China. The ending also shows that they've mellowed out while on the ark.

Other Scientists

Satnam Tsuranti

Played By: Jimi Mistry

• Face Death with Dignity: He spends his last moments before being killed by a tsunami with his family, hugging them.
• Left for Dead: This unintentionally happens to him. He and his family were originally supposed to be picked up by an arranged airlift that would bring him to the ark. Unfortunately, due to the chaos and confusion, the airlift never arrives and he and his family end up getting killed by a megatsunami.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He has a minor role in the film, but he discovered the world was going to end, and kickstarts the Ark project alongside Helmsley.

Ark Crew and Builders

Captain Michaels

Played By: Stephen McHattie

• Nice Guy: Part of what helps him be such a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He’s calm and collected at all time, even under a crisis, and makes sure to keep the passengers calm as well. He also helps coordinate the rescue operation for the passengers of the Ark 3.
• The Stoic: He never breaks his calm, collected attitude, though it’s justified, considering he has to keep the passengers calm.

Tenzin

Played By: Chin Han

• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The drill he used to sneak him and his family onboard ends up jamming the gears of the ark's gate, which nearly dooms everyone on Ark 4.

Civilians

The Curtis Family

Jackson Curtis

Played By: John Cusack

Kate Curtis

Played By: Amanda Peet

• Heroic Sacrifice: When they meet a Tibetan family trying to sneak onto the Arks, Kate is willing to stay and die if the family will at least agree to take her children.

Noah Curtis

Played By: Liam James

Lily Curtis

Played By: Morgan Lily

• Tragic Keepsake: She and the Karpov twins decide to keep Tamara's dog together, as one lost reminder of the two people who sacrificed their lives to ensure their survival, The Karpov's father and Tamara, the latter saving Lily from a watery grave.

Gordon Silberman

Played By: Tom McCarthy

• Closest Thing We Got: He's a single-engine plane pilot who ends up having to fly bigger planes in the flight to safety.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Falls into the gears of Ark 4 and, despite Jackson's attempts, wounds up crushed whilst desperately pleading for help.
• Good Stepmother: Well, good potential stepfather. He's never impatient or unkind with Noah and Lily.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: It's revealed that on at least one occasion he tried to talk a patient out of unnecessary plastic surgery even though it would have cost him a fee.

Others

Charlie Frost

Played By: Woody Harrelson

• Chewing the Scenery: He leaves no scenery unchewed, and if the volcano hadn’t destroyed Yellowstone, he probably would have devoured it.
• Cloudcuckoolander: It’s pretty blatant that the guy is absolutely insane, but he was right about almost everything.
• Conspiracy Theorist: He has a ton of insane conspiracy theories, though his theories on the Arks turns out to be almost entirely correct.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: He goes out covering the Yellowstone caldera erupting live, Chewing the Scenery to the bitter end.
• Face Death with Dignity: He was offered a chance to go with Jackson and his family to safety, but he chose to stay and witness everything, knowing full well he was a dead man for doing so.
• Large Ham: This was the role Woody Harrelson was born to play, and he makes sure to spend his screentime Chewing the Scenery.

Harry Helmsley

Played By: Blu Mankuma

• Despair Event Horizon: Though he does take comfort that he was able to say goodbye to his son who he knows will survive the impending apocalypse, he resorts to Drowning My Sorrows for the rest of his life until the tsunami hits.
• Face Death with Dignity: When he knows his time has come, he does his best to brace himself.
• Secret-Keeper: Adrian told him a year in advance about the impending end of the world, and he kept quiet about it until the end arrived.

Tony Delgatto

Played By: George Segal

• Despair Event Horizon: Upon hearing the deaths of his son and his family, though somewhat mercifully, he died soon afterward as well.
• Outliving One's Offspring: He hears his son and granddaughter screaming during an earthquake they were likely killed in.
• Parting-Words Regret: He was on bad terms with his son when they last parted ways. He tries to make up for this by calling him to say goodbye, but he tragically doesn’t get the chance.
• Secret-Keeper: It’s implied that Harry told him the end of the world was coming after saying goodbye to Adrian, hence why he tries to speak to his son one last time.
• You Are Too Late: He called his estranged son just as an earthquake struck Japan and killed him and his family. His son was just about to speak to him for what was clearly the first time in years as he got distracted by the earthquake.

Tamara Jikan

Played By: Beatrice Rosen

• Dying Alone: The corridor room she's trapped alone in is the only one that fills up all the way and drowns by herself with no one around to comfort her.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Her last actions before being trapped in her watery grave was to make sure Lily Curtis and her dog make it to safety before the hatch shut.
• Left for Dead: She's abandoned by Yuri once they reach China, as revenge for her affair with Sasha.

Sasha

Played By: Johann Urb

• Nerves of Steel: Sasha manages to remain generally composed and reliable while flying the plane through some adverse conditions.

Lama Rinpoche

Played By: Henry O

• Advertised Extra: He's the only character in the film to be featured◊ on any of the posters and he only has a few scenes.
• Face Death with Dignity: An epic one that is. As the tsunami sweeps away his monastery at the top of the Himalayas, he simply stands and rings the giant bell at the top of the building as the wave approaches, with a look that screams "Bring it on!".

Nima

Played By: Osric Chau