Helmed by Ric Roman Waugh, ‘Greenland 2: Migration‘ serves as the sequel to ‘Greenland‘ and takes place five years after the cataclysmic event triggered by the Clarke comet’s descent on Earth. Despite humanity’s best efforts to pull itself by the bootstraps, nature appears to have taken a violent form, forcing the remaining populations to go underground or risk fierce living conditions on the surface. The Garrity family, comprised of John, Allison, and their son, Nathan, has managed to survive so far, but a series of earth-shattering events forces them to leave Greenland forever and find a new home. Their only hope is the mythical impact crater site of the Clarke comet, which is believed to be the only lush and fertile ground left. As John and company begin their perilous journey across oceans and continents, the allure of the crater consumes the entire narrative. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Clarke Crater is a Fictionalized Successor of a Real-Life Crater in Mexico
While Clarke crater is a fictional location created by writers Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling specifically for ‘Greenland 2: Migration,’ the story itself connects the crater to a real-life historical phenomenon, at least vaguely. Dr. Amina, one of the characters in the movie, refers to the crater as a sort of embryo for new life on Earth, recalling a similar display of bioactivity that was mapped after the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. While her statement appears to be a mix of facts and fictions, at its base, it is referring to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which took place roughly 66 million years ago. The event was responsible for the extinction of around three-quarters of all plant and animal species on Earth, including, most notably, all land and sea-based dinosaurs.
The famous Chicxulub crater, located underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, is widely believed to be the site of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, and is also the most likely inspiration for the Clarke crater’s overall concept. At roughly 124 miles wide and 18 miles deep, the crater is among the largest on Earth and is known for its anomalous gravity. Many of these details are reimagined through the Clarke crater, with the most noticeable difference being its setting. In the movie, the Clarke comet drops in southern France, creating an expansive crater which can and does sustain a mini-civilisation. This validates the in-movie belief held by Dr. Amina, who claims that extinction events, while tragic in their own right, can also create new oases of life.
A Hydrothermal System Underneath the Chicxulub Crater Sustained Life After Impact
Notably, Dr. Amina cites the event that killed most dinosaurs as proof of concept, and while the movie never mentions the Chicxulub crater by name, the connection is apparent. In real life, some research does indicate that the crater was simultaneously a site of pure destruction and the bringer of new life-sustaining environments. A deeper examination of the crater has revealed the existence of an elaborate hydrothermal system, which potentially served as a natural habitat for life to continue beyond the extinction event. In Clarke crater’s case, it’s not a hydrothermal network, but the crater’s soil itself that is depicted as fertile. To that end, it appears that ‘Greenland 2: Migration’ only uses real-life craters like Chicxulub as a vague source of influence, letting the creative team add and fill in details along the way.
Although the Clarke crater is an invented setting in the movie, its visually striking design lends to a powerful immersion effect. It is important to note, however, that the crater as depicted in the movie does not exist in real life and was most likely constructed via CGI and visual effects. Still, there are real towns and entire civilizations built in and around impact craters, and some of them might have served as reference points for the movie, at least in concept. Most notably, the town of Nördlingen, in Germany, is famous for being built inside a 15-million-year-old impact crater that spans 16 miles.
Nördlingen’s unique characteristics do not end there, however, as the crashed meteorite also left the area filled with approximately 72,000 tons of micro-diamonds. Other towns that exist within such structures, be they volcanic or from a comet or meteor, include Vredefort, a small farming town in South Africa that sits atop one of the largest and oldest recorded impact craters in the world, the Vredefort impact structure. However, as of writing, the creators have not confirmed any linkages between these real-life geological marvels and the fictional Clarke crater, and such similarities might be coincidental.
Read More: Where Was Greenland 2 Migration Filmed? All Shooting Locations
