Greenland 2: Migration Brings Back Gerard Butler and Beats the Original — Barely

Remember lockdown, when we were so starved for new movies that almost anything looked better than it was? Greenland benefited from that moment. It was praised like a gourmet meal, even though the actual dish was... cafeteria. Now comes a sequel nobody was pining for, Greenland 2: Migration, and the chatter says it is even worse. Here is the twist: it is a little better than the first one. Not a high bar, but still.

Short version: better than the original, but still generic enough to forget by the time you hit the parking lot.

Quick facts

• Title: Greenland 2: Migration (2026)
• Release: Only in theaters January 8
• Director: Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen)
• Writers: Chris Sparling, Mitchell LaFortune
• Cast: Gerard Butler as John Garrity; Morena Baccarin (Sheriff Country) as Allison; Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit) replaces Roger Dale Floyd as Nathan
• One-line premise: After an earthquake wipes out their military bunker, the Garritys cross a wrecked Europe toward a rumored crater in France with its own breathable atmosphere.

The setup

We pick up after the comet fragments shattered the planet in the first film. Society is a patchwork, hope is scarce, and the script is not interested in any upbeat government messaging. John Garrity is still an engineer and very much alive, as are his wife Allison and their son Nathan — now played by Roman Griffin Davis. The survivors have been holed up in a fortified bunker. Conveniently, it is now safe-ish to step outside when the plot needs fresh air.

Then the movie hits the big red reset button: a massive earthquake. It levels the supposedly secure bunker and pushes the family back on the road. Word spreads (apparently gossip travels faster than fallout) about a French crater with a self-sustaining pocket of clean air, so the Garritys head for Europe on foot, wheels, and grit.

Does it work?

On paper, the sequel has a stronger hook than the first movie: an actual journey with a clear destination. In practice, it keeps tripping over its own logic. The action beats arrive on schedule, stitched together with very familiar disaster-thriller cliches. You can feel the plot armor strapped to the core trio, which drains tension — you are rarely worried about them for more than a few seconds at a time.

Director Ric Roman Waugh, a regular Butler collaborator, can stage chaos, but he cannot sweep away the script issues he had last time. The movie is darker (as sequels love to be) and it burns through side characters who show up mainly to provide perfunctory emotion before being tossed aside. The survival tech is another eyebrow-raiser: the film treats radiation avoidance like a DIY project, the kind where you half expect someone to string a detector around their neck and call it a day.

Context that matters

The original Greenland popped on VOD in 2020 — timing did a lot of heavy lifting when audiences had limited choices. It makes sense a studio would chase that with another entry; studios love a franchise with a pulse, see: the way Now You See Me keeps getting sequels. But box office normalcy also means the sequel has to compete on merit, not just scarcity.

Should you go?

If you are a Gerard Butler disaster-movie loyalist, this is a cleaner watch than the first one, if not a particularly memorable one. For everyone else, at current ticket prices, the movie does not make a strong case for a night out. It is sturdier than 2020’s outing, but still pretty thin on originality and genuine suspense.

Greenland 2: Migration opens only in theaters on January 8.