An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by |
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Written by | Al Gore |
Produced by |
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Starring | Al Gore |
Cinematography | Jon Shenk |
Edited by |
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Music by | Jeff Beal |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 99 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1 million [2] |
Box office | $5.4 million [2] |
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a 2017 American concert film/documentary film, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, about former United States Vice President Al Gore's continuing mission to battle climate change. The sequel to An Inconvenient Truth (2006), the film addresses the progress made to tackle the problem and Gore's global efforts to persuade governmental leaders to invest in renewable energy, culminating in the landmark signing of 2016's Paris Agreement. [3] The film was released on July 28, 2017, by Paramount Pictures, and grossed over $5 million worldwide. It received a nomination for Best Documentary at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. [4]
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The film follows the efforts made to tackle climate change and Al Gore's attempts to persuade governmental leaders to invest in renewable energy, culminating in the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016, as well as attempting to de-bunk the de-bunkers of Gore, his film and global warming in general.
When asked during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" in 2013 whether there were plans for a follow-up film, An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim said, "I think about it a lot – I think we need one right now." [5] In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the producers of the first film were in talks over a possible sequel. [6] "We have had conversations," co-producer Lawrence Bender said. "We've met; we've discussed. If we are going to make a movie, we want it to have an impact." [6] Co-producer Laurie David also believed a sequel was needed. "God, do we need one," David said. "Everything in that movie has come to pass. At the time we did the movie, there was Hurricane Katrina; now we have extreme weather events every other week. The update has to be incredible and shocking." [6]
In December 2016, Al Gore announced that a follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth, An Inconvenient Sequel, would open at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film was screened in the Climate section, a new division, for films featuring climate and the environment. The film was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on July 28, 2017. [7]
In June 2017, the filmmakers told TheWrap that following President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, they would re-edit the film to expand Trump's role as antagonist, before its release. [8]
American band OneRepublic released the title song "Truth to Power" for the film on June 30, 2017. [9] The soundtrack for the film was scored by Jeff Beal and released on August 4, 2017. [10]
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power was released on July 28, 2017, by Paramount Pictures. [11] It was home released on Digital HD on October 6, 2017, and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 24, 2017. [12]
The documentary grossed $3.5 million in the United States, and $1.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $5.2 million, against a production budget of $1 million. [2]
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 80%, based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power makes a plea for environmental responsibility that adds a persuasive – albeit arguably less effective – coda to its acclaimed predecessor." [13] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a score of 68 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [14]
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the documentary a positive review, while writing that it is not as effective as the original, saying: "it finds plenty to add, both in cementing the urgency of Gore's message and in finding cause for hope". [15] In Nature , Michael Mann wrote that "[Al Gore]'s up against arguably the most entrenched, wealthy and powerful industry the world has ever known: fossil fuels. [...] This sequel is deliciously inconvenient, and for several reasons. It is inconvenient to the vested interests who had hoped that Gore would just give up. [...] Knowing that Al Gore is still optimistic is a shot in the arm at a time of uncertainty." [16]
Skeptical Inquirer editor Kendrick Frazier writes that Truth to Power spends little time explaining what climate change is, though there are some good summaries, but more time on the effects. Gore goes to a lot of trouble not to allow the movie to be a "downer" and shows what nations and U.S. states have done to fight climate change. Frazier states that a "skilled politician can get things done in ways that scientists can only imagine", and though he would have liked to have seen less Gore talking and more scientists on camera, Frazier writes that the movie is effective. [17]
Conversely, conservative magazine National Review 's film critic Kyle Smith called the film misleading, saying that it gave the false impression that recent storm activity (such as 2012's Hurricane Sandy) was more frequent than usual, falsely gave credit to both Gore and the company SolarCity for convincing India to sign the Paris Agreement, exaggerated the importance of the Paris Agreement, and neglected to mention Gore's financial ties to SolarCity. [18] Writing for RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen also gave the film a negative review, specifying: "The documentary follow-up proves to be less about global warming than propping up a hero awkwardly desperate to captivate audiences again like he did eleven years ago. It's like the Zoolander 2 of global warming documentaries." [19]
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit is a 1992 book written by Al Gore, published in June 1992, shortly before he was elected Vice President in the 1992 presidential election. Known by the short title Earth in the Balance, the book explains the world's ecological predicament and describes a range of policies to deal with the most pressing problems. It includes a proposed "Global Marshall Plan" to address current ecological issues.
Philip Davis Guggenheim is an American screenwriter, director, and producer.
Participant Media, LLC was an American independent film and television production company founded in 2004 by Jeffrey Skoll, dedicated to entertainment intended to spur social change. The company financed and co-produced film and television content, as well as digital entertainment through its subsidiary SoulPancake, which the company acquired in 2016.
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a slide show that, by Gore's own estimate, he has presented over 1,000 times to audiences worldwide.
References to climate change in popular culture have existed since the late 20th century and increased in the 21st century. Climate change, its impacts, and related human-environment interactions have been featured in nonfiction books and documentaries, but also literature, film, music, television shows and video games.
Our Choice is a 2009 book written by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and published by Rodale, Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Al Gore is an American politician and environmentalist. He was vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2000, and the co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has been involved with the environmental activist movement for a number of decades and has had full participation since he left the vice-presidency in 2001.
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 book by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth. It is published by Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
Not Evil Just Wrong is a 2009 climate change denial documentary film by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer that challenges Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth by claiming that the evidence of global warming is inconclusive and that the impact global warming legislation will have on industry is much more harmful to humans than beneficial. The movie was filmed in 2008 and was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and at the RightOnline conference in 2009.
An Inconvenient Truth...Or Convenient Fiction? is an American documentary film by Steven F. Hayward, produced by the Pacific Research Institute, and filmed at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. It was released on April 12, 2007. The film seeks to address inconsistencies in the film An Inconvenient Truth, which was released the year before, in 2006.
Waiting for "Superman" is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. The film criticizes the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into competitive charter schools such as KIPP LA Schools, Harlem Success Academy and Summit Preparatory Charter High School.
Countdown to Zero is a 2010 documentary film by British filmmaker Lucy Walker. The film argues that the likelihood of the use of nuclear weapons has increased since the end of the Cold War due to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, theft of nuclear materials and weapons, and other factors.
Cool It is a 2010 documentary film directed by Ondi Timoner. It is based on the book Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming by Danish statistician Bjørn Lomborg. The film stars Lomborg, best known for authoring The Skeptical Environmentalist, and explores his views on global warming and criticisms of conventional mitigation approaches. It premiered in Canada at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and had a theatrical United States release on November 12, 2010.
An Inconsistent Truth is a 2012 documentary film written, produced, and featuring, nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine and directed by Shayne Edwards. Valentine, who denied climate change and disagreed with the scientific consensus on global warming, interviewed people who deny that there is a consensus on the issue of global warming or climate change, some of which are scientists, about the validity of Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth and the facts presented within. The film argues that global warming proponents keep changing its label, basing their argument on what Valentine claims is shaky scientific ground.
Lesley Chilcott is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable feature documentary films include Watson, Waiting for "Superman", CodeGirl, It Might Get Loud, and An Inconvenient Truth which won two Academy Awards. Chilcott is known for documentaries about social justice issues such as climate change, the environment, women's equality, and education. She directed the audience-favored Netflix docuseries, Arnold (2023), about the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bodybuilder, movie star, and politician.
"Truth to Power" is a song by American band OneRepublic as the promotional single and title song for the documentary An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power about Al Gore's continuing mission to fight climate change. The song nominated for Best Original Song at the 22nd Satellite Awards and for Original Song in a Documentary at the 8th Hollywood Music in Media Awards.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis is a book by former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore. It was written in conjunction with his 2017 documentary film, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, and is a sequel to his 2006 book An Inconvenient Truth, published concurrently with his documentary of the same name. It was published on July 25, 2017 by Rodale, Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Diane Hope Weyermann was an American film producer who was the chief content officer of Participant Media, a film and television production company.
Bonni Cohen is an American documentary film producer and director. She is the co-founder of Actual Films and has produced and directed an array of award-winning films. Most recently, she produced the Oscar-nominated film Lead Me Home, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and is a Netflix Original. She also recently co-directed Athlete A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and received four nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards. She is the co-founder of Actual Films, the production company of the documentaries An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Audrie & Daisy, 3.5 Minutes, The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan and The Rape of Europa. Cohen is the co-founder of the Catapult Film Fund.
Jon Shenk is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary film director and director of photography, known for his films Lead Me HomeAthlete A, An Inconvenient Sequel, Audrie & Daisy,The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan. He is the co-founder, with his wife Bonni Cohen, of Actual Films, a documentary film company based in San Francisco, CA. He co-directed and photographed Lead Me Home which premiered in 2021 at the Telluride Film Festival, was acquired by Netflix, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2022.