Early Cli-Fi: The Day of the Animals and the Greenhouse Effect

The Day of the Animals (1977) addresses the Greenhouse Effect more blatantly than films from the era like Frogs, while also anthropomorphizing the animals that seek vengeance against humanity for its mistreatment of nature. The film’s opening title cards explicitly states it’s focus on humanity’s contribution to Earth’s damaged ozone layer and suggests that The Day of the Animals serves as a warning regarding the possible negative consequences of our environmental exploitation:

"In June 1974, Drs. F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina of the University of California startled the scientific world with their finding that fluorocarbon gases used in aerosol spray cans are seriously damaging the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Thus, potentially dangerous amounts of ultra-violet rays are reaching the surface of our planet, adversely affecting all living things. This motion picture dramatizes what could happen in the near future if we continue to do nothing to stop this damage to Nature’s protective shield for life on this planet."

In The Day of the Animals, humans are constructed as villains when dropped off for a hike in the mountains. In response to a chemical imbalance caused by the depletion of the ozone layer, animals from condors and vultures to bears, mountain lions and wolves attack the hikers as their known enemies. In The Day of the Animals, then, animals have become more like humans, able to determine the cause for their possible demise—a human-caused hole in the ozone layer.

The film illustrates humanity’s culpability by constructing at least some of the hikers as monstrous. Advertising executive Paul Jenson (Leslie Nielson) embodies all the negative qualities that have led to the animal attacks. In one scene, he even exclaims, “If there's a God left up there to believe in. My father who art in heaven you've a made a jackass out of me for years. Neville's God, that's the God I believe in! You see what you want you take. You take it! And I am going to do just that!”

Uncredited hiker Sam (Walt Gorney), on the other hand, explains why nature is assaulting them when he declares, “God sent a plague down on us because we're just a bunch of no good fellers.” Ultimately the only defense against these animal executioners is military intervention, but the film makes a case for changing our destructive behaviors to preserve nature and ourselves. The "cheese" may cause more laughter than thrills, but the message of The Day of the Animals is clear: climate change may have dire consequences, so we better clean up our act before the animals fight back.