| “ | They're not spaceships buddy, they're arks | „ |
| ~ Jackson Curtis to Noah Curtis |
| “ | No, guys like you and me don't have a chance. You'd have to be Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch or some Russian billionaire or something. | „ |
| ~ Charlie Frost to Jackson Curtis |
| “ | An international endeavour is under way, and 46 nations are currently invested in this thing. | „ |
| ~ Thomas Wilson to Laura Wilson |
The Arks, code-named the Cho Ming Operation, were a series of nine ships created to help preserve as much of Earth's history, fine arts, humans, and animals from the catastrophic events that were about to occur.
When the apocalypse ended, the three remaining Arks arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, allowing the surviving passengers and crew to remake their lives.
Overview[]
They were built in the Cho Ming Valley, Tibet, near the newly-built mega-city in secret where thousands of locals were recruited to build the Arks.
Funding for the project is secured by selling auxiliary VIP tickets - which was €1,000,000,000 euros per person. Geneticists chose people from all over the world to provide for the genetic diversity the human race would need to repopulate. Workers did not get passes for the Arks but later in the film, China and the G8 heads of state voted to open the gates to allow the people they were planning to leave behind to enter the Arks. Multiple animals that were stowed on the Ark to ensure their survival as well.
When the assembly facility that holds the Arks appears in the climax of the film, it can be seen that there are nine docking stations for the Arks, implying that nine arks were planned to be built. Unfortunately, the predictions by Adrian turned out to be wrong and the 2012 Apocalypse is happening earlier than expected and by that time only four Arks were fully completed and it was estimated that 400,000 people could be saved.
However, an earthquake caused by the Earth Crust Displacement on Cho Ming made the roof above Ark 03 collapse and damage the vessel, forcing the transferring of the crew, passengers and cultural heritage aboard Ark 03 to the other three remaining Arks.
Known Arks[]
- Ark 01: Unknown. Construction was delayed for 2 straight years due to lack of manpower and was only seen as incomplete when Adrian, Carl Anheuser, and the others passed by on the way to Ark 04. It was seen to still being in the process of being built when they first took the bus into the facility.
- Ark 02: Unknown. Was seen on Ark 3's left side and was almost completed before the tidal wave hit.
- Ark 03: Unknown. Possibly India, or reserved for the private sector. Damaged by a roof collapse during a strong earthquake. Boarding at that time was delayed but was permanently shut down when an angry mob led by Yuri Karpov broke through the glass doors and headed straight for Ark 4, making the repairs crew abandon their posts.
- Ark 04: United States (Labelled Americas; United States on the comms system): Completed and operational at the time of the 2012 Apocalypse. The vessel carried the acting Commander-In-Chief Carl Anheuser, Adrian Helmsley, and Laura Wilson, alongside Jackson and his family, the Karpov twins, Nima's family and hundreds of thousands more. Significantly damaged due to a flood breach when Jackson and Tenzin's families jammed the back door of the ark open, causing the tidal wave to flood the rear half of the ark with water.
- Ark 05: Unknown. Never built, with an empty bay with the #5 on it since the first thing to be built was the dam.
- Ark 06: China, Japan, and Russia (Labelled Asia; South Pacific on the comms system). Completed and operational at the time of the 2012 Apocalypse. Among its hundreds of thousands of occupants were: the President of Russia Sergey Makarenko and his translator, the Prime Minister of Japan, and the President of China.
- Ark 07: Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and United Kingdom (Labelled Europe; Africa on the comms system). Completed and operational at the time of the 2012 Apocalypse. Among its hundreds of thousands of occupants were the British Royal Family and the Prime Minister of the UK, the President of France, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Prime Minister of Spain, and the Chancellor and the President of Germany.
- Ark 08: Unknown. Never built or partially completed.
- Ark 09: Unknown. Never built or partially completed.
Images[]
Trivia[]
- In real life, it would take an extremely long time, not to mention exorbitant amounts of funding, scientists, engineers, manual labors, resources and materials to build all the nine Arks. It is nigh impossible to find the most hidden location in the world to avoid unwanted attentions. The world governments will be hard-pressed to keep both the project and the imminent apocalypse confidential, given that "somebody would blow the whistle."
- There are only four completed and fully operational Arks seen, meaning that the remaining five failed to be completed on time due to such challenges.
- Charlie Frost mentions two real life individuals, Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch who could afford the Ark tickets given their vast wealth.
- Estimates of the dimensions of one Ark state a length of 850 meters, a width of 228 meters, and a height of 186 meters. Materials include strengthened titanium and steel for the hull.
- Estimated weight is over 5 megatons.
- It is unexplained why the tickets are sold in euros instead of the internationally most widely used US dollars. The Saudi Prince once believes they are sold in the US currency.
- The Arks are likely a reference to Noah’s Ark from the book of the bible and quran.