Carl Anheuser

Template:Infobox characterCarl Anheuser is the main antagonist of 2012. He is the White House Chief of Staff to the late President Thomas Wilson and later the de facto President. He tries to keep the 2012 apocalypse a secret from the public in order to prevent a massive civil unrest and believes that only the richest people are needed to survive the disaster. He is played by Oliver Platt.

Carl is a survivor of the 2012 apocalypse.

Bio

Grand Plaza Hotel Party

Carl Anheuser is seen celebrating a party at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Washington DC of 2009, where a geologist named Dr. Adrian Helmsley arrives to inform him that a massive solar flare has caused the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly and would cause a chain of natural disasters in the year 2012.

After learning the news from Adrian, Anheuser became stunned and decided to take Adrian to meet the US President Thomas Wilson.

Preparing for the End

Since the discovery of the world's ending in 2009 and the construction the Arks, Anheuser decided to take over the international media to assure that the 2012 disaster would never be told in order to prevent a massive panic, getting to the point where several scientists from around the world getting killed in various accidents when they tried to warn the public.

After Adrian Helmsley discovers that the end is near as the Earth's crust is destabilizing, Anheuser and President Wilson prepare to inform the other national leaders from around the world about the news and they must evacuate at once.

2012 apocalypse

Soon, the worldwide apocalypse began as Los Angeles sinks into the Pacific and several earthquakes wreaking several cities around the globe. Later on, during the evening of the date where the apocalypse is occurring, Anheuser is speaking to his mother on his phone one last time before Adrian arrives to inform Anheuser to show another earthquake striking South America and chaos breaking in London and people around the globe are gathering in public places in desperate prayer on live TV.

While Adrian and Anheuser talk about that the rest of the public have the right to fight for their lives at the best way they can and that a massive panic will be caused if they told them about the end of the world. Professor West comes to inform them that the Yellowstone Caldera has erupted and the ash cloud will hit Washington in seven hours. While looking for President Wilson who is in the church praying, while the rest of the staff heads to board Air Force One to get to the arks, Wilson talks to Adrian that he chooses to stay in DC to form the nation one last time and tells him that he used to have a wife named Dorothy.

Adrian then boards Air Force One, as all the staff were on board and says that the President is not coming and Anheuser reveals that the Vice President is dead and the Speaker of the White House is missing and he becomes the acting President as he is not in the line of succession. After taking off, all they watch on the screen was President Wilson filming the nation one last time.

In the computer room, the staff has recorded more disasters around the world, including the fact when Anheuser learns that the Italian Prime Minister has also stayed behind in Italy with his family. They see a 9.4 hitting the capital of USA and even seeing that the Earth's crust has finally begun to shift more than a thousand miles and after the moving landmasses come to a halt, gigantic megatsunamis formed by the corresponding quakes are going to flood the entire planet and turning it into a Waterworld. Adrian finds that more tsunamis are going to strike the Japanese seaboard and it will capsize the Genesis.

Adrian and Anheuser discover that the tsunamis will flood the Cho Ming area within six hours and the crust has shifted by 23 degrees to the South West and the Earth's poles have reversed their magnetic fields and Wisconsin is now the North Pole and the South Pole is now somewhere in the Indian Ocean, while Professor West says that Wisconsin is the South Pole, which confuses Adrian and Anheuser.

After they landed in China, they begin to board the American Ark, as soon they saw Ark 3 where it is blocked after the roof collapsed during the shifting of the Earth's crust, which stuns Anheuser. After learning about another wave coming from the east, Anheuser immediately wants to leave as they only had a short amount of time before they are washed up by the wave.

After the arks were prepared for the upcoming megatsunami, Adrian, Laura and Professor West see all the survivors are frantically wanting to get onto the Arks while some of them are falling off the ledge. Adrian then gives a speech to the other two Arks about saying that they cannot let the survivors die, but instead, have the rest of civilization die in vain instead of starting their future with an act of cruelty. Despite Anheuser trying to convince them to leave the people as they have 15 minutes left, the people on the Arks decided to let the survivors come aboard the Arks and that they cannot leave them to die.

Right after bringing all of the survivors on board the Ark, the gate's hydraulics were jammed by something and they have a breach in the Zoological Bay. As they zoom in, Adrian sees Noah and Lilly which he knows and seeing Jackson Curtis helping Tenzin get into the next bay. They see that Tenzin is injured while he and his family along with the Curtis family have stowed away on the Ark in order to survive. After Anheuser arrogantly berates them, Adrian, Laura and an ark staff went off to the Zoological Bay to inform Jackson about the jammed hydraulics (in a deleted scene, Adrian punches Anheuser out of anger to shut him up).

After the gigantic tsunami flooded Asia and Air Force One hit one of the Ark's anchors which sets the Ark off course, Adrian, Laura, and the Ark staff arrive at the Zoological Bay where they find Lilly and Caesar screaming for Tamara (who drowns in the flooding chamber). They managed to speak to Jackson and inform about the hydraulics being jammed by an Impact Driver and that if they don't get it out, they will collide with Mount Everest. Jackson and Noah managed to get the drill out of the gears and they escape death just in time. They all thought that Jackson had drowned, but he managed to get out.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the 2012 apocalypse, Anheuser is not seen until the Arks begin to set sail for the Cape of Good Hope where Africa has risen due to the global floodwaters from the tsunamis receding. In a deleted scene to the alternative ending of the film, Anheuser comes up to the bridge and apologizes to Adrian for his actions.

Trivia

• Carl Anheuser was played by Oliver Platt.
• Anheuser, who's position is the Chief of Staff, is NOT in line to succeed to President, but since he's knows who's onboard and points himself acting President, we can assume that all other positions (after the Speaker of the House) did not aboard Air Force One.