Ice Quake

Ho ho ho.

Very funny, Reed.

This really couldn't wait?

Sorry, Wallace. Colonel's orders...

to do with that tremor

we had yesterday.

You know that I got

the children's Christmas club today?

I don't like this any more than you do.

I still have Christmas shopping to do.

Yeah, well, if I'm not back

in town by 10:
00,

there's gonna be a lot of teary-eyed

toddlers wondering where Santa is.

Relax, this won't take long.

You could take off the beard,

you know.

It keeps my face warm.

Here he comes.

Oh, well, about time.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

Something's burning, Mom.

Michael!

Over 5,000 square miles,

larger than the state of Connecticut,

collapsed this Christmas morning,

setting off alarm bells

in governments across

the northern hemisphere.

The collapse of the ice shelf

was the biggest in recorded history

and occurred with such force

that initial reports indicated

an earthquake had struck...

Here you go, sweetheart.

Oh, boy, flapjacks.

Hey, watch him. There's food out.

Go, Yeti, get away.

Where's your father?

Is he coming down?

Wo Moments ago

we were informed...

Wife:

Michael, come on!

...interrupted his holiday

to coordinate the effort,

dispatching a search-and-rescue

operation...

Yeti, down. Go.

- Sorry.

- Finally.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Hey.

- Hey, Dad.

- Hey, how are you?

Good.

You're still not dressed.

Did you see there was

an ice-shelf collapse in Russia last night?

Yeah. Do you see

that the toast is burning?

Ooh.

Ooh, that's hot.

You didn't burn the bacon, did you?

No, of course not.

Good.

Mmm. Looks good.

That's weird.

What?

The subsurface temperature

just dropped three degrees.

The atmospheric temperature

hasn't changed at all.

How's that possible?

I don't know.

Atmospheric temperature drop

always precedes

a subsurface temperature drop.

What was that?

It just dropped two more degrees.

The subsurface temperature

can't drop that fast.

There must be something

wrong with the equipment.

There's some kind of movement

down here.

Oh, my God.

Reed:
I think we ought to

get off this mountain now.

I couldn't agree more.

Reed?

My God.

Wo

Whoa.

Can I have dinner at Andrea's?

Tia, it's Christmas Eve.

Your mother's making

her traditional seafood dinner.

But it'll be more fun at Andrea's.

Her cousins will be there.

And they have a Christmas tree.

Your daughter does raise a good point.

Why is it we don't have a tree, Michael?

Shane had hockey practice

last weekend,

and Tia, um...

I don't know.

Where were you last weekend?

- Andrea's.

- Mother:
Mmm.

Wasn't that the same day

you were called in to the base?

- Wow, an earthquake.

- What's going on?

Just a tremor.

It'll stop in a moment.

This is so cool.

That's the second one in two days.

Yeah, I'll check in with the base

after breakfast to see what's going on,

- see if they know anything about it.

- Oh, no, you don't.

It's your day off, Michael.

Emily, I'm the Corps'

senior geologist.

I have to check in

on something like this.

Oh, you mean call in?

Yeah, call... I didn't say call in?

- No.

- Okay. I meant to say call in.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So why is it that you need four people

to buy a tree?

It's tradition.

Dad, we did it once.

That's not a tradition.

All right, you know what?

Forget it.

I'll just do it myself.

In fact, you know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna go up the mountain,

I'm gonna find a real Christmas tree,

and I'm gonna chop it down

with my own two hands.

I'm gonna use 'em like axes.

That's tradition.

All right, you two, get dressed.

We're going with him.

- Cool!

- Do we have to? It's freezing outside.

Hey, this family needs a tree and we're not

going to let your father go alone.

It'll be fun.

Man over loudspeaker:

All personnel are reminded

that access is restricted to the South Gate

during the holiday season.

Operations. Ram speaking.

Ram, it's Michael.

How big was that tremor that just hit?

Oh, hey, Mike.

Uh, 4.0 just like yesterday.

Is there any connection

with that ice-shelf collapse in Russia?

I'm not at liberty to discuss that

right now.

Ram, what are you talking about?

Is there a connection or not?

- Ahem.

- Hold on, someone wants to speak to you.

Mr. Webster,

I thought this was your day off.

It is, sir. But as we've just

had another tremor,

I thought I should find out what we know

about the ice-shelf collapse in Russia.

That's what I like

about you, Michael... gut instinct.

So is there a connection?

Something disturbing has occurred.

Can you come in for a briefing?

Like you said, sir,

it's my day off.

I think my family would kill me.

Is there any way

that you can brief me now?

Not on the phone.

What I have to tell you is classified.

- Classified?

- Just come in, Michael.

You're gonna want to hear this.

You geek.

You don't need to pack all that.

We're only going to cut down a tree.

I'm an explorer.

An explorer is always prepared.

Hi.

Got enough layers on there, sport?

I'm surprised you're even able

to move.

Yeah, you look like a big puffball.

Don't listen to them.

You're my mighty explorer.

Hey, Em?

Can I talk to you?

Something's come up.

I gotta stop by the base.

It's for one hour.

The colonel's got to brief me

on something classified.

- It has to do with the tremors.

- There's always something.

And now you're going

to work on Christmas Eve.

I will go for one hour.

Okay?

I'll drop you and the kids off downtown.

You can finish your Christmas shopping

and then I will pick you up

and we'll go get that tree.

I promise.

One hour means one hour.

Yes.

- Hey.

- Merry Christmas.

Go on in, Mr. Webster.

- Oh!

- Whoa!

- Sorry, Jamie.

- Merry Christmas to you, too, Michael.

Oh, what's the visibility like

up on Mount Phaeton?

I want to take the family

up there for a hike.

It's mixed. Just be sure to be back

before nightfall.

There's a storm

coming in tonight.

Hey, merry Christmas.

Man with Russian accent:

Please send help!

That was a communication

intercepted

from a Russian outpost

in their arctic region

as it broke apart

at 0900 yesterday.

Just a few hours before

the ice shelf broke.

Exactly. So our orders are to determine

if this was a natural disaster

or if the Russians

intentionally detonated something

to bolster their claims

to new arctic regions.

So the tremors we've been feeling

are shock waves.

What time did the first one

hit us yesterday?

- That's odd.

- What?

Well, the timing of the first shock wave.

That Russian outpost

is only a few thousand miles from here.

We should have felt that sooner.

What do we have on today's tremor?

It just so happens

that Reed and Wallace

were on the mountain

this morning collecting data.

As soon as they check in,

we'll know more.

Okay, good.

Well, contact me when we have that

and then we'll get this thing sorted out.

- Thank you, sir.

- Right.

- Merry Christmas, Tommy.

- Tommy:
Merry Christmas, Michael.

Carolers:

Joy to the world...

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