We’ve already explored the history of 2012 here on Cinematical and what you need to know to see the movie (hint: the world might blow up!), but here’s what 2012 stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, and Woody Harrelson and director Roland Emmerich have to say about the end of the world. Do they believe the world will end with a whimper or a bang, T. S. Eliot-style? Will we go out in fire or in ice? Do they even believe the world will end in 2012? Let’s find out.

Thandie Newton: You know, I think that there are dire ecological problems that we are more aware of than we’ve ever been through the media and so on, but there are also problems of a more profound nature – human rights issues, which for me, signify the end of the world. What’s going on in the Congo, what’s happening in the Middle East, where… the law of human rights just don’t seem to exist. And I feel like, in a way, that’s more complex and more painful and more destructive than a tidal wave… I think that at some time it was believed that 2012 was the year that things were going to happen, but the prediction has been disproved. I mean, I don’t know the details of it, I’m afraid. I’m sure it’s in your press pack. [laughs] But that’s my personal opinion. I want to focus more on the things that can be dealt with, the disasters that human beings are responsible for… It’s more problematic and more complex and terrifying the way people treat people.

From Cinematical