It's 2012 for Dey

I will forgo the discussion about how the Maya did not intend their calendar to "end" in 2012, any more than our calendar "ended" on 1 BC.
But wasn't Michael Bay working on a project along these lines, involving alternate universes?

Sorry Captmathman, I don't understand your logic. There was no calendar to end at 1BC or 0, because that calendar didn't exist then. The Hebrew calendar (among others) was counting up in those days and still is. The B.C. was more of an afterthought to the creation of the Gregorian calendar (and its previous maifestations) to keep track of years prior to the birth of Jesus as inaccurate as the year of that might be.

And as you don't wish to go into such a discussion, I won't miention that there are a number of articles on the subject of their prediction of astrological conjunctions, shifts in magnetic fields due to crossing the Galagtic Equator, and stuff like that.

Otherwise, it actually sounds like a decent premise, with good family adventure potential. I could also see this being the premise for a dark thriller. And I am guessing they will be vacationing near some Mayan ruins in Central America.

Family action adventure? That doesn't sound good. Plus, Dey's directed nothing but crap.

ok galaga51, I'm confused about this galactic equator. I've never heard of that. I know it takes about 225 million years to make one revolution around our galaxy considering we're about 30,000 light years from its center. But that means we've been around the galaxy several times in the last 4.5 billion years so what is this galactic equator? Is it anything like the solar ecliptic?

And I'm sorry I don't get the whole magnetic field thing anyway. Our sun releases a powerful enough solar wind to keep us fairly safe from any outsystem radiation. Plus our own magnetic field protects us from our sun so how could anything else much farther away effect us?

Also I don't think Captmathman, was suggesting that the calendar ever counted backwards, but I'll stop there not really knowing his thoughts, but just assuming that no one is that stupid.

The Maya calendar is an intricate gear system, and as a mathematician, I have "long" admired it. (Get it? "Long" count? Eh.)
Anyway, there is considerable evidence that the Maya Long Count would simply "roll over" on 13.0.0.0.0. The biggest hint is the existence of values greater than the baktun. If the universe was coming to an end following the 13th baktun, it wouldn't make much sense to include a calabtun, would it?
Also, Schele and Friedel note in A Forest of Kings that "Pacal, the great king of Palenque, predicted in his inscriptions that the eightieth Calendar Round anniversary of his accession will be celebrated eight days after the first eight-thousand-year cycle in the Maya calendar ends. In our time system, this cycle will end on October 15, 4772." (p. 82)
I recommend "A Forest of Kings" to you for further study on the subject. I've always found Linda Schele to be a particularly accessible source of information on the Maya, and there is a bit of discussion about the mythology in the Popol Vuh regarding the previous 4 incarnations of the cosmos.
Finally, regarding our current Gregorian calendar and it's critical date of 1 A.D., my point is simply that that date serves as a starting point for counting, and that inclusion of the B.C. (or B.C.E., if you prefer) is simply an artificial construct. A year is a year is a year. For us, and for the Maya. Lots of mythology gets attached to big round numbers in both systems, but just as our world didn't come to an end/was reborn on January 1, 1 A.D., neither did the Maya universe die/was reborn on August 11, 3114 B.C. (although you will find that that is the "0" date, on which the 4th "manifestation of the cosmos" died, and our world was created). And you'll still get to look forward to the holiday you observe around the solstice in the year 2012.

What's a baktun? And what is a calabtun?

Anyway, I want to see a trailer for this movie. It sounds like it could be fun.

A baktun is roughly 400 years, and a calabtun about 160,000 years.
In the format x.0.0.0.0, x would be the baktun. After the 13th baktun is completed, you shift back to 1. The calabtun was not used in any Long Count dates; it only appears textually, to refer to great distances of time.
So much for forgoing calendric discussions! Glad to see so much interest in the topic. And let it be said, although the movie could be fun, I generally look skeptically on millenarianism, be it in our Western calendar, the Maya calendar, or any other system, and I would hope a reasonable person would keep this in mind before maxing out his/her credit card on hookers and beer in November, 2012.

"I generally look skeptically on millenarianism, be it in our Western calendar, the Maya calendar, or any other system, and I would hope a reasonable person would keep this in mind before maxing out his/her credit card on hookers and beer in November, 2012."

Tell me about it. I remember back in 92 I was chanel surfing when I came across "How to Survive the Year 2000" This was one of those money making scams that Pat Robertson was promoting. This was also before I knew what a Pat Robertson was. They were showing stock footage of hurricanes, tornados, earthiquake aftermaths, Volcanos eruptin and every other natural disaster you can think of. I kept thinking "Man. Who Buys into this crap?"

Anyway, I see these end-of-the-world-as-you-know-it films as pure entertainment.