Watch Some Hilarious Promo Footage of Roland Emmerich's 2012 With the Special Effects Removed

Director Roland Emmerich certainly loves himself some CGI-fueled spectacle. Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow; for the last 15 years, almost all of his movies have banked heavily on a cornucopia of special-effects eye candy. And his upcoming disaster-porn movie 2012 looks to carry on that grand tradition of famous U.S. landmarks being destroyed by apocalyptic disasters.

Sony recently released five minutes of promotional footage for the film, and the trailer somewhat predictably was a total sensory overlord of CGI explosions, building collapses, almost-didn't-make-it-escapes and sundry orgiastic depictions of armageddon. But some intrepid video editor may have done Plato a solid vis-a-vis illuminating a certain metaphoric cave. An "Actor's Version" of the 2012 footage has popped up on YouTube, with all of the CGI special effects stripped out. The denuded clip now clocks in at a trim minute-and-a-half of John Cusack and company looking surprised, making surprised faces, and yelling incoherently. Oh, and it's hilarious.

Check it out for yourself, and get ready for a hell of a closer: