Review: 'Greenland 2: Migration' presents round 2 of the apocalypse, and more chances for Gerard Butler's machismo and Morena Baccarin's fierce protectiveness shine through.

Surviving the apocalypse isn’t something you do just once, as the end-of-the-world sequel “Greenland 2: Migration” proves as it runs the Garrity family again through the aftermath of a cosmic cataclysm.

For those who don’t remember the first movie, “Greenland,” a quick recap: John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his wife, Allison (Morena Baccarin), and young son witness part of a comet striking the planet, causing mass catastrophe around the world. The family’s only hope is to find the one safe space left, in Greenland.

The sequel picks up five years later, with the Garrity family — including a 15-year-old Nathan, played by Roman Griffin Davis (“Jojo Rabbit”) — living with a few hundred other survivors in a bunker in Greenland. But surviving isn’t the same as living, since the bunker dwellers seldom see the sun because of radiation let loose by the comet, as well as occasional fragments of the comet that have been caught in Earth’s orbit and sometimes come crashing down.

With tremors laying waste to the Greenland base, the Garritys have to hit the road for a rumored sanctuary in southern France, in the crater where the comet, Clarke, originally struck. The journey puts the family through unstable territory, and people occasionally shooting at them. A further complication is that John is suffering a persistent cough — and, to paraphrase Bowen Yang from a 2024 “Saturday Night Live” sketch, “that’s movie for ‘dying.’”

The script — by Mitchell LaFortune and the first movie’s writer, Chris Sparling — sets numerous obstacles in the path of the Garrity family, most of them setting up action sequences for director Ric Roman Waugh (who also directed Butler in “Angel Has Fallen” and “Kandahar”) to stage for maximum thrills. The script also conjures up a string of lucky coincidences to ensure the Garritys always find friendly allies with a filtered air supply and a handy vehicle.

There are worse ways, I suppose, to make an action movie that highlights Butler’s rugged intensity and Baccarin’s tiger-mom ferocity. “Greenland 2: Migration” is gritty, sometimes cliched and often in love with its reliance on SteadiCam shots. But it’s a get-the-job-done thriller that delivers the action without pretense.

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‘Greenland 2: Migration’

★★★

Opens Friday, January 9, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, bloody images, and action. Running time: 98 minutes.