This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman .. Read more
| Starring | Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas |
|---|---|
| Director | James Bridges |
| Genres | Thriller |
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This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). While Wells and Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station, Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the China syndrome of the title), to the station's soundman to deliver to Wells and Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown, Godell takes over the plant's control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant's management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film's clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore.~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
| Starring | Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas |
|---|---|
| Director | James Bridges |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 56 mins |
| Certificate |  |
| Collections | 100 Top Thrillers |
| Genres | Thriller |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Subtitles | DVD: Czech, English, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Polish, Turkish |
| Released | Production year: 1979 To Rent: DVD: 13 Oct 2003 |
Topical thriller-with-a-moral, absorbingly done in the old style but perhaps in the end a shade too hysterical and self-congratulatory.
- 7
- 1
Jack's great, but Fonda's a bit of a Lemmon.
Lemmon is totally watchable as the ordinary everyman confronting his realisation that his faith and certainties about the nuclear industry he's spent his ... read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
- 0
- 0
What could happen if it all goes horribly wrong...
A classic and only slightly dated disaster film along the lines of Towering Inferno. However, still very watchable as some of the issues remain very topical (i.... read more »
- 1
- 0
Still tense
Even though this is becoming a little dated now - what about those 1970s clothes and sets? - it is still gripping and over the duration of the film tension is ... read more »
- 0
- 0
very good
a very exciting film. I've seen it before, but the excitment has not diminished. worth watching.a a a a a a a a
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