Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jane Fonda | ... | Kimberly Wells | |
Jack Lemmon | ... | Jack Godell | |
Michael Douglas | ... | Richard Adams | |
Scott Brady | ... | Herman De Young | |
James Hampton | ... | Bill Gibson | |
Peter Donat | ... | Don Jacovich | |
Wilford Brimley | ... | Ted Spindler | |
Richard Herd | ... | Evan McCormack | |
Daniel Valdez | ... | Hector Salas | |
![]() |
Stan Bohrman | ... | Pete Martin |
James Karen | ... | Mac Churchill | |
![]() |
Michael Alaimo | ... | Greg Minor |
Donald Hotton | ... | Dr. Lowell | |
Khalilah 'Belinda' Ali | ... | Marge (as Khalilah Ali) | |
![]() |
Paul Larson | ... | D.B. Royce |
While doing a series of reports on alternative energy sources, a reporter, Kimberly Wells, witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant. Wells is determined to report the incident but soon finds herself entangled in a sinister conspiracy to keep the full impact of the incident a secret. Written by Dave Jenkins <david.jenkins@smallworld.co.uk>
Intelligent, nail-biting drama came out of nowhere in 1979 and soon was on the cover of every newspaper in America (when life imitated the film). A nuclear power plant employee in Southern California is threatened by superiors when he decides to go public with the real story behind an accident at the plant. Ostensibly a stuck valve problem, a piece of film secretly recorded by a TV news-crew shows that it was an accident verging on disastrous proportions--and worse, that safety conditions are being scrubbed to save millions of dollars, a cover-up that endangers everyone's lives. The movie occasionally gets too technical (especially in the second-half) and could use more human interplay, however the performances by Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda (as a puff-piece newswoman in the right place at the right time) and Michael Douglas (as a freelance cameraman) are superb. The throwaway bits involving nuclear protesters is both entirely accurate and bitterly satirical, and the news-biz (with its corporate structure and vapid yes-men) is vividly captured. ***1/2 from ****