Miracle on Interstate 880

The Loma Prieta earthquake that occurred on October 17, 1989 and devastated the San Francisco Bay Area was one of the costliest disasters, both in monetary terms and in terms of loss of life, in American history. With a magnitude of 6.9, the quake was also the first to be televised on the spot during the coverage of that year's World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. In the end, as much as $6 billion worth of property damage had occurred, and 69 persons lost their lives.

Many of those deaths occurred on a section of the Nimitz Freeway (I-880) in Oakland that was a double-deck structure. But even here, in the midst of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in American history up to that point, miracles happened. Those miracles were the subject of the 1993 made-for-TV movie MIRACLE ON INTERSTATE 880.

Fairly well directed by Robert Iscove, the film stars David Morse, Sandy Duncan, Ruben Blades, Len Cariou, and Scott Hylands as the people who were either trapped in that collapse double-decker roadway or who tried to help. As is common with a lot of made-for-TV movies based on real-life natural disasters, there is the mixture of TV news video footage and the dramatized material. Fortunately, however, the tendency to go into hyper-dramatic overdrive that is common in most films of this nature is missing from MIRACLE ON INTERSTATE 880. The real-life miracle rescues amongst the horror is plenty dramatic enough, warranting a '7' rating.

Great TV-movie about the collapse of Interstate 880 during the '89 San Francisco quake. There is a wonderful cast of well-known character actors, including Ruben Blades, Scott Hylands and David Morse. The film combines archive footage with its own staged "collapse site", which looks a bit tacky at times, but certainly serves the purpose when we are between the layers, watching as medical teams try and pull survivors from the wreckage of their vehicles. There is a particularly closed-in atmosphere during these scenes, and together with the added effects of blasting horns and blinking turn signals, it seems all-too real at times.

Many of these made-for-TV disaster movies are notoriously poor and have quite a reputation, but I-880, as it is also known, breaks away from this mould to give us a compelling and touching real-life drama, with an especially emotional ending that is a bit of a kick in the face. Certainly worth a look if you can find it.

I have a question? I saw this movie a few years ago and I have been try to locate this movie to purchase. But to no avail. One day they gave it on television and I had recorded it. But it was misplaced. I would like to know where i can find this movie, also find the movie Triumph over disaster; the hurricane Andrew story. These are some movies that made for television and they are hard to locate on videocassette. I hope this can be located somehow and won't be difficult to locate in the future. Thanks for the opportunity to hear me out. This would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Frankie Nickolas-Alexander Perez

While I am proud that this story chronicles my grandfather's miraculous final days in a way that will allow his memory to live on in the minds and hearts of generations to come, it is full of historical inaccuracies and should only be viewed with this in mind. The people who interviewed my family twisted their words and the story in order to make it appear more interesting to the viewers. They did the same thing in Shaken: 25 Years After the Quake. Keeping this in mind, it was an overall a fairly decent movie. But it should not be viewed in a historically intelligent light,as the people who directed it obviously did not have that in mind.

This television movie chronicles the major earthquake in the Bay Area in 1989. The emphasis of the story is about the collapse of the double-decker interstate 880 where a lot of cars were trapped as the upper level collapsed on the cars that happened to be lower part of the highway. The movie has a documentary feeling to it.

Directed by Robert Iscove, the film has some good moments as it concentrates on two families affected by the earthquake, the Berunam and the Betts families. It also shows a brave man, Frank Stewart, who was instrumental in saving the two Berunam children. Unfortunately, Buck Betts, a diabetic, wasn't discovered until after four days after the quake.

The film has some good visual effects, which are mixed with actual television footage of the rescue efforts at the highway. Ruben Blades, Len Cariou, David Morse, Sandy Duncan, Scott Hylands, among the cast, contribute to give life to the people affected by the disaster.