I love a big budget disaster movie. The effects the cast and the story all melded together to send you on a thrill ride. We see these pop up from time to time. As the technology got better, we got more fanciful effects driven stories of carnage and change. The story is always key to the disaster movie, along with a huge cast. Many times, they would weave together three or more story lines. You would have no choice but to care about something on the screen. This always lead to the discussion of which story you were more interested in. You name the disaster and I bet there is a movie for it. Seems in my teen years you would find these as Saturday afternoon movies. With commercials many of these would seem to run all afternoon, and what a way to spend an afternoon. Even the bad ones, and there were bad ones, were so good. So, while you collect supplies, I will spend some time talking about five disaster movies you should see.
I have not seen this one in a long while, since my early twenties. I had always known these seventies disaster movies existed. As a kid we were spending a rainy afternoon inside watching whatever we could find on. God, I loved that about growing up in the eighties. The cable channels were manageable, only about forty or fifty, and you got a monthly guide from the cable company. So, we would divide the workload. One person would read the guide while others would run through the channels. This was much easier as we now had remote controls for the cable box, not that set top dial thing or whatever that little keyboard looking thing with a long cable on it was. So, on the couch researching what we would spend the afternoon watching and we found it. this awesome sounding movie about an island and a volcano erupting. Oh, it was wonderfully bad. We all enjoyed the cheesy effects and simple story of When Time Ran Out, starring Paul Newman, Jaqueline Bisset, and that lady rom Hill Street Blues, Veronica Hammel. My friend’s mom recognized what we were watching and said we should look for Towering Inferno, same producer Irwin Allen. It would take a few years before I would see the classic Towering Inferno, but I would, and I did enjoy it. this thing had a great cast. One of those seventies movies that everybody was in. the effects were really good, for the time. That run time tells me that today this would be turned into a limited series, which I still think is a great idea.
The towering inferno centers on a new skyscraper in San Francisco. This is the absolute ultramodern modern living working center. Think star trek ship but anchored to the ground. We start off with a wonderful tracking shot of a helicopter coming in and landing on the roof of this giant building. This is where we meet the architect and begin our pre-tour of the building itself. The business offices are where we essentially land. The architect is inundated with questions and concerns from the staff. To which he remarks, “whatever happened to hello?”. Clearly returning from vacation. So much to do and no time to waste. Next, we see some of the inner workings of the building. I mean the fire department has a satellite office in the building where they can watch everything. And of course, we are getting some errant readings from eh computers. So, we have to use the cameras to see what is, if anything, actually happening. Next, we meet several of the tenants, residential living, on the higher floors. A deaf woman and her children taking art lessons from another tenant. Just your normal everyday life. The movie does a wonderful job of letting you meet everyone and see everything, including the engineering sections behind the scenes that keeps this building going. This runs about the first forty-five minutes of the two hour and forty-five-minute run time.
Next, we have the opening night party on the one hundred and thirty first floor. A black-tie affair to celebrate the opening of the building. Mind you a building that is not fully complete yet. no sprinkler system, floors still under construction and all the waste and debris that goes along with that. we are open though. A small fire breaks out in a storage room. The electrical system fails, sparks dance on oily rags, causing a smoking fire to ignite. This is one more warning alarm where we do not see an issue. Always wondered why we store kindling near electrical boxes. The fire department is called as a precaution, but no one thinks anything of it. the party is still happening upstairs, you know titanic style. We are wealthy, we are having our party, and nothing will interrupt that. needless to say, the fire grows and spreads over several floors and our wonderful cast head off to rescue as many as possible and save all we can. I do want to mention here that the effects in this movie are well past the best by date however for the time they are wonderful.
Once I saw the making of Star Wars where they revealed all the matte paintings, I just thought that was the coolest thing. This movie uses that in a wonderful way. Some of those shots are absolutely impressive looking and hold up very well. some of the over lay shots do not. I mean by the early eighties, like ten years down the road from this one, that sort of green screen tech was looking a little worse for wear if not done perfectly. Yes, the shot of people in a basket suspended sever hundred feet in the air were most likely great at the time of this film but the look is so obvious now that is a shot. I mean it pulls you out a little bit, but I still love it.
What was the deal with all the movies of the seventies having these powerhouse casts? It seems like every movie I watch from that era has literally a cast full of stars, and I mean big stars that could open their own movies. Towering Inferno is no different.
Seems like every time I go back to a movie, I find someone new that I did not notice before, and this one is no different. Obviously as I watch more movies, I see more people. Playing the bartender in our party is Gregory Sierra. The first show that comes to mind for me when I see him is Barney Miller. He was also in Soap, Hill Street Blues, and the original Lt. in season one of Miami Vice for like three episodes. Here is barely in the movie, maybe five lines total but you see him a lot.
Robert Wagner makes a brief appearance here. You know him from Heart to Heart, Austin Powers, and I love him as the elder DiNozzo on NCIS. Here he is on screen for a brief amount of time but has a wonderful end scene. Claiming to have run a hundred-yard dash in under ten seconds in high school, which is clearly twenty years ago at best, he tries to run through the fire covered with a blanket. We get a wide shot from outside the window of a stuntman in full burn running through the flames. It is a great shot and one of the first of our cast to die in the fire.
Fred Astaire makes an appearance as a con man who was there to cheat an older lady out of her money. I love that we get just a little dancing out of him here. I mean the guy is known for dancing and we get him on the floor doing a little ball room dancing. While we can not see his feet, or a full wide shot or anything, you can see he is gliding across the floor as only Fred Astaire could. What a wonderful treasure to have been able to see him in his prime. Thanks to film we can. You know Mr. Astaire from Ziegfeld Follies, Battlestar Galactica and one of my favorites Ghost Story.
In the seventies and eighties if you were looking for a character actor to play a smarmy underhanded character you had to get one guy, Robert Vaughn. I love hating his characters so much. Again, not a lot of screen time here but you know he is up to no good. If you were unsure of his intentions, he is part of the group that swarms the basket getting people off of the building and causes it to crash to r ground below. You know Robert Vaughn from Hangar 18, the A-team, and Battle Beyond the Stars.
this next actor I am going to have to admit this is the first time I remember seeing him and I was not watching a miniseries. Richard Chamberlain plays the son in law who thinks he knows better. He is the reason for the movie really. He was able to cut two million out of the budget by shifting to cheaper materials and lowering the standards from the original plans to what is “code” when clearly this building will need more than the local municipality would have expected. You know Chamberlain from the Three Musketeers in seventy-three, as well as the miniseries Centennial, and The Thorn Birds to name a few.
Faye Dunaway plays the love interest of the architect. She was everywhere in the seventies and eighties. Looking at her imdb page and this movie is not even listed as one of her top films. Always enjoy her on screen. You going to know Faye Dunaway from such things as Chinatown, Three Days of the Condor, which we have talked about in the episode about conspiracy movies, and Mommy Dearest. A wonderful actress and very under used in this movie.
William Holden plays the owner of the building. He is seen through out the film saying, “everything is up to code” meaning he knew he cut corners, but legally he was on the right side of the line, morally will be a different story. you know William Holden from Damien the omen part two, Picnic, and Network.
Steve McQueen plays our rugged fire chief. Of course, isn’t every role played by McQueen considered a rugged version of insert character here? I mean in The Great Escape he plays a rugged American in a German POW camp. In Bullitt he plays a Rugged Bounty Hunter. My favorite is Papillon where he plays a rugged Prisoner on devil’s island. Here he is wonderful. He is wonderful here. Yes, rugged but also knowledgeable and he is the one who helps to teach us a little lesson about rushing forward without properly thinking first. He gives a line at the end of the movie about these buildings getting taller and no one knows what the fire fighters will have to do to keep them safe. It’s great, not too preachy but it is clearly a lesson we are to learn from the movie.
Paul Newman plays the architect. I think the world of Paul Newman I have loved just about everything I have seen him in. I do not know why but watching this movie this time I had a hard time seeing him as an architect. He does a wonderful job. Newman’s character had specked the building the way he knew it needed to be done. Then spends the rest of the movie fixing the mess created by the people who have undercut the safety in favor of profits. Very physical acting for him in this one. you know Paul Newman from just about everything ever. I loved him in the Color of Money, as well as The Hustler, he was excellent in Harry and Son, but my favorite has to be Cool Hand Luke. That is a movie I saw with my father, and I have loved every second of it ever since. I can’t go a week with out quoting it. just a good one. Today’s audiences would find this film to be a little long and a little slow. I love the way this builds the entire world in just under three hours. Personally, I would like to see this as a limited series. I mean think of ho much deeper you can go if you take two hours to build the world, we are in. we juxtapose the end of our leads vacation with some bad decisions on the building. We can go a little more in depth to the tenants. I’m thinking like ten episodes on Amazon would be excellent.
This one is kind of surreal. I am talking about the day after. The first thing to understand is at the end of the already troubling movie is a notice saying if it happened it would actually be much worse than what you just saw. Trust me as a sixth grader this one did a number on me, and for that reason. The effects are what they are and for the time period, and being on television, they are pretty good, even if they appear a little dated by today’s standards. This movie has saved far more lives than it traumatized by bringing attention in the mainstream of nuclear proliferation. Almost as powerful today as it was all those years ago.
We are in the small city of Lawrence Kansas. This movie starts off simple enough. We see the daily lives of people and a wonderful sweeping aerial shot as we come into town. Wide open spaces we are clearly in Kansas, or at least the Midwest somewhere. All is good. We got the morning sun streaking across the sky. A family waits at a church for the bride to be and her groom for their rehearsal. Students registering for classes at college. A group of soldiers in a helicopter talking about going on leave. This could not be a more normal life. This is normal life. The city you almost wish you were in. at the barber shop we hear a few men discussing the probabilities of nuclear war in relation to the current European crisis. I mean its bad but not bad enough, right? One person remarks if you set off a bomb and the wind shift you now have fallout over your own troops. No on would be crazy enough to launch, right? An older couple home alone curled up in bed watching the news reports remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis. I mean really? We are nostalgic for being on the brink of nuclear war, and we politicize it. the man remarks “Kennedy didn’t blink, didn’t give an inch”. Welcome my friends to the nine teen eighties and our sense of normalcy. Then as if it is a surprise to anyone, we get the launch. Nuclear warheads go off all the places. We see on character trapped on a highway with two mushroom clouds in the background. We see a family burned to death from the heat blast. A child is blinded by looking at the explosion. And everyone is exposed some radiation.
The effects in this movie are very on point for the time and even on par with what you would see in a movie theater, which was odd, at the time, for a tv movie. Lots of bright flashes and animation to augment live action. At the time you did not notice, or at least I did not notice. This time through you could see, I mean we are well beyond the best by date for these effects. What I will say is that the instant of death for the instantly killed is still very jarring. You get this orange yellow outline with a blacked out skeletal structure. It is haunting; it could be more the memory of the impact than anything else. Still gives me a little chill when I see it.
The cast here does a wonderful job. This would be so easy to over do and yet no one does. Every performance is very believable. And we get a couple of names here as well.
Jason Robards, you know from the movie Parenthood, All the Presidents Men, and Raise the Titanic. I saw Raise the Titanic in the theater I was about eight years old and as much as I want to rewatch that movie I know there is no way it is as good as eight-year-old me thought it was, so I guess I leave it as a memory. Jason Robards plays Doctor Russel Oakes. He has a daughter and a son; you know a nuclear family. The daughter is moving away so we are left with just the son. The son we never actually meet. We see him playing football as Dr. Oakes talks with another parent but at no time do, we actually meet or see this mystery son.
Joe Huxley is your average college professor. He has knowledge, offers it, and then backs away and lets the facts stand. He is calm always even as he calculates the flight times of missile and debates which scenario, they are in. did they launch, and we just barely got our off or did we strike first. Either way we do not have long he tells us. This character is played superbly by an actor I always feel is so underrated. His comedy ability seems to outshine the depths of his dramatic ability. You know him as John Lithgow. Where do you know Lithgow from? Well, that depends. Yes, he was on third rock from the sun, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonsai in the Eighth Dimension, and Harry and the Henderson’s. Perhaps you remember him from The World According to Garp, Ricochet, and season four of Dexter. Like I said this man has range and is underrated. Here he plays it right down the middle. You honestly do not think he is acting. it is a fine line between bad not acting and too much not acting and Lithgow threads that needle here.
We also get a young Steve Guttenberg. This is pre police academy movies, but not by much. You know Guttenberg from, well, Police Academy, Three Men and a Baby/ Lady movie, and short circuit. He is also in the beginning of Boys from Brazil which is an excellent film. Here he is a med student trying to get home and is sidetracked by a nuclear missile launch. He does end up connecting with a family already hunkered down in their basement, in a breach of nuclear shelter protocol. Tough decision. Do you let someone in and diminish the supplies for you and your family? Or do you turn away a human in need. Not sure there is a right or wrong here. This would depend on who you are. he ends up being a good help to these people.
John Cullum is sort of the lead here of a second story line running along with the Jason Robard’s line. He is the father of the bride and trying to get everyone ready to go below ground. His wife is having none of it. she is focused on the wedding and getting the food and house ready. She is denial and he has to literally drag her into the basement. You know Cullum from Northern Exposure, the remake of Inherit the Wind for television, as well as episodes of Quantum leap and ER.
JoBeth Williams plays a nurse who is doing her best to take care of everyone. You know her from The Big Chill, Kramer v. Kramer, and the Poltergeist movies. she is another one who feels over casted. We have some serious film actors in this one. this was a tv event.
I know when I saw this in the sixth grade it was a big deal. They sent home a note from school. If your parents wanted to exclude you from the discussion, they could. Mine were in. I watched this and I will admit it freaked me out. I mean I already knew nuclear was an option. I understood Mutually Assured Destruction and all that. but to see how it all breaks down on television, right in your living room, was kind of a thing. I did my best to keep it together. I finally felt like school was going to be interesting and fun. We were going to start learning real things. I got to school the next day. You could tell who saw this thing. There were two clear groups, those who did and those did not, and you could tell. Those who did not see it made fun of us who did, we had extra learning they had extra recess. And for all of that I can not tell you one thing we discussed. Maybe we talked about the possibility verses the probability of nuclear war, but I can tell you nothing of substance that stuck.
I have, like many, have heard the story that President Reagan saw this and began his push for nuclear disarmament. It’s a great story. is it true? I want to believe it is but just like New Coke being an honest mistake I will remain skeptical. What it did do is bring nuclear proliferation to the mainstream. This was no more talked about. We did see arms reductions agreements between the soviets and the US. Like I said it made a difference.
Looks like YouTube is the only place you will find this. Perhaps buy a copy from amazon or somewhere. Really a shame this is not more readily available. It is such a capsule of a moment in time for the entirety of the world.
I have not seen this one since I saw it as a kid on cable, I think it was. I was on my own and knew this was one I had to see. Probably a little young, many of the films I sought out fell into this category. That is probably the reason I have such an idealistic memory of so many movies. It seems like it was all in camera. No CGI, none to really speak of at the time. We get the destruction of an entire city. Is this the first one that destroys some major icons in a major city? I think it might be, at least for me it probably was. Another star-studded cast of players earthquake also has intertwined stories that seem to bring everyone back together at the end of it. always a fun one to watch when the opportunity presents.
The biggest star of this one is Los Angeles. Yes, the actors are big too but here L.A. is the real star, and I would have like to have seen more of it. we got shots of the LA river system, the capital records Building and many others. We open with a voice over explain how earthquakes work and what type of earthquakes you get along the San Andreas Fault Line. It’s like when they used to wheel the projector into class, and we would all be disappointed it was not a major hit movie and just one of those federal government produced documentaries on some topic. This one is clearly on earthquakes. I need a service that just has those movies they showed us in class. Maybe even the film strips but definitely the movies. I know Disney has a few.
We move into our first of several different stories. We have a marriage on the rocks. He is out jogging, and she is accusing him of an affair. And of course, she turns out to be right. Of course, when it matters, he is there for his wife. The girlfriend has a young son, and our lead is bringing him an autographed football. Seems that the hero has been able to put himself through college on a football scholarship and has now made a name for him self in the world of engineering.
Our next story, related, is the girlfriend her son and her acting career. It would seem the wife was right. Shed is the lover of the hero from our first story. she is out for an audition and has told her young son, elementary school aged, that she will leave the back door unlocked for him when he gets home from school. This was the norm in my world, and many in my generation. We were often left alone for hours in the afternoon. We learned to fix things we broke, cook our own food and meals, and became very self-reliant. This is why you do not hear a lot of my generation asking for help. We are adaptive, we over come and persevere.
now we get a good old fashion car chase that does not end well. the officer is put on suspension and heads directly to the bar. Now this bar is a cast of characters. We got our tough guy loan shark pool hustler, the concerned bartender, and my favorite Walter Matthau in a get up that can only be described as seventies extreme. Bright red hat red and white shirt, and he will drink to just about anything. I think they filmed in the bar where Matthau happened to be drinking that day.
The state guard is put on alert and now our grocery manager is tasked with protecting the citizenry from looters. Really more like the powerless becomes powerful. He definitely has some issues to work out. It seems he will be working them out on those who he feels has wronged him.
Another star-studded event and several favorites here. I already mention Walter Matthau, and if you have not seen this that alone is worth it. we got several others who appear here.
Aspiring dare devil Miles is played by Richard Roundtree. Most of you will know him from the shaft movies, Shaft, Shaft’s Big Score, and Shaft in Africa, but he was also in Roots, as well as episodes of a Roc, the Love Boat, and Magnum P.I. here he has this stunt set up with a loop and jump through a ring of fire. He explains the fire is on the inside of the ring as well as the outside, unlike those guys who only the flame outside.
Ava Gardener plays Remy our leads wife who suspects him of having an affair. She may be right, but she is definitely a little melodramatic about it. you know Ava Gardner from On the Beach, Knights of the Roundtable, and The Sun Also Rises. You know those Sunday morning movies you’d watch with dad while mom was sleeping in.
Royce is the father of Remy and owns the Building/Architectural firm who is building these buildings in an earthquake zone. Trying desperately to convince people to go with the more expensive standards, above code. You know Lorne Green from Battlestar Galactica, Bonanza, and Police Squad where he played stabbed man. I loved this as a kid. I enjoyed it as the naked gun movie series. One of my favorite running gags, after the wrong title in voice over, was the guest star gag. They would flash the guest stars name and then they die immediately. Lorne green is stabbed and tossed from a moving vehicle. So funny.
I always love George Kennedy. Now my first experience with George Kennedy was watching Cool Hand Luke with my father. I swear he and I never actually talk we just exchange movie quotes, and the number of them that are George Kennedy quotes from Cool Hand Luke is just astonishing. I know you’re thinking to yourself “can’t nobody eat fifty eggs” as a proper response to such a claim but you’d be wrong. Here he is the suspended police officer who immediately begins doing the job as soon as the earthquake hits. He takes care of all those in the bar and then leads them to safety. What else, besides Cool Hand Luke do you know George Kennedy from. I got to say I think he was in a bunch of these. I know he was in this one as well as airport, airport ’75, airport ’77. He was in police squad/ naked gun as well as Dallas and an episode of Love boat, just to get some non-disaster themed entries for him.
Our hero, our lead, the man out in front is played by Charlton Heston. He is our engineer who has made his way to the top of the heap. He has worked hard and earned every bit of it. you know him from a little movie called Ben Hur, or Planet of the Apes, or even The Ten Commandments. Here is no different. He is always the strong lead headed in the right direction. I once heard, not sure how true it is, that he was supposed to play the Richard Crena role in First Blood. You know the Rambo movies. I hate to say that because while it is the first of the series it is more inline with the movies that were produced after the eighty’s nineties of the series. It was darker. It was commentary on how veterans are treated. The story goes like this. Heston turned down the role because they would not let him kill John Rambo in the end. I hate to say but I think he was right with that one.
This one is based on the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team who crashes in the Andes and must survive for over two months. Right out of the gate we get this plane crash, one of the most violent plane crashes for me at the time. A wonderful cast who seems very respectful to the material, a sense of importance can be felt watching this. This horrible tragedy is Juxtaposed with some of the most beautiful shots of the Andes Mountains piercing the sky throughout the entirety of the movie. Against all odds, Alive, tells a story of survival at all costs.
In the early nineteen seventies the Uruguayan rugby team crashes in the Andes and the search is given up after a after only eight days. They would have to survived for over seventy days. With little to no supplies or knowledge on how to survive the extreme environment this would be nothing short of a miracle. A total of forty-five passengers and nineteen crewmembers were aboard this flight from Uruguay to Chile. When rescued only eighteen survivors, two of which climbed down the mountain with no gear and walked to Chile. This is truly a harrowing story of survival.
I saw this in the theater years ago when it was out initially, and I remember that plane crash being so violent and over the top. I used to fly into summer camp in the mountains of North Carolina. Now I am not saying those are the Andes, but I will tell you as we got up in the mountains in those tiny little thirty seat planes, they would bounce more and more like a roller coaster. One year it was so bad we all sat down, shut up and put our seatbelts on. You get a plane full of middle school aged kids to sit quietly and follow directions you have really done something. This crash in Alive really captures how out of nowhere it is.
The cast in this is excellent. There is a reverence to the story. you can feel the importance from each actor as the tell this tale on screen. As we take an unflinching look at what had to occur for survival to be an option. Resorting to cannibalism for survival is a choice envied by no one. this film handles the taboo topic not with shock or sensationalism but with quiet reverence, almost religious in nature. A hard choice displayed as personal without judgement.
Rafael Cano is played by the talented Michael De Lorenzo. You will know him from New York Under Cover, Michael Jackson’s Beat It and Thriller videos, and Fame. He is excellent here. Very believable, as always. Such a talent to see on screen.
While they are going through the plane looking for anything they can use they discover the mechanic. He is either half crazy to begin with or overtaken by shock, either way this man is broken, and I am not sure if he could ever be fixed. José Zúñiga plays this part to perfection. You know him from tons of projects like New York Undercover, NYPD Blue, Agents of Shield and Madam Secretary. He is another one that seems to be taken over by the role, he just does not seem to be acting. I mean yeah here he is acting but you’d never think it while watching him. He does it so convincingly it does not come off as cheesy and over the top, even though it is clearly over the top.
Illeana Douglas Lilliana Methol plays. Her and her husband on this flight together and all they want is to get back home to their children. They are very touching together in their scenes. You know Illeana Douglas from Action, Stir of Echoes, and Cape Fear. Sam Behrens Javier Methol, husband to Ileana Douglas’s character. You know him from several years of General Hospital, Knots Landing, and Sunset Beach.
The captain of the team, Antonio Balbi, is played by Vincent Spano. You will know him from Rumble Fish, After Burn, and Indian Summer. If you have ever been to sleep away camp and have ever thought as an adult “I need a week at camp’ have I got a movie for you. I can not say enough good things about Indian Summer.
Roberto Cannessa a med student who jumps in and starts helping in the moments after the crash, saving as many as he can, is played by Josh Hamilton. He would later be one of the two men that hiked out of the Andes for help. You know Josh from the ABC After School Special Summer Switch, With Honors with Joe Pesci and Brendan Fraser, and my personal favorite from him the 60’s.
The other man to hike out of the Andes with no gear or experience would be Nando Parrado played by Ethan Hawke. Head strong and driven to survive at all costs. Nando is shown as the first to suggest eating the dead for survival and is shown being one of the last to actually go through with it. seems some things are easier said than done. You can’t know until you are in the position. You are going to know Ethan Hawke from the wildly popular Moon Knight, as well as Training Day, and Dead Poets Society. Such a great film. If the subject matter of this film was not so dark this would able absolutely gorgeous to look at. Beautiful mountain peaks cutting into the sky. Usually light cloud cover. Even as they hike down to where we begin to see green and rivers, with short falls. This is absolutely beautiful. I wish they had spent a little more time on the irony of being stranded in a place where many would pay good honest money to be able to see these views. If you want to see this one you are going to have to purchase it at VUDU and the usual suspects.
I am convinced that this movie has to change its title due to another entry on the list. I am of course talking about The Day After Tomorrow. This is such a great thrill ride. Really utilizes effects well but does not sacrifice story at all. It teaches a lesson without being preachy. Whatever your thoughts on climate change this is a great movie to watch, especially if there is inclement weather.
The story is simply what if climate change happened all of a sudden at once? I honestly think it is the only way humans will prepare for it. like a hurricane or some other event that hits destroys and moves on. This movie puts that front and center. In the tradition of the original disaster movies this one lures you in with nice calm nature shots. I mean the entire beginning is nothing but a helicopter flying over antarctica. Wide-open snow-covered lands scape. It is all so serene and calming. We got a science team working a drill getting core samples. We leave the new guy with the core drill. New guy has been there two years and probably has, or is at least working on, his PhD. So yeah, rookie at the core drill. We get a crack. The drill drops. Then we see the Ice Age style crack along the entire Antarctic shelf. And we are off to the races. A piece of ice sheet the size of road island just breaks of and separates. Our lead scientist jumps the precipice to save the core samples. And just barely makes it back across. I love how this film builds up the big action sequence then backs it all down with a conference or a meeting or some other seemingly mundane act. Then once you have calmed down, we get hail the size of basket balls in Japan. It is this constant up and down of action and emotion and I love it. these builds tension so well through out the movie. It really is a series of effects driven by a wonderful story of What if…
The earth has had it. it is now going to shake us off by resetting the climate with an ice age. we have pushed to the brink, and we start with odd weather phenomena happening. Like I said basketball hail in Japan, snow in India and tornadoes in LA. Everything is out of whack. And the general thought is this is over, but our scientists say it is only the beginning. Of course, since the initial prediction was for this to happen hundreds of years from now, we are less likely to believe that it is going to get worse. This film does this well. yes, science can be wrong, it does not mean you do not listen. Like in the boy who cried wolf; that town had a responsibility, nay a duty, to fully investigate each claim of a wolf. The same should be said here. But because of the earlier mistake the VP basically brushes of the scientists. Which of course leads us to where we have to write off half the nation and evacuate just the southern states. Can you imagine it? you don’t have to as this movie shows you scenes of Americans in large numbers swimming the Rio Grande into Mexico. like I said this movie teaches with out preaching. I love it.
We got an excellent cast here. Dash Mihok from Ray Donovan, Silver Linings Playbook, and Romeo and Juliet. He plays Jason Evans. Research assistant? Scientist number three? He is the new guy. He is the one working the drill and breaks Antarctica. Wonderful performance here. Youthful exuberance, sure footed and yet yes clearly the new guy.
Next up we got Jay O. Sander. He plays Frank Harris. Long time friend of our lead scientist. These guys go back a way, and it shows. you are going to know Jay from V.I. Warshawsky, JFK, Kiss the girls and the sequel Along Came a Spider. Dr. Lucy Hall is played by Sela Ward. Dr. Hall is the mom of one of our leads and the wife, or maybe ex-wife, of the lead scientist. She plays this part well. dedicated to her patients, she stays behind when everyone else has left the hospital to care for one of her patients. A drive you will see in the other two characters. You know Sela Ward from The Fugitive, CSI New York and FBI the series among many others as well.
Emmy Rossum from Shameless plays Laura Chapman, she is the girl our lead is trying to impress. So much so he faces his fear of flying and gets on an airplane to go to an academic competition for her. You are going to know her also from Poseidon the remake the Poseidon adventure, Mystic River, and yes, an episode of Law and Order. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Sam Hall. He is the lead of the students. He is the one who has gone on this crazy academic trip to try and win over Laura Chapman. Facing his fear of flying he digs deep and finds his inner hero throughout much of the film. He battles wolves, he stands up and tries to save everyone’s life. You are going know Jake Gyllenhaal from October Sky, Donnie Darko, and Zodiac. I always enjoy him on screen. I think he is an excellent actor.
Lastly, we got Dennis Quaid. He is our main climatologist who predicts that in any where from one hundred to one thousand years we could see a massive shift in the earth’s climate due to the destruction of the north Atlantic current. Want to take one guess as to what has caused our entire movie to occur? Bet you can’t guess. Anyway, I love Dennis Quaid. You will remember Dennis Quaid from like everything in the eighties, breaking away, dreamscape, jaws 3D, the Right Stuff, and Great Balls of Fire to name a few. Wonderful actor on screen. Any scene he is in he owns. Not sure how he is able to be the focus of most scenes, but I guarantee if you are watching they are showing his reactions instead of other actors giving lines, and he is wonderful at it.
We have so many in this cast I have to do a little lighting round of sorts. Arjay Smith from The Rookie rounds out our academic team. He has a great line something like “I am president of the radio club, the chess team, and the academic team if you can find a bigger nerd than me, please point him out”. Sasha Roiz from Grimm is also here. He is an astronaut on the ISS monitoring the storm from space. Tamlyn Tomita from karate kid 2 is here as a NASA scientist. Ian Holm, Bilbo from the lord of the ring’s trilogy, plays another climatologist from Scotland. We also get Kenneth Walsh from the Freshman as the vice president, and he nails the politician who does not head the scientist warning just perfectly.
This movie has great effects. I honestly believe this sparked off the shows like Earth population zero and life after people with the decaying cities and human objects. The CGI in this film could have gotten out of hand but it is sprinkled throughout. Done in such a believable way many of those scenes really resonate. I love the giant tidal wave coming into New York. This is the ticking bomb, and you watch it destroy everything in its path, but you are sitting there rooting for our heroes to get through. So wonderful. The statue of liberty half frozen in snow, flooded city streets, and the Hollywood sign obliterated by a tornado. Effects driven storytelling is very difficult. You can easily lose one for the other. Here the balance between the two seems to be achieved.
There it is my list of five Disaster Movies. Did I miss yours? Let me know on social media with #thatadnadollarpodcast. Be sure and follow us on twitter at @thatandadollar. We are also on Instagram a @a_guy_named_chuck. Also don’t forget to join our Facebook group, that and a dollar podcast. Make sure you listen to the podcast, That and a Dollar, where ever you find your podcasts. if you want to support further episodes, please leave a tip at buymeacoffee.com/thatandadollar. We have also set up a store through cafepress.com/thatandadollarpodcast. As always, I am a guy named chuck and that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.
Primarily Entertainment 