Review of Final Exam

The Outer Limits: Final Exam (1998)
Season 4, Episode 16
9/10
Thrilling and troubling nuclear hostage scenario
20 March 2023
Another excellent Outer Limits mini-movie that feels like it could be expanded into a feature length film.

It's almost weird how rarely nuclear blackmail scenarios occur in movies and tv considering how provocative they are. Maybe because they are just too provocative, too scary, too plausible.

The scariest one that seemed pretty plausible remains Special Bulletin (1983). This OL episode is much less plausible primarily because it relies on technology that's probably impossible, and this one kid is a loner that gets a LOT done.

Still, this works better than ever because the theme isn't really about the "cold fusion" nuclear device, it's actually about the Fermi Paradox of all things. There's nobody out there because inevitably intelligent life learns enough through inexorable scientific discoveries that it destroys itself.

It also works in a somewhat less grandiose manner in that the ever increasing power of computer and other technologies makes it more and more possible for some small group to do some crazy James Bond supervillain scheme.
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