A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.
- Nominated for 4 Oscars
- 9 wins & 16 nominations total
Khalilah Camacho Ali
- Marge
- (as Khalilah Ali)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen the film was first released on 16 March 1979, nuclear power executives soon lambasted the picture as being "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry". Then twelve days after its launch, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
- GoofsWhen a reactor is "SCRAM"ed, it does not initiate the use of massive cooling systems. The SCRAM process is the rapid (4 second or less) insertion of the control rods into the core which shuts the reactor down by absorbing the neutrons. If the SCRAM fails, then the reactor can be shut down by using a neutron-absorbing liquid injected into the core from pressurized tanks (no pumps). Also, in addition to the cooling pumps, there is an Emergency Core Cooling System which injects a large amount of cooling water into the core if the primary cooling system fails.
- Quotes
Jack Godell: What makes you think they're looking for a scapegoat?
Ted Spindler: Tradition.
- Crazy creditsThe end credits run in total silence.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'the China Syndrome' (1979)
- SoundtracksSomewhere In Between
by Stephen Bishop
Featured review
I may be wrong, but I'd say you're lucky to be alive.
Ripped from today's headlines! An explosion at a nuclear power plant on Japan's devastated coast made leaking radiation — or even outright meltdown — the central threat menacing a nation just beginning to grasp the scale of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.
A crew from a local TV station was present when an accident occurred at a nuclear power plant, and the core cam dangerously close to being exposed. Like Japan, this accident was caused by an earthquake. The TV station is trying to hide the story, but the cameraman (Michael Douglas) shows the film he surreptitiously took to experts. Wanting to get out of reporting fluff, Jane Fonda follows up to get the plant expert (Jack Lemmon) to talk.
Fonda is magnificent in this film, and Lemmon shows a whole range of emotion during the accident, and afterward as a man who wants to tell the truth even if it hurts his company.
When a company stands to lose a billion dollar investment, you can be sure that there will be an attempt to murder someone (Daniel Valdez) to keep things quiet.
Lemmon and Fonda were both nominated for Oscars, and probably should have gotten them.
Things depicted in the story have actually occurred in the past (before this film), and it was fascinating to see the reactions of the characters. The writers did a magnificent job, and were also nominated for an Oscar.
A crew from a local TV station was present when an accident occurred at a nuclear power plant, and the core cam dangerously close to being exposed. Like Japan, this accident was caused by an earthquake. The TV station is trying to hide the story, but the cameraman (Michael Douglas) shows the film he surreptitiously took to experts. Wanting to get out of reporting fluff, Jane Fonda follows up to get the plant expert (Jack Lemmon) to talk.
Fonda is magnificent in this film, and Lemmon shows a whole range of emotion during the accident, and afterward as a man who wants to tell the truth even if it hurts his company.
When a company stands to lose a billion dollar investment, you can be sure that there will be an attempt to murder someone (Daniel Valdez) to keep things quiet.
Lemmon and Fonda were both nominated for Oscars, and probably should have gotten them.
Things depicted in the story have actually occurred in the past (before this film), and it was fascinating to see the reactions of the characters. The writers did a magnificent job, and were also nominated for an Oscar.
helpful•163
- lastliberal-853-253708
- Mar 12, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- An Element Of Risk
- Filming locations
- Sewage Disposal Plant, El Segundo, California, USA(plant exteriors)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $6,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $51,718,367
- Gross worldwide
- $51,718,367
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