Aftershock: Earthquake in New York

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Aftershock: Earthquake in New York was a TV movie screened to show what the after-effects of an earthquake in New York would be like. The film featured considerably strong computer-generated imagery and featured the then-unknown Jennifer Garner in a major role. It is based on a book written by New York area TV news anchorman Chuck Scarborough. It should not be confused with a very "campy" movie on roughly the same subject that aired a few months before on the Family Channel which is not related to the book at all.

Chuck Scarborough wrote the book to note that while a quake of the size in his story is extremely unlikely in the Big Apple, it is technically not impossible and preparation should not be completely absent from local disaster plans; there are fault lines capable of "intraplate" earthquakes in the New York metro area and more moderate but significant quakes in the 5-ish range on the Richter scale were centered within the city's boundaries in both 1737 and 1884, and one in the 4-ish range occurred just north of the city in 1985. The movie does not note the magnitude of the quake, however, the book puts it at 7.4 on the Richter.

[edit] The movie

Set in Modern-Day New York City in 1999 after a massive earthquake leaves Manhattan in ruins.

The movie starts off introducing the characters, the Thorells, the Agostinis, the Lincolns, the Ahearns, Nicolai Karvoski and Joshua Bingham.

Dori Thorell (Sharon Lawrence) and her 9-year-old son, Danny (Michal Suchanek), are at home in NY, while Sam Thorell (Garwin Sandford) is away on business. Dori, two years ago, was in a car accident, when a truck ran a red and hit her in her blind spot. Danny has a limp due to the crash.

Diane Agostini (Jennifer Garner), who is part of the New York City Ballet, is talking to her father on the phone about her monetary situation, while making her breakfast. You see her kitchen utensils shake slightly, and the blender, though off, starts to edge toward the end of the counter. Diane manages to catch the blender before it falls to the floor. Later that day, her apartment explodes due to a tremor shaking up the gas lines.

Evie Lincoln (Lisa Nicole Carson) is a NY lawyer, who is defending Joshua Bingham on charges of killing his wife. With a powerful ending argument, she convinces the jury that Joshua is innocent.

Former Fire Chief Thomas Ahearn (Tom Skerritt) has just resigned to stick it to the mayor, Bruce Lincoln (Charles S. Dutton). He is driving his daughter, Christine Ahearn (Kimberly Warnat), to Grant High. Later that day, he is at Diane's apartment complex, dealing with the gas line rupture. He sends three men in, but before they even reach the door the complex explodes, sending the men flying.

Nikolai Karvoski (Fred Weller), a cab driver immigrant, is driving Evie Lincoln to her father's, who is hosting a dinner. You then meet Bruce Lincoln, and Emily Lincoln (Cicily Tyson), who is Bruce's mother. The next day, Emily Lincoln and Clayton (Ray J), are walking in a church. They are fighting over a job, since Clayton swears he didn't take a job or any money when Emily is sure he did. They end up in the basement sweeping the floor.

Diana goes to Foo's Ho-Ho Restaurant, where she meets her father, Frank Agostini (Mitchell Ryan). They have lunch, where Diana jokingly accuses Frank of being a creature of habit. After lunch, she goes and calls a cab, which happens to be Nikolai's cab.

Evie and Joshua are in front of City Hall, Evie being happy she won the case and Joshua thankful he's free. Evie tells him of the job offer that was offered to her, and Joshua says that she should take it. They both end up meeting again on the subway, since their both going the same direction.

Thomas Ahearn goes to the hospital room of one of the wounded fire-fighters. They talk for awhile. You notice the water bag shake.

Danny is walking down the hall of his school to the restroom. he stops by the mirror, when he sees it shaking slightly. Suddenly the mirror cracks, and the restroom starts to shake.

Diana and Nikolai are in the cab, when a falling brick hits their hood. Bricks start falling all around, and an elderly woman dressed in yellow is smashed against their cab. Nikolai takes Diana out, and they seek rufuge under a water truck. A White Tiger Imports sign smashes the cab.

In Dori's place, Dori is being terrorized by the quake. Low Rider, their dog, runs to another part of the apartment, and isn't seen for a large portion of the movie.

At the hospital, Thomas and the other firefighter are in peril from the quake. A TV alomost hits Thomas. The Statue of Liberty falls, while Manhattan is destroyed. Diana saves Nikolai's life. Diana and Nikolai head back to Foo's Ho-Ho Restaurant, only to find Frank severely injured and weak. He dies, and Nikolai tells Diana to "take what else your father has to give you" Diana fails to do this in time, and they have to get out without Frank because what's left of the building collapses right after Nikolai and Diana get out.

In the subway, which has crashed, the terrorized survivors look for a way out. They eventually find one, but not before Joshua breaks the Driver's door with a brick, and talks on the radio, to hear no one answer but static. The driver is alive, but Joshua tells them that they should not worry over a dead man. They survivors do not know what happened, and at first they think it is a nuclear explosion. They pick up an elderly couple from the next car.

Thomas Ahearn talks to Jillian Parnell (Erika Eleniak-Goglin). You see the city. The Twin Towers, Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building, they're all still standing. Ahearn asks about Grant High, but Jillian doesn't know. 1 Police Plaza, City Hall, and others are destroyed. Ahearn asks the chopper pilot to pick him up. They do. Grant High is destroyed. Utterly destroyed.

At Dori's, Alice (Jennifer Clement) stumbles into the room. She tells Dori that she lost her glasses and her shoes, so she can't see or walk. She doesn't want to be left alone, so they both go off to find Danny. When outside, a sewer lid explodes upwards as a water geiser shoots up out of the sewer. It's headed to the subway. Meanwhile, Danny is in the wrecked restroom. He opens a door, and walks out, not knowing that there isn't any floor. He hangs on to the door handle. In the Made-for-TV version, this is where the first half, and first day, of the movie ends. In the VHS version, there is a brief pause.

Dori and Alice are walking down a ravaged New York City, when Dori still can't get through to Danny's school. She doesn't know the horrible state the school is in. Dori tells Alice how she feels responsible for Danny's disablement. A truck comes by, saying that they will bring the wounded to treatment, comes by, and Alice boards. That's the last you see of her.

The Mayor and Ahearn are joking over what they said to each other over the years, when someone comes up to Ahearn and tells them they found survivors at Grant High. He goes, and the building collapses in front of him.

At the church, Clayton (By the way, his name has not been revealed, and is finally revealed that he has none) is worried because he thinks Emily is dead. She hasn't been talking for awhile. She finally wakes up. He says "All right! Your not dead!" She hears "All right!", in which she promptly says- "Yes. It is all right. It's my time". She closes her eyes after a small conversation, which she requests that he take the name Clayton, after her first son, who only lived two days. No one else knows about this.

At Grant High, Ahearn and another Firefighter go in. They find the three survivors. Roger, James, and Christine Ahearn. They quickly attempt a recue mission. In the process, James goes unconscious, and so does Christine. She wakes up again, but James condition is never known. Roger is taken out of the crumbling building first, but then an aftershock strikes. The aftershock is one of the contributing factors that kills Christine.

Back at the church, the ceiling breaks through, giving the two a way out, but Emily's leg has been under a piece of ceiling the entire time. She is brought to a hospital.

In the tunnel, the survivors have been resting. They all get up, but when Burt (Jerry Adler) is helping Nora (Irene Miscisco) up, she falls. So only Evie, Joshua, and Allen (Roger R. Cross) go to find help.

Dori finds Danny's school. She finds out that Danny is on the top floor. They are trying to rescue him by chopper, but the force of the air from the chopper almost causes the building to collapse. She and the recue team try to find a way to get him down. Meanwhile, Sam took a boat to Manhattan by a man with a boat. He finds Low Rider and finds the school, wher Dori is about to climb up the outside of the school. Dori used to be a very good rock climber, once climbing Mt. McKinley in January.

Diane goes to her mother's apartment. She walks in to find two looters swiping her television. She screams, and Nikolai (who left in the first half) runs up to her. He finds a note from her mother, saying she's gone to Amy's.

At the hospital, the mayor sees his mother's dead body. He goes to Clayton and says thanks for everything he did. He brings him to Ahearn, so Ahearn can highten Clayton's spirits.

In the subway, Allen, Joshua, and Evie are trying to get out. Allen finds a ladder. Joshua goes first, Evie second, and Allen almost makes it, until Joshua breaks the ladder, trying to kill Allen. He then tries to kill Evie when Evie realizes that Joshua did kill his wife. He finds another stairway, and tries to climb up to the top of the subway, above gound. An aftershock breaks the ladder, and kills Joshua. Some repairmen find Evie, and she tells them about the other survivors. Dori hads climbed to the top, and sees Danny. She tries to get to the floor Danny's on by swinging to it, but it collapses. She has Danny jump to her, in which he does. But then, the cable holding them up comes loose. They fall to the inflated mat below, and survive. Dori meets Sam at the bottom.

One year later, Jillian Parnell is talking about the anniversary, and the rebuilding effort. Mayor Lincoln and Ahearn are friends(they were mortal enemies in the beginning), Dori and Sam are teaching Danny how to rock-climb, and Nikolai and Diana are together, and she's a star ballerina.

The earthquake sequence shows many notable Manhattan landmarks being destroyed such as The Statue of Liberty falling into New York Harbor and the Guggenheim Museum collapsing in on itself. Also directly after the earthquake, footage from a helicopter above the city show that The Brooklyn Bridge is destroyed along with other bridges leading out of Manhattan. The earthquake leaves most of the cities skyscrapers still standing. New York City Fire Chief Thomas Ahearn (Tom Skerritt) teams up with mayor, Bruce Lincoln (Charles S. Dutton), to save the destroyed city from destruction. They must race to enact a city-wide emergency plan and rebuild the city. The end is that it's one year later and the city is under re-construction.

[edit] Cast

In Actor/Character Order

• Tom Skerritt - Dan Cusano"
• Sharon Lawrence - Dori Thorell
• Charles S. Dutton - Mayor Bruce Lincoln (as Charles S. Dutton)
• Lisa Nicole Carson - Evie Lincoln
• Jennifer Garner - Diane Agostini
• Rachel Ticotin - Elizabeth Perez
• Fred Weller - Nicholai Karvovsky (as Frederick Weller)
• Erika Eleniak - Jillian Parnell (as Erika Eleniak-Goglia)
• Mitch Ryan - Frank Agostini (as Mitchell Ryan)
• Cicely Tyson - Emily Lincoln
• Mark Rolston - Bruce Summerlin
• Ray J - Clayton
• JR Bourne - Joshua Bingham
• Michal Suchanek - Danny Thorell
• Jerry Adler - Burt Hornstein
• Garwin Sanford - Sam Thorell
• Claire Yarlett - Nancy Stuart
• Kimberley Warnat - Christine Ahearn
• Tony Marr - Roberto
• Tony Morelli - Firefighter O'Leary
• Peter Byrant - Mayor's Aide Joseph
• Roger R. Cross - Allen
• Dave 'Squatch' Ward - Anthony
• Frida Betrani - Linda
• Irene Miscisco - Nora Hornstein
• Santo Lombardo - Looter
• Jennifer Clement - Alice
• Tom McBeath - George
• Bridget O'Sullivan - Jeanie
• Will Sanderson - Roger
• Andrew Johnston - Lt. Greene
• Pamela Perry - Diane's Mother

[edit] Technical Mistakes

Due to the ahead of its time digital effects, it can be expected that there are some mistakes such as:

• During the earthquake, a piece of a column on what looks to be the NYSE building seemingly rises off the wall of the building and attaches itself to the column.

• In the scene where the mother has just rescued her son from the school and it is beginning to collapse, if you look in the foreground, a woman is watching and turns her head, then when they cut back to that shot, she does the exact same thing as if she is uninterested in the fact that the building is collapsing in front of her.