The China Syndrome
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| The China Syndrome | |
|---|---|
 The China Syndrome promotional movie poster |
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| Directed by | James Bridges |
| Produced by | Michael Douglas |
| Written by | Mike Gray T.S. Cook James Bridges |
| Starring | Jane Fonda Jack Lemmon Michael Douglas |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 16, 1979 |
| Running time | 122 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The China Syndrome is a 1979 thriller film which tells the story of a reporter and cameramen who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat and Wilford Brimley.
The movie was written by Mike Gray, T.S. Cook and James Bridges. It was directed by Bridges. The film illustrated the viewpoint that human depravity is of greater safety concern than flaws of technology.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Lemmon), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jane Fonda), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
The title refers to the concept, mentioned only jokingly in the film, that if an American nuclear plant melts down, it will melt through the Earth until it reaches China. See China Syndrome.
The film was released on March 16, 1979, just twelve days before the real-life events at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
[edit] Plot
TV news reporter Kimberly Wells (Fonda) and her cameraman Richard Adams (Douglas) visit the Ventana nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles while doing a series on energy. While viewing the control room the reactor staff runs a test on the coolant system pumps, which generates a small vibration, causing one of the coolant level indicators to stick in a "high water level" position. The staff releases coolant to lower the water level, which reveals the faulty indicator. Dangerously close to uncovering the reactor core and causing a nuclear meltdown, the staff desparately tries to stop the water level from dropping any further. As alarms blare, the controllers all appear frightened for several minutes as the situation seems momentarily out of control (which the movie viewers and plant operators know was caused by inappropriate actions taken due to false readings from a broken indicator), but the situation corrects itself. Adams captures the entire incident on film, even though it is unauthorized. They present the footage to the television station but the station manager refuses to air it, fearing a lawsuit. Wells and Adams begin to investigate the incident further. They later show the footage to a group of nuclear power experts who explain that the reactor had nearly reached a meltdown, which could have killed millions of people.
Meanwhile, plant chief technician Jack Godell (Lemmon), concerned about strange reactor behavior during the vibration, also uncovers evidence that the plant is unsafe. His attempts to shut down the plant for detailed inspection are squashed by the plant manager. As he drives to a public hearing to give testimony on the safety issues at the power plant, an attempt is made on his life by a contractor whom he had earlier accused of falsifying inspection reports on the plant.
Taking refuge at the secured power plant, he finds that the managers have ordered the reactor to be run at high levels despite knowing about the safety issues. Outraged, Godell forces everyone out of the control room at gunpoint and locks himself inside, lowers the reactor level, and threatens to release radioactive material into the reactor building if anyone tries anything. Then he summons Wells so he can speak about the reactor problems on television. While he is on the air, power plant operators sabotage the reactor and cut off the television transmission. Moments later a SWAT team breaks into the control room and shoots Godell dead.
However, the sabotage unintentionally causes a partial chain reaction where parts of the reactor cooling system break apart (revealing that Godell was correct), threatening a meltdown and "the China Syndrome". However, it still manages to hold together. Outside the plant, mass media that have gathered are confused about what has happened, with energy company officials calling Godell a "disturbed employee". At that point Wells steps in front of the interview and gets a reactor employee to admit that serious safety issues exist and that Godell would only have taken such drastic action if there were lives at stake.
[edit] Trivia
- Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and Michael Douglas have all won Academy Awards for Leading Roles: Fonda for Klute, Lemmon for Save the Tiger, and Douglas for Wall Street.
- The Ventana power plant is an homage to both the nuclear power plant operated out of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory outside of Thousand Oaks, California, and the controversial Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant outside of San Luis Obispo, California (which was newly completed). Incidentally, the reactor at Rocketdyne was the first nuclear research reactor in California, and Ventura County's only nuclear plant. The reactor suffered numerous problems and was eventually shut down in the late 1950s. To this day, the reactor building remains, and numerous complaints of radioactivity in the groundsoil (among rocket fuel contamination) has plagued Rocketdyne.
- Aside from background music from radios, jukeboxes and televisions, including the Stephen Bishop song "Somewhere in Between" over the opening credits, there is no musical soundtrack in the movie. The end credits are played over silence.
- According to American Movie Classics' 2006 series "Movies That Shook the World", the Three Mile Island incident did not help "The China Syndrome" at the box office, because the producers did their best to avoid making it look like they were trying to cash in on the event, including pulling the movie from some theaters.
- Displays in the control room were driven by COMPAL-80 (Computer Power & Light) computers, one of the first personal computers that came fully assembled.
- As noted above, the Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania coincided with the film's release. In the film, a physicist says that the China Syndrome would render "an area the size of Pennsylvania" permanently uninhabitable.
- In an episode of the Simpsons, "The Trouble with Trillions." Homer states that he has not been fired "...after three meltdowns and one China Syndrome'.
