Daybreak

• Director: Jean Pellerin
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Action
• Movie Type: Disaster Film, Action Thriller
• Themes: Race Against Time
• Main Cast: Jaime Bergman, Ted McGinley, Roy Scheider
• Release Year: 2000
• Run Time: 94 minutes

Plot

Dillan Johansen (Ted McGinley) is a disorganized transit authority supervisor suffering from a serious personal tragedy. His boss, the stern-yet-kindly Stan Marshall (Roy Scheider), is understanding and has a lot of faith in the younger man. That faith -- and Dillan's bravery -- are put to the test the day a major earthquake hits Los Angeles and traps Dillan in an underground tunnel with a handful of subway riders. Dillan works underground to save the panicked citizens from raging fire, rushing water, and a secret cache of toxic chemicals hidden by a corrupt assistant mayor who is now topside trying to get Stan to lure the now-witnesses to the toxins so their deaths might keep his secret a secret. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Review

This somewhat amusing low-budget disaster movie recalls the mid-'70s tradition of The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, but with a fraction of the budget and on a considerably smaller scale. Which is to say it is not for the masses. B-movie fans who know and like cornball cheese when they see it may find some of Daybreak (evidently named such to echo Sylvester Stallone's 1996 trapped-in-a-tunnel epic Daylight) worth a hoot, if for no other reason than to see Ted McGinley chop a hole in a water main to put out a fire -- clever -- but then realize he's created an unstoppable torrent that's going to drown them all. Whoops. The backstories of the disparate characters stuck in the hole with Dillan -- the rape victim, the protective tough guy with the model girlfriend, the computer geek too smart for his own good -- are adequately developed in the beginning, and the dangers they face once the tunnel collapses are suitably rendered, given the budget limitations (the blurry photography that indicates the earthquake is, um, different). Not bad, with just enough thrills to keep things moving until someone comes along with the ultimate brain-dead disaster film: "Glacier! The Movie." ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Cast

Ted McGinley; Roy Scheider; Jaime Bergman; William O'Leary - Head of Security

Credit

Jean Pellerin - Director

Similar Movies

A Short Walk to Daylight; Daylight