This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). While Wells and Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station, Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the "China syndrome" of the title), to the station's soundman to deliver to Wells and Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown, Godell takes over the plant's control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant's management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film's clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
Review
Sharper and more focused than most of the catastrophe/conspiracy films to crop up in the late '70s, James Bridges' The China Syndrome benefits from strong performances from Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and (co-producer) Michael Douglas. The film's pronounced anti-nuclear message might have come across as preachy in the hands of a lesser director, but Bridges imbues the film with a sense of unrelenting tension and documentary-style realism. More than a mere indictment of nuclear power and its questionable safety practices, the film also presents a knowing look at hypocritical television news broadcasts and the suppression of information on all levels. In one of the more eerily unfortunate instances of cinematic timing, the Three Mile Island power plant disaster occurred only 11 days after The China Syndrome's release. ~ Matthew Doberman, Rovi
Peter Donat - Don Jacovich; Richard Herd - Evan McCormack; Daniel Valdez - Hector Salas; Stan Bohrman - Peter Martin; James Karen - Mac Churchill; Michael Alaimo - Greg Minor; Lewis Arquette - Hatcher; E. Hampton Beagle - Mort; Alan Beckwith - Technician; Frank Cavestani - News Reporter; Betty Harford - Woman at Demonstration; Clay Hodges - SWAT Squad Leader; Donald Hotton - Dr. Lowell; James Kline - Jim; Darrell Larson - Young Demonstrator; Joe Lowry - Security Agent; Dennis McMullen - Robertson; Rita Taggart - Rita Jacovich; Dan Lewk - Donny; Ron Lombard - Barney; Donald Bishop - Hearings Chairman; Paul Larson - D.B. Royce; Roger Pancake - Gate Guard; Nick Pellegrino - Borden; James Hall - Harmon; Michael Mann - TV Consultant
Credit
James Nelson - Associate Producer, Sally Dennison - Casting, Donfeld - Costume Designer, Kim Kurumada - First Assistant Director, James Bridges - Director, David Rawlins - Editor, Bruce Gilbert - Executive Producer, Bernadine M. Anderson - Makeup, Don Schoenfeld - Makeup, George Jenkins - Production Designer, Rick Carter - Production Designer, James A. Crabe - Cinematographer, Michael Douglas - Producer, Bruce Gilbert - Producer, Arthur Jeph Parker - Set Designer, Henry Millar, Jr. - Special Effects, Willie D. Burton - Sound/Sound Designer, James Bridges - Screenwriter, Mike Gray - Screenwriter, T.S. Cook - Screenwriter
The title is a fanciful term—not intended to be taken literally—that describes a fictional worst-case result of a nuclear meltdown, where reactor components melt through their containment structures and into the underlying earth, "all the way to China" (see China Syndrome).
While visiting the Ventana nuclear power plant, television news reporter Kimberly Wells (Fonda) witnesses the plant going through an emergency shutdown (SCRAM). Shift Supervisor Jack Godell (Lemmon) notices an unusual vibration; then he finds that a gauge is misreading and that the coolant is dangerously low. The crew manages to bring the reactor under control.
Wells's maverick cameraman Richard Adams (Douglas) surreptitiously films the incident, despite being requested to turn his camera off for security purposes. When he shows the film to experts, they realize that the plant came close to the "China Syndrome" in which the core would have melted down into the earth, hitting groundwater and contaminating the surrounding area with radioactive steam.
Godell uncovers evidence that X-rays of welds have been falsified. He believes that the plant is unsafe and could be severely damaged if another full-power SCRAM occurs. He tries to bring the evidence to the attention of the public, but after threatening an employee of the construction company who built the plant, he is chased by goons of the construction company. He escapes by taking refuge in the plant.
To his dismay, he finds that the reactor has been brought up to full power. He grabs a gun from a security guard, forces everyone out, and demands to be interviewed on live television.
Plant technicians deliberately cause a SCRAM so that a SWAT team can force its way into the control room. The television cable is cut and Godell is shot by the police, but before he dies he feels the unusual vibration again. The resulting SCRAM is only brought under control by the plant's automatic systems. True to his predictions, the plant suffers significant damage.
Plant officials try to paint Godell as emotionally disturbed, but Godell's friend and coworker Ted Spindler (Brimley) states that Godell would not have taken such drastic steps had there not been something wrong. The film ends as the reporter's live signal abruptly cuts to color bars.
The film was released on 16 March 1979, 12 days before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. In the film, a physicist[citation needed] says that the China Syndrome would render "an area the size of Pennsylvania" permanently uninhabitable. While some credit the accident's timing in helping to sell tickets,[5][6] the studio attempted to avoid appearing as if it were exploiting the accident, which included pulling the film from some theaters.[7]
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