More Info on NBC's Y2K: The Movie - Review

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Posted for informational purposes only...yada yada.

This is from the NandoTimes Website is: http://www.nando.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500057913-500095430-500368647-0,00.html

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TV REVIEW: If it can go wrong, it will in 'Y2K: The Movie' Copyright ) 1999 Nando Media Copyright ) 1999 Associated Press

From Time to Time: Nando's in-depth look at the 20th century

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (November 16, 1999 9:36 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - There is a simple premise behind "Y2K: The Movie": If everything can go wrong, it will.

Murphy's Law is the star of this show. It's a fictional account of coming Y2K havoc that includes food and cash shortages, power outages, a plane falling out of the sky, even a prison riot.

Never mind all those pronouncements from government and the private sector that widespread mishaps are unlikely. The movie devises as many as it can.

"Y2K: The Movie" airs at 9 p.m. EST Sunday on NBC. That's 40 days before the Year 2000 computer bug potentially will be swarming.

For those who still need a briefing: The Y2K bug stems from the programming practice of using only two digits to represent the year. If that oversight is left uncorrected, some computers may interpret "00" to mean 1900 rather than 2000. That could be a problem if those computers happened to be responsible for running electric power grids, controlling air traffic or keeping track of money.

Electric utilities, phone companies, airlines, banks and other industries have joined government agencies in updating their computers during the past few years. Y2K analysts are generally confident that any disruption in the United States would be relatively minor and localized.

But don't let confidence get in the way of the plot.

Nick Cromwell (Ken Olin) is a government consultant who specializes in system failures. He watches from a control center in Washington, D.C., as a military fighter mysteriously crashes at the U.S. Marshall Islands (the first region to observe the new year).

Pilot error or computer failure? Cromwell isn't willing to take chances. He persuades the government to ground all flights at midnight local time.

Cromwell and crew watch as midnight arrives in different parts of the nation and world each hour.

In New York City, banks limit cash withdrawals; one man complains of getting only $20 of the $200 he requested. (So what happened to the extra $200 billion in cash that the Fed has stockpiled to prevent shortages?)

Lights go out in Sydney, Australia, Paris, France, and most of the Eastern seaboard. Computer-controlled doors swing open at a maximum-security prison in Texas, where inmates riot and take hostages. Boston's 911 emergency system shuts down, as do New York City subways.

The second half of the film has less to do with Y2K as it becomes more of a traditional thriller. Cromwell risks his life to prevent a meltdown at a Seattle nuclear power plant, while residents try to evacuate.

Though NBC plans to run a disclaimer to assure audiences that the story is purely fictional, the movie does its feeble best to seem authentic. Indeed, during one scene, a radio announcer refers to a real-life glitch in Maine, where owners of model year 2000 cars got titles to "horseless carriages," the designation the state used for pre-1916 vintage vehicles.

"There are 1.2 trillion lines of potentially lethal software in the world," Cromwell says in the movie. "There are over 30 billion chips embedded in everything from coffee machines to cars to jumbo jets and nuclear reactors. ... If anyone says they know what's going to happen tomorrow, they are lying."

With declarations like that, a number of groups are worried the film will fuel public paranoia.

The Edison Electric Institute, representing investor-owned utilities, sent letters to NBC affiliates urging them to find substitute programming to "Y2K: The Movie" or to run a disclaimer during the entire broadcast, rather than only before the opening credits.

Laurence Brown, the electric group's senior lawyer, said power outages depicted in the film are unlikely. Circuit breakers are in place, he said, to prevent overloaded generators and lines from disrupting the grid.

Government reports echo the optimism, based on research and testing done over the past several months and years.

"Entertainment is entertainment," said Don Meyer, a spokesman for the Senate's Y2K advisory committee. "I think most people recognize the difference between what is portrayed in a made-for-TV movie and what is likely to happen in the real world."

But don't let experts spoil your fun.

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-- Mr. Details (no@no.com), November 17, 1999

Answers

Zounds! A Seattle nuclear power plant? They've been holding out on us!

-- Don (whytocay@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999.

No, silly nellies the "gobmint" hasn't been holding out on a plant in Seattle. I know cuz I saw Y2K: Year To Kill.

(Heehee.)

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 17, 1999.


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