Y2K The Movie Review

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Oh my.

Rick had to have been shaking his head through the whole thing.

I reckon Factfinders favorite part was when the soldier accidently shot the doomer, who, if he hadn't been a doomer would have lived.

I personally never thought to much of disaster movies, Earthquake, Towering Inferno etc. although I would say they were better than Y2K. I'd give this one 2 roses out of possible 5.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 1999

Answers

I hate to say 'I told you so'. ;-) The movie was what it was, and little more. The local NBC affiliate's reaction and continuous disclaimers were a bit over the top, though. I fail to see what everyone (EEI, ABA, .gov, etc.) was getting so worked up about.

"Atomic Train" was better.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 1999


Unfortunately, this stupid movie puts y2k in the same class of believability as a James Bond movie and encourages people to disregard the realities.

Since it was such an unbelievable move, at least they could have populated it with some sexy "Bond" girls to make it more entertaining, if not believable.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999


I think the movie's greatest contribution to the fear factor was letting J.Q. Public know how far radiation can get airborn and drift over half of the United States. Then, they did an about face and evacuated a 10 mile perimeter. I guess people will be wondering just how far is the nearest Nuke plant anyway?

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999

Unfortunately, mine's Comanche Peak, Tx. Units #1 and #2 sure were late. Sigh :
-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999

Boy, with all the material they had to work with, this is the best they could do? I find it interesting that they didn't make things worse. Afterall, its just fiction, right? No relation to "reality" where everything is "fixed", right?

This movie, if anything, presented a fairly rosy scenario. Afterall, by the film's end the lights are on everywhere you look, and everything is running smoothly.

The really interesting element in this is the list of web sites our local news station listed following the show. It included some rather extreme sites.

In reflecting on this movie I am beginning to believe it was placed on the air in full cooperation with and approval of the authorities in order to further raise awareness and spread the message that "If we all do our part, everything will be OK."

Should be one helluva new year!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999



In the Washington vicinity (WRC-TV), we were advised in the local news following the movie that the "truth" could only be gleaned from the Internet.

And then we were referred to these sites, in this order:

(1) de Jaeger

(2) Yardeni

(3) Gary North

(4) Y2K Newswire

There was also a reference to the Red Cross and some local sites, but that was about it.

I thought it was amazing that these sites could even be mentioned.

dave

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999


I thought that the maker of this move might have had too much to try to work with. It is interesting that it focused on the the 1/1/2000 problem though. The bigger problems would be more likely to happen later I would think.

I think the movie did give a viewer some visibility into our interdependent lifestyle and how computers are intertwined and some very important places.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999

Re: Y2K Movie

Best lines in the movie: "You should put on a radiation suit."

"No, it will just slow me down." as our hero runs into the nuclear powerplant to stop the meltdown. BTW, do you nuke guys let any idiot off the street into the powerplants to do all the fixes that you neglected to do?

I really liked how the 747 came down sideways doing a powerdrift on the runway and stopping within 50 feet. I understand all the big planes can do that safely now :-)

Also, did you notice that none of the Y2K problems (red 'x's) were in Canada? We are going to be fine up here. Your guys are hooped!

And I also liked the 'fanatic' who bunkered himself up in his house, only to be shot as the military tried to clear him out. I couldn't help but think of Gary North all bunkered up for nothing. The funny part about that was that this was the only guy in the movie who had done any preps at all (excessive as he may have been) and he gets shot for all his effort. So let that be a warning to you: If you are smart enough to prepare for the future, you will be shot!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999


I've studied screenwriting for several years (off & on, of course), & have several friends in the industry, so I looked at it from the point of view of the writers, as I usually do any movie or TV show.

And I would say Bill is right, they had too much to work with. I wondered for a while if they focused on the nuclear plant meltdown aspect just because much of Hollywood is anti-nuke. But after a while I figured they just zeroed in on this because it represented (in their view) the biggest threat to the most people, hence they made the point about how the radiation would spread across so much of North America. Doing this would show how Y2K was Something People Should Take Seriously, I guess.

Personally, I literally laughed out loud a couple of times at the ridiculousness of some of the "problems" presented. Some of it was not nearly so bad as I expected, though. Basically, a lot of it seemed like the writers were still in Y2K 101, rather than dealing with the real, and much more subtle and sophisticated problems Y2K may actually present. Of course, many if not most of these are not "action"-oriented (after all, did anyone see "Long-Term Capital Management: The Movie" - ?)

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999


Norm,

I don't waste my time on "disaster" movies, either. It's a shame that the only doomer in the movie was depicted as a stupid doomer. The reward for stupidity is usually immediate and final, as the movie showed.

Rick,

The only way I can think that all those agency types could get worked up about it is that they have a much lower opinion of JQP's intelligence than I thought. Sometimes I wonder if they aren't on to something.

For me, the high point of the movie was the local newscast afterward. They presented short "don't worry" snips from representatives from the local power, banking, and emergency operations groups. The problem was, the sound didn't work when the power guy presentation was aired. Technical difficulties, they said.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999



Dang Norm,I missed all the good parts! I had to be up early this morning, so I went to bed right after the beginning of the nuclear plant scenes, but needless to say, like many of you I had plenty of laughs, and just in the first few minutes. But I really wouldn't have found shooting a doomer much fun, I would much rather have had him turn out to be a cyborg with a non-compliant chip in his head.

First the technical errors (don't want to disappoint any of you) - the airport scene was simply not credible - there's no way they could have used headlights to light the runways, 'cause the VEHICLES WONT BE ABLE TO START ;)

I loved the basic premise where one guy, the Y2K expert, knows all the computerized systems in the world, everything from an airport to a nuclear plant. I busted out laughing when he showed up at the nuke plant and the SRO's just turned control of the plant over to him - in addition to being a qualified aeronautics engineer, does he have his SRO license too? By the time the Operator rebooted the entire plant computer system using a laptop, I was almost in tears, lol. A laptop!

Sean: "Best lines in the movie: "You should put on a radiation suit."

I missed this! I didn't see this part, but heard about it at work today. Where can I get me one of them there "radiation suits" to shield me from radiation, all we have are cotton, paper, or plastic ones to prevent skin contamination. This suit must have been made of lead - how heavy was it, about a ton? Yep, that would slow you down a bit...

Sean: "BTW, do you nuke guys let any idiot off the street into the powerplants to do all the fixes that you neglected to do?" Of course not Sean, but hey, this guy was a y2k expert, he knows date testing, let him at the reactor controls.....

"I really liked how the 747 came down sideways doing a powerdrift on the runway and stopping within 50 feet. I understand all the big planes can do that safely now :-)"

This scene was almost like one of the scenes out of the comedy movie "Airplane"...I've never seen an airplane land at 20 miles an hour before...and go sidways without hitting the vehicles lined up on a 30 foot wide runway....skinniest runway I ever saw...

I was amazed at how many "just a little bit bad data" problems were presented, the kind where you might believe the data - like this was the norm for y2k, when it is actually a rarity in embedded systems, since dates are rarely used for calculations. One device I am familiar with yielded data so bad, you would have had to be an idiot to believe the instrument.

Maybe someone taped it, I would like to see the rest. Or maybe I'll just rent "Airplane" again.

Regards,

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999


Sean and Factfinder:

Jaunita Ginrich a flinkee for TMI was ordered to hand crank the turbine to keep it from warping due to high temperatures during the early stages of the accident. She got dosed too. She was learning the ropes to become an auxiliary operator. She was not given a radiation suit. But she slapped TMI with a legal suit.

Whenever a movie or story depicts something outrageous at a nuclear plant, you can bet something similar has already happened or will happen.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 1999


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