Posted on 11/09/2004 6:18:54 PM PST by Tuxedo
Thomas Gibson, Nancy McKeon, Brian Dennehy, Dianne Wiest and Randy Quaid star in this four-hour mini-series event. The natural disaster drama is about three enormous weather systems that ultimately collide over Chicago, creating the worst super-storm in the nation's history--but only after they first cause the national power grid to collapse, making it impossible to warn anyone about the impending disaster.
A few days shy of retiring from his job as chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service's storm prediction center, Andy Goodman (Dennehy) begins to follow three separate and potentially devastating weather systems--a cluster of tornadoes in the west, an unusually warm storm front in the south, and an Arctic system in the north. To help track the tornadoes in the west, which have already leveled Las Vegas, Andy enlists the aid of his friend and former colleague, "Tornado Tommy" (Quaid), an adventure tour operator who makes a living taking thrill-seekers up close and personal with twisters in Oklahoma's tornado alley.
Unaware of the weather systems that threaten to destroy the city of Chicago, Amy Harkin (McKeon), a smart and ambitious local television journalist is focused on reporting on the record heat wave and drought that have crippled the city for six weeks. The city's residents have been asked to reduce their energy consumption and have been warned by Secretary of Energy, Shirley Abbott (Wiest), that the outdated national power grid could fail at any moment, leaving hundreds of millions of people without power.
Mitch Benson (Gibson), Chief of Operations at Midwest Electric, a public utilities company, faces his own worst-case scenario when a severe thunderstorm destroys the city's primary power generating plant. Mitch and Amy must then race against time and the deadly forces of nature to restore power to the city so the public, as well as emergency workers, can be warned about the devastating storms which Andy has been tracking. Their goal is threatened when an electrical chain reaction cascades into the collapse of the North American power grid and causes a national blackout, just as the record-setting Category 6 storms finally collide over Chicago.
The Day After The Day After
Fiction requires the suspension of disbelief.
The BS quotient on this one sounds even higher than "The Core."
Hey, cool. It destroys a BLUE STATE!
It's Bush's fault!
Yeah, they probably didn't get to edit in an alternate version where it would take out Cincinnati instead!
You mean that the "Core" wasn't a documentary?
What's a "category 6?"
I guess we will find out. Probably mixing up the Fujita Scale and the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Which seems to imply a lack of sound consulting by weather experts, like Twister.
Behold the power of cheese.
only after they first cause the national power grid to collapse, making it impossible to warn anyone about the impending disaster.
Yup. No battery operated radios, generators, etc.
Who needs expert consultants, anyway? ;-)
Oh yes it does.
P.S. Did you see the promo with CBS's new slogan: "Must CBS TV?" I think they meant "Must See B.S. TV."
Don't forget the evil energy company is screwing over the poor by making sure the rich always have power during the heat wave but the poor are left to roast. I finally had to turn it off around the time we learn the Lexor guy is getting it on with the blond chick. My B.S. meter pegged at maximum. Turned on ESPN to see the Bills being pounded by the Patriots.
P.S. Did you see the promo with CBS's new slogan: "Must CBS TV?" I think they meant "Must See B.S. TV."
Yep, its been known as SEE-BS for a long time.
But now it seems like they're even admitting it, taunting us, as if to say, "Yeah, even WE know it's B.S. and you're still watching it!"
(still guilty of that myself, guess they win this time)
I now know why Nancy McKeon has been relegated to the Lifetime movie channel. What a bad actress she is.
Randy Quaid seems to have let himself go a little, but he still plays an excellent oddball character.
The villians are the power company and nuclear power plants (which the sympathetic character blowing the whistle on the capitalist pigs pronounced as being too dangerous to be used to supply power.)
The villians are the greedy power company and nuclear power plants.
Yeah but the storm is pretty cool for us weather freaks!
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