A rare occasion where life imitated art.
In 1979, three weeks into the release of THE CHINA SYNDROME, which was the tale of a nuclear power plant having a malfunction and causing a potentially fatal expulsion of harmful energy, the plant at Three Mile Island suffered a real-life fracture, which proved to be quite significant.
In the film, news reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda), cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced the film, his second after ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST) attend a fictional power plant, where Shift Supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) is overseeing the routine when vibrations reveal a problem.
Adams has filmed the whole incident against security protocol at the plant and plans to use the footage to highlight the issues at the power plant, an action that has far-reaching consequences for both the broadcast and the nuclear industries….
A rarity in film where, with the exception of a song by America played over the opening credits, there is no music throughout the film, THE CHINA SYNDROME is a consummate experience – and one of the best thrillers of the late 1970s, with top notch performances from Fonda, Douglas and Lemmon (who was nominated as Best Actor in the Oscars of that nomination year)