10.5 (TV miniseries)

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10.5
Directed by John Lafia
Produced by Gary Pearl
Lisa Richardson
Written by Christopher Canaan
John Lafia
Ronnie Christensen
Starring Kim Delaney
Beau Bridges
John Schneider
Dulé Hill
Fred Ward
Kaley Cuoco
Distributed by NBC & USA Networks
Release date(s) May 2, 2004
Running time 165 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

10.5 is a 2004 film directed by John Lafia and released as a television miniseries in the U.S.A. The plot focuses on a series of catastrophic earthquakes along the United States' west coast, culminating in one measuring 10.5 on the Richter scale. In an attempt to prevent further damage, the characters race to "weld" the fault closed, using nuclear bombs.

10.5 was widely derided by both reviewers and geologists; nevertheless, it received respectable Nielsen ratings. Reuters reported that 20.4 million viewers watched the television movie[citation needed].

A sequel, 10.5: Apocalypse was aired on May 21, 2006 and May 23, 2006.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The beginning of the film shows a biker riding through the Seattle area. As he jumps over a man refilling newspaper stands, the stands tremble and newspapers start falling out. The biker realizes that a large earthquake is underway and desperately tries to postpone his landing. Meanwhile, Dr. Samantha Hill is awoken by an earthquake. At the Earthquake Center, the magnitude of the earthquake is being recorded. The scene returns to the biker, who has stopped under the Space Needle, whose legs are succumbing to elongating cracks traveling up the landmark. The biker speeds away to get out of the way of the falling Space Needle, but dust and shadow engulf the biker and the audience is left to assume he dies.

Back at the Earthquake Center, the quake is recorded as a 7.9. Dr. Hill goes to the Center and takes command, displacing the dismayed Dr. Jordan Fisher. Another quake arrives, which most people think is an aftershock, but it is larger in magnitude than the original quake. Dr. Hill's Hidden Fault Theory is then explained.

The scene then moves, to a game of basketball between President Paul Hollister and Roy Nolan. President Hollister points out that when Nolan is in a desperate position in the game, he takes the long shot. This statement becomes important later in the film. The president's aide, Sean Morris (John Cassini), enters the gym and informs the president of the situation. At a local hospital, doctors Zach Nolan (Roy Nolan's son) and Owen Hunter performing surgery. Nolan shortcuts his way through the surgery, risking the patient's life but saving him some scar tissue and a pint of blood. Hunter complains about Nolan's never asking for help.

An 8.4 earthquake causes an entire train outside of Redding, California to be literally dragged underground. As a result, Governor Carla Williams, who had just seen her daughter and her ex-husband off on a camping trip, agrees to help the Governor of Washington.

Following yet more earthquakes, and on the President's instructions, Roy Nolan constructs a task force of the best geologists and seismologists. The team includes Drs. Fisher and Hill. Dr. Hill brings up her Hidden Fault theory, which is received sceptically. When Nolan starts to realize that Hill might be right, she is given permission to prove her theory. She and Dr. Fisher visit a lake, where they see some dead animals with no visible cause of death, until Dr. Hill realizes that they have been poisoned. The two sprint back to the car to get gas masks, but Dr. Fisher passes out. Hill frantically searches and eventually finds them, putting them on both herself and Fisher.

Back at the Task Force Center, Dr. Hill predicts that the next quake will be in San Francisco. When she brings the proof and prediction to Nolan, he deems it too risky to evacuate the entirety of San Francisco, but when Dr. Hill's prediction proves accurate and San Francisco is destroyed by a 9.2 earthquake, Nolan is remorseful and contacts the President, doubtful of his (Nolan's) ability to handle the job. Also in San Francisco were Governor Williams and her assistant Rachel.

After a journey complicated by roadblocks and off-road detours, Amanda and Clark Williams arrive at Browning, where everything is covered in a thick red haze. Clark and Amanda, despite Amanda's asthma, emerge from the car and descend into the pit that used to be Browning, curious after they hear country music coming from it. Clark digs until he finds the source of the music: a car with a dead family in it. They drive back, trying to get home, but they get stuck in sand and start to be sucked into the ground. Amanda climbs out the window halfway in the sand. Clark is buried, and Amanda screams and cries, thinking her father is dead. A few moments later, a flashlight erupts from the sand; it is Clark. He climbs out, with difficulty.

Dr. Hill hypothesizes that they could "weld" the fault shut by letting it experience immense heat - the only way she knows how is to do this is by way of nuclear bombs. This is the end of the first half of the movie, in which we see what all the characters are doing.

At the start of the second half, Nolan and others are preparing to install the first of seven nuclear bombs at correct depths to "seal" the fault. The first six go smoothly, but during the installment of the seventh an earthquake occurs, and they lose a warhead. Nolan asks if he can set it manually, and the answer is yes. Nolan goes down to do it, but is pinned by the warhead when an aftershock hits. He calls the president to say he failed, and the President urges him to "make the long shot". Nolan replies "Not this time, buddy, not this time". He then calls his son to say that he is sorry for being so distant and that he loves him. Zach Nolan, meanwhile, is at the refugee camp, "Tent City" in Barstow, California.

The Williams find a truck carrying survivors, and they are also transported to Tent City. In a wounded San Francisco, Carla Williams and Rachel are trapped under a wall. Rachel admits that she and her husband Jim had a horrible fight. She asks Carla to tell Jim that Rachel loves him and wants to have a family with him. The two women are found a few minutes later. Carla wakes up in a hospital in Nevada and discovers that Rachel has died.

Deciding that nothing can be done about the lost seventh warhead, Dr. Hill decides to continue with the fault welding plan and detonate the first five nukes. When they reach the sixth, the seventh is activated by Nolan who manages to reach the control panel at the last seconds. They then blow up the sixth and seventh. Nolan is incinerated with the seventh nuke.

It seems to work, until they see that a river is flowing backwards. It turns out that the river is draining into the fault, which didn't seal. The last nuke wasn't deep enough to seal the fault for Southern California (the rest had done the trick and the rest of the West Coast was safe). An earthquake rocks L.A., destroys the Hollywood sign and reaches the Tent City. It climbs higher and higher on the Richter Scale, with Sean Morris narrating events to the president and the audience. Suddenly a massive crack appears at Santa Monica Beach and runs right through Los Angeles causing the Downtown skyline to collapse. The massive crack continues inland with the ocean pouring down it. Eventually the crack reaches Tent City and its peak of 10.5. Clark and Amanda Williams run away from the rushing water. Dr. Hill and Dr. Fisher run amid the panic, until a tower falls on Dr. Fisher, injuring his leg. Owen Hunter joins his family and they escape. Zach Nolan rescues a little girl. When Fisher collapses, the earthquake stops with water just short of their feet. They stand up to see that the western coast of California has been cut away.

The scene focuses on the west coast "island", and zooms out to a view from space, in which the California coast and the island are distinctly separated. The movie ends with the president speaking.

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