| The Chain Reaction | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Ian Barry |
| Produced by | David Elfick |
| Written by | Ian Barry |
| Starring | Steve Bisley Arna-Maria Winchester Ross Thompson Ralph Cotterill Hugh Keays-Byrne Lorna Lesley Richard Moir |
| Music by | Andrew Thomas Wilson |
| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Editing by | Tim Wellburn |
| Studio | Victorian Film Corporation Australian Film Commission |
| Distributed by | Australia Palm Beach Pictures USA Warner Bros. Pictures United Kingdom Columbia-EMI-Warner |
| Release date(s) | 25 September 1980 |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$450,000 |
The Chain Reaction (also known as Chain Reaction) is a 1980 Australian independent action/disaster/thriller film directed and written by Ian Barry. The film stars Steve Bisley, also starring in the film Mad Max (1979) and Arna-Maria Winchester. The film's plot is about an engineer badly injured in an accident caused by an earthquake. He knows that the nuclear waste will poison the groundwater and wants to warn the public.
The movie features many actors who were in Mad Max, among them Mel Gibson as a bearded mechanic, though he doesn't appear in the title credits. The taglines used in advertising the film included "A fast drive to Paradise turns into a nuclear nightmare!" and "Mad Max meets The China Syndrome"; the latter referring to the car chase and nuclear accident. The film is not to be confused with Chain Reaction (film), a 1996 film of the same name.
The film was rated M in Australia.[1]
Contents |
An earthquake in rural Australia causes a dangerous leak at WALDO (acronyms of Western Atomic Longterm Dumping Organisation), a nuclear waste storage facility. Heinrich Schmidt (Ross Thompson) an engineer badly contaminated in the accident, knows that the leak will poison the groundwater for hundreds of miles around and wants to warn the public. His boss, however, is only interested in protecting himself and believes that the accident should be covered up, when in fact the contamination risks thousand of lives. Heinrich escapes from the facility but is badly injured. Lost in the woods and suffering from amnesia, he is rescued by Larry Stilson (Steve Bisley), a car mechanic on vacation, and his wife Carmel (Arna-Maria Winchester). As Heinrich tries to piece together his memories of what happened, his boss' thugs are quickly closing in on the trio.
The film was filmed in Glen Davis and Sydney, both located in New South Wales in Australia. The film was released at the same time as Mad Max and it has a similar theme to that film as well as American films likeThe China Syndrome in regards to the whole nuclear-apocalyptic storyline. The director of this film, Ian Barry, worked with a budget of A$450,000.[2] The director George Miller was brought in to shoot the car chase sequences, which featured the Ford Fairlane LTD in most scenes as the preferred vehicle of the antagonistic authority chasing Larry's modified utility vehicle (Ute).[3] The film was shot with a Widescreen anamorphic lens.
The film was distributed in Australia by the Palm Beach Picture, join with Victorian Film Corporation and Australian Film Commission and released on 25 September. In the United States the film's distributor was Warner Bros., and in the United Kingdom it was Columbia-EMI-Warner.[4]
The music for the film was composed by Andrew Thomas Wilson.[5]
The film was nomitated for 1983 Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy of Horror Films for Best International Film but lost to Mad Max 2 (1981).[6] It was also nomitated to the 1980 AFI Awards with 6 nominations: Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Costume Design, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Production Design, Best Achievement in Sound and Best Achievement in a Supporting Role.[7] The web page TV Guide.com gave 3 out 4 stars.[8] In Yahoo! Movies, the users rating to the film with a C[9] and 5.5 out of 10 in Internet Movie Database.
*Working title
The DVD includes these extras:[10][11]
The video presents a 1.70:1 aspect ratio, originally 1.66:1.[10]
The Chain Reaction grossed $796,000 at the box office in Australia,[12] which is equivalent to $2,825,800 in 2009 dollars.