Corporate greed vs. common sense — guess which one explodes first?
The manager of a chemical plant and a city manager rise up against their respective bosses to keep a town safe in this ecologically conscientious made-for-TV disaster film. It all begins when the owners of Citichem order the plant manager to enact dangerous cost cuts that compromise the safety of the plant. He protests, but it is to no avail and a worker dies. At the same time, the city manager tries to warn the people that a deadly disaster is imminent, but he ends up gagged by the local politicians. Meanwhile, just when the community is at its most unprepared, a melt-down occurs and the town is drenched in deadly chemicals.
Acting
Brian Dennehy's everyman fury carries the whole thing.
Production
Surprisingly grim for network TV — they actually let people die.
Director
Rick Wallace
Brian Dennehy
Don Sheppard
Kenneth McMillan
Wes Boggs
Christine Ebersole
Lee Snyder
Beah Richards
Sally Framm
Richard Gilliland
David Kohler
Vic Polizos
Lou Keller
Peter Jurasik
Jack Morris
Cicely Tyson
Janet Framm
Steve Eastin
Jerry Haywood
Richard McKenzie
Mayor Earl Ross
Tom Simcox
Joe Reed
Scott Curtis
Kenny Kohler
Edan Gross
Jake Snyder
John Ingle
Dr. Shaw
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released four months after the Chernobyl disaster, this rode a wave of nuclear/chemical anxiety that dominated late-80s television.
Brian Dennehy would later play a similar working-class hero in *Cocoon* — apparently 'frustrated man yelling at incompetence' was his brand.
US
