The China Syndrome, James Bridges, 1979

The China Syndrome, directed by James Bridges, stars Jane Fonda as television reporter, Kimberly Wells. Kimberly, who was working on a piece about energy production, visits a California nuclear power plant. Along with her cameraman Richard Adams (played by Michael Douglas), Kimberly is invited to visit the control room at the nuclear plant. While in the control room, the plant goes through a SCRAM and comes dangerously close to a nuclear meltdown. Afterwards, Kimberly and Richard both believe that something else was going on at the plant. Meanwhile, nuclear plant employee Jack Godell (played by Jack Lemmon) also believes that something else is going on. Jack does some investigative work of his own and discovers he is correct. He takes his evidence to Kimberly and Richard who help him to reveal the truth.

For those who are old enough to remember the infamous Three Mile Island incident, the movie may hold a different meaning. To a certain degree, the events within the movie mirror the real life events fairly well. Therefore, the suspense level may be higher or lower for these people than for someone who has no memory of such an event. Otherwise, the movie has several intense moments where viewers will be on the edge of their seats. There is some technical jargon that is essential to the movie but nothing too complicated that would prevent one from understanding the events.

The movie moves at a good pace and there are hardly any slow moments. All in all, I’d highly recommend The China Syndrome for anyone looking for a good, suspense filled movie.