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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The China Syndrome (1979)

I’m not sure if this one is technically a science fiction film or not. It’s about high-technology and it predicted something in the future, so perhaps it is. It came out in the years during the roll-out of the first nuclear power plants. The oil industry and other incumbents were and still are strongly opposed to nuclear energy because it competes with their industries. Some of them were able to trick environmental groups into protesting against nuclear energy. Also entities that opposed the development of nuclear weapons (which usually rely on reactors for plutonium fuel), including peace groups and foreign adversaries also fought the development of nuclear power.

This film is critical of nuclear power, specifically about the possibility of accidents. It was released just a couple weeks before the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in 1979, which drew much scrutiny because the remarkable similarity between the events depicted in the film and the TMI incident.

Stars in the film include Michael Douglas, who is an advocate of nuclear disarmament, and Jane Fonda who has been a lifelong peace activist. Fonda plays a TV reporter while Douglas is her cameraman. Jack Lemon plays a plant worker who is a whistle-blower.

(fair use image from the film)