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Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton ... see more see more... , Peter Donat , Wilford Brimley , Richard Herd , Daniel Valdez , Stan Bohrman , James Karen , Michael Alaimo , Lewis Arquette , E. Hampton Beagle , Alan Beckwith , Frank Cavestani , Betty Harford , Clay Hodges , Donald Hotton , James Kline , Darrell Larson , Joe Lowry , Dennis McMullen , Rita Taggart , Dan Lewk , Ron Lombard , Donald Bishop , Paul Larson , Roger Pancake , Nick Pellegrino , James Hall , Michael Mann

This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film op... read more read more...ened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). While Wells and Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station, Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the "China syndrome" of the title), to the station's soundman to deliver to Wells and Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown, Godell takes over the plant's control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant's management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film's clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

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76% liked it

8,173 ratings

Critics

82% liked it

28 critics

PG, 2 hr. 3 min.

Directed by: James Bridges

Release Date: January 1, 1979

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DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001

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Stats: 451 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (451)

  • ajv2688
    January 7, 2011
    ajv2688
    A fantastic true to life film, with great actors, and intense suspense. I loved this movie and I highly recommend it.
  • harrycaul
    June 13, 2009
    harrycaul
    Jack Lemmon plays a shift supervisor at a nuclear power plant who narrowly averts a core meltdown while being surreptitiously filmed by Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas' visiting TV news crew. When Lemmon's superiors pooh-pooh his reservations about the safety of the plant in their... read more haste to get back into production, he turns whistle-blower. The China Syndrome, which with uncanny prescience was released just 12 days before the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, is a hybrid of two of the genres most closely associated with the 1970s, the paranoid conspiracy thriller and the disaster movie. Intelligent, suspenseful and brilliantly acted, especially by Lemmon in one of his great 'straight' roles, my only reservations are that it hasn't aged especially well, and Michael Douglas drives me crazy every time he says the word 'nuclear'. It's not 'nucular', you asshole!
  • garyX
    November 1, 2007
    garyX
    Jane Fonda plays a tenacious reporter whose news crew chances upon an incident at a nuclear power plant that could have led to a meltdown, and goes on to try and uncover the conspiracy of silence concerning the plant's safety. Essentially a disaster movie without the disaster, th... read moreis worthy political thriller's main claim to fame is that the meltdown it predicted actually happened at 3 mile island a few weeks later. The plot follows the usual disaster movie convention of morally courageous hero attempts to alert the public to danger, hampered by the interference of big business who are afraid of the damage to their profits, but it is done in a rather more serious-minded way; there is more science and less histrionics and special effects. This can feel a little dry and sterile however, as a little too much of the drama relies on watching concerned looking men in hard hats looking at pipes and dials but Jack Lemmon is as excellent as always, bringing real human drama and pathos to his role. It drags a little in places, but the powerful climax is worth persevering for.
  • deano
    August 26, 2007
    deano
    Taut thriller about an accident at a nuclear power plant, features strong performances and solid direction.
  • jjnxn
    March 27, 2007
    jjnxn
    Gripping & frightening with a powerhouse cast
  • alanjayh
    May 31, 2008
    alanjayh
    Timley thriller with fine acting by Fonda, Douglas and Lemon...a heavy handed message-oriented flick but is quite entertaining nonetheess
  • iamthethinman
    October 9, 2011
    iamthethinman
    I actually watched this movie right after the Japan disaster. Forgot to review it then. People like to reference this movie and I am admittedly fond of 70s paranoia thrillers. This one was very good. It is very simple and has very well crafted characters. It doesn't try to amp up... read more what it is portraying nor go a soap opera dramatic route. It stays fairly firmly rooted in the story. And for that, this is a good movie that stands up as a very good period piece that still has relevance today.

    Time to see if this team made any other movies.
  • tmannamt
    May 23, 2011
    tmannamt
    It took me 10 days to finish this movie. I would rate this higher if I really liked this and this is not a horrible movie by all means, but personally this bored me to tears.
  • jam233
    April 18, 2010
    jam233
    86/100. Very intense and exciting, the story is thoroughly convincing and believable. The cast is excellent. Jack Lemmon is outstanding, Jane Fonda is perfectly cast and the newscaster, Michael Douglas is also great. This was released by sheer coincidence at the same time the inc... read moreident at Three Mile Island happened, very eerie. Great pace, well filmed.
  • HoleintheDome
    February 25, 2009
    HoleintheDome
    Suspenseful story that uses lots of tension without the use of music or effects. Good movie with a solid, creepy ending.

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Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
March 27, 2009
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

A tightly assembled didactic thriller. Full Review

Variety Staff
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

A moderately compelling thriller about the potential perils of nuclear energy, whose major fault is an overweening sense of its own self-importance. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A terrific thriller that incidentally raises the most unsettling questions about how safe nuclear power plants really are. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

The three stars are splendid, but maybe Miss Fonda is just a bit more than that. Her performance is not that of an actress in a star's role, but that of an actress creating a character that happens to... Full Review

Richard T. Jameson
March 25, 2011
Richard T. Jameson, Parallax View

What we must quarrel with is the heartless, devious, and appallingly manipulative manner in which the authors of the film have drawn their good-guys-and-bad-guys battlelines ... Full Review

March 27, 2009
Film4

The film is one of those rare modern thrillers that manages to combine fantastic acting and intelligent dialogue with real, heart-stopping suspense. Full Review

March 27, 2009
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Not a comforting film, but an undeniably potent one. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
January 30, 2009
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's an exciting and worthwhile old-fashioned thriller about the dangers of a nuclear power accident. Full Review

Rob Gonsalves
April 9, 2007
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com

File this one under 'Hasn't Aged Well.' Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

All a bit too earnest, despite the seriousness of the subject, with Fonda setting her jaw and stepping into father's footsteps as Tinseltown's very own protector of humanity; but it's tightly scripted... Full Review

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The China Syndrome Trivia

  • Who starred in "Klute", "The Morning After", "Agnes of God", "The China Syndrome" and "Old Gringo"?  Answer »
  • Jack Lemmon bucks the system in "The China Syndrome". What happens to him in the movie?  Answer »
  • Michael Douglas went from 'Streets of San Francisco' to the big screen. Which movie included him in the cast?   Answer »
  • In which film did Jane Fonda work with Michael Douglas?  Answer »
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