''The Chain Reaction'' is a 1980

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

thriller film directed and written by Ian Barry. The film stars

Steve Bisley Steve Bisley (born 26 December 1951) is an Australian writer, film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the films '' Mad Max'' and ''The Great Gatsby''. On TV, some of his better-known roles include Detective Sergeant Jack C ...

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 cast members from ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...

'', among them

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocaly ...

as a bearded mechanic, in an uncredited cameo. 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 China Syndrome'' is a 1979 American disaster thriller film directed by James Bridges and written by Bridges, Mike Gray, and T. S. Cook. The film stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas (who also produced), Scott Brady, James Ham ...

''"; the latter referring to the car chase and nuclear accident. The film was rated M in Australia.

Plot

An earthquake in rural Australia causes a dangerous leak at WALDO (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 thousands 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 holiday, 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.

Cast

– Larry Stilson *Arna-Maria Winchester – Carmel Stilson *

Ross Thompson Ross Thompson may refer to: * Ross Thompson (boxer) * Ross Thompson (rugby union) * Ross Thompson (professor) See also * Ross Thomson, Scottish politician {{hndis, Thompson, Ross ...

– Heinrich Schmidt *Ralph Cotterill – Gray *

Hugh Keays-Byrne Hugh Keays-Byrne (18 May 1947 – 2 December 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the ''Mad Max'' franchise ...

– Eagle *

Lorna Lesley Lorna Lesley (born 1959, in Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison wit ...

– Gloria *

Richard Moir Richard Moir (born 1950) is an Australian former actor and editor. He is known for many Australian film roles and in TV soap opera ''Prisoner'' (also known as ''Prisoner: Cell Block H'') as original character of electrician Eddie Cook and in chi ...

– Junior Constable Pigott * Patrick Ward – Oates *Laurie Moran – Police Sgt. McSweeney * Michael Long – Doctor *Bill McCluskey – Ralph *Margo Lloyd – Molly * Tim Burns – Survey driver *Arthur Sherman - Byron Langley *Barry Donnelly - Gateman *P. J. Jones - Bernie the Beater *David Bracks - Spray Painter *Jone Winchester - Marcia *Joshua Ward - Jason Stillson *Ryan McKibbon - Stephen Stillson *

Kim Gyngell Kym Gyngell (born 15 April 1952), sometimes also credited as Kim Gyngell, is an Australian comedian and film, television and stage actor. Gyngell won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1988 for his role as ...

- Crabs *

Roger Ward Roger Ward (born 1936) is an Australian actor who has had a considerable career in film and television, noted for "tough guy" roles in which he often did his own stunts. Biography Ward was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1936. His car ...

- Moose *Sal Sharah - Pellegrini *

Frankie J. Holden Frankie J. Holden (born Peter Brian; 18 December 1952) , also known as Frank Holden, is an Australian singer, actor and TV presenter. In the 1970s, he fronted Ol' 55 (band), Ol' 55, which had a hit with "On the Prowl" from their debut album, ...

- Farts *

– Bearded mechanic (uncredited) *Will Taylor – Little kid

Production

The film was the idea of director Ian Barry. He had been talking to producer David Elfick about making a film called ''Sparks'' about a blind film director, based on a short film he had made, but Elfick thought the subject matter would be too difficult to finance. Barry had written another film, a thriller then entitled ''The Man at the Edge of the Freeway'', and Elfick decided to make that instead. The movie was budgeted at $600,000 but the

Australian Film Commission The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a producti ...

thought it was too high so it was re-budgeted at $450,000. George Miller came on the project as associate producer.David Stratton, ''The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry'', Pan MacMillan, 1990 p247-248 Funding came from the Australian Film Commission,

Victorian Film Corporation VicScreen, formerly known as Film Victoria, is the Victorian Government’s creative and economic screen development agency. They function behind the scenes, supporting professionals, infrastructure, projects and events – elevating Victori ...

and Hoyts. Shooting started in September 1979 and took place in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and

Glen Davis, New South Wales Glen Davis is a village in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. The village is located in the local government area of the City of Lithgow. It is located 250 km north-west of Sydney and approximately 80 kilometres north of ...

.David Stratton, ''The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival'', Angus & Robertson, 1980 p285 Elfick says the location at Glen Davis was rumoured to be the site of an aboriginal massacre and was supposed to be cursed; he believed it because filming was extremely difficult. Filming took longer than expected and the movie went 40% over budget. Miller was tasked with directing 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

Holden HQ The Holden HQ series is a range of automobiles that was produced by Holden in Australia from 1971 to 1974. The HQ was released on 15 July 1971, replacing the Holden HG series. It was the first ground-up redesign of the Holden line since its ori ...

ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute (band), an Australian jazz group * Ute (given name) * ''Ute'' (sponge), a sponge genus * Ute (vehicle), an Australian and New Zealand term for certain utility vehicles * Ute, Iowa, a city in Monona County along ...

. David Elfick also filmed some second unit. The film was shot with a

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

anamorphic lens Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...

. Post production was reputedly very difficult with representatives from the AFC, VFC and Hoyts supervising and discussing every cut of the film.

Distribution

The film was released shortly after ''Mad Max'' and it has a similar theme to that film as well as American films like ''The China Syndrome'' in regards to the whole nuclear-apocalyptic storyline. The film was distributed in Australia by Palm Beach Pictures and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

in the rest of the world and released on 25 September 1980.

Soundtrack

The music for the film was composed by Andrew Thomas Wilson.

Track listing

# "Awakening" (1:46) # "The Beast" (4:17) # "Decontamination" (2:05) # "Heinrich's Theme" (3:00) # "WALDO" (1:17) # "A Swim in the River" (1:48) # "Chain Reaction" (4:52) # "Once More with Feeling" (3:00) # "Paradise Valley" (1:03) # "Car Chase" (4:31) # "Carmel's Theme" (1:38) # "WALDO Arrives" (1:57) # "The Hand at the Window" (0:42) # "Message to a Friend" (End tiles)(4:28)

Awards and critical reception

The web page TV Guide.com gave 3 out 4 stars. In Yahoo! Movies, the users rating to the film with a C and 5.5 out of 10 in Internet Movie Database.

Titles around the world

*''Detector'' (Italy) *''Ketjureaktio'' (Finland) *''Die Kettenreaktion'' (West Germany) *''Nuclear Run'' *''Peligro: reacción en cadena'' (Spain) *''Perigo...Reacção em Cadeia'' (Portugal) *''Skotoste ton, xerei polla!'' (Greece) *''The Man at the Edge of the Freeway''* (Australia) *Working title

Home media

The DVD includes these extras: #''Thills and Nuclear Spills: The making of the film'' (31:37) #''The Sparks Obituary'' (24:50) #''Deleted and extended scenes'' (8:14) #''TV Spot'' (0:32) #''Stills and Poster gallery'' (2:54) #"Theatrical Trailer" (3:19) #''Aussie trailers'' (9:46) The video presents a 1.70:1 aspect ratio, originally 1.66:1.

Box office

The world-wide distribution rights were bought by Warner Bros. which put the film instantly in profit.''Thrills and Nuclear Spills: The Making of 'The Chain Reaction' '' (video short) (2005) '' The Chain Reaction'' grossed A$796,000 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to A$3,607,677 in 2021 dollars.

References

External links

*
''The Chain Reaction''
at Oz Movies
''The Chain Reaction''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chain Reaction 1980 films 1980s chase films 1980s disaster films 1980 independent films 1980s science fiction thriller films Australian independent films Australian disaster films Australian science fiction thriller films Films about automobiles Films about nuclear accidents and incidents Films produced by George Miller Nuclear accidents in fiction 1980s English-language films