The Chain Reaction (1980)

As Good As It Gets

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In Western Australia project WALDO leaks nuclear waste and exposes Heinrich (Ross Thompson) to a lethal amount of radiation. With only days of life left, Heinrich manages to escape to the country side wanting to warn the people about contaminated ground water while the government wants to cover it up. Heinrich believes it is 1957 and meets up with a vacationing couple.Mel Gibson has a non-credited role as a bearded mechanic, making this a rare collectible for Mel Gibson fans, should they be so inclined.The film itself was not great, a bit disjointed, and manages to be boring during the action scenes.Guide: sex and nudity (Steve Bisley, Arna-Maria Winchester)

"The Chain Reaction" immediately looked like a genuine winner for me, as I have a natural born fondness for disaster themed movies and – especially since seeing the awesome documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!" – outrageous Australian cult cinema. This movie combines the two with a story revolving on nuclear contamination (and of course the complimentary corporate cover-up) filmed and released during the late 70's/early 80's when Aussie's horror and cult culture was in the middle of it development. "The Chain Reaction" has several direct links with what's inarguably Australia's greatest cult milestone ever made; the still incredibly amazing "Mad Max". The couple of car chases are obviously borrowed, in the hope to become as successful, and the cast and crew features several familiar names. Lead star Steve Bisley played Max Rockatansky's partner Goose and there's also an important role for Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played the notorious villain Toecutter. Apparently even Mel Gibson himself very briefly appears in the film, as an anonymous bearded mechanic, but he must have been very well disguised as I didn't even notice him. Last but not least, George Miller is credited as associate producer but undoubtedly also helped writer/director Ian Berry a lot with his fist long-feature film. Unfortunately, however, "The Chain Reaction" isn't as awesome as I hoped or as it easily could have been. The film provides enough thrills and entertainment for as long as the emphasis remains on action, but as soon as it's necessary for the scenario to create more depth and slowly begin to work towards a gratifying conclusion, the whole set-up tumbles down and becomes lamentable. The opening sequences are hugely compelling and eerie, albeit not too plausible. When an earthquake strikes in the Australian outback, Waldo Nuclear power plant engineer Heinrich Schmidt is lethally exposed to radioactive material but nevertheless insists to warn the public about a leakage. His superiors want to prevent this from happening of course, those bastards, but Heinrich escapes and with his last strengths manages to reach a small town before collapsing. Robust macho car mechanic Larry Stillson and his beautiful nurse wife Carmel take the exhausted and amnesiac Heinrich into their cabin and thus become involved in the deadly Waldo cover-up conspiracy. The opening sequences at the nuclear plant, Heinrich's escape and Larry's first encounter with the Waldo goons – resulting in a high adrenalin car chase that even causes tires to screech on a dirt road – are vastly exhilarating. The whole story around the slowly recovering Heinrich Schmidt, on the other hand, is largely unnecessary and rather awkward. We already know that Schmidt narrowly survived nuclear radiation and that the local water supply is contaminated, so his flashbacks and slow memory recovery are redundant. Also, unlike as in the epitome film "The China Syndrome", "The Chain Reaction" does not seem very interested in the political aspects of nuclear cover-up conspiracies. The Waldo Plant über-tycoon is more interested in personally eliminating Larry and C° than in saving his own reputation. That's the Aussie villain mentality for you! Overall, this is a decent and fun flick as long as you don't pay too much attention to content and logic. Subtitles on the DVD would have been nice as well, as the Aussie outback accents are often difficult to understand.

A nuclear plant employee is accidentally showered in radioactive waste and his company wants to hush up the fact the water supply has been contaminated. He escapes and quickly falls under the care of race car driver Larry (Steve Bisley) and his wife Carmel (Arna-Maria Winchester) at their vacation home. Since they are corporate guys, the baddies will stop at nothing to silence the escapee and anyone who helps him. It is THE CHINA SYNDROME with car chases! This one is pretty decent but suffers from a sluggish pace at times and making a straight-forward plot convoluted. There are some nice character touches (the deaf hit-man; Hugh Keays-Byrne's eccentric anti-nuke guy). MAD MAX's George Miller was originally supposed to direct, but didn't. He did do the work on the car chases (uncredited), which are really good but the film could have used more of them. Ian Barry directed and has a good eye and stages some nice shocks. Wish it was more even though. Some guy named Mel Gibson has a two-second cameo.

This was a pleasant surprise I caught on cable one day. Opening a year after Mad Max and with 2 actors Steve Bisley and Hugh Keays-Byrne also from Mad Max this little action/thriller is very entertaining. Aussies really know how to put together some great car chases - lots of V8 engine noises and cameras by the wheel, this movie has at least 2 that beat the crap out of several hundred car chases in American movies. The story might be a little far-fetched but nothing that's intolerable. I gave this one an 8/10, without the car chases a 7.