The China Syndrome (1979)

82% of critics liked it
(28 reviews)
76% of users liked it
(8,173 ratings)

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 opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder… More 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 opened. 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

Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: James Bridges
Written By: Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, T. S. Cook, James Bridges
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1979 Wide
On DVD: Aug 28, 2001
Studio: Columbia Pictures

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
A tightly assembled didactic thriller.
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.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
A terrific thriller that incidentally raises the most unsettling questions about how safe nuclear power plants really are.
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 be major within the film.
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 ...
, Film4
The film is one of those rare modern thrillers that manages to combine fantastic acting and intelligent dialogue with real, heart-stopping suspense.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Not a comforting film, but an undeniably potent one.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's an exciting and worthwhile old-fashioned thriller about the dangers of a nuclear power accident.
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
File this one under 'Hasn't Aged Well.'
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 and directed, and genuinely tense in places.
Jay Antani, Los Angeles Alternative
Crackling drama about TV reporter (Jane Fonda) investigating a coverup at a faulty nuclear reactor, and pressing upon conflicted technician played by the first-rate Jack Lemmon to go public with the story.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
A chillingly topical, stylishly directed thriller, with great performances from Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, and Michael Douglas
James Plath, Reel.com
Whistleblower saga that still packs a punch.
JoBlo, JoBlo's Movie Emporium
The film does still competently pull together a string of solid performances by all concerned.
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing
Even without its eerie parallel to real life, this superb film generates enough drama on its own.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
After 25 years, "The China Syndrome" still has the capacity to scare us toward a safer form of energy production

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

AJ V

A fantastic true to life film, with great actors, and intense suspense. I loved this movie and I highly recommend it.
Stephen M

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… More
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 haste to get back into production, he turns whistle-blower. <I>The China Syndrome</I>, 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!
xGary X

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,… More
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, this 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.
Dean M

Taut thriller about an accident at a nuclear power plant, features strong performances and solid direction.
jay n

Gripping & frightening with a powerhouse cast
alan j

Timley thriller with fine acting by Fonda, Douglas and Lemon...a heavy handed message-oriented flick but is quite entertaining nonetheess

Read all 6 featured audience ratings

Cast

            Jane Fonda as Kimberly Wells

            Jack Lemmon as Jack Godell

            Michael Douglas as Richard Adams

            Scott Brady as Herman De Young

            James Hampton as Bill Gibson

            Peter Donat as Don Jacovich

            Wilford Brimley as Ted Spindler

            Richard Herd as Evan McCormack

            Daniel Valdez as Hector Salas

            Stan Bohrman as Peter Martin

            James Karen as Mac Churchill

            Michael Alaimo as Greg Minor

            Lewis Arquette as Hatcher

            E. Hampton Beagle as Mort

            Alan Beckwith as Technician

            Frank Cavestani as News Reporter

            Betty Harford as Woman at Demonstration

            Clay Hodges as SWAT Squad Leader

            Donald Hotton as Dr. Lowell

            James Kline as Jim

            Darrell Larson as Young Demonstrator

            Joe Lowry as Security Agent

            Dennis McMullen as Robertson

            Rita Taggart as Rita Jacovich

            Dan Lewk as Donny

            Ron Lombard as Barney

            Donald Bishop as Hearings Chairman

            Paul Larson as D.B. Royce

            Roger Pancake as Gate Guard

            Nick Pellegrino as Borden

            James Hall as Harmon

            Michael Mann as TV Consultant
See full cast