Today’s movie is a
comedy with a scene that happens on October 22. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
BLAST FROM THE
PAST
Calvin Webber is a wealthy
eccentric inventor, passionate
anti-communist and former Cal Tech professor who has built a self-contained
fallout shelter beneath his house. At a party he and his pregnant wife hold on
October 22, 1962 [1:36 to 8:06] they see JFK’s Cuba Missile Crisis speech. The
guests go home and the Webbers descend into the shelter. An Air Force plane has
mechanical problems and the pilot declares an emergency. The Webbers think this
means a Russian nuclear attack is underway. When the plane crashes into their
house and destroys it, Calvin seals them in the self-contained world of the bunker
for 35 years. Everyone on the surface thinks they were killed in the fire
caused by the crash. A few days later Helen Webber gives birth to a boy, who
they name Adam. On the surface a malt shop is built and it later becomes a bar.
Adam is raised as a polymath by Calvin, but he is socially naïve. His father
gives him some stock certificates and his baseball card collection. When the
locks open Calvin goes up, but he emerges in a ghetto, which he thinks is
post-apocalyptic America. Adam’s mother sends him to get supplies. When a shop
owner tries to cheat Adam when he wants to sell his baseball cards, Eve Vrustikoff, the clerk who works there
stops him from cheating Adam and she is fired. Adam eventually hires Eve to help
him get supplies and find a wife. Eve and her gay housemate Troy try to
integrate Adam into society, but he impresses them with his common decency.
When Adam tells Eve his story she thinks he’s crazy and calls a mental health
agency, but then helps Adam escape from them. She learns Adam’s stock
certificates make him incredibly wealthy. Eve makes up with Adam and realizes
she loved him even before she knew he was rich. Adam takes Eve to meet his
parents and then builds a house for them above ground, but only tells his dad
there was no nuclear war.
A very funny movie. It’s a fish
out of water as Adam’s 1960’s values make him stand out in the LA of the
nineties. Brendan Fraser’s portrayal of Adam as genius mixed with naiveté is
fantastic.
One Minute to Midnight by
Michael Dobbs (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008) p. 49
Producer - Amanda Stern, Hugh
Wilson and Renny Harlin
Screenplay - Hugh Wilson and Bill
Kelly
Director - Hugh Wilson
Runtime – 1 hour 52 minutes
Released – February 12, 1999
Starring –
Brendan Fraser as Adam Webber
Alicia Silverstone as Eve
Vrustikoff
Christopher Walken as Calvin
Webber
Sissy Spacek as Helen Webber
Dave Foley as Troy
Joey Slotnick as Soda Jerk
Dale Raoul as Mom
Rex Linn as Dave
Cynthia Mace as Betty
Harry S. Murphy as Bob
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.
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