October 22 - Blast from the Past

This movie has a scene that happens today – October 22. I hope you enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Calvin Webber is 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

Director - Hugh Wilson

Screenplay - Hugh Wilson and Bill Kelly

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/"Archbishop" Melker

Dale Raoul as Mom

Rex Linn as Dave

Cynthia Mace as Betty

Harry S. Murphy as Bob

Hugh Wilson as Levy

Carmen Moré as Sophie

Nathan Fillion as Cliff

Jenifer Lewis as Dr. Nina Aron