The Chain Reaction - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Chain Reaction or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Chain Reaction

[morris]

First theatrical feature film as a director for Ian Barry.

[sophie]

This picture was shown in the market at the Cannes Film Festivel where its rights were sold well. International world-wide distribution rights (non-North America and Australia) were sold to Warner Brothers International. Publicity for this movie stated that it was the biggest-ever deal (at least at that time) for an Australian film at the Cannes Film Festival. Producer David Elfick once said of this: "...it could have been sold three times to every territory in the world". When the movie sold at Cannes, the picture went immediately into profit.

[ethel]

The acronym WALDO, which formed the name of the atomic repository plant in the movie, stood for "Western Atomic Long-term Dumping Operation". It has been said that WALDO also stands for "Western Atomic Long-term Disposal Organisation", this meaning being the more officious wording typical of bureaucracy.

[chad]

This film had a number of production problems including those relating to accidents, weather and night filming. The complexity and ambitiousness of the project put a high degree of strain on the shooting schedule. The shoot overran by about a week and over budget by about $150,000.

[carl]

According to Thrills and Nuclear Spills: The Making of 'The Chain Reaction' (2005), this was the first Australian government funded movie to be sold to a Hollywood major studio.

[bryan]

The two types of vehicle seen in the chase sequences were a modified Holden Ute and a Ford Landau Sedan.

[gabriel]

This movie was chosen as the Closing Night Film at the 1980 Sydney Film Festival, screening on 28 June 1980.

[brent]

This film is notable for the appearance of an army of dark-helmet shade clad face-less people wearing white nuclear decontamination suits and holding atomic detector guns. A photograph of such featured as the cover photo on the February-March 1980 edition of Australian film magazine 'Cinema Papers'.

[camila]

This movie's budget was reduced by its investors from $630,000 to $450,000 (Australian). The movie ended up costing $600,000 after going over budget, so the film ended up costing what it had been originally estimated to cost.

[melinda]

Lead actor Steve Bisley once said of his character Larry Stillson in this movie: "Larry is one of those tenacious fellows who doesn't like being shoved around. The part's entirely different to Goose [Bisley's character in Mad Max (1979)], but the movie has some of the same pacy style".

[melinda]

This movie was nominated for six Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, mostly in technical categories, but failed to win any.

[riley]

Steve Bisley received top / first billing, Arna-Maria Winchester received second billing, Ross Thompson received third billing.

[nora]

This movie's working titles were 'The Man at the Edge of the Freeway' and 'Nuclear Run'. The longer of these titles was considered too long and pretentious. Moreover, producer David Elfick did a manual search of film titles starting with the wording 'The Man' and found them to be box-office disappointments. Elfick also suggested 'Contaminated' to be this movie's title. In the end, the title was changed to 'The Chain Reaction' in order to have a title with more impact. This title was apparently conceived by Hans Pomeranz.

[ivan]

The movie was notable for its very 1970s electronic score. The film's Australian movie poster emphasized its soundtrack, plugging it in bold letting at the bottom saying: "Soundtrack available on [Channel] 7 Records".

[sara]

Principal photography on this movie involved a substantial amount of night shooting.

[kyle]

George Miller was originally scheduled to direct this movie but Miller withdrew from the project but ended up directing (uncredited) stunt sequences and second unit only. Miller is credited as an associate producer on the film. Miller ended up directing the second-unit and stunt sequences more out of necessity than invention as this was because the production was running over schedule and running out of money.

[jessie]

Producer David Elfick once said of director George Miller's involvement on this picture: "I wanted his expertise in the action car-chase sequences. These were areas in which Ian [Ian Barry] and I had no experience. His career had really taken off by then, so his time was limited".

[cameron]

This movie's original screenplay was written a long time before the nuclear meltdown disaster at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on 28 March 1979. However, this movie was shot about six months after this real-life nuclear accident.

[kyle]

The original intention of writer/director Ian Barry was to make a serious dramatic film about the dangers of nuclear energy which was along the lines of The China Syndrome (1979). This movie was actually first theatrically released in Australia about a year after The China Syndrome (1979) had been released. The original screenplay for this film was actually written long before The China Syndrome (1979) launched. However, the film was actually shot about six months after The China Syndrome (1979) had been theatrically released.