For his role as an anguished engineer in this film, actor Jack Lemmon returned to the kind of dramatic performance that earned him a second Academy Award for his starring role in Save the Tiger (1973). Lemmon's first Oscar win, for Best Supporting Actor in Mister Roberts (1955), was for Lemmon's endearingly funny 'Ensign Pulver' role. For The China Syndrome (1979), Lemmon was Oscar nominated again, in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category, but lost out to Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).
The China Syndrome ending explained (spoilers)
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Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) speaks with Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) on live television (from inside the control room) about the dangers of the Ventana nuclear power plant. A couple of SWAT team guys cut the signal. They enter the control room and shoot Jack. Ted Spindler (Wilford Brimley) tells the media that Jack was not crazy (and was right about the plant's hazards), that there will be an investigation and that the truth will be exposed.
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Greg B notes... (The fact that the plants officials were willing to have Jack killed in order to silence him is meant to mirror the mysterious death of Karen Silkwood, who had been working with a reporter about safety irregularities at the nuclear power plant she was employed at when she was killed in a mysterious car accident. Karen Silkwood was later played by Meryl Streep in the 1983 film Silkwood.)
The China Syndrome ending explained (spoilers)
The China Syndrome ending explained (spoilers)
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