Special Bulletin
Encyclopedia
Special Bulletin is an American
made-for-TV movie first broadcast
in 1983. It was an early collaboration between director
Edward Zwick
and writer Marshall Herskovitz
, a team that would later produce such series as thirtysomething and My So-Called Life
. In this movie, a terrorist group brings a homemade atomic bomb aboard a tugboat in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina
in order to blackmail the U.S. Government into disabling its nuclear weapons, and the incident is caught live on television. The movie simulates a series of live news broadcasts on the fictional RBS Network.
, "RBS: We're Moving Up!" Suddenly, an ominous "Special Bulletin" slide appears on the screen, with an announcer saying "We interrupt this program to bring you a Special Bulletin from RBS News." It shows how a local TV crew, covering a dockworkers' strike, become caught in the middle of a firefight between the U.S. Coast Guard
and a tugboat sitting at a dock in Charleston
, South Carolina
. After several Coast Guard personnel are wounded, the Coast Guardsmen, apparently outgunned, surrender and are taken hostage, as are the reporter and cameraman.
The reporter is asked to televise a statement by the terrorists of their demands: the delivery to them of every nuclear trigger device at the U.S. Naval Base in Charleston, so that they can be taken out to sea and destroyed. Without these special triggers, the nuclear weapons on the naval warships and nuclear-powered submarines based at Charleston, to include the Fleet Ballistic Missile
(FBM) submarines, cannot be used. The terrorists reveal that they have constructed their own nuclear device—one roughly equivalent in strength to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Their device is set to detonate within 24 hours if the demand is not met. It is also equipped with anti-tampering devices that will set it off if any attempt is made to move or disarm it.
As the faux news broadcast continues, details about the terrorists slowly begin to emerge as the broadcast hosted by Susan Myles (Kathryn Walker
) and veteran newscaster John Woodley (Ed Flanders
) continues. The group is led by Dr. Bruce Lyman, a scientist and former designer of nuclear weapons for the American government who had recently been imprisoned for taking part in anti-nuclear demonstrations. His cohorts include David McKeeson (David Rasche
) a nuclear scientist who stole weapons grade plutonium
from the Hanford
nuclear research facility in Richland, Washington
and constructed the bomb; a bank robber whom Lyman met in jail; a poet and anti-war activist implicated in a bombing that killed several people a decade earlier; and a meek housewife and mother of two who had been friends with Lyman back in college.
Several times during the program, Woodley finds himself debating with Lyman and his colleagues the ethics of television journalism and the role it plays in both covering the activities of terrorists and, at the same time, inadvertently promoting such activities. "TV news is essentially show business," says McKeeson during a particularly heated exchange with Woodley.
At first the government chooses to ignore and underplay the story. McKeeson eventually reveals his device, which is kept in the ship's lower hold, to RBS's cameraman. The scientist describes it as an Implosion-type nuclear weapon and ominously warns viewers that he designed the bomb to detonate should anyone try to tamper with it or move it. As facts come out indicating the threat being real, various public announcements occur, culminating with the decision to order the evacuation of the downtown Charleston area, which causes a public panic. The Government later announces, just shortly before the terrorist's deadline, that it would accede to their demands. A van rolls up to the tugboat, allegedly containing the first load of triggers that they had demanded.
In the interim, the terrorists, who are still holding the RBS reporter and cameraman, become suspicious when the TV on which they are monitoring the RBS broadcast suddenly goes blank, supposedly due to a transmitter power failure at the local station. In fact, the signal was cut-off to mask the arrival of a Delta Force
team sneaking aboard the tugboat (which is caught live by a distant TV camera). In the ensuing gun battle, all but two of the terrorists are killed by the commandos. The journalists survive without major injury. McKeeson commits suicide before he can be captured. The remaining terrorist is taken into custody.
All this occurs a little over an hour prior to the detonation time of the bomb. Members of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) enter the boat in an attempt to defuse the bomb. The reporter and cameraman remain to comment on their efforts, despite pleas from the news anchor in New York City
that they leave the area. Over a remote camera installed on the tugboat, the NEST team is shown having an argument over how to bypass McKeeson's many safeguards. Abruptly, the NEST team gets into a heated argument. At the studio, an expert, Dr. Nils Johannsen, brought in by RBS (remotely) says that there are conventional explosives in the device, geared to set up the chain reaction. "They have just put a match under the whole pile!" he says. The members of the NEST team are shown working frantically, then breaking into a panic just before the signal is abruptly broken. Static fills the screen and contact Charleston is lost.
The network switches back to the main RBS newsroom in New York, which is initially in confusion, the broadcast image briefly going to a test pattern
. Woodley at first shows annoyance, looking around at staffers and angrily barking out "Somebody get me some information, dammit! What the hell is this?" then falls silent and stunned as he realizes what has probably happened. Myles, nervous and cautious, merely advises viewers that they "seem to have lost contact" with Charleston. After considerable effort to reestablish contact, the anchors manage to get hold of Megan "Meg" Barclay (Roxanne Hart
), a reporter for the local RBS television affiliate station in Charleston, WPIV, who was two miles from the tugboat aboard the aircraft carrier museum ship USS Yorktown
across Charleston Harbor on the opposite bank of the Cooper River
in Mount Pleasant
. In the midst of wreckage aboard the aircraft carrier, with huge fires blazing in downtown Charleston in the background and clearly stunned and dazed, she expresses fear of imminent radiation sickness. Her cameraman, who has also survived, reveals that he was recording a few moments earlier and they ask him to rewind and play back the recording. The tape shows Barclay standing in front of a relatively normal looking harbor overlooking the tugboat, facing the camera, her back to the boat. We then see an enormous bright light coming from the other side of the harbor. As the camera lens recovers from the sudden flash of light, we catch a brief glimpse of a mushroom cloud
rising over the shoreline, followed by a huge blast of wind that blows through and knocks the camera over. The tape ends. The cameraman then pans the harbor which is now nothing but a firestorm
. At this, Myles breaks down, saying "Oh, my God!" on the air.
More chaos is revealed in Charleston itself: scenes of fires ("People are standing here watching their city burn," says a stunned corrspondent), destruction and wounded people. It is revealed that the government's intention was to play for time until the Delta Force team could be put on the ship, on the assumption the nuclear response team could defuse the nuclear weapon. Now, local authorities and the government have to deal with the destruction of a city, and after showing scenes of mass destruction farther out from the blast, a tearful John Woodley can only say "This is a very dark moment" as the image fades to black.
The film then moves ahead three days to reveal the aftermath of the explosion. Thanks to the evacuation, the immediate death toll was less than 2,000; however, another 25,000 suffer severe injuries, including about 4,800 severe burn cases, at a time when the total number of burn unit beds in the United States numbers only about 2,400. Some half a million are left homeless due to inland fallout
and the region is expected to be uninhabitable for decades.
At this point, the broadcast shifts its attentions from the destruction of Charleston to cover other chaotic subjects around the world such as (labor riots in Poland
, a World Bank
announcement) which have continued to occur despite the destruction of Charleston.
Several factors enhanced Special Bulletin' s resemblance to an actual live news broadcast. The movie was shot on videotape
rather than film, which gave the presentation the visual appearance of being "live." Other small touches, such as actors hesitating or stumbling over dialogue (as if being spoken extemporaneously) and small technical glitches (as would often be experienced in a live broadcast), contributed to the realism.
In addition, some specific references made the movie especially realistic to residents of Charleston. The call letters
of the fictional Charleston RBS affiliate, WPIV, were uncomfortably close to those of the then NBC affiliate in Charleston, WCIV
. Also, a key plot element mentions "a power failure at a transmitter in North Charleston;" the TV transmitter sites are actually in Awendaw, SC.
Because of all this, the filmmakers were required to include on-screen disclaimers at the beginning and end of every commercial break in order to assure viewers that the events were just a dramatization. The word "dramatization" also appeared on the screen during key moments of the original broadcast. Additionally, the Charleston NBC affiliate broadcasting the movie had the word "Fiction" on screen at all times during the showing. The film also made use of "accelerated time" -- events said to take place hours apart instead are shown only minutes apart. Nonetheless, there were still news reports of isolated panic in Charleston. Much as with the famous 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds
, it was entirely possible for viewers to tune in between disclaimers and make a snap judgment about what they were seeing, although in both cases a quick flip of the dial would reveal that no other stations were covering this supposedly major news event. (When the program was rebroadcast in 1984, the only disclaimers were made at the commercial breaks; there were none on the screen while the action was taking place.)
The story also shows the significance of the nuclear stockpiles held by various governments. Based on the size of the bomb as described by the terrorists, it would have essentially destroyed everything within a range of about one mile from ground zero
, in this case Charleston Harbor. A reporter, discussing the possible effects of an explosion, states that someone standing five miles from the tugboat "would survive the blast at least." A person standing five miles from the blast point of a typical U.S. or Soviet strategic one megaton nuclear weapon "would be vaporized in the first three-fifths of a second." (This is an exaggeration of the effects of a one megaton detonation, which is potentially survivable at that distance. It is not clear whether this was intended as an indication of the reporter's poor understanding of nuclear yields or an error in the script.)
and Writers Guild of America
prizes for Zwick and Herskovitz, as well as the Humanitas Prize
, which irked former NBC president Reuven Frank
. In his book on TV news, Out of Thin Air, Frank called Special Bulletin "junk" and claimed he wanted to return his own Humanitas Prize in protest, "but I couldn't find it."
Police departments in Charleston (and other cities) did report a number of calls, wondering if the show was real during its original broadcast; there were few, if any, when the program was shown a second time.
In Leonard Maltin
's Movie and Video Guide, made-for-TV movies are rated as "below average, average, or above average". Special Bulletin was rated as "way above average".
issued Special Bulletin on VHS
cassette in 1998. Starting in January 2010, Warner Home Video made the film available on DVD for one year as part of its Warner Archive Collection. Films in this series are produced on an on-demand basis and sold exclusively through the Warner Brothers site. It is no longer in print.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
made-for-TV movie first broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
in 1983. It was an early collaboration between director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Edward Zwick
Edward Zwick
Edward M. Zwick is an American filmmaker and film producer noted for his epic films about social and racial issues. He has been described as a "throwback to an earlier era, an extremely cerebral director whose movies consistently feature fully rounded characters, difficult moral issues, and plots...
and writer Marshall Herskovitz
Marshall Herskovitz
Marshall Schreiber Herskovitz is an American film director, writer and producer, and currently the President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America. Among his productions are Traffic, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and I Am Sam. Herskovitz has directed two feature films, Jack the Bear and...
, a team that would later produce such series as thirtysomething and My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995 and was distributed by The Bedford Falls Company with ABC Productions. Set at the...
. In this movie, a terrorist group brings a homemade atomic bomb aboard a tugboat in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
in order to blackmail the U.S. Government into disabling its nuclear weapons, and the incident is caught live on television. The movie simulates a series of live news broadcasts on the fictional RBS Network.
Synopsis
The movie focuses on the media's coverage of news, and whether covering the news changes it. The film has no opening credits (unusual for the time). Instead, the program begins with a promo for a typical daytime network lineup: previews of a game show and soap opera are shown, along with a catchy jingleJingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
, "RBS: We're Moving Up!" Suddenly, an ominous "Special Bulletin" slide appears on the screen, with an announcer saying "We interrupt this program to bring you a Special Bulletin from RBS News." It shows how a local TV crew, covering a dockworkers' strike, become caught in the middle of a firefight between the U.S. Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
and a tugboat sitting at a dock in Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. After several Coast Guard personnel are wounded, the Coast Guardsmen, apparently outgunned, surrender and are taken hostage, as are the reporter and cameraman.
The reporter is asked to televise a statement by the terrorists of their demands: the delivery to them of every nuclear trigger device at the U.S. Naval Base in Charleston, so that they can be taken out to sea and destroyed. Without these special triggers, the nuclear weapons on the naval warships and nuclear-powered submarines based at Charleston, to include the Fleet Ballistic Missile
Fleet Ballistic Missile
Fleet Ballistic Missile comprises a succession of nuclear-tipped missiles, initially with intermediate range but now with intercontinental range that is often called "the backbone of the nation's strategic deterrence."Beginning in 1960 these missiles were aboard nuclear-powered U.S...
(FBM) submarines, cannot be used. The terrorists reveal that they have constructed their own nuclear device—one roughly equivalent in strength to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Their device is set to detonate within 24 hours if the demand is not met. It is also equipped with anti-tampering devices that will set it off if any attempt is made to move or disarm it.
As the faux news broadcast continues, details about the terrorists slowly begin to emerge as the broadcast hosted by Susan Myles (Kathryn Walker
Kathryn Walker
Kathryn Walker is an American theater, television and film actress. She was with Douglas Kenney for many years until his death in 1980 at the age of 32, and was married to singer James Taylor from 1985 to 1995...
) and veteran newscaster John Woodley (Ed Flanders
Ed Flanders
Edward Paul Flanders was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Donald Westphall in the television series St. Elsewhere.- Biography :...
) continues. The group is led by Dr. Bruce Lyman, a scientist and former designer of nuclear weapons for the American government who had recently been imprisoned for taking part in anti-nuclear demonstrations. His cohorts include David McKeeson (David Rasche
David Rasche
-Early life and career:Rasche was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a minister and farmer. Rasche started in theatre, but also has appeared on numerous movies and television series. He became a member of the Chicago Second City, after John Belushi moved on to Saturday Night Live...
) a nuclear scientist who stole weapons grade plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
from the Hanford
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, operated by the United States federal government. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works or HEW, Hanford Nuclear Reservation...
nuclear research facility in Richland, Washington
Richland, Washington
Richland is a city in Benton County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 48,058. April 1, 2011 estimates from the Washington State Office of Financial Management put the...
and constructed the bomb; a bank robber whom Lyman met in jail; a poet and anti-war activist implicated in a bombing that killed several people a decade earlier; and a meek housewife and mother of two who had been friends with Lyman back in college.
Several times during the program, Woodley finds himself debating with Lyman and his colleagues the ethics of television journalism and the role it plays in both covering the activities of terrorists and, at the same time, inadvertently promoting such activities. "TV news is essentially show business," says McKeeson during a particularly heated exchange with Woodley.
At first the government chooses to ignore and underplay the story. McKeeson eventually reveals his device, which is kept in the ship's lower hold, to RBS's cameraman. The scientist describes it as an Implosion-type nuclear weapon and ominously warns viewers that he designed the bomb to detonate should anyone try to tamper with it or move it. As facts come out indicating the threat being real, various public announcements occur, culminating with the decision to order the evacuation of the downtown Charleston area, which causes a public panic. The Government later announces, just shortly before the terrorist's deadline, that it would accede to their demands. A van rolls up to the tugboat, allegedly containing the first load of triggers that they had demanded.
In the interim, the terrorists, who are still holding the RBS reporter and cameraman, become suspicious when the TV on which they are monitoring the RBS broadcast suddenly goes blank, supposedly due to a transmitter power failure at the local station. In fact, the signal was cut-off to mask the arrival of a Delta Force
Delta Force
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. Commonly known as Delta Force, Delta, or The Unit, it was formed under the designation 1st SFOD-D, and is officially referred to by the Department of Defense...
team sneaking aboard the tugboat (which is caught live by a distant TV camera). In the ensuing gun battle, all but two of the terrorists are killed by the commandos. The journalists survive without major injury. McKeeson commits suicide before he can be captured. The remaining terrorist is taken into custody.
All this occurs a little over an hour prior to the detonation time of the bomb. Members of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) enter the boat in an attempt to defuse the bomb. The reporter and cameraman remain to comment on their efforts, despite pleas from the news anchor in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
that they leave the area. Over a remote camera installed on the tugboat, the NEST team is shown having an argument over how to bypass McKeeson's many safeguards. Abruptly, the NEST team gets into a heated argument. At the studio, an expert, Dr. Nils Johannsen, brought in by RBS (remotely) says that there are conventional explosives in the device, geared to set up the chain reaction. "They have just put a match under the whole pile!" he says. The members of the NEST team are shown working frantically, then breaking into a panic just before the signal is abruptly broken. Static fills the screen and contact Charleston is lost.
The network switches back to the main RBS newsroom in New York, which is initially in confusion, the broadcast image briefly going to a test pattern
Test card
A test card, also known as a test pattern in North America and Australia, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast...
. Woodley at first shows annoyance, looking around at staffers and angrily barking out "Somebody get me some information, dammit! What the hell is this?" then falls silent and stunned as he realizes what has probably happened. Myles, nervous and cautious, merely advises viewers that they "seem to have lost contact" with Charleston. After considerable effort to reestablish contact, the anchors manage to get hold of Megan "Meg" Barclay (Roxanne Hart
Roxanne Hart
Roxanne Hart is an American television, film and stage actress. She may be best known for her role as Brenda Wyatt in the 1986 film Highlander. She is also known for the role of Nurse Camille Shutt on the Medical drama Chicago Hope....
), a reporter for the local RBS television affiliate station in Charleston, WPIV, who was two miles from the tugboat aboard the aircraft carrier museum ship USS Yorktown
USS Yorktown (CV-10)
USS Yorktown is one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. She is named after the Battle of Yorktown of the American Revolutionary War, and is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name...
across Charleston Harbor on the opposite bank of the Cooper River
Cooper River (South Carolina)
The Cooper River is a mainly tidal river in the U.S. state of South Carolina. These cities are located along the river, Mt. Pleasant, Charleston, North Charleston, Goose Creek and Hanahan. Short and wide, it is joined first by the blackwater East Branch, then farther downstream, the tidal Wando River...
in Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Mount Pleasant is a large affluent suburban town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is a member of the Charleston–North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area, for statistical purpose only, as designated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget....
. In the midst of wreckage aboard the aircraft carrier, with huge fires blazing in downtown Charleston in the background and clearly stunned and dazed, she expresses fear of imminent radiation sickness. Her cameraman, who has also survived, reveals that he was recording a few moments earlier and they ask him to rewind and play back the recording. The tape shows Barclay standing in front of a relatively normal looking harbor overlooking the tugboat, facing the camera, her back to the boat. We then see an enormous bright light coming from the other side of the harbor. As the camera lens recovers from the sudden flash of light, we catch a brief glimpse of a mushroom cloud
Mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...
rising over the shoreline, followed by a huge blast of wind that blows through and knocks the camera over. The tape ends. The cameraman then pans the harbor which is now nothing but a firestorm
Firestorm
A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires, forest fires, and wildfires...
. At this, Myles breaks down, saying "Oh, my God!" on the air.
More chaos is revealed in Charleston itself: scenes of fires ("People are standing here watching their city burn," says a stunned corrspondent), destruction and wounded people. It is revealed that the government's intention was to play for time until the Delta Force team could be put on the ship, on the assumption the nuclear response team could defuse the nuclear weapon. Now, local authorities and the government have to deal with the destruction of a city, and after showing scenes of mass destruction farther out from the blast, a tearful John Woodley can only say "This is a very dark moment" as the image fades to black.
The film then moves ahead three days to reveal the aftermath of the explosion. Thanks to the evacuation, the immediate death toll was less than 2,000; however, another 25,000 suffer severe injuries, including about 4,800 severe burn cases, at a time when the total number of burn unit beds in the United States numbers only about 2,400. Some half a million are left homeless due to inland fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
and the region is expected to be uninhabitable for decades.
At this point, the broadcast shifts its attentions from the destruction of Charleston to cover other chaotic subjects around the world such as (labor riots in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, a World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
announcement) which have continued to occur despite the destruction of Charleston.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Ed Flanders Ed Flanders Edward Paul Flanders was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Donald Westphall in the television series St. Elsewhere.- Biography :... |
John Woodley (RBS Anchor) |
| Kathryn Walker Kathryn Walker Kathryn Walker is an American theater, television and film actress. She was with Douglas Kenney for many years until his death in 1980 at the age of 32, and was married to singer James Taylor from 1985 to 1995... |
Susan Myles (RBS Anchor) |
| Christopher Allport Christopher Allport Christopher Allport was an American actor.-Biography:Allport was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His acting life began at the age of nine in New Canaan, Connecticut at the Children's Theatre. While at Northwestern University, he worked with Paul Sills and Story Theatre... |
Steven Levitt (WPIV reporter) |
| David Clennon David Clennon David Clennon is an American actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Miles Drentel in the ABC series Thirtysomething, a role he reprised on Once and Again.... |
Dr. Bruce Lyman (Terrorist) |
| Rosalind Cash Rosalind Cash Rosalind Cash was an American singer and actress, whose best known film role was as Charlton Heston's character's love interest Lisa, in the 1971 science fiction cult classic, The Omega Man... |
Frieda Barton (Terrorist) |
| Roxanne Hart Roxanne Hart Roxanne Hart is an American television, film and stage actress. She may be best known for her role as Brenda Wyatt in the 1986 film Highlander. She is also known for the role of Nurse Camille Shutt on the Medical drama Chicago Hope.... |
Megan "Meg" Barclay (WPIV Reporter) |
| David Rasche David Rasche -Early life and career:Rasche was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a minister and farmer. Rasche started in theatre, but also has appeared on numerous movies and television series. He became a member of the Chicago Second City, after John Belushi moved on to Saturday Night Live... |
Dr. David McKeeson (Terrorist) |
| Lane Smith Lane Smith Walter Lane Smith III was an American actor. Some of his well known roles included portraying collaborator entrepreneur Nathan Bates in the NBC television series V, Mayor Bates in the film Red Dawn, newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,... |
Morton Sanders (RBS Reporter) |
| Ebbe Roe Smith | Jim Seaver (Terrorist) |
| Roberta Maxwell Roberta Maxwell -Background:Roberta Maxwell began studying for the stage at the age of 12. She joined John Clark for 2 years as the child co-host of his Junior Magazine series for CBC Television, before becoming the youngest actress apprentice at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario,to pursue... |
Diane Silverman (Terrorist) |
| J. Wesley Huston | Bernard Frost (WPIV Reporter) |
| Michael Madsen Michael Madsen Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin... |
Man interviewed on the street |
Impact
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
rather than film, which gave the presentation the visual appearance of being "live." Other small touches, such as actors hesitating or stumbling over dialogue (as if being spoken extemporaneously) and small technical glitches (as would often be experienced in a live broadcast), contributed to the realism.
In addition, some specific references made the movie especially realistic to residents of Charleston. The call letters
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
of the fictional Charleston RBS affiliate, WPIV, were uncomfortably close to those of the then NBC affiliate in Charleston, WCIV
WCIV
WCIV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Lowcountry area of South Carolina licensed to Charleston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in Awendaw. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 4 as well as Comcast and Knology...
. Also, a key plot element mentions "a power failure at a transmitter in North Charleston;" the TV transmitter sites are actually in Awendaw, SC.
Because of all this, the filmmakers were required to include on-screen disclaimers at the beginning and end of every commercial break in order to assure viewers that the events were just a dramatization. The word "dramatization" also appeared on the screen during key moments of the original broadcast. Additionally, the Charleston NBC affiliate broadcasting the movie had the word "Fiction" on screen at all times during the showing. The film also made use of "accelerated time" -- events said to take place hours apart instead are shown only minutes apart. Nonetheless, there were still news reports of isolated panic in Charleston. Much as with the famous 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (radio)
The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker...
, it was entirely possible for viewers to tune in between disclaimers and make a snap judgment about what they were seeing, although in both cases a quick flip of the dial would reveal that no other stations were covering this supposedly major news event. (When the program was rebroadcast in 1984, the only disclaimers were made at the commercial breaks; there were none on the screen while the action was taking place.)
Themes
The movie investigates the issue of the media's coverage of an event, as to whether it changes the event, whether the media is irresponsible in giving such persons access to the airwaves, and whether the media trivializes significant events by the type of coverage given to them. Special Bulletin takes a serious look at the possible symbiosis between the media and those it has to deal with, whether they be government officials, politicians, terrorists and criminals, or media pundits, in covering a story.The story also shows the significance of the nuclear stockpiles held by various governments. Based on the size of the bomb as described by the terrorists, it would have essentially destroyed everything within a range of about one mile from ground zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...
, in this case Charleston Harbor. A reporter, discussing the possible effects of an explosion, states that someone standing five miles from the tugboat "would survive the blast at least." A person standing five miles from the blast point of a typical U.S. or Soviet strategic one megaton nuclear weapon "would be vaporized in the first three-fifths of a second." (This is an exaggeration of the effects of a one megaton detonation, which is potentially survivable at that distance. It is not clear whether this was intended as an indication of the reporter's poor understanding of nuclear yields or an error in the script.)
Reaction
Special Bulletin was nominated for six Emmy awards and won four, including Outstanding Drama Special. It also won Directors Guild of AmericaDirectors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
and Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
prizes for Zwick and Herskovitz, as well as the Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
, which irked former NBC president Reuven Frank
Reuven Frank
Reuven Frank was an American broadcast news pioneer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Israel Reuven Frank earned a bachelor's degree at City College of New York and a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University...
. In his book on TV news, Out of Thin Air, Frank called Special Bulletin "junk" and claimed he wanted to return his own Humanitas Prize in protest, "but I couldn't find it."
Police departments in Charleston (and other cities) did report a number of calls, wondering if the show was real during its original broadcast; there were few, if any, when the program was shown a second time.
In Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
's Movie and Video Guide, made-for-TV movies are rated as "below average, average, or above average". Special Bulletin was rated as "way above average".
Home video
Warner Home VideoWarner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
issued Special Bulletin on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
cassette in 1998. Starting in January 2010, Warner Home Video made the film available on DVD for one year as part of its Warner Archive Collection. Films in this series are produced on an on-demand basis and sold exclusively through the Warner Brothers site. It is no longer in print.
See also
- Countdown to Looking GlassCountdown to Looking GlassCountdown to Looking Glass is a Canadian made-for-television movie that premiered in the United States on HBO on 14 October 1984 and was also broadcast on CTV in Canada. The movie presents a fictional confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the Strait of Hormuz, the...
, a 1984 Canadian TV movie that used simulated news broadcasts to chronicle a Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union. - Without Warning, an apocalyptic 1994 TV movie also presented as a faux news broadcast.