hen an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 hits the Seattle area, the destruction is massive, and Seattle's most prominent landmark, the Space Needle, is lost, along with countless lives. But that's only the beginning in this four-hour NBC miniseries.
As the area is still reeling, the governor of California, Carla Williams (Rebecca Jenkins), reaches out to Washington state to offer help. However, only hours later, another, stronger quake hits, this time in the Redding, Calif., area. Carla's daughter, Amanda (Kaley Cuoco), and ex-husband, Clark (Schneider), just happen to be camping in that area, and she can't get in touch with them.
Meanwhile, Dr. Zack Nolan (Ivan Sergei) and Dr. Owen Hunter (Dulé Hill), two young hotshot surgeons in Los Angeles, are dealing with casualties that have been flown in from the stricken areas. At the same time, Clark and Amanda see the devastated areas and end up fighting for their own survival.
The president of the United States, Paul Hollister (Bridges), puts the best man on the job to lead an investigation into these quakes, his good friend Roy Nolan (Ward). Heading up a team of the top earthquake experts in the country, Nolan and his people jump into action to try and understand why this has happened.
One of the experts, Samantha Hill (Delaney), has a far-fetched theory that a very deep fault has set off a chain reaction of earthquakes that will soon strike San Francisco and eventually the San Andreas fault, taking out the California coastline and killing millions. Nolan is reluctant to believe her bizarre theory.
However, as Dr. Hill's terrifying predictions begin to come true, Nolan becomes convinced. Eventually, the president agrees and orders desperate measures to be taken. Measures that, if they fail, may make things worse for the devastated area and for the millions of lives at stake.
A silly story saved (slightly) by its acting
In 1974, Charlton Heston led an all-star cast in what, at the time, was considered the ultimate disaster movie, Earthquake. In Independence Day, audiences delighted in seeing the White House blasted to smithereens. Times have changed, and it's just not much fun to see our treasured landmarks turned into rubble for the sake of entertainment.
In the first part of NBC's new miniseries, 10.5, a couple significant landmarks are destroyed in convincing fashion, and it's a little disturbing. Perhaps the time for disaster movies is over, because so many real-life disasters have played over and over again, providing startling and horrible images that have been burned into our memories forever.
So 10.5 has more than a few strikes against it when it comes to providing two nights of television entertainment. Watching death and destruction just isn't as much fun as it used to be.
That said, as a miniseries, 10.5 is overwrought and ridiculous. However, it also offers several good performances from some very good actors who do their best to pull off their overwrought storylines. Emmy winners Kim Delaney and Beau Bridges lead the solid cast, who wring out some effective moments beyond the shaking camera effects. While their stories are far too familiar, the characters themselves have some backbone, and we care what happens to them by the end of the first hour.
A good disaster movie lives or dies by its special effects, and 10.5 has some pretty good ones, especially when it comes to taking out our treasured landmarks. The opening scene with the Space Needle is quite effective and realistic, and the big finale involves some effects that aren't very realistic, but are pretty cool. And let's face it, if you've watched it to see "the big one" hit, you probably won't be disappointed.
