10.5 (miniseries)

10.5
File:10-5 logo.png
Directed by	John Lafia
Written by	Christopher Canaan John Lafia Ronnie Christensen
Produced by	Gary Pearl Lisa Richardson
Starring	Kim Delaney Beau Bridges John Schneider Dulé Hill Fred Ward Kaley Cuoco
Distributed by	NBC & USA Networks (USA)
Release dates	May 2, 2004 (USA)
Running time	165 min.
Language	English
Budget	Unknown

10.5 is a U.S. 2004 television miniseries directed by John Lafia and with a script written by Christopher Canaan, John Lafia and Ronnie Christensen. The plot centers on a catastrophic series of earthquakes along the United States' West Coast culminating in one measuring 10.5 on the Richter scale. In an attempt to prevent further damage, the characters race to "weld" the fault using nuclear bombs.

10.5 was widely derided by both reviewers and geologists, but nevertheless received respectable Nielsen Ratings. Reuters reported that 20.4 million viewers watched the television movie.

A sequel, 10.5: Apocalypse, was originally planned to be released in November, 2005, but NBC delayed it until May 21st and 23rd, 2006.

Synopsis

Template:Spoilers The movie opens with a biker riding through the Seattle area. He jumps over a man refilling the newspaper stands, and this is where the audience sees the stands tremble. Then, the newspapers start falling out of the stand. A large earthquake is under way while this biker is desperately doing whatever he can- jump, speed up, swerve, etc., just so he won't fall and possibly die. Meanwhile, Dr. Samantha Hill is awoken by this earthquake. Back at the Quake center, the magnitude is being recorded. The scene then goes back to the biker, who has stopped under the Space Needle. Large cracks are traveling up the legs of the Space Needle. The biker then speeds away to get out of the way of the falling landmark. But alas, as the shadow engulfs the biker, the dust overcomes him and he apparently succumbs to the falling Space Needle.

Back at the earthquake center, the quake is recorded as a 7.9. Dr. Hill goes to the Center, where she takes command, much to the dismay of Dr. Jordan Fisher, who is in charge. Another quake arrives. Most think it is an aftershock, but it is larger in magnitude than the original quake. Dr. Hill's Hidden Fault Theory is then explained.

The scene then goes to Paul Hollister, the President, and Roy Nolan playing basketball, where President Hollister points out that when playing basketball, when Nolan is desperate, he takes the long shot. This statement becomes important later in the film. The President's aide, Sean Morris(John Cassini), enters the gym and informs the President on the situation.

At the Hospital, Doctors Zach Nolan(Roy Nolan's son) and Owen Hunter are working on a patient. Nolan shortcuts his way through the surgery, risking the patient but saving him some scar tissue and a pint of blood. Owen complains on him never asking for help.

At a different point in California, California Governor Carla Williams is seeing off her daughter and her ex husband Clark Williams, who are going camping for some father daughter time. After this, an 8.4 earthquake causes an entire train outside of Redding, California to be literally chased down and dragged underground. Governor Williams then agrees to help Washington, who's Governor requested help.

Roy Nolan, after more earthquakes, constructs a task force made from the best geologists, seismologists, and such, after being instructed to do by the President. This includes Dr. Fisher and Dr. Hill. Dr. Hill brings up her Hidden Fault theory, in which no one believes her. After Nolan starts to realize that Hill might be right, after she brings up some proof, she is given permission to prove her theory. She and Dr. Fisher go to a lake, where they find nothing until they see dead animals that have no visible Cause of Death, until Dr, Hill notices that it was poisoning. The two sprint back to the car to get the gas masks, but Dr. Fisher passes out. Hill frantically searches for them in vain, and eventually finds them, putting them on both herself and Fisher.

Back at the Task Force Center, Dr. hill, armed with the information she needs, predicts that the nest quake will be in San Francisco. When she brings the proof and prediction to Nolan, he deems it to risky to evacuate the entirety of San Fransisco. When Hill's prediction proves accurate, and San Francisco is destroyed by a 9.2 earthquake, along with the Golden Gate Bridge, Nolan feels incredibly guilty, telling the President he's not sure he's ready to handle this job. Also in San Fransisco was The Mayor of San Fransisco, Carla Williams, and her assistant, Rachel.

Amanda and Clark Williams are driving until they find themselves at a roadblock, in which Clark goes off road, and find a side route. When they get to Browning, everything is covered in a thick red haze. Clark gets out, and Amanda follows, even though she has asthma. But Clark goes down into the pit that used to be Browning, after hearing counrty music coming from it. He digs until he finds where the music is coming from: a car with a dead family in it. They drive back, truing to just get home, but they get stuck in sand. They start getting sucked down into the ground. Amanda, after much terrified complaints, climbs out the window halfway in the sand. Clark gets buried, and Amanda screams and cries, thinking her father is dead. A few moments later, a flashlight erupts from the sand, which is Clark, holding the flashlight. He climbs out, with difficulty.

Dr. Hill hypothesizes that they could "weld" the fault shut by letting it experience immense heat- the only way she knows how is to put nuclear bombs with it. This is the end of the first half, which shows what all the characters are doing.

At the start of the second half, Nolan and others are preparing to install the first of seven nuclear bombs at correct depths to "seal" the fault. The first six go smoothly, but during the installment of the seventh, an earthquake occurs, and they lose a warhead. Nolan asks if he can set it manually, in which the answer is yes. Nolan goes down to do it, but gets pinned by the warhead when an aftershock hits. He calls the President to say he failed, in which the President urges him to "make the long shot", in which Roy replies "Not this time buddy, not this time". He then calls his son to say that he is sorry for being so distant and that he loves him. Zach Nolan, meanwhile, is at the refugee camp "Tent City".

The Williams find a truck carrying survivors, and they are also transported to Tent City. And in a wounded San Fransisco, Carla Williams and Rachel are trapped under a wall. Rachel admits that she and her husband Jim had a horrible fight. She asks Carla if Carla could tell Jim that Rachel loves him and wants to have a family with him. They are found a few minutes later. Carla wakes up in a hospital in Arizona and discovers that Rachel has died.

Deciding that nothing can be done about the seventh warhead, Dr. Hill decides to continue with the Fault Welding Plan. They detonate them all, and when it is time to detonate the sixth, the seventh is activated. They then blow up the sixth and seventh.

It seems to work. Until they see that a river is flowing backwards. It turns out that the river is draining into the fault, which didn't seal. Then, an earthquake strikes right in Tent City. It climbs higher and higher on the Richter Scale, with Sean Morris dictating it to the President and the audience. It reaches the peak, 10.5. In the panic, many characters are pointed out. Clark and Amanda Williams run away from the rushing water, Dr. Hill and Dr. Fisher run amid the panic, until a tower falls on Dr. Fisher. He hurts his leg in the process, Owen Hunter joins with his family, and they escape. Zach Nolan rescues a little girl. And when Fisher collapses, the earthquake stops with water just short of their feet. They stand up to see the western coast of California has been cut away from California.

The scene focuses on the West Coast "Island", and zooms out until you see the earth from space, in which the California coast and the "island" are distinctly separated. The movie ends with the president speaking.

Cast

• Kim Delaney : Dr. Samantha "Sam" Hill
• Beau Bridges : President Paul Hollister
• John Schneider : Clark Williams
• Dulé Hill : Owen Hunter
• Fred Ward : Roy Nolan, FEMA Director
• David Cubitt : Dr. Jordan Fisher
• Kaley Cuoco : Amanda Williams
• Iris Graham : Zoe Cameron
• Sean Morris : John Cassini
• Ivan Sergei : Zach Nolan
• Rebecca Jenkins : : California Governor Carla Williams
• Kimberly Hawthorne : Jill Hunter

Landmarks whose destruction were depicted in the film

• Space Needle (Seattle, Washington)
• Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, California)
• Hollywood Sign (Los Angeles, California)
• U.S. Bank Tower (Los Angeles, California)
• All of Los Angeles

Location(s)

• Los Angeles, California
• Barstow, California
• San Francisco, California
• Sierra Nevada, California
• Bloomington, California
• Washington D.C.

Geological errors

• Geologists are depicted as able to accurately predict earthquakes over very short intervals of time.
• Nuclear explosions can't "seal" faults.
• The legs of the Space Needle were shown as concrete. They're actually made of steel.
• In the film, geologists come to believe an earthquake is only an aftershock when they can't find an epicenter. In real life, aftershocks have epicenters.
• To create a 10.5 earthquake, the fault needed would have to stretch around the entire globe.
• When the Seattle Space Needle collapses, it falls on another building. This building, both intact and unreinforced, would likely have collapsed long before the Space Needle.
• An earthquake fault is depicted as chasing down a train, although fault ruptures occur at speeds topping 7,000 miles per hour.
• The San Andreas Fault, contrary to popular belief, is not a fault that can break apart, like this movie shows.
• Also, the San Andreas Fault is only big enough to handle a 9.1 earthquake, which is at least one-tenth the strength of a 10.5 quake.

Alternations and misspellings of names and words

• During a news broadcast in the film, "martial law" is misspelled as "marshal law."
• Since the filmmakers never received permission to use the term "Space Needle," which is trademarked, it is spelled "Spaceneedle" in the film.
• For the British release, the film was retitled Earthquake 10.5.

Other notes

• The film basically ignores the state of Oregon with every earthquake depicted in the film taking place in either Washington or California. This is probably due to Oregon's lack of famous landmarks.
• Beau Bridges would later play Hank Landry in Stargate SG-1, starring alongside another female scientist named Samantha who goes by "Sam" (Amanda Tapping's Samantha Carter).
• Some people believe the film is unintentionally campy and can be enjoyed as a comedy.
• In one scene, John Schneider drives his 4WD vehicle off the road and through some woods. You can hear him say "I forgot how much fun this was," probably a reference to his character (Bo Duke) on The Dukes of Hazzard.
• The television footage of the Seattle earthquake used in 10.5 was actually from the Northridge Earthquake of 1994 involving the collapse of the Golden State Freeway and CA-14 freeway and the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 involving the fires of the Marina District and the Cypress Freeway Interstate 880.
• Although the earthquakes depicted in 10.5 cannot happen at their proposed strength it is interesting to note that there is a real giant fault running from the coast of northern California to British Columbia named the Cascadia subduction zone that if ruptured could unleash a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that would devastate the area and cause similar damage to Seattle as portrayed in the film. A 10.5 earthquake can only be caused by the impact of a large meteorite.

External link

• 10.5 at IMDb