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On April 23rd at 10:27 pm, subway train #7 is jolted by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, which
sends it crashing into the collapsed tunnel. When the train finally stops, maintenance man Dillon (Ted McGinley) runs to help its four survivors. They free themselves from the
wreckage but are not really free from danger. To save the much lauded subway system, the authorities seal the tunnel, shut down the ventilators, trapping all five of them.
While transit authority Marshall (Roy Schneider) tries his best to guide the group to safety, the deputy mayor equally strives for the group to stay put lest they discover his
long guarded scam. Racing against time, the five frantic survivors must find a way up and out to escape the rapidly inrushing floods and sudden fires, on top of repeated
aftershocks.
Timely as the current onslaught of tragedies and calamities, Earthquakeushers back the
disaster-film genre of the 70's. The dramatic special effects of fiercely spurting waters thundering into the tunnel, fires sprouting from all over, and the frantic attempts
to escape all these where the protagonists are blocked every which way, are realistically portrayed and photographed. The plot is good and the acting adequate. The lead cast
are interesting characters with intriguing histories of trauma. There is the recently abused nurse (Ursula Brooks), intelligent but hurt and suspicious of all men, the
specially gifted but misunderstood Newton and the two quarreling lovers, attractive Susie and the overly jealous Griffin. How these troubled souls cope with the crisis keeps
the viewer in suspense, guessing how many, if ever, will truly survive to the end.
When people are forced together in the face of horror and terror, these can bring out the best
or the worst in them. And leaders will somehow emerge. They may be good leaders like Dillon who thinks and acts in terms of the group's welfare, and bad ones like Griffin—a
self-centered loudmouth overriding everybody else's opinion but not really contributing any good. Similarly, there are two authority figures both facing the same huge transit
problem: the good Marshall who shows care and concern for everyone, and the corrupt deputy mayor who, with all his grandstanding, is not shown being punished enough. People
the world all over have had their share of earthquakes and other calamities, triggering the fear that the end of the world has come or is near. Reactions vary but most
everyone learns to pray for the nonce, then forgets about it until the next catastrophe.
(Date reviewed: December 14, 2001)
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