Special Bulletin

Special Bulletin was a 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, shot on video rather than film, simulates a series of live news broadcasts on the fictional RBS Network.

Related Topics:
American - 1983 - Edward Zwick - Marshall Herskovitz - Thirtysomething - My So-Called Life - Atomic bomb - Charleston, South Carolina

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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 typical daytime morning lineup: previews of various shows, and a catchy network jingle, "RBS: We're Moving Up!" The start of some typical game show begins, when an ominous "We interrupt this program to bring you a Special Bulletin" appears on the screen. It shows how a local TV crew, filming a dockworkers' strike, become caught in the middle of a firefight between Charleston police and a tugboat sitting at the dock. After several officers are wounded, the police, apparently outgunned, surrender and are taken hostage, as are the reporter and cameraman.

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The reporter is later asked to televise a statement by the terrorists and their demands: the impounding and delivery of every nuclear trigger device owned by the U.S. Government in the region (more than 900 such devices). In order that these nuclear triggers (without which, the nuclear weapons stored in that area cannot be used), can be taken out to sea, damaged and dumped overboard, destroying them. The terrorists reveal that they have constructed their own nuclear device -- one roughly equivalent in strength to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 -- which is set to detonate within 24 hours if the demand is not met. The bomb is also hooked to failsafe devices that will set it off if attempts are made to disarm or move it.

Related Topics:
Nagasaki - 1945

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As the faux news broadcast continues, details about the terrorists slowly begin to emerge as the broadcast hosted by fictional veteran newscaster John Woodley (played by Ed Flanders) continues. The group is led by Dr. Bruce Lymon, 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 a nuclear scientist who stole weapons grade plutonium from the nuclear research facility in Hanford, Washington and constructed the bomb, a bank robber whom Lymon met in jail, a poet and anti-war activist implicated in a bombing that killed several people a decade earlier, and a meek housewife, mother of two and social worker who - it is implied - had become romantically involved with Lymon.

Related Topics:
Ed Flanders - Nuclear weapons - Plutonium - Hanford, Washington

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Several times during the faux broadcast, Woodley finds himself debating with Lymon 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 thing. "TV news is essentially show business," Lymon says.

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At first the government chooses to ignore and underplay the story. As facts come out indicating the threat to be real and potentially valid, 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 acceed to their demands. A van rolls up to the tugboat, allegedly containing the first load of triggers that they had demanded.

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In the interim, the terrorists, who are still holding the RBS reporter and cameraman, become suspicious when power is cut to the tugboat, apparently due to a transmitter failure. It is at this moment we discover the real reason: to prevent them from seeing a Navy Seal team sneaking aboard the tugboat (which is caught live by a distant TV camera). In the ensuing gun battle, all but one of the terrorists is killed by the Seals. The journalists survive without major injury. Significantly, however, the scientist who built the bomb and its anti-tamper devices commits suicide before he can be captured.

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All this occurs a little over an hour prior to the detonation time of the bomb. Members of a nuclear emergency response team called NEST enter the boat in an attempt to defuse the bomb. The reporter and cameraman remain to comment on their efforts despite requests 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 get around a security mechanism built into the device. Suddenly something within the bomb is activated and within moments the picture goes to static, briefly displaying a test pattern as the signal from Charleston is lost.

Related Topics:
New York City - Test pattern

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The video returns to the main RBS newsroom in New York, which is in a panic. After considerable effort, they get hold of a reporter who was two miles from the tugboat aboard a drydocked aircraft carrier across the harbor. Clearly stunned and dazed she expresses fear over the radiation sickness now imminent. 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 the reporter 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, followed by a huge blast of wind that knocks the camera over. The tape ends. Then the cameraman pans the harbor which is now nothing but a firestorm.

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It is revealed that the government's intention was to stall for time until a Navy Seal 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 says "This is a very dark moment" as the image fades to black.

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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 burns at a time when the total number of burn unit beds in the United States numbers only about 2,000. Some half a million are left homeless due to inland fallout and the region is expected to be uninhabitable for decades. Then with the typical banality of TV news, the broadcast goes on to cover all the other events around the world (labor riots in Poland, a World Bank announcement) which have continued to occur despite the destruction of Charleston.

Related Topics:
Fallout - Poland - World Bank

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