While TV movies generally have about as much depth as a puddle in Arizona during mid-July, this original cable production (for Ted Turner's SuperStation) is a riveting, intelligent thriller. In a smart casting move, Martin Sheen and real-life son Emilio Estevez play the same character-separated by 30 year! Project "Nightbreaker" is a military research effort that uses some 235,000 soldiers as guinea pigs to test the effects of nuclear explosions in the Nevada desert during the 1950s. Psychologist Alexander Brown (Sheen) is a successful 1980s social scientist who, upon returning to Nevada for an awards ceremony, is harried by a man in a wheelchair, who was crippled by the Nightbreaker project. In flashbacks, Brown (Estevez), as a young idealist with a naive understanding of the potential power of nuclear weaponry, is seen disregarding the warnings of his girlfriend (Lea Thompson), and marching with the soldiers he's made friends with to Ground Zero. In a nicely handled emotional confrontation in the present, Brown's wife finally learns about the extent of his involvement in the testing, and, consequently, why the couple are now childless. Nightbreaker, which features some excellent footage from the 1950s tests (some of which was used in the superb documentary Atomic Café) conveys its antinuclear message through a strong storyline and fine performances. Recommended. (R. Pitman)
Nightbreaker
color. 90 min. Turner Home Entertainment. (1989). $79.98. Library Journal
Nightbreaker
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