Solar Crisis (1990)

User Rating:

3.2/10   

Directors:

Richard C. Sarafian
Alan Smithee

Writers (WGA):

Takeshi Kawata (novel)
Joe Gannon (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 July 1990 (Japan)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

In the year 2050, the battle to save the earth will be fought on the sun.

Plot:

A huge solar flare is predicted to fry the Earth. Astronauts must go to the Sun to drop a talking bomb...

Plot Keywords:

Astronaut | Sun | Earth | Bomb | Space

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tim Matheson	...	Steve Kelso
Charlton Heston	...	Adm. 'Skeet' Kelso
Peter Boyle	...	Arnold Teague
Annabel Schofield	...	Alex Noffe
Corin Nemec	...	Mike Kelso (as Corin 'Corky' Nemec)
Tetsuya Bessho	...	Ken Minami
Jack Palance	...	Travis
Dorian Harewood	...	Borg
Paul Koslo	...	Haas
Sandy McPeak	...	Gurney
Silvana Gallardo	...	T.C.
Dan Shor	...	Harvard
Scott Allan Campbell	...	McBride
Frantz Turner	...	Lamare
Richard S. Scott	...	Meeks

Also Known As:

Crisis 2050 (USA) (working title)
Kuraishisu niju-goju nen (Japan)

Runtime:

112 min | Japan:118 min (director's cut)

Country:

Japan | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Netherlands:12 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #30410) | South Korea:12 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Baker, California, USA

Company:

Asahi Breweries

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Who Is Alan Smithee? (2002) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Strip Star Chase

Science buffs beware!!!

This movie is self-contradicting. It takes an absurd plot and tries to pass it off as good science fiction. Yet not all parts of the film were so totally "out there" as to make it unwatchable as a whole. A great chase scene in the desert is an example of this. Add to this an element of sabotage, and the film is saved from itself.

The year is 2050, and the sun is threatening a "megalo flare" that will destroy the earth if it reaches us. Now, flares happen all the time on the sun. You only have to look at close-up photos of the sun to know this. Most last several hours and shoot 100,000 miles off the solar surface in an arc that's really quite impressive to see. But a flare that shoots out and spans the 93 million miles between Earth and sun? Not only that, but to find the earth in its orbit around the sun and strike right there? That's a little too convenient, at least for the plot's sake. Let's face it. If there were no emergency, there'd be no need for the mission to avert it.

The plot to save Earth is to send a talking anti-matter bomb into the sun and make the flare point somewhere else. And here's where the plot thickens, so to speak. Forget for a moment that it's over a million degrees in the corona, the part of the sun you can see in a total eclipse. It's going to get hot as you approach the sun. Yet the mission proceeds as if they have some super cooling process that will save them. And don't get me started on the bomb itself. Anti-matter is unstable by nature. So you're going to put enough of it to theoretically disrupt the sun's energy flow, all the while knowing that the sun itself is enough vaporize anything solid that approaches it? That's a suicide mission in itself.

As if all this weren't enough, now you have a saboteur on board that threatens the mission at various stages. A corporation on Earth doesn't believe the flare will happen, and is buying up resources while cheap and the scare lasts. So you have that element of competition. Will the mission succeed or won't it? Will the Helios (the vessel) escape the sun's gravitational pull and be able to return home?

Solar Crisis is fun to watch, if you can get past the absurdity. Just don't take it seriously, or you'll get burned.