Those seeking a scary night at the movies need not wait for the release of Paranormal Activity 2.   The recent documentary Countdown to Zero should suffice.  The film has the distinction of addressing the most important issue confronting civilization: the containment of weapons of mass destruction – specifically, nuclear weapons. Incredible and almost mesmerizing detail, Countdown to Zero makes the argument that not enough is being done to control these horrific weapons.   

 

Although the film is only 90 minutes long, it covers a wide variety of the issues encompassing the nuclear threat.  Topics treated include the lack of adequate security surrounding fissionable materials in the former Soviet Union, the relative ease of surreptitiously shipping radioactive components into the US, and the nuclear programs of countries hostile to the West (e.g. Iran, North Korea).   The activities of Dr. A. Q.  Khan of Pakistan are also given significant screen time.  According to the film, he was apparently operating a veritable Walmart of nuclear information and technology that was available to the highest sinister bidders. 

 

Countdown to Zero also features clips of interviews with Robert Oppenheimer.  He was the leader of the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb.   Perhaps because he spent the bulk of his life contemplating the deepest secrets of the universe, he has an ethereal, almost other-worldly persona. (Einstein also seemed to have this quality).  When asked what his response was to viewing the first atomic bomb explosion in a New Mexico desert in July 1945,   Oppenheimer responds by quoting Vishnu’s statement in the Baghavad Gita,  “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”  The film also contains a number of sobering discussions with major former world leaders, including Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair and Mikhail Gorbachev.

 

Ironically, the most interesting interview in Countdown to Zero might be with a relatively low-level veteran who manned nuclear missile silos in the Midwest.  In matter- of- fact detail he describes how the missiles were never as secure as the public was led to believe.  Several incidents are also recounted of how minor technical glitches or bureaucratic bungling on the part of both the US and Russia almost led to the accidental launch of nuclear strikes.  The cumulative effect of this information is to remind the viewer that humans are inherently imperfect and accident prone, making the existence of atomic weapons all the more unsettling.  

 

Much credit should be given to director Lucy Walker for the measured tone of the film.   She avoids heavy-handedness and bombast (no awful pun intended).  The film allows the chilling facts to speak for themselves without the addition of any histrionics.  Even the music by Peter Golub is relatively subdued.  

 

The manner in which these weapons are destroyed or controlled is ultimately debatable, but the film takes the realistic stance that any abolition would probably have to be achieved on an incremental basis.  The film is a superb example of cinema’s ability not just to entertain, but inform and hopefully galvanize to needed action.      

 

At several points in Countdown to Zero, the following excerpt is quoted from a speech that President Kennedy delivered at the United Nations in 1961:   

 

“Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”Those seeking a scary night at the movies need not wait for the release of Paranormal Activity 2.   The recent documentary Countdown to Zero should suffice.  The film has the distinction of addressing the most important issue confronting civilization: the containment of weapons of mass destruction – specifically, nuclear weapons. Incredible and almost mesmerizing detail, Countdown to Zero makes the argument that not enough is being done to control these horrific weapons.   Those seeking a scary night at the movies need not wait for the release of Paranormal Activity 2.   The recent documentary Countdown to Zero should suffice.  The film has the distinction of addressing the most important issue confronting civilization: the containment of weapons of mass destruction – specifically, nuclear weapons. Incredible and almost mesmerizing detail, Countdown to Zero makes the argument that not enough is being done to control these horrific weapons.  Those seeking a scary night at the movies need not wait for the release of Paranormal Activity 2.   The recent documentary Countdown to Zero should suffice.  The film has the distinction of addressing the most important issue confronting civilization: the containment of weapons of mass destruction – specifically, nuclear weapons. Incredible and almost mesmerizing detail, Countdown to Zero makes the argument that not enough is being done to control these horrific weapons.