By John DeFore,
Reuters,
1 February 2010

Docu paints convincing nuclear doomsday scenario

PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - A doomsday doc suggesting that climate change and eco-degradation aren`t going to matter much if we blow up the planet first, "Countdown to Zero" reminds viewers of old fears most people have put on a back burner. Convincingly argued and extremely polished, the Sundance festival selection has theatrical potential for audiences whose reservoir of worry about humanity`s future hasn`t already run dry.

Taking cues from a famous JFK speech, the documentary studies three ways -- accident, miscalculation, and madness -- in which nuclear weapons might be detonated. Director Lucy Walker (also bringing the lighter-hearted "Waste Land" to Sundance this year) makes the odds look pretty bad on all three fronts, especially when a scientist points out that, even in terms of unlikely scenarios, "low-probability events happen all the time."

Some possibilities seem anything but low-probability, though: Walker`s account of the insecurity of nuclear materials in Russia is absolutely chilling, with so many low-level numbskulls gaining access to highly enriched uranium (HEU) that it`s a marvel that some intelligent villain hasn`t yet gathered enough to use.

Experts like Valerie Plame and Princeton nuclear scientists discuss the plans that unfriendly powers have to build, buy or steal a bomb, and Walker efficiently gets viewers up to speed on the current state of the global arsenal. (There are around 23,000 operational weapons on the planet.) She points out the near-worthlessness of much-vaunted radiation detectors at shipping docks, which give false-positive readings for everything from CRTs to kitty litter and could easily be bypassed by a few grapefruit-size chunks of HEU.

With its constant stream of images of the world`s great cities -- and "five-mile" circles showing the area of maximum devastation -- the film never lets us forget the specifics of a hypothetical nuclear detonation. Walker goes overboard only near the end, when she uses footage of happy Times Square visitors to needlessly emphasize the innocent lives a bomb would destroy.

Ending on a de rigueur positive note, Walker reveals that the film`s title refers not only to the doomsday clock but to the push to dismantle every nuke in the world. It`s going to take more than texting a protest to the number given in the film`s closing titles, but "Countdown" makes the cause seem as urgent as ever.