''10.5'' is a 2004
disaster film
A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, military/ terrorist attacks or global catastrophes su ...
directed by
John Lafia
John Lafia (April 2, 1957 – April 29, 2020) was an American film and television writer, director, producer and musician. He is best known for co-writing the 1988 film '' Child's Play'' and directing its 1990 sequel '' Child's Play 2''.
Career ...
which aired as a television
miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...
in the United States on May 2, 2004 and May 3, 2004.
The plot focuses on a series of catastrophic
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s along the United States west coast, culminating in one measuring 10.5 on the
Richter scale
The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 p ...
.
''10.5'' was widely ridiculed by both reviewers and
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...
s;
nevertheless, it received respectable
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
.
The first part of the miniseries aired on May 2, 2004, and the second one aired on May 3. A sequel, ''
10.5: Apocalypse,'' was aired on May 21, 2006 and May 23, 2006.
Plot
Part 1
The film begins in the
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
area with increasingly severe earthquake activity. A quake of magnitude 7.9 is measured at the Earthquake centre, where Dr. Samantha Hill takes command, displacing Dr. Jordan Fisher. U.S. President Paul Hollister and
FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
Director Roy Nolan are informed about the situation.
A magnitude 8.4 earthquake opens a crack which engulfs an entire train east of
Redding, California
Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border ...
. As a result, Governor Carla Williams, who has just seen her daughter and ex-husband off on a camping trip, agrees to help the Governor of Washington. Amanda Williams and her father Clark Williams arrive at a town named Browning, where everything is covered in a thick red haze. They discover a car with a dead family inside, and are nearly trapped in
quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it creates a liquefied soil that los ...
.
Roy Nolan constructs a task force of the best geologists and seismologists, including Dr. Fisher and Dr. Hill. Dr. Hill mentions her Hidden Fault theory and is eventually given permission to prove it. She and Dr. Fisher visit a lake, where they see some animals that died from
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
poisoning and are almost poisoned themselves.
Back at the Task Force Center, Dr. Hill predicts that the next quake will be near
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. It is deemed too risky to evacuate the entirety of San Francisco, which is eventually devastated by a 9.2 magnitude earthquake. After that, Dr. Hill predicts the next quake will happen at the San Andreas fault, which would wipe out the West Coast in its present shape killing 50 million people on the way. Dr. Hill hypothesizes that they could "weld" the fault shut by letting it experience immense heat, which could only be created with nuclear bombs.
Part 2
The President, after some deliberation, follows Nolan's advice to execute Dr. Hill's plan and allows the placement of the nuclear warheads. Additionally, he gives the order to evacuate the entire West Coast in case it fails and mobilizes all resources available for it.
Five of the six nuclear bombs have been successfully installed, but during the installation of the sixth, an earthquake occurs, and a warhead is lost. Nolan tries to set it manually, but is pinned by the warhead.
The Williams find a truck carrying survivors, and they are transported to Tent City, which has been set up for the refugees. In a wounded San Francisco, Carla Williams and her assistant Rachel are trapped under a wall. Carla survives, but Rachel is killed.
Deciding that nothing can be done about the lost sixth warhead, Dr. Hill decides to continue with the fault welding plan and detonate the first five. The sixth is activated by Nolan who manages to reach the control panel just in time, but is himself vaporized.
It seems to work, until Dr. Hill, concerned about southern California, observes a river flowing backwards, draining into the open fault. The last warhead was not deep enough when it exploded and Southern California is still in danger. Shortly after, a massive earthquake occurs. Eventually, the crack reaches Tent City and peaks at 10.5. When the earthquake stops, the survivors see that the southwestern coast of California has been cut away, forming a new island.
Cast
*
Kim Delaney
Kim Delaney (born November 29, 1961) is an American actress known for her starring role as Detective Diane Russell on the ABC drama television series '' NYPD Blue'', for which she won an Emmy Award. Early in her career, she played the role of ...
as Dr. Samantha "Sam" Hill
*
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor and director. He is a three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe and one-time Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee. Bridges was awa ...
as
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...
Paul Hollister
*
Fred Ward
Freddie Joe Ward (December 30, 1942 – May 8, 2022) was an American actor and producer. Starting with a role in an Italian television movie in 1973, he appeared in such diverse films as '' Escape from Alcatraz'', ''Southern Comfort'', '' The R ...
as Roy Nolan: FEMA Director
*
Brian Markinson
Brian Markinson (born September 1, 1961) is an American-Canadian actor who has appeared in a wide variety of films and television shows. Some of Markinson's best known roles include a U.S. Attorney General in ''Shooter'', an unscrupulous industr ...
as Daniel: President Hollister's advisor
*
John Schneider as Clark Williams
*
Kaley Cuoco
Kaley Christine Cuoco ( ; born November 30, 1985) is an American actress. After a series of supporting film and television roles in the late 1990s, she landed her breakthrough role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom ''8 Simple Rules'' (200 ...
as Amanda Williams
*
Dulé Hill
Karim Dulé Hill (; born May 3, 1975) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as personal presidential aide and Deputy Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff Charlie Young on the NBC drama television series ''The West Wing'', for whi ...
as Dr. Owen Hunter
*
Ivan Sergei
Ivan Sergei Gaudio (; born May 7, 1971) is an American actor known for his work in television. His best known roles are Dr. Peter Winslow in ''Crossing Jordan'' and Henry Mitchell in ''Charmed''.
Life
Ivan Sergei Gaudio was born in Hawthorne, N ...
as Dr. Zach Nolan
*
David Cubitt
David Cubitt (born 18 March 1965) is an English-born Canadian television actor.
Born in England in 1965 to a Dutch mother, Jette, and an English father, David, he moved with his parents to Vancouver, British Columbia when he was six months ol ...
as Dr. Jordan Fisher
* Iris Graham as Zoe Cameron
*
John Cassini
John Cassini (born in Toronto) is a Canadian actor.
Career
Cassini appeared in the 1995 Brad Pitt film '' Seven''. He starred in the 2005 film '' Cool Money''. Cassini starred as Ronnie Delmarco on the CBC series ''Intelligence'', which was ca ...
as Sean Morris: President Hollister's aide
*
Rebecca Jenkins
Rebecca Jenkins (born 1959) is a Canadian actress and singer.
Acting
She had starring roles in the 1990s CBC series ''Black Harbour'', and the films '' Bye Bye Blues'', '' Marion Bridge'', ''Wilby Wonderful'', '' Whole New Thing'', '' South of ...
as California Governor Carla Williams
*
Kimberly Hawthorne as Jill Hunter
*
Erin Karpluk
Erin Karpluk (born ) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her portrayal of Erica Strange on the CBC Television series ''Being Erica'' from 2009 to 2011.
Early life
Karpluk was born in Jasper, Alberta to a mother who was a high-school princ ...
as Rachel: Governor Williams' assistant
Reception
The film was nominated for a 2004
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
in the category of "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special" and a 2005
NAACP Image Award
The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...
for "Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special". It was awarded the "Award of Distinction" from the
Australian Cinematographers Society in the category of "Telefeatures, TV Drama & Mini Series".
In response to the airing of ''10.5'', the
Southern California Earthquake Center
The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) is a collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists across 100 research institutions with a mission to: conduct research on earthquakes in Southern California and elsewhere by gathering data, conductin ...
added a section to their website about the science depicted in the film. Referring to it as "a miniseries with major errors", the site lists various events that occur during the film and explains why they are incorrect.
References
External links
*
*
{{John Lafia
2004 television films
2004 films
2000s American television miniseries
2004 drama films
American disaster films
Disaster television films
Films about earthquakes
Films directed by John Lafia
Films scored by Lee Holdridge
Films set in San Francisco
Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area
Films shot in San Francisco
Television shows set in San Francisco
2000s American films