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The Chain Reaction
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - Australia - Umbrella Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (24th September 2024). |
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The Film
 "The Chain Reaction" (1980) At the W.A.L.D.O (Western Atomic Longterm Dumping Organisation) nuclear waste storage facility, nuclear physicist Heinrich (played by Ross Thompson) is involved in a terrible accident due to an earthquake rupturing a tank and contaminating him. Heinrich is placed in quarantine and his concern is about the risk factor for contamination to the entire surrounding area, but executives are looking to keep things quiet to the public, and that means keeping the accident under wraps and keeping Heinrich silent. He knows the company's plan and makes his escape so he could tell the public, but he is extremely weak with only possibly a few days remaining in his life. Meanwhile, married couple Larry (played by Steve Bisley) and Carmel (played by Arna-Marie Winchester) are heading out to their rural cabin for a short holiday. But when a dying Heinrich appears at their doorstep and also with amnesia, their quiet time away from civilization unexpectedly turns into dangerous matters... Written and directed by Ian Barry as his feature film debut, the film could be seen as a precursor to "Mad Max", released while the "The Chain Reaction" was in production. Both productions shared many of the same cast and crew, both have exciting car chases sequences, gun violence, and an impending sense of doom. While in "Mad Max" the world has gone downhill where law and order are things of the past, "The Chain Reaction" shows what could happen in the early stages of a nuclear accident. While many films about disasters have huge setpieces of destruction and chaos, "The Chain Reaction" does not go that route, instead relying on characters, cat and mouse chases, much closer to cold war era spy films rather than disaster films. 1979's "The China Syndrome" is a fairly close feature in nature and in tone of environmental disaster and big business coverups, and the coincidental real life 1979 nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island made the subject of "The Chain Reaction" a very timely one. The absolute standouts of the film are the few action sequences that rival or even surpass "Mad Max" in execution. The fast pace, the editing, the cinematography are top notch, as shot by Russell Boyd. While those scenes are only a few portions of the finished product, the story is quite fascinating to watch throughout. The love story between Larry and Carmel feels genuine, the higher ups at the corporation are menacing, and Heinrich trying to regain his memory before it is too late is a mortal clock counting down to the end. There are some scenes that seem to drag too far like the prison sequences and other points in town, but the finished product is very well done, and that is almost a miracle considering the first time writer/director and the production issues that were faced. The film was scheduled with a modest budget of $600,000 which was fairly low to begin with. But investors made the decision for the film to be made at $400,000, which would tighten quite a lot of the production. Barry and the production team decided to go for starting the film as scheduled with the $600,000 plan, and would eventually ask the investors for more for completing the film. Barry's credits only included shorts and was not as experienced as the rest of the crew, which led to some days going far behind schedule. The extra money was not coming in and therefore the film was eventually finished with some of the producers such as George Miller stepping in to shoot some of the gaps. Considering how troubled the production was in scheduling and in the shrunken budget, it's almost a miracle that the film was even completed. Hoyts Distribution supervised the post production very carefully rather than relying on Barry, though even with distributor interference, the finished film was ready for screening. The film was screened at Cannes, where Warner Brothers immediately bought the US rights to the film for $1 million, easily covering the production costs. The film was given a general theatrical release in Australia from September 25th 1980 and abroad throughout 1980 and 1981. The film was not a box office hit, just barely grossing $796,000 theatrically, though it was surprisingly nominated for seven awards at the AFI Awards. Best Supporting Actress, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography were the nominations, though it sadly didn't win any awards. Over the years it was fairly forgotten but with the DVD era and resurgence of "Ozploitation", "The Chain Reaction" eventually found an audience. Umbrella Entertainment in Australia issued a very well put together DVD edition with good extras, and in 2018, Umbrella upgraded it to HD on Blu-ray, giving the film a remastered transfer with some additional extras. Now in 2024, Umbrella has reissued the same Blu-ray and given it a "Collector's Edition" release with some additional packaged goodies. Note this is a region ALL Blu-ray
Video
Umbrella Entertainment presents the theatrical cut of the film in the theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio, in 1080p AVC MPEG-4. This digital transfer is an excellent one, showcasing the grittiness of the production with many of the dark scenes with deep blacks and dark hues while also showing the brighter outdoor scenes with light colors. The restored transfer is free of major damage marks and a healthy amount of film grain is still visible after the clean-up. There are some minor damage marks still visible, and a few moments with a bit of telecine wobble but overall it is another great job from Umbrella. The theatrical cut runtime is 92:24. In addition Umbrella has included the early workprint cut of the film entitled "The Man at the Edge of the Freeway" as a bonus. This is in the open matte 1.33:1 aspect ratio in 1080p AVC MPEG-4. While it might be encoded in 1080p, this is an upscaled transfer from a standard definition source, without remastering. The early cut is filled with scratches, debris, tape errors, and other damage throughout, with unbalanced colors. Also being open matte, there are shots where microphones overhead are visible among other things not seen in the 1.85:1 framing. It's not the ideal way to see the earlier version, but it is fascinating to watch with the few additional sequences intact, as minor as they are. Note that the additional footage is available separately in the extras. The early cut runtime is 93:56. *Note there is an additional version of the film available via easter egg, listed in the extras section below.
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono The theatrical cut features a lossless 2.0 mono track. Like the picture, the restored audio track is excellent, with dialogue, music, and effects sounding very well balanced, with voices being clear and the music never overpowering the rest of the track. There are no issues of dropouts or errors in the audio track to speak of. English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono The early cut features a lossy 2.0 mono track. Coming from the early workprint, this is not a fully mixed soundtrack, so there are shots with no audio as foley was not done at the time for the shots and unbalanced effects. The dialogue on the other hand sounds fairly good being clear in most of the scenes. There are optional English HoH subtitles in a white font for the theatrical cut, while the early cut features no subtitles. The subtitles are well timed and easy to read with no grammar or spelling mistakes to speak of.
Extras
DISC ONE (Blu-ray) Extended "Not Quite Hollywood" interviews (64:10) These extended interviews from Mark Hartley's 2008 documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!" feature Steve Bisley, Arna-Maria Winchester, Ian Barry, plus associate producer Ross Matthews. There are a lot of topics covered such as the uranium controversy on mining at the time of production, the period in Australian cinema pre and post "Mad Max", the shrinking budget, a fairly dangerous stunt, the tight pants, and more. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles "Thrills & Nuclear Spills" documentary (32:56) In this documentary with Ian Barry, Steve Bisley, and producer David Elfik, discussed are about the genesis of the production, the budget being lowered by a third, the connection to "Mad Max" with the cast and crew, mishaps including a stolen car by a drunken local, production trouble including falling behind schedule, the pride of being the first government funded feature to be sold to Hollywood for distribution, and more. This documentary was previously featured on the Umbrella Entertainment DVD release. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles "The Sparks Obituary" (24:50) Prior to the making of "The Chain Reaction", Barry was looking to make a feature film about a blinded filmmaker creating new work through his mind via neural experiments. In order to create the film, he was urged to make a short promotional version of the film in order to entice investors. Unfortunately the full feature was never made, but the sci-fi faux documentary work can be seen here in its entirety, along with an introduction by Barry. The film is presented in 1.331, with quite a lot of damage and specs from the start, which gets better over some time, but the analog tape master does show many weaknesses in the image and the sound. The introduction is in windowboxed 1.78:1. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.33:1 and windowboxed 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles Deleted & Extended Scenes (8:35) A few extra dialogue snippets that are featured in the workprint cut are presented here on their own. Nothing to revolutionary or game changing, with mostly just a few lines of dialogue cut here and there. These come from the same source as the workprint cut, though the image has been cropped to 1.78:1 for some odd reason. These were previously featured on the Umbrella Entertainment DVD release. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles Image Gallery (2:58) A series of posters, promotional materials, and behind the scenes stills, with some having captions. This extra was previously featured on the Umbrella Entertainment DVD release. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles Theatrical Trailer (3:40) A remastered trailer for the film looking almost as good as the film’s restoration. The trailer has also been embedded below. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.85:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles VHS Trailer (2:20) A very weak looking lo-res transfer from a video cassette source from Australian Video. Pixelation, washed out colors, cropped image - not ideal. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.33:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles TV Spot (0:33) A TV spot that is curiously in widescreen. in 720p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles Easter Egg: Open-matte transfer of the theatrical cut (92:23) This was completely missed from my original review of 2018 disc, but Umbrella has included an open-matte transfer of the theatrical cut on the disc. To access it, on the special features menu, highlight "The Man at the Edge of the Freeway: Early Cut", press right, press enter. The full aperture is seen here, so the complete edges of the frame, sprocket holes, rounded edges, tape splices can be seen. It has been remastered, but not to the extent of the main feature, with some additional damage marks to be found and colors not having the full depth as found in the remastered widescreen version. The mono track is fine, without any major damage to be heard, though it lacks the full depth of the lossless remastered mono track. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.33:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono without subtitles DISC TWO Original Soundtrack Album by Andrew Thomas Wilson (CD) 1. "Awakening" (1:47) 2. "The Beast" (4:13) 3. "Decontamination" (2:06) 4. "Heinrich's Theme" (3:01) 5. "Waldo" (1:18) 6. "A Swim in the River" (1:49) 7. "Chain Reaction" (4:54) 8. "Once More with Feeling" (4:05) 9. "Paradise Valley" (1:03) 10. "Car Chase" (4:30) 11. "Carmel's Theme" (1:40) 12. "Waldo Arrives" (1:52) 13. "The Hand at the Window" (0:45) 14. "Message to a Friend" (End Titles) (4:23) The soundtrack was composed by Australian engineer and songwriter Spencer Lee and Scotland born Australia based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Thomas Wilson, with Wilson handling many of the instruments. Using multiple synthesizers and other instruments, the electronic score is reminiscent of works by Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, and Klaus Schulze, with ambient melodies with a dark tone to compliment the apocalyptic nature while also having some up tempo tracks such as "The Beast" which has some distorted guitars added for the tension. The soundtrack album was available on the vinyl format from the Australian label 7 Records in 1980 and was remastered and reissued in 2014 on both black and colored variants by the Australian label Dual Planet. It has never been issued outside of Australia on a physical format, and until now, has never been issued on CD, making this release a worldwide first. There are no liner notes or a tracklisting printed for this set, and there is little information about the soundtrack album itself. Information on Wilson is minimal, having a few soundtrack credits as a composer or performer over the years, with "The Chain Reaction" being his first fully credited album and he has released singles and albums under his own name as well as under the name Daz Nuance in the 1990s and also released one single "Solid State Logic" as one half of the duo Helicopters alongside instrumentalist Dave Marett in 1981. The soundtrack album is a fantastic one with its minimalist edge and retro futuristic sound, and it's a shame that Wilson did not compose more soundtrack albums, but for fans of the genre, this is one that should not be missed.
Packaging
This releases is available exclusively from Umbrella Entertainment directly, limited to 500 copies, and it also includes: - A 48 page book featuring essays from producer David Elfick, director Ian Barry and writer Luke Buckmaster, behind-the-scenes, experiences and art - Custom designed original artwork rigid case - Custom designed original poster art slipcover - 8 artcards - A3 reversible poster The discs are included in a clear keep case with differing artwork from the 2018 release. It has inner artwork as well, though it is not reversible. It includes a slipcover with differing artwork. The book starts with "Ian Barry: The Man at the Edge of the Freeway", which has written comments by Barry himself, Russell Boyd, edited in May 2024 with both newly written wording as well as excerpt from vintage interviews on the making of the film. Next is "Chain Reaction Producer Recollections" by David Elfick which is a newly written piece by the producer on the film's production. There is also a reprint of a vintage 1980 issue of Cinema Papers with information on the film. Then there is the article "The Road Warrior Goes Nuclear: Connections Between The Chain Reaction and Mad Max" by Luke Buckmaster comparing the two features. There is another written piece by Barry, entitled "The Sparks Obituary", on a unmade project by the director. There are some additional stills and credits included in the book. The 8 artcards are printed on thick cards and have stills from the film taken from the German release, as they have the German title "Die Kettenreaktion" on them. The double sided poster has an Australian design on one side which is the same as the design on the keep case and the Japanese theatrical poster on the other. The poster is folded and housed in the keep case. The keep case with the slipcover, the artcards, and book are housed in a rigid slipcase with its own unique design. 
Overall
"The Chain Reaction" is an excellent post-disaster pre-panic film done on a very modest budget, and finally finding an audience years after its initial release. Great action sequences and fine performances throughout, the idea of a nuclear accident coverup is not so far fetched in today's world, considering the film was pre-Chernobyl and pre-Fukushima. Note that the Blu-ray itself is the exact same disc that Umbrella Entertainment released back in 2018 (with the same VOB dates for the disc's files dating to 2018). It still features an excellent transfer for the main feature with great bonus materials including the early workprint cut, and it comes as highly recommended, though it might be difficult to justify a upgrade to fans who already have the 2018 Blu-ray, as the only new bonuses are the soundtrack CD and the packaging contents.
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