TanakaK This movie's only missing two elements; good acting and good writing. It obviously had a liberal budget for a made-for-TV feature but it serves as an excellent illustration of the difference that those two missing elements really make in a movie.For a good lesson watch this thing and then, the same evening, watch "Fail Safe" with Henry Fonda, a movie with a tiny budget but enormous acting and writing talents. The difference between the two will be breathtaking, even to a novice.The shame of Dawn is that it actually featured some fine actors such as James Earl Jones (whose presence is limited to reciting some 11th grade dialog) and Martin Landau (whose character is unconscious for much of the film).

rixrex The title of this junk drama should give notice that it's nothing more than a trite phrase turned into more Hollywood preaching.This looks like a script written in the 50s or 60s and updated to fit 1990. Or maybe just a script by one enamored with the nuclear Armageddon films of the 60s. It's still an anachronism. Director Jack Sholder has credentials when it comes to making good action films, and he does well here in the last 15-30 minutes, but it's hard to overcome the outlandish implausible plot elements that really end up sinking this.They are: Nobody of significant importance in Washington was protected in any way, even when it was knowledge several minutes ahead that a blast would hit the DC area. That's bull because there are plans in place since the 50s to do such on a moment's notice.The Sec of the Interior, chosen by the President and vetted by Congress, acts like a member of a political fringe group, and takes the advice of a nut-job Colonel over that of Admirals and Generals. Hardly even close to realistic.The military members of a bomber plane behave like they've never been in the service at all, each one following personal ideation rather than following orders. This one is particularly junk fiction, and would have not gone down as shown here, but of course it makes for melodrama.And then there's the usual Hollywood claptrap about every single person who is politically right of Hollywood being shown as a raving loony, eventually.But one thing, it's always fun to watch Rebecca De Morney get angry or in distress because when she does, she looks just like her Dad, Wally George, when he was shouting about stuff on his right-wing TV show. I'm sure she'd like the comparison, NOT!

magicsinglez A B-52 bomber crew is scrambled into action. After the plane takes off there is a nuclear strike on their base. The unthinkable has happened. They look back thru their bomb scope, and the base is gone. One of the crewman can't believe it. He thinks the base is still there. His wife and children are - were - down there. He can't believe it and they can't convince him the base is gone. He refuses to take his position on the plane. He's consumed with grief. Inconsolable he ejects himself out the bomber without a parachute.Meanwhile the presidents helicopter has crashed and he's been injured. It's only been a limited nuclear war so far and he's determined to stop the war from escalating, the only problem is, he's no longer in control of the military.The bomber continues on it's way to Russia, minus one crewman. The flight is almost exactly like the flight of the bomber in the movie 'Dr Strangelove' - "It's just one bomber Demitri", "I don't know why it's so hard to find it", "they're trained for that Demitri". Except in this flight, the female pilot convinces the crew to turn around and not drop their bombs on Russia. It turns out their inaction keeps the war from escalating and the president is able to regain control of the military.

bheyer Based on the previous reviews I read, here, I have to conclude that P.T. Barnum WAS right: "There IS a sucker born, every minute!" I served four years in SAC (Strategic Air Command), including a year-and-a-half at Offutt Air Force Base (Headquarters SAC, Omaha, Nebraska), and if ANYONE disobeyed orders, and behaved irrationally (like some of the "professionals" depicted in this awful, awful, awful movie did), they'd have been shot on the spot. Or, at least, we'd HOPE they would! MY GOD, the BAD acting in this movie, plus the BAD writing, the BAD production values (can you believe one reviewer on this board said, "top notch production values"? Yeah, based on WHAT, "Plan 9 From Outer Space"?!), the BAD special effects (on a level with the 60's TV series, "Batman," actually!) and the BAD direction, had me CRINGING in my seat! I quite literally HAD to watch this turkey to its unlikely conclusion, JUST TO SEE HOW BAD IT COULD GET! The ABSOLUTE WORST "acting" was perpetrated by the pilot, and co-pilot, of the B-52 crew (Powers Boothe and Rebecca De Mornay); DO you think the writer of this schlock could've had them on the same page, for at least two minutes??? I mean, one minute he (Boothe) is at her throat, and the very next minute he wants to "canoodle" with her! He calls her the BEST co-pilot he's EVER had, and a heartbeat later, he's giving her cyanide, and ordering her OUT of the cockpit! He (Boothe) engages in fisticuffs with another crew member, and later, THAT crew member ejects himself from the aircraft! JEEZE, at least Slim Pickens DIDN'T have THESE kinds of problems in the FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR superior, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." In that classic, the B-52 commander (Pickens) ONLY had to contend with a malfunctioning A-bomb. Speaking of "Dr. Strangelove," one of the crew members from that earlier movie returns in this one: James Earl Jones. Man, HIS character is SUPPOSED to be a SAC-trained professional? He waffled, so much, I wanted to call him "Aunt Jemima!" You want to take MY advice, and the advice of a few other sane, rational and intelligent posters on this thread? SKIP this crud, and watch the vastly superior "Dr. Strangelove," and "Fail-Safe." Even "On The Beach," with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire, for end-of-the-world scenarios. BOTTOM LINE: Even the spoof, "Airplane," with Leslie Nielsen (!!!), made more sense than this bottom-feeder did.