Through a bizarre series of events involving a bird using a lit cigarette to build its nest, big band trombonist Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) ends up answering a ringing pay phone at 4 a.m. and learning civilization is about to end in nuclear fire.
From there, the film is Harry's attempt to reach Julie (Mare Winningham), the girl he'd recently met and get her to safety, creating a widening gyre of chaos as he does. Prompting an entire diner full of people to climb into a food truck and haul ass for an airport. Hijacking a guy with a trunk full of stolen stereos. Firing a gun in an aerobics studio while looking for a helicopter pilot.
It could almost seem farcical, especially the whole sequence at the gas station with the cops accidentally (or stupidly) self-immolating. Or the bit where a guy chases Harry through the sewers, shooting at him for briefly standing on the roof of the man's car. But I don't think it's meant to be, or at least, not entirely. More just how people respond when they're terrified at the imminent prospect of non-existence.
The head cook at the diner pulls a huge revolver on Harry, demanding to know if he's bullshitting before starting the mad dash to hoped-for safety. Julie's grandparents, who haven't spoken for 15 years and no longer remember why, choose to spend their remaining time at a diner, eating unhealthy food, because why the hell not? The guy Harry eventually finds to pilot the chopper insists on bringing his best gal, and calmly dares Harry to kill him if he objects. People figure out what matters most when the heat's on.
Beyond that, the movie's just kind of a "Hey, That Guy," movie. The cook's played by Robert DoQui, who I always think of as the the sergeant from the Robocop movies. Earl Boen, the annoying psychiatrist in the Terminator flicks is having some drunk conversation about BBQ joints in the diner with another customer, using noodles as a road map. Denise Crosby (aka Tasha Yar) is in there as someone with enough clout to have a mobile phone in her shiny silver briefcase and be able to call someone to confirm humanity's fucked. (She's also reading a Cliff Notes version of Gravity's Rainbow, and boy do I wish I'd been smart enough to go that route.) Kurt Fuller, who has been in a million things, is the guy Crosby calls to arrange for a chopper to get them to a private jet. The guy who swiped the stereos is played by Mykelti Williamson (who was Bubba in Forrest Gump.)
The movie is focused on Edwards and Winningham (mostly Edwards), so it isn't really a movie where the background or character actor types really get to shine on center stage, but it was kind of cool to see such an eclectic bunch, even if only for a bit.
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