01
Silkwood
Why this pick
Like The China Syndrome, it turns institutional danger into a grounded, human-scale thriller, following an ordinary worker confronting a powerful industry with escalating unease.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1979 2h 2m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The China Syndrome
DramaThriller
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The China Syndrome, try these.
01
02
The Insider
Why this pick
Its procedural tension grows from journalism, corporate pressure, and the moral cost of making hidden public risks visible—an adult, meticulously controlled companion piece.
03
The Parallax View
Why this pick
A paranoid investigative thriller with the same 1970s distrust of institutions, measured pacing, and steadily tightening sense that official explanations conceal something lethal.
04
The Conversation
Why this pick
It shares the era’s restrained realism and mounting dread, building suspense from professional expertise, compromised systems, and a protagonist who recognizes danger too late.
05
Norma Rae
Why this pick
Jane Fonda again anchors a tense, socially conscious workplace drama, where personal courage and labor politics give institutional conflict an immediate human weight.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
While visiting the (fictional) Ventana nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles, television news reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda), her cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) and their soundman Hector Salas (Daniel Valdez) witness the plant going through a turbine trip and corresponding SCRAM. Shift Supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) notices an unusual vibration while grabbing his cup of coffee which he had set down.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Jane Fonda
Kimberly Wells
Jack Lemmon
Jack Godell
Scott Brady
Herman De Young
James Hampton
Bill Gibson
Donald Hotton
Dr. Elliott Lowell
Paul Larson
D.B. Royce
Michael Douglas
Richard Adams
Peter Donat
Don Jacovich