Blackout Effect
Blackout Effect (UK: 747) is a 1998 made-for-television disaster/thriller film. Blackout Effect was originally broadcast on NBC on January 4, 1998.
| Blackout Effect | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jeff Bleckner |
| Produced by | Anthony Santa Croce |
| Written by | Matthew Bombeck |
| Starring | Eric Stoltz Charles Martin Smith Leslie Hope |
| Music by | Gary Chang |
| Cinematography | Alan Caso |
| Edited by | Geoffrey Rowland |
| Distributed by | NBC |
Release date | January 4, 1998 |
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
Eric Stoltz plays John Dantley, an NTSB officer sent to O'Hare Airport in Chicago to investigate a collision between Global Airlines Flight 1025 (a Boeing 757-200 from Los Angeles to Washington D.C.) and PDO Cargo flight 342 (a Boeing 727-200F flying westbound cargo plane), where 185 people are killed.
Charles Martin Smith plays Henry Drake, an air traffic controller who insists his radar system malfunctioned when the planes were being cleared for landing. When the rest of air traffic control dismiss Drake and blame the incident on human error, Dantley must discover the truth about the crash: Was Drake — a high-strung individual who already didn't get along with his co-workers — simply incompetent at his job or did Drake's co-workers and superiors know about and/or had previously been warned about the aging radar system showing signs of seriously malfunctioning and crashing at critical times (and thus liable to lead to deadly situations such as the one that happened), but instead of taking action ignored the warnings and initiated a cover-up?
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Eric Stoltz | John Dantley |
| Charles Martin Smith | Henry Drake |
| Denis Arndt | Frank Wyatt |
| Leslie Hope | Karen |
| Lorraine Toussaint | Kim Garfield |
| Andy Comeau | Tim Connors |
| Tucker Smallwood | Harold |
Production notes and details
The film is credited in the UK as 747 and is released as such on DVD.