Countdown to Zero Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Countdown to Zero Blu-ray Movie Review

3…2…1…

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater December 3, 2010

If you were around for any of the years between, oh, say 1945 and 1985, you’ll no doubt remember the threat of mutually assured nuclear annihilation that gave the Cold War much of its icy menace. With the world’s two superpowers pointing thousands of H-bomb-equipped intercontinental ballistic missiles at one another, a Dr. Strangelove-ian international disaster seemed imminent, almost inevitable. Whatever “smithereens” are, we were all sure we were about to be blown to them. But then, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the citizens of Earth heaved a collective sigh of relief. What we’ve forgotten, in the intervening years, is that the threat still exists—it has just taken different forms. Countdown to Zero, a new film by documentarian Lucy Walker—who previously directed The Devil’s Playground and, most recently, Waste Land —wants to convince you of three things, 1.) with a modicum of resources, terrorists could easily build a nuke, 2.) the 23,000 nuclear weapons remaining in the world are an accident waiting to happen, and 3.) we need to do something right now to stop nuclear proliferation. Most horror films want to scare you senseless; this documentary wants to scare some sense into you.

As its central thesis, Countdown to Zero uses a famous excerpt from a speech by John F. Kennedy: “Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment, by accident, or miscalculation, or madness.” Madness is given its due first, as Walker shows harrowing clips of terrorist attacks from around the world and postulates that it would be completely possible for an extremist organization to buy or steal highly enriched uranium and build a simple nuclear device. We’re given several examples of how fissile material has been pilfered from former Soviet states with loose security. In one account, a Russian truck driver absconded with a kilogram and a half of 90% enriched uranium without ever setting off any alarms. The kicker? The guy just wanted to score enough money on the black market to buy himself a Ferrari. An official later claimed that, “potatoes are guarded better,” which begs the question: If a truck driver can make off with that much radioactive material, how easy would it be for real professionals? Once the uranium is obtained, transporting it into the U.S. is a breeze—a football-sized lump of the stuff could be smuggled inside the country in a freight container full of kitty litter, and no one would be the wiser. As for a delivery device, a crude bomb could easily be fashioned from a decommissioned artillery gun, which can be bought online for about $10,000.

While a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon is possible—thankfully, it’s only happened on 24 so far—the possibility of an accident involving the world’s already amassed nuclear arsenal is just as terrifying. This is where the doc really starts to get scary. Walker gives us instance after instance of atomic near-misses, like B-52 bombers carrying nuclear weaponry crashing in Spain and Greenland, scattering radioactive material. When one bomb was accidentally dropped over North Carolina, five out of six safety mechanisms failed, the last switch staving off what would have been a massively destructive detonation. Even after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia still have thousands of hydrogen bombs at the ready, and there have been numerous times when diplomatic miscalculations have nearly resulted in all-out nuclear exchanges. The most harrowing event happened in 1995, when a U.S. rocket launched from Norway to study the Northern Lights was mistaken by Russia for a nuclear warhead heading toward Moscow. Boris Yeltsin had less than five minutes to make a decision about how to respond—“Fortunately,” says one ex-CIA official, “he wasn’t drunk at the time”—and only his good sense prevented an erroneous retaliation. One expert points out that the probability of an accident happening may be low, but that low-probability events happen all the time and, more so, on a long enough timeline, they’re inevitable.

Of course, no documentary about the threat of nuclear warfare would be complete without some mention of the precarious situations in North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan. Obviously, North Korea is a loose canon—pardon the grim pun—using its nuclear capabilities as the only real bargaining chip the impoverished Communist country has. Iran is particularly dangerous because if—or, rather, when—it gets “the bomb,” its surrounding Arab rivals will likely rush headlong into a frenzied arms race. We’ve already seen this happen with India and its neighbor to the north, Pakistan, which currently has an unstable government, enough material to make over 100 nuclear devices and, oh yeah, one Osama bin Laden hiding somewhere in the mountains. Not a good combo.

Produced by Participant Media—the same people that brought us An Inconvenient Truth—Countdown to Zero has an unabashed political agenda. The title of the film has a dual meaning, counting down to an inevitable atomic disaster but also demanding that the nations of the world unite in reducing the number of nuclear weapons on Earth to zero. This is, by anyone’s estimation, a lofty, idealistic goal, and the film’s closing arguments are light on potential solutions. The intent here is to scare the audience into political protest, and while the film certainly is terrifying—at one point we’re subjected to a detailed, step-by-step description of what would happen to the human body during a nuclear blast—the film’s “call to action” coda doesn’t give us many options besides directing us to takepart.com/zero and urging us to text ZERO to 77177. Still, real grassroots protests onto begin to emerge when people are well-informed enough about an issue to care, and Countdown to Zero is certainly eye-opening. Walker uses startling stock footage, man-on-the-street interviews, and insightful “talking head” commentary from a bevy of authors, CIA officials, and even former world leaders—Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev—to impress on us just how urgent the situation is. The most haunting clip is of a nearly in-tears Robert Oppenheimer—the father of the A-bomb—expressing regret over his creation by quoting from the Hindu deity Vishnu: “Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Countdown to Zero Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like many documentaries, Countdown to Zero—presented via a 1080p/AVC encode—is comprised of material from numerous sources, all varying in quality. A lot of the stock footage is clearly upscaled and often bears the hallmarks of interlacing—aliasing, mild combing, and other digitally induced artifacts—but in most cases, I imagine this couldn't be helped. That said, the newly shot time lapse and aerial sequences are genuinely stunning, and the high definition video used for the talking head and man-on-the-street interviews looks fantastic. Color is rich and natural—no wonky skin tones or anything—and detail is exemplary, letting us make out the finest textures on the interviewees' faces. The look is distinctly video-ish, but there's none of the smeary, soft quality you sometimes get with docs shot on low-budget gear. Highlights on skintones are occasionally blown out—just slightly—but I didn't notice any compression issues or other problems. You're not going to buy Countdown to Zero for its picture quality, but the high definition presentation is definitely a plus.

Countdown to Zero Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The same goes for the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which may not be explosive or aggressive, but capably meets all of the documentary's limited aural demands. Most importantly, Gary Oldman's narration is perfectly clean, and the interviews with the various experts and officials are crisp and balanced. Composer Peter Golub provides a score that surges with appropriate menace, and the music sounds dynamically solid— with a rounded low-end and crisp highs—and frequently fills all channels. Other than that, the rear speakers don't get a whole lot of play. Not that it matters. The focus here is on the message, which comes through as clear as a bell.

Countdown to Zero Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Countdown to Zero includes a generous helping of supplements, including extra interviews, deleted sequences, and some great archival documentaries:

• Deleted Scenes (SD, 9:47): Includes sequences about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the "electronic backdoor," ID codes, and Oppenheimer.
• Additional Interviews (SD, 40:51): Watch more talking head segments with Alan Robock, Jimmy Carter, Martin Sherwin, Roger Mollander, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. There really is a whole second documentary worth of footage here, with discussions about nuclear winter, the Manhattan Project, etc.
• Archival Footage (SD, 1:04:36): What a great inclusion. The Town That Never Was is a vintage documentary about the Manhattan Project, Operation Greenhouse is a promo from the Atomic Energy Commision about nuclear test series carried out on the Marshall Islands, and Atomic Support for the Soldier is an Army film showing soldiers in 1951 training for a nuclear blast.
• Ploughshares Fund PSA (SD, 4:38): A public service announcement about nuclear proliferation from the Ploughshares Fund.
• A Letter From the Filmmakers (1080p, text only): A short letter from director Lucy Walker and Producer Lawrence Bender, explaining why they choose to make the film and urging us into action.
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray (1080p, 7:25): Includes trailers for I'm Still Here, Freakonomics, Centurion, and Monsters, along with a promo for HDNet.

Countdown to Zero Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Countdown to Zero's argument against nuclear weapons is cogent, terror-inducing, and galvanizing, but the documentary itself gives us little direction as to what we—the average Joes—can do to force world governments into action. For that, you'll want to contact the website listed in the screenshot above. The documentary isn't necessarily something you might feel the need to own, but for anyone concerned about nuclear proliferation, Countdown to Zero is certainly worth a rental.