Sci-Fi Film Fiesta, The Swingin' 60s - The Complete Book by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

Part 5 : Convergence

“It’s Another Crack!”

Despite the euphoria surrounding Rampian’s miraculous survival and the apparent success of the detonation, bad news arrives in the form of a message received by Maggie informing her of her husband’s medical condition. Sorensen has malignant terminal cancer that will kill him within a week and he has kept this from his wife. Upon receiving this news, Maggie rushes back to be at Sorensen's side.

The bad news continues when another earthquake in the Indian Ocean indicates to Sorensen that the crack has not stopped and that “there are two fissures now, or rather, two ends of the same crack. One of them has changed direction, and if the other one does” and they are both extended they will intersect “at the bore hole, where it all started.” This will result in a circle being cut out of the Earth's crust that “will break away, acting as a safety valve of immense proportions, twenty-thousand square miles of the Earth's surface thrown out into space.” As to the likely effect on the earth’s rotation and whether the Earth can survive…...Who knows? As Sorensen observes, “no one has ever observed the birth of a moon.”

During radio communication with the Project site, Rampian learns from Sorensen the location of the new quake's epicentre leading to the realisation that the crack has doubled back toward the Project's original bore hole. While communicating with Rampian, Sorensen passes out from the debilitating effects of his medical condition. Rampian learns from Mansfield that Sorenson was about to inform him that the crack is now moving at twice its original speed.

Rampian once again draws on his inexhaustible stores of energy and with Maggie in tow, high-tails it back to South Africa to observe the crack's inexorable progress. Once there on the scene there is mo mistaking the fact that two cracks have opened in the crust, and that both are converging on the bore hole site. Rampian orders an evacuation of a threatened village, but herd-like mentality takes over and the villagers pile on to a train that’s about to take them toward their doom. Despite Rampian and the other science team members’ efforts to get the train to stop, they can only watch helplessly as the train runs headlong toward the crack. As the train with whistle bravely blaring makes a dash along a bridge, it is wrecked when the crack causes the bridge to crumple sending it and the train plunging like discarded toys into the abyss. After ordering another evacuation, a rather dispirited Rampian and Maggie return to the Project site.

Back at the Project, Sorensen has ordered a full evacuation, excluding himself as he has decided to remain below ensconced in the bunker. A frantic Maggie together with Rampian take the elevator down to find Sorensen alone at the consoles making ready to personally record what he believes will be the birth of a new moon. He states that he has “work to finish” and that only “once in a billion years a moon is born.” What is happening now “may destroy the Earth, but it may save it and that “whatever happens, I've got to stay here and record it!” even though it will definitely mean the end of his life.

No matter what happens, Sorenson is facing a death sentence but that is not the destiny he intends for Rampian and Maggie. He therefore manages to get them out of the control room under the pretext of retrieving various items for him. He then shuts the large metal door and shorts out its control mechanism thereby locking himself in.

Sorensen is fully aware of his responsibility for the unintended consequences of his decisions. His sense of guilt now weighs heavily on him. He could just crawl away and hide and become completely overwhelmed by guilt and shame and by the magnitude of what has happened. Instead, he acts in the only way he knows how – as a scientist. Having caused the catastrophe in the first place, it is up to him to at least provide invaluable data that could contain the means to rectify what he has unleashed. Sorenson tells Maggie and Rampian, “I'll keep recording everything that happens as long as I can…….if you survive, you'll find all my records in the safe. If everything goes... doesn't matter anyway.”

With little time left, Rampian and Maggie dash toward the elevator and use it to take them topside, but before they are they able to get halfway to the surface, a boulder smashes through the side of the elevator cab. In desperation, Rampian and Maggie (who has acquired a rather strategic and pleasing split in her skirt) climb up through the trap door and then up the elevator shaft. Once on the surface, they struggle away from the bore hole and make their way through a hellish scene of flame, crumbling edifices of hubris and rivers of lava accompanied by the soul crushing reverberating sounds of destruction.

Outside of the Project area, Rampian and Maggie witness the moment when the two cracks finally meet at the bore hole. They look with disbelief and wonder as a gigantic whirling disk of the Earth’s crust ascends into space and into Earth orbit to become a companion to the Moon. The earthquake activity subsides and then stops. Suddenly a little creature emerges from its hiding place underground while Rampian and Maggie appear as if they are a new Adam and Eve in a world that has has arisen from the ashes of the old world and been given a second chance.

Points Of Interest

Crack in the World is a 1965 American science-fiction disaster movie filmed in Spain. It was released by Paramount Pictures on February 24, 1965.

The notion of using technology to drill through the Earth’s crust had already been featured in Edgar Rice Burrough’s novel At the Earth’s Core. It had also been put into effect in the real world with rather mixed and less dramatic outcomes:

Project Mohole

The scenario of Crack in the World, involves a drilling experiment that accidentally triggers catastrophic geological events with global implications. It serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of humanity’s technological hubris and the perils of human intervention in our world’s natural systems. A real-life example of such an endeavour was Project Mohole which stands a a real-life parallel.

Project Mohole, was an actual project in the late1950s and early 1960s aimed at drilling through the Earth's crust to reach the Mohorovičić Discontinuity, or "Moho." The Moho is the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle, and studying it promised to provide groundbreaking insights into geology, tectonics, and Earth's inner structure.

Project Mohole: A Brief Overview

“In the late 1950s, as part of the Cold War-driven push for scientific and technological supremacy, American scientists launched Project Mohole. The project aimed to achieve a feat never before accomplished: drilling into the Earth's crust to reach the mantle. The boundary between these two layers, known as the Mohorovičić Discontinuity (or Moho), had been identified in 1909 by Croatian seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić. Reaching the Moho was seen as a way to unlock secrets about the Earth's composition and dynamics.”

Goals of Project Mohole

“To advance drilling technology for scientific purposes. To recover samples from the mantle for geophysical and geochemical studies. To better understand the Earth's formation and the processes driving plate tectonics and volcanic activity.”

Execution and Challenges

“The project began in 1961 off the coast of Guadalupe Island, Mexico, where the oceanic crust is thinner than the continental crust. Scientists drilled through 600 feet of sediment and 200 feet of basalt rock, setting a record for the deepest ocean drilling at the time. However, they did not reach the Moho.”

“Despite this initial success, Project Mohole faced significant challenges:

Technological Hurdles: The deep-sea drilling techniques required were unprecedented, requiring innovation and improvisation.

Escalating Costs: The project became a financial burden, ballooning far beyond initial estimates.

Political Issues: Funding mismanagement and changing priorities in the U.S. government led to the project's cancellation in 1966.”

Legacy:

“Although Project Mohole was ultimately abandoned, it laid the groundwork for modern deep-sea drilling and scientific exploration. It also inspired the creation of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and later international initiatives, such as the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).” (Chatgpt)

Kola Superdeep Borehole

“The greatest distance ever drilled into the Earth's interior was achieved by the Kola Superdeep Borehole, located in Russia's Kola Peninsula. Here's an overview of this remarkable achievement and its results:

Kola Superdeep Borehole

Drilling Period: 1970–1994

Maximum Depth: 12,262 meters (40,230 feet)

Purpose:

The project aimed to explore the Earth's crust and gain a better understanding of its composition, structure, and geological processes. It was primarily a scientific endeavor, with no commercial intent.

Achievements

Record-Breaking Depth: The Kola Superdeep Borehole remains the deepest artificial point on Earth, though it only penetrated about one-third of the way through the continental crust.

Scientific Discoveries:

► Unexpected Heat: Temperatures at the bottom of the borehole reached

approximately 180 °C (356 °F), far higher than anticipated. This intense heat made drilling deeper impossible.

► Mineral Insights: Researchers discovered rocks that were over 2.7 billion

years old and contained microscopic fossils of single-celled organisms, providing evidence of ancient life.

► Discontinuity Findings: The project found no clear transition layer where

seismic waves indicate the Moho. Instead, it revealed a gradual change, challenging prior assumptions about the crust-mantle boundary.

Challenges and Results

• Technical Difficulties: Extreme heat and pressure caused equipment failures,

limiting the project's depth.

• Scientific Impact: The findings redefined many geological theories,

particularly about the Earth's crust's structure and behaviour under extreme conditions.

• Symbolic Value: The project demonstrated human ingenuity and ambition but

also the limits of technology in exploring Earth's interior.

Why Wasn't It Deeper?

Despite the ambitious plans, the combination of unexpected heat, pressure, and financial constraints ultimately curtailed the project. Drilling deeper would have required advances in technology that were unavailable at the time.

Perspective

To put this in context:

The Kola Superdeep Borehole only penetrated 0.2% of the Earth's total radius (~6,371 km). While it didn’t reach the mantle, it remains a testament to humanity’s determination to uncover the secrets of the Earth’s interior.” (Chatgpt)

When Crack in the World was made, Plate tectonics was not regarded as the dominant theory, although there was an awareness of the existence of major faults in the earth surface.

Tapping the earth for geothermal energy is am accepted part of the dependable renewal energy mix in today’s world albeit on a smaller and more sensible scale with considerably less risk to the planet!

As a disaster sci-fi movie, Crack In The World might as a result of budgetary constraints, disappoint some fans of the genre. However, the film relies much more on its pace and sense of urgency leading up a quite impressive climax. It is supplemented with a lot of stock footage which is at least seamlessly incorporated into the disaster scenes. Also, the personal the drama between the three leads parallels and intertwines well with the continuing existential threat of annihilation being faced.

Dana Andrews is a familiar face from drama and noir films of the 1950s. He gives a good performance as the complex Sorensen who gives his all to his work even at the expense of his relationship with his wife. He tries to suppress his fears of his own mortality and misdirects his anger toward his wife to the very point of risking their marriage by shutting out Maggie and forcing her back into the arms of Rampian. On top of all the drama of the love triangle, Soresnsen has to deal with the sense of personal error and guilt at being confronted with his responsibility for what he has caused to happen. Our view of Dana Andrew’s character alternates between sympathy and condemnation and that alone makes him a very real and relatable character.

With the character Maggie played by Janette Scott, there is also a strong feeling of relatable realism. How many of us have wound up in relationships that we perhaps shouldn’t have embarked on in the first place and had done so for the wrong reasons? We may have convinced ourselves it was all for love or a chance at security, but time and what life throws at us in the form of various crisis often highlights the hollowness of such foundations in some relationships.

It is pretty clear that Maggie still had strong feelings for Rampian and all it took for her to retrace her steps in his direction was her husband’s unwillingness to be open to her and his inability to respond emotionally to her. Both he and Maggie are trapped and it is no wonder that Maggie feels confused and isolated and turns to the one person who can remove that sense fo confusion and isolation. It might not be desirable or right but we are after all only human and we do make mistakes.

Art Direction and Design was by Eugene Lourie, who is featured in a tribute in my previous eBook, Sci-Fi Film Fiesta - Big Fat Book of Sci-Fi Films of the 1950s. The film’s climactic scene displays Lourie's work to good effect with a hellish visual feast of apocalyptic conflagration and devastation.

Finally, with so many developments taking place there days in such areas as computer technology, artificial intelligence, military technology, communications and so on, it now more than ever important that we stop and question such forms of progress. For instance;

• Who came up with this development?

• Why should it be considered necessary?

• What genuine need is it supposed to be addressing or fulfilling?

• What are the benefits?

• Who stands to gain?

• Who might stand to lose?

• What might be the possible consequences?

• If the potential costs are too high, can we do without it?

• Is it likely that vested interests will outweigh social good?

• Are people given a fair say in its implementation?

• Is its introduction facilitated largely via the promise of

• convenience and stealthily incorporated within

conditions of use?

• Is there legislative and legal backing to prevent the

introduction and implementation of damaging and dangerous developments?

• Who has ultimate control and say – Tech behemoths? Corporate billionaires?

Politicians? Autocrats? Oligarchs? OR, The majority of people likely to be affected?

Knowing the answers to such important questions may hold the key to our well-being and very survival.

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The films in this volume were shaped by the shadow of the Bomb and fears for the future of humanity, but their concerns extend far beyond Cold War geopolitics. They explore themes such as media responsibility, governmental secrecy, scientific hubris, youth rebellion, moral collapse, and the endurance—or fragility—of civilisation itself. The films are products of their time — yet they speak with unsettling clarity to our own. The themes and concerns they dealt with are not relics of the Cold War or a by-gone age but instead constitute enduring human dilemmas. They dare to ask whether humanity will mature in time… or merely continue to repeat its mistakes.

Recommended Resources

The resources featured below provide historical and cultural context, and critical insight into the anxieties that fuelled 1960s apocalyptic cinema.

I. Nuclear Anxiety & Cold War Culture

Boyer, Paul. By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.

A foundational study of how nuclear fear reshaped public consciousness. Essential background for understanding the psychological atmosphere behind The Day the Earth Caught Fire and This Is Not a Test.

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

A sweeping history of nuclear weapons development. Offers sobering real-world context for the scientific brinkmanship dramatised within the films of this volume.

Whitfield, Stephen J. The Culture of the Cold War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Explores how Cold War tensions permeated film, literature and politics.

Winkler, Allan M. Life Under a Cloud: American Anxiety About the Atom. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

Examines civil defence drills, fallout shelters, and atomic paranoia — invaluable for appreciating the survivalist mentality portrayed in This Is Not a Test.

II. Science Fiction Cinema & Apocalypse

Booker, M. Keith. Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Examines the symbolic evolution of nuclear imagery in cinema.

Broderick, Mick. Nuclear Movies: A Critical Analysis and Filmography. Jefferson: McFarland, 1991.

A key text analysing nuclear themes in post-war cinema. Particularly relevant to minimalist survival narratives.

Seed, David. American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

Shows how science fiction shifted from alien threats to internal human catastrophe as reflected in the Sci-Fi Fiesta sereis..

III. British Cinema & Media Responsibility

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Chapman, James. British Science Fiction Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. Insightful commentary on British genre film-making and Cold War politics. Offers useful context for Val Guest’s work.

Shaw, Tony. British Cinema and the Cold War. London: I.B. Tauris, 2001. Explores state influence, propaganda concerns, and media tension — central themes in any consideration of the role of whistle-blowers and government secrecy.

Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News. New York: Basic Books, 1978. A thoughtful study of journalism’s evolution. Enhances appreciation of the newsroom drama in The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

IV. Authority, Civil Defence & Social Breakdown

This Is Not a Test

Oakes, Guy. The Imaginary War: Civil Defense and American Cold War Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Essential reading for understanding the bureaucratic psychology and “button-up” mentality embodied by Deputy Sheriff Colter.

V. Online & Archival Resources

Atomic Heritage Foundation – Nuclear history materials

https://www.atomicheritage.org

British Film Institute (BFI) – Production essays and archival materials https://www.bfi.org.uk

Imperial War Museums (IWM) – Cold War documentation https://www.iwm.org.uk

The National Archives (UK) – Declassified government records https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – Doomsday Clock archive https://thebulletin.org

Suggested Further Viewing

Dr. Strangelove

Fail Safe

On the Beach

Planet of the Apes

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