I should know better than to watch these TV movies, because I get so frustrated with their lack of originality. The last one I regretted watching was 10.5 - The Big One.

This one, aside from the special effects that is the only reason to tune in to see it, has:

A rebellious teen girl
A husband cheating on his wife
A young intern that figures out the big disaster before the many people with many years of experience do
The intrepid young female reporter who strives to do more than fluff stories
The evil corporate executive
And the one thing that made my jaw drop -- perhaps the most cliched of all disaster movie cliches -- A pregnant woman in a stuck elevator.

This show isn't as bad as 10.5, science-wise, as far as I can tell. It's just bad storytelling.

Fortunately I use the time while this is on doing something else (treadmill running -- gotta get something out of that time!!)

And they do the same thing that is currently irritating me about Enterprise's new season (and that 10.5 was guilty of too) -- showing what's going to happen in the next five minutes after the break! This is without a fadeout or any kind of warning. Not that anything is going to be spoiled here, but I do have more of an attention span than a gnat!

Yeah this one reminds me of the create a trek episode jokes I've seen in a few books and magazines. Brings the fine art of formula programming to a new level. Sometimes my wife and I though like to watch something totally vegging and laugh at how bad they are and this one most definately is unintentionally funny for all the reasons you pointed out. I can't wait for the second half. And yes I do hate how they show whats goign to be happening in just a few moments. Are they afraid that people wont be coming back after the commercials. (Actually that might be a real fear for them.)

Forgot one --
The grizzled old veteran who has been a friend of "the guy in charge" for many years (re:Fred Ward and Beau Bridges in 10.5). He even meets his doom doing exactly what his job was for the last many years (hey it was in the previews for next time, and I don't think it is possible to have spoilers for this type of show).

Let's see, who else is gonna buy it? I didn't watch the previews that closely so I may have missed some clues (and got none of these from the preview except what I noted above).

The energy guy(an adulterer)
The teen punk with the gun(you can't slap a woman and not pay for it)
Possibly the eeevil energy executive (but he was only in one scene, so I don't know...)
The hacker, whoever he/she is

And they have to have a couple "good guys" for pathos ---
The cameraman (the intrepid reporter's assistant never survives, BUT, he's virtually the only black man in the cast, so... he's gotta live, right? Maybe they'l just injure him badly.)
The lady with the pregnant girl (not really had much to do, but it will show just how close to danger the girl really was).

Some that are guaranteed to survive ---
The two kids
The intrepid reporter
The young intern
The put-upon wife.

Geez, I wonder if I could write one of these...

BTW, I haven't seen "The Day After Tomorrow" so I don't know how it compares. And how could they place it in Chigaco and not show Millennium Park?? That was the neatest thing I saw when I was there.

This tv movie seems to be basically a rip-off of the premise of The Day After Tomorrow, only the villians in this one are corrupt power companies (and not an administration that doesn't give a darn about the environment). The special effects aren't all that special either; they look cheap. Randy Quaid seems to be doing the same type of role he did in Independence Day, only this time he's been caught up in some cheesy looking Twister-knockoff tornadoes.

For human interest drama, Nancy McKeon (with awful looking dyed dark hair) plays a stereotypical driven reporter. Ten minutes into the film, we already get to see adultery being committed. It seems everyone wants to get in blondie's pants.

Ho-hum...

Looking forward to tonight, if only as an incentive to put two hours in on the treadmill...

I gave up on watching these TV movie ripoffs in 1974, after something called Terror on the 40th Floor. That was an awful Towering Inferno rip-off that NBC aired two months before Inferno was even released. This is a double waste - both of celluloid, and polycarbonate (it's now on DVD.)

Let's see, who else is gonna buy it?

The energy guy(an adulterer) Wrong
The teen punk with the gun(you can't slap a woman and not pay for it) Bingo!
Possibly the eeevil energy executive (but he was only in one scene, so I don't know...) Bingo!
The hacker, whoever he/she is Bingo!

And they have to have a couple "good guys" for pathos ---
The cameraman (the intrepid reporter's assistant never survives, BUT, he's virtually the only black man in the cast, so... he's gotta live, right? Maybe they'l just injure him badly.) Did I call this one or what!!
The lady with the pregnant girl (not really had much to do, but it will show just how close to danger the girl really was). Nope, but I bet that was edited out -- she went back for the tapes -- yeah, that's it...

Some that are guaranteed to survive ---
The two kids Bingo!
The intrepid reporter Bingo!
The young intern Bingo!
The put-upon wife. Bingo!

Geez, I wonder if I could write one of these...

I'm glad I trapped myself on the treadmill for this because the stupidity of what occurs on screen makes me want to break the TV sometimes.

The re-armed bank guard just lets the punk kid walk out the door, after having held everyone hostage, threatening them with murder, and shooting the girl??

They move the severely injured girl out to a mall bench -- why not just leave her in the bank? Then when her dad arrives (who provides NO additional help whatsoever), they walk/run her out of the mall!? Couldn't they have carried her out on the bench, or fashioned a stretcher?

The guys in the energy plant sure seem willing to let the hacker guy take over (and order them out of the room!) even after they knew he caused all the power problems in the first place. The union guys I know would have kicked his a** first.

If the pilot had bragged about being a new dad in the first part, I would have pegged him as a goner too. BUT, wasn't their duty to keep flying and reporting on the storm, and not take a side trip for a rescue of a few people? I could see it if the entire country was devastated, but obviously his command base was still intact. Doesn't he have orders to follow?

It would have been nice to see a picture of the Earth (or even a satellite pic) detailing the immensity of the storm.

And they still didn't show Millennium Park...

Grrr!! These movies really tick me off!!!

hehehe hey one other person you knew was goign to get it was Tornado Tommy. He made the rookie mistake of not paying attention to the area around him and concetrating on one tornado when he knew there where multiples around. Of course what gets me is that supposedly Chicago is in the middle of a cat 6 hurricane. More powerful than anything ever felt anywhere. And not only are people able to drive around and run screaming but they are able to stand, walk, change tires, hold a conversation, etc..... Oh well if they didnt have plot hols big enough for a hurricane to fly throuhg then it would have been a movie and we wouldnt have had as much fun picking it apart.

hehehe hey one other person you knew was goign to get it was Tornado Tommy.

Well, I didn't count that one because they showed it in the previews. Speaking of previews...

Last night was a classic example of why I detest the practice of showing previews for the next segment right before the commercials. Here we have the family desperately trying to make it to the airport to contact the plane in time. Cut to commercial -- but first -- here's a preview of what's gonna happen in the next five minutes!!! They show everybody on the plane being buffeted around by the storm. Kinda takes the "suspense" out of it, doesn't it?

Actually, at this point I didn't really care as I didn't have any emotional stock invested in this flick. But I knew I had to watch it, being ripe for nitpicking.

Man, I wish I had someone watching with me at the time -- I'd love to do an MST3K rip on a movie like this. But then I'd have to watch it again...

The part where the hacker was electricuted was so over the top it was ludicrous. Even sillier was the idea that the pilot had to fly the National Weather Plane to Chicago just to get his wife to a hospital. She'd deliver whether he came or not.

This disaster flick was faster paced than most of the previous ones, but these films are becoming flimsier and flimsier excuses for effects. Some nice shots of the Chicago skyline though!

...And what ever became of Randy Quaid and how his 'ride' ended?

Kind of reminded me of Slim Pickens' ride in Dr. Strangelove (only going the other way!).

He never was seen again, but there where always strange sounds in the skies of Chicago from that day onward.

...sounds like a possibility for a sequel; "Category 7: The Wrath of the Tornado Rider's Ghost".

The couch falling through the floor, and the
store exploding was taken from the Great Los
Angeles Earthquake (1990!) which was a much better
TV disaster movie, in fact, one of the best
earthquake movies I've ever seen.

I couldn't help but notice the lack of lightning
during the worst of the storm. The straight line winds also seemed amazingly weak for such a storm.

There were also palmtrees in some of the stock
footage they used to show Chicago getting hit
by the storm :-)

As for survivors, if there are any dogs or cats
in the show, they *must* live. It's OK for people to get killed, but *never* Poochie. X{

Aaaaa POOCHIE MUST
DIE IM SICK OF THE IMMORTAL DOG SYNDROME! I feel greatj
now.