Customer Reviews

Without Warning

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

As the reviewer below mentioned, this made-for-TV movie is loosely based on Orson Welles's famous radio broadcast in 1938. The broadcast was based on the classic 1898 novel "War of the Worlds" in which seemingly-invincible, octopus-like Martians invade and lay waste to England before suddenly dying from a simple Earth virus. Welles took this sci-fi story and turned it into a disturbingly realistic, minute-by-minute radio news broadcast of Martians landing in the New Jersey countryside and then moving towards New York while destroying everything in their path. Welles intended for the broadcast to be a ratings-boosting Halloween "trick", but many people thought that it was a real news story and panicked, packed up their cars and families and headed for the hills to escape the Martian "invaders". In "Without Warning", CBS-TV attempted to do what Welles did on CBS radio decades earlier: present a frighteningly realistic TV News broadcast of an alien invasion of the Earth. The two-hour movie is presented as a genuine news broadcast - there's the typical TV newsroom you see on CNN or Fox News; there's the team of anchorpeople giving updates (to add to the realism Sander Vanocur, a real reporter who's covered Washington politics since President Kennedy, was hired to play the anchorman); and there's the "live" satellite feeds from around the world as the evidence rapidly mounts that the Earth is being visited by not-so-friendly aliens. And the story is at least as frightening as the Welles version so many years ago. Originally, reports come in of a large UFO that's been shot down by the Air Force; an entire town in Wyoming suddenly disappears, with empty cars lining the streets and people's half-eaten dinners sitting on their plates; a zombie-like little girl is found talking what appears to be "nonsense" (it's actually a message from the aliens), then a missing skier in Europe turns up spouting the same gibberish; then large asteroids are spotted heading for the Earth's major cities, poised to destroy them; and the US military in a hurried press conference announces their plan to destroy the asteroids before they hit the Earth. I won't give away anymore of the plot (the ending is a real chiller), but this fast-paced film grabs hold of you quickly and doesn't let go until the very end. I saw this movie by accident when it originally aired, and although I wasn't "fooled" (I'm a big fan of Orson Welles' original broadcast, so I knew it had to be fake), this film nevertheless is chilling to watch in its realism. If there ever is an alien invasion of the Earth (which I doubt), then this movie probably gives an accurate portrayal of how the TV news media would cover it. Highly recommended!

This is the television movie that stirred up a lot of trouble for CBS in 1994. Despite repeated disclaimers every commercial break, many viewers really thought this was real. Sound familar? It should. The style is loosely based on Orson Wells' War of the Worlds radio cast, where the story is told through breaking news coverage.
I worked at a CBS affiliate and scared people kept calling wanting to know if it was real.
Anyway, this is a fun movie. It is not HAMLET and is a bit over the top at times. But if you get into the spirit of things you might occasionally feel a chill go up your spine.

When I first saw this movie, it was during it's original broadcast on TV. I was 11 and I begged my parents to let me watch it, depite the numerous disclaimers. We'll even now I think I should have skipped watching it. This movie was the source of most of my nightmares as a child. The 'Orson Welles Factor' really worked on me back then, and I knew it was just a show. It was chilling to the very end, I can still see the ending shot in my head as clear as it was when I watched it in the 90's.

Offered as a tribute to Orson Wells' famous Panic Broadcast, another attempt is made to tell a tale of alien involvement as if it were really happening. This time actual news people play themselves (like in the movie DAVE). These include Bree Walker Lampley and Sander Vanocur. The effect is ruined a little when one of the first on-scene reporters is played by John DeLancie (Q of Star Trek fame). The story opens with the report of an earthquake. It quickly turns out that the quake was caused by a massive meteor strike. Then there are reports of two others around the globe. At the US location, Bree Walker covers a story about a young girl found at the site of the impact. Then it is revealed that the three strikes hit at the same time and that they form a pattern. This is too much for coincidence. There must be intelligence behind it.

As the story progresses, another meteor is detected coming in. The military mobilizes to eliminate the massive meteor. The news plays up on the doomsday aspect of the meteor and its existence affects how the news is being covered. Then the full scale of what is going on is revealed.

This was quite well done. I missed out on some of the subtleties as I was not originally familiar with the news services being used when it was first aired. Now that it is on DVD the names are familiar but some of the other cast have become very well known (like Jane Kaczmarek who plays the science correspondant). It also played up on some moder indeas that a threat from space could just pelt us with rocks instead of coming down and fighting face to face. Well done. Check it out.

This film used "The War of the Worlds" radiocast as a format. Sander Vanocur and Bree Walker played themselves doing a newscast of an series of events. Several other reporters played themselves as well. This film also featured a pre "Malcolm in the Middle" Jane Kaczmarek as an expert commentator and a pre "Q" (Star Trek) John de Lancie as a field reporter.

I remember that CBS ran notices that what we were seeing was not real at every commecial break. This film is fun and a little thought provoking: do we make sure we understand what we are responding to before we respond?

Now....can someone dig up "Special Bulletin" and put that out on DVD?

I bought this movie because I was told that some people thought the events portrayed were as real as believed when War of the Worlds aired. My response to that statement would have to be 'oh, gimme a break!'

This film revolves around the news coverage of supposed asteroid strikes and evolves into possible alien contact. It's left rather fuzzy whether said contact was friendly or unfriendly but, in the end, it ends up not mattering in the least.

The "news coverage" was laughable. It makes me want to see all the depicted evicts happen for real and get covered by CNN. ;-P

The saving grace of this movie was its ending when we're led to believe that we've been asteroided out of existence. At least I *think* that was the general idea. So there, planet Earth, take that!

Want to snicker through the hour and a half or so of this mess? Go for it. It would be worth it if only to imagine such events really happening and how news coverage would really evolve. ;-)

Without WarningI remember the night it aired on CBS, I didn't know anything about it and neither did any of my family! We were all coming home from church and when I came in the door the phone was ringing! It was my kids all in a panic telling me to turn on the TV , something terrible was happening! Of course I ran to the tv and stood there looking and listening and my heart started to race!! It was so real I didn't know what to tell them, I was trying to calm them all down, I even had one of my kids to jump in their car and came racing to my house because they were so scared! Thankfully , the commercial finally came on and they announced that it was only a movie and it wasn't real, you can imaging how silly we all felt when we discovered that it was just a program for entertainment! Well I spent years after that trying to find out the name of it,( back then I didn't have a pc) always asking people if they remembered the name. Thanks to the Amazon forum someone did remember the name and I was determined to buy it somehow!
I am still shaken when I watch it, it is still a very real feeling to me! I love this movie I think because it can happen, it gives me a sense of dread that asteroids can possibly hit the earth and reek havoc! I don't know about others but I love it and my kids love it too! My neighbor came walking in when I was watching it and it had them going for a few minutes until I told them what it was, I got really tickled!! lol! I think if a person wanted to pull a prank on someone this would be a good way to do it if they had never seen this one! I certainly do not regret buying it! Thanks, Amazon!!!

"Without Warning" is a truly unique TV movie in that for the most part, it does not rely on fancy special effects or well known actors to tell a good story. Rather, it tells the story of how our own arrogance may cost us dearly, and how it is so easy for us in our modern world to ignore simple signals that portent either salvation or doom.

Shot in "newsroom style," "Without Warning" captures the viewer and doesn't let them go... even at the very end. Sander Vanocur and Bree Walker plays themselves, while John DeLancie and James Morrison play slightly dramatic yet believable reporters who are caught in the middle of the most important news story ever broadcast. The reactions of the government, the scientists and the philosophers all mesh well with the plot and the ending truly shows humankind's hubris and the inevitable result.

Sixteen years later, it still effects people who saw it. If nothing else, that is a testament to the power of a wonderfully made TV movie with a powerful story and a real message for us all.

My son and I watched this on UK tv years ago; we loved it! I knew who Sander Vanocur was from having lived 10 years in the US, so I thought it was a great touch. Well acted and well scripted; it wasn't trying for great cinema, just an entertaining tv movie. Sure it has overtones of War of the Worlds, but who cares? Almost like an X-File; its documentary style makes it the more believable. Watch and be entertained!

Since about the age of 8, when I first started to be discriminating with respect to the movies I watched, I have LOATHED predictable "Hollywood endings" and plot NON-twists. (Starting with: "How come the Indians ALWAYS lose in the Westerns? No adult was ever able to answer that question! And... "Isn't it odd that with all those bullets flying around, the RIDERS in cowboys-and-Indians battles get shot, but the HORSES, despite being much larger, NEVER seem to?" And, "WHY does the toddler in the middle of the street NEVER get pulverized by a stagecoach, truck, or steamroller? Why can't the writers ever SURPRISE us?" And, of course, there is the perennial, "WHY do the 'good guys' ALWAYS win out in the end?")

My disdain for the usually-boring predictable hasn't changed one iota in 60 years! If I could have seen this movie as an 8-year-old, I not only would have LOVED it as much as I did decades later, when it was created and broadcast -- but it would have given me hope for the future back then that movie/TV writers and directors actually COULD... at least occasionally... really SURPRISE us! Such creativity is 'way, 'WAY too rare!! And REMAINS so as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close. And that is really sad!!

If I had my druthers, HALF of all films and TV shows would deliver the unexpected. That way, we could NEVER find them predictable.

If your ratings had allowed for it, I would have awarded this show TEN stars! This is one of the MOST enjoyable movies I've seen in my lifetime -- and I am SO lucky to have found it on DVD in here 5 years or so ago when it could still be obtained for under ten dollars! Now, apparently, people are discovering what a treasure it truly is!