- Four friends take a road trip from Colorado to California's Pacific Coast as a vacation and, while frolicking upon a beach shortly after their arrival, they hear a radio news broadcast that tells of a full nuclear war beginning between Russia and the United States with California being one target. Fortunately for the stunned travelers, a young man who proffers use of his late grandfather's nearby bomb shelter and accompanied by a woman met at the beach, speed to the shelter, reaching it immediately prior to a ground rocking nuclear explosion. Two small rooms that comprise the shelter become the setting for the remainder of this movie which develops into a largely character focused drama, tension mounting due to cramped conditions, an aura of hopelessness, and the six characters displaying their true selves, conflicts among the group becoming nearly unendurable, finally resolving themselves by acts of passionate violence.—Larry B.
- A group of four friends are on a road trip to the California coast: everyman Russell, lovable loser Paul, jokester Cyrus, and grizzled Vietnam veteran Stan. They stop for gas and have a minor fender bender with a beautiful woman named Amber in the parking lot. Once they get to the beach, their Jeep gets stuck in the sand and a friendly stranger, Kincaid, tries in vain to get them out.
All six end up around a bonfire on the beach when their radio starts warning about a full-scale nuclear war. Kincaid says his grandpa had an old fallout shelter nearby and they all head that way. A huge explosion rocks the place seconds after they enter. They're now trapped in a claustrophobic space: one large concrete room and a smaller darkened storeroom in the back.
After Cyrus gets the generator working, Stan insists they stay inside indefinitely and assigns them all work to do. Paul chafes and wants out, and has a nightmare about opening the door into a dark hellscape and seeing the Horseman of Death. Kincaide gives Paul his grandpa's WWII pistol he found and manipulates him into plotting against Stan. Cyrus catches Paul practicing his quick-draw in the storeroom and rats him out to Stan, who steals the gun that night and beats Paul into submission. Stan then grows suspicious of Russell for the diary he's writing and the time he spends with Amber in the storeroom (where he's slept with her and she's opened up about her history of sexual abuse). He steals the diary and forces Russell to read it: some grousing about Stan and confessing love for Amber.
After somebody tries sabotaging the generator, there's a big fight. Paul steals the gun in the confusion, destroys the generator, then shoots himself. While Russell takes charge and organizes a caravan for them to leave the now-unsustainable shelter, Stan talks Cyrus into siding with him. Cyrus detains Russell and Kincaide while Stan forces himself on Amber. Russell convinces Cyrus to change sides, and they all rush Stan. Stan tries to shoot Russell, but Cyrus takes the bullet in the heart. Russell fights with Stan and pushes him into the sparking generator, electrocuting him.
The three survivors (Russell, Amber, Kincaide) steel themselves and emerge... into a beautiful sunny day. While the first two gawk at the sight and the realization their suffering was for nothing, Kincaide slips away to a nearby unmarked van driven by a man with a headset. Turns out he was a plant and the whole thing was some military/scientific psych experiment -- fake radio broadcast, cameras watching everything, it's not even the first time they've done it. He orders a "mop-up crew" to come in and clean up the situation and they drive off.
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