Synopsis

When a prolonged blackout strikes Southern California, a young couple with a sick infant discovers how quickly ordinary life can unravel. With telephones, stores, transportation, and law enforcement disrupted, the family joins a friend on a dangerous journey toward safety. As fear and suspicion spread, their struggle for medicine, gasoline, and protection forces them to confront the fragile social order they once took for granted.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was inspired in part by the British documentary series Connections, which examined chains of cause and effect in technological history.

• Another major influence was the 1960 The Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," which also depicts a community descending into fear and suspicion after a mysterious loss of power.

• The screenplay reportedly went through 12 drafts before production.

• Made for approximately $8 million, the film occupied an unusual middle ground: expensive for an independent production but modest by studio standards.

• Principal photography took place from July 31 through September 22, 1995. Locations included Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Los Alamitos, California.

• A real power failure affecting nine Western states occurred shortly before the film's August 30, 1996 theatrical release. Distributor Gramercy Pictures quickly incorporated the event into its advertising campaign.

• The distant nuclear facility visible during the highway sequence is the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station in California.

• The film received mixed reviews, with critics often praising its tense atmosphere, visual style, and performances while finding fault with its comparatively conventional ending.

• A novelization by Dewey Gram was published by Berkley Books in September 1996.

• The film later received home-video releases on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray.