Without Warning
Unclear and Present Danger
Jamelle Bouie
4.7 • 660 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s episode, Jamelle and John discuss “Without Warning,” a made-for-television science fiction film from 1994, produced as if it were an actual breaking news event, with “reports” from on-the-ground correspondents from around the world. They discuss the inspiration for this “docudrama” genre as well as the general wave of “asteroid attack” films in the 1990s. They also talk the psychology behind the idea that a global disaster would bring humanity together (under American leadership, of course).
Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.
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We’ll see you in two weeks with “The Rocketeer,” a science-fiction adventure film from 1991, directed by Joe Johnston and starring Billy Campbell and Jennifer Connelly. It’s available to rent on Amazon and iTunes and available on Disney Plus.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 56 years ago tonight, America was shaken to its core by War of the Worlds, |
| 0:05.0 | Orson Well's classic radio broadcast about an alien invasion of Earth from Mars. |
| 0:11.0 | Many Americans believed visitors from outer space had actually landed, and there was nationwide panic. |
| 0:17.0 | It was the most startling radio broadcast of all time. On tonight's anniversary of War of the Worlds, |
| 0:23.6 | CBS presents another story, perhaps as disturbing and equally alarming. |
| 0:28.6 | What you are about to see is pure fiction. |
| 0:31.6 | It is not actually happening, but could events depicted in this special program someday take place? |
| 0:38.3 | Judge for yourself. |
| 0:40.3 | Without Warning. |
| 0:44.3 | Without Warning, sponsored by Advil, Advanced Medicine for Pain. |
| 0:51.3 | No non-prescription pain reliever has been proven more effective or longer lasting than Advil. Welcome to Unclear and present danger, a podcast about the political and military thrillers of the 1990s, and what they say about the politics of that decade. |
| 1:28.7 | I'm Jamel Bowie. I'm a columnist for the New York Times opinion section. |
| 1:31.9 | My name is John Gans. I write a substack newsletter called Unpopular Front, and I'm working on |
| 1:37.2 | a book about American politics in the early 1990s. This week we are discussing without |
| 1:42.5 | warning. I'm made for for television science fiction film from |
| 1:45.7 | 1994 produced as if it were an actual breaking news event with reports from on the ground |
| 1:53.2 | correspondence from around the world. It was directed, this is interesting to me, by Robert |
| 1:57.9 | Iscove, Iscove, I think's how you say his name, otherwise known for the |
| 2:02.2 | Freddie Prince Jr. and Rachel Lee Cook film, She's All That. Oh, really? Which a movie, |
| 2:08.8 | a movie I like. Yeah, it stars some actual news anchors, specifically Sander Van Oaker, |
| 2:16.9 | and then also a bevy of character actors, including Jane Casmeric, |
| 2:22.7 | who you'll recognize from the sitcom Malcolm in the middle, and Philip Baker Hall, who you'll |
... |
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