A good scare
SCARY because earthquakes are the most terrifying natural disaster on the face of the earth and under it. Good because if a movie can be a teacher, why not?
“San Andreas” is not the most amusing movie of the season but for its timeliness and how it could jolt anyone out of his or her complacency toward earthquake preparedness, let it be screened in as many theaters as possible all over the country to help Francis Tolentino, Renato Solidum, and Dick Gordon spread the word to Drop, Cover, Hold when – not if – “the big one” cometh. At magnitude-7.2, more or less, like it or not.
The day after a magnitude-7.8 tremor hit Japan about 200 miles from Tokyo (as confirmed by our Ambassador Manolo Lopez), I gathered my guts to watch “San Andreas” in Greenhills, where it was being screened in two theaters. What I learned, apart from the D-C-H mantra, is to “get up to the roof” once all hell has broken loose and buildings are crumbling like a – well, like in a disaster movie. It helps to have at the ready batteries, cellphone or rotary phone, first-aid kit, fuel, speedboat, chopper (and a light airplane for backup, just in case the helicopter loses its blades), and one or two getaway vehicles (even if you have to steal one).
But the most effective protection comes in the form of a muscleman like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, someone who flies, swims, leaps, rappels, smashes doors and breaks down walls, knows when to hold your hand and wipes the tears from your cheeks. Supplementary characters might include a geologist, a seismologist -where do you live, Dr. Solidum? -- and a smart and loyal friend with positive vibes. Responders and rescuers would be a bright spot on the upside-down horizon, but in the chaos of a massive upheaval followed by a tsunami, how and where to find them?
In the movie, the earthquake strikes San Francisco in the US west coast and threatens to rumble to the east coast at intensity 9.5, growing to 9.6 “and it is not an aftershock,” warns the scientist in the story. Real-life scientists would say no such intensity is possible. But once you feel the earth moving under your feet, who cares about the numbers?
Earthquake facts and fiction are great for cinema. Oh, how fans of Orson Welles love that (true) story of how his account on radio of a “War of the Worlds” threw his listeners into a grand panic – to them, the “news report” had sounded like the real thing.