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American Blackout - 2 hour movie NatGeo

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#1 ·
I may be finding out late about this but, the National Geographic channel is airing a 2 hour fictionalized movie about a national grid down disaster.

The movie premiers Sunday October 27 at 9:00 pm. The national Geographic website describes the fictional story of a national power failure in the United States caused by a cyberattack. Sounds as if the attack is similar to an EMP attack, solar flare, or other kind of grid failure.

The site synopsis says the story "... is told in real time over ten days."

The synopsis describes the story as, "gritty, visceral and totally immersive, see what it takes to survive from day one, and who would be left standing when the lights come back on."

I'm not associated with NatGo in any way. I simply saw a teaser on the channel this morning and thought I would pass on information in which ya'll might be interested.
 
#60 ·
I just finished watching it - several observations that people already pointed out and I highly agree with:

  • There will be SOOOO many people standing or sitting around wondering 'when someone is coming to help' or 'why doesn't someone do something?'. You all know it will happen - but I'd bet it would be close to a majority in many(most?) areas of dense population.
  • You have to keep your cards close - but don't be a D*** to your neighbor who is asking for food. You need to build a community, you can't keep the whole world at bay, especially if your very own neighbors hate you. Giving him a few canned goods or better yet invite them over for a cookout or invite yourself over to their place for a cookout if you are so inclined - if they are begging for food I'm sure they wouldn't mind cleaning up the place to host your and your food.
  • The ending was the worst part of it - all the sudden electricity comes back on and everyone is hugs and rainbows. Ain't going to happen like that - even if power was 100% restored immediately (which is HIGHLY unlikely, if not impossible, it would be more like sections/cities coming up individually)
 
#64 · (Edited)
Like N.J. says above, I don't think it's wise to be a complete jerk with neighbors and refuse them anything. Especially if they know you have any kind of supplies at all. They will come looking. Like feeding a stray cat, once you just give them a handout, or they see you have it better than them by allowing them in your home, you will NOT see the end of them! Same goes for any "skills" you may have. After you help once, it will be expected that you'll be at their disposal all the time. And they'll happily spread word of it. So your "stray cat" will quickly multiply.

How in the world do you approach this correctly?
 
#65 · (Edited)
How does everyone keep what they have now but with force or the threat of force. That is what the police is for we are paying them to keep people from steeling what we got. And without the police and you had enough supplies you may even have to barter with someone for security. I would even bet if it was bad enough that just like there would be bands of thieves roaming around there would be mercenary groups for hire.
 
#69 ·
If you can't prep enough to feed the moocher that wants your stuff and you don't have the balls to take them out when they come for your stuff, you should just put your guns away and help them take everything you have, at least they might let you live til you have to go steal from someone else.

My preps, my gun. Your choice, leave empty handed or take my lead. Lead I will give away, just remember it comes at you quickly! No you can't have my what ever, leave or bang. No more talk.
 
#74 ·
I'm on a few gun forums and one of them had a thread about the movie. It was incredible the amount of negative reviews. Ok, negative review of a show is to be expected. I didn't see it but I'm sure we could all pick it apart.

But what got me was how many individuals said it would never happen or said that people have more food than a few days and wouldn't riot, or that FEMA would step in or that it would never get that violent. And it went on and on. Simply amazing.

Classic examples of pure ignorance. They are also probably amongst the low IQ voters. I hope none of them live near me.
 
#75 ·
I'm on a few gun forums and one of them had a thread about the movie. It was incredible the amount of negative reviews. Ok, negative review of a show is to be expected. I didn't see it but I'm sure we could all pick it apart.

But what got me was how many individuals said it would never happen or said that people have more food than a few days and wouldn't riot, or that FEMA would step in or that it would never get that violent. And it went on and on. Simply amazing.

Classic examples of pure ignorance. They are also probably amongst the low IQ voters. I hope none of them live near me.
That's scary. Not that they necessarily go hand in hand, but you would maybe expect gun owners to be a little more accepting of the possibilities.
 
#78 ·
I did find it funny that after 4 days virtually everybody was out of food. I can understand some people, or after a week or so, but really? Do most people only have a few days of food in their house?

As for handing out food to neighbors, I'd say give the something, but make it clear you won't/can't be taking care of them. As it was said, offer to help them hunt, or start a garden. Be friendly, but don't become Food Stamp/Welfare for them.
 
#88 ·
As for handing out food to neighbors, I'd say give the something, but make it clear you won't/can't be taking care of them. As it was said, offer to help them hunt, or start a garden. Be friendly, but don't become Food Stamp/Welfare for them.
The boyfriend wasn't that big of a dumbass by the end of the movie, but I'd still be livid with him for doing something without clearing it with the group. Honestly bug out dad was more of a moron than he was, they just tried their best to focus on him so it would be more dramatic when he finally picked up a rifle.
 
#79 ·
Sorry for the double post, but I finally had a chance to finish the movie/show. Few thoughts:

1. The Government was nothing but a well oiled machine in this, keeping order amongst the sheeple that it ruled over. It did everything quickly, and was perfect in everything that it did. There were no abuses of power, no mass desertions to take care of their own families, no problems of any kind. Hell, the UN was able to not only organize a massive aid program, but also to get it to the United States in a matter of hours or days. In the end, it wasn't people's wits, or abilities to survive, but rather Big Brother that saved them all. Come on, give me a break.

2. The "Prepper" was the most stereotypical "Elmer Fud" style character I've seen in a long, long time. He was always over excited, had very little in the way of people skills, maintained a "holier than thou" and "I'm better than you" attitude the entire time. Finally, he really didn't seem all that prepared other than having things. He sucked tactically, hadn't bothered to teach any skills to his family, and in general came off as an idiot. Definitely an attempt to portray Preppers as idiotic and the mentality pointless by NatGeo.

3. The FEMA or Red Cross camps seemed to be the only semi-sane places in America. We all know that is exactly how things have and will go down. I mean, c'mon guys, wasn't the Super Dome the finest example of a refugee camp?

4. How fast everything was. Days 1 and 2 had people saying "it's the end of the world". Most people on the show were out of food within 4-5 days. Things had gone to hell in a week. Power was back on in most places in 10 days. I'm not saying things couldn't fall apart that fast, but I think it would take longer for most places to devolve into chaos that quickly. And fixing it would definitely take longer than 10 days.
 
#80 ·
Statistic show that the average family of 4 has enough food in the house for less than 10 days. The average consumer visits the grocery store 2.2 times per week. In any crisis, stores will run out within days or hours. With just normal shopping, and no resupply, stores will run out in under 7 days. The math is easy as are seeing the results.
 
#85 ·
nobama must have written the story line, "The stupid American people" then told hollywood to do their thing. Government to the rescue my ass! An insult to any thinking American. But then think about the people from Hurricane Sandy and you can see how many people think, please help me government.
 
#89 · (Edited)
There are a lot of people who go to the store daily. Some go to the store once a month. Most people, in towns and cities go to the store to get food at least once a week and more often for milk and bread. Now, how many use cash when they go? How many use checks? Check cards? ATMs? Credit cards?
Without electricity stores won't be able to take checks - the verification system will be down, the same goes for cards leaving only cash. When we get food we spend $200 - $300 dollars for the three of us. Granted that is only about once every five weeks and it is to replace what we have used from the "pantry". We have enough stores for a year without changing our diet at all - well except for my milk. (don't even bring up dried or powdered milk- I will go without) Do you have enough cash to get one last haul from the store? Will you even go? I won't, unless it happens just seconds before our planned trip.

The fuel lasted a lot longer in the movie than it will in real life. Most of the big city hospitals have a weeks worth of "backup" power and most radio and TV stations have about the same. People use a tank of fuel in less than a week and have no reserve. I get fuel once a month or slightly less often and have a small reserve. The gas stations have to be filled at least weekly or they run out. Truckers need fuel once or twice a day and a lot of it. Trains need fuel at the end of each run because it cost money to haul the weight of full tanks so they run with just enough fuel to get where they are going plus about 10%. The same goes for aircraft. Without electricity to pump fuel everything will stop moving in a week or less.
The stores need to be resupplied at least every three days and the perishables will only last 48 hours without power. People will panic as soon as the second day. By the third day they will be thirsty enough to kill for drinking water or sick from drinking dirty water. After four days without food (seven days after the event) people will be in real need of food and the stores will be gutted so they will turn on others. I've gone through seven days without power in a good neighborhood and we worked together to make sure we were alright but we had support from the city (police, news, available goods and services) because the power outage was restricted to a small area of a big city. Even at that we had looters by the fifth day. I reported two of them and they were arrested by the police. We knew that this was only a short term event but if it had been nationwide we would have had to defend against the looters ourselves. That was a big reason for our move. Here we would have little problem defending ourselves - it would be expected. We are also not surrounded by 260000 people. There will be fewer people unprepared.

A nationwide power outage would be New Orleans after Katrina in every major population center in the country. It took FEMA two weeks to get into place - how long would it take to help just those cities east of the Mississippi? I don't know what the movie was trying to show but it showed a very civilized society remaining civilized when they were staring death in the face - it wouldn't be that nice.
 
#100 ·
A nationwide power outage would be New Orleans after Katrina in every major population center in the country. It took FEMA two weeks to get into place - how long would it take to help just those cities east of the Mississippi? I don't know what the movie was trying to show but it showed a very civilized society remaining civilized when they were staring death in the face - it wouldn't be that nice.
Although the Feds have a very large group of employees in FEMA, DHS, etc., how many will come to work to keep order in the big population centers and risk their family's safety at the hands of looters and the bad guys.
My sister-in-law is one of those who has two days of food in her pantry, at best. She has more cat food than food for herself. But then again, she knows where she is going if the SHTF. OPPS! Now she 1600 miles away. I'll have to ask if she has done any prepping since my wife and I left the Chicago area for AZ.
 
#91 ·
The movie should prove that it is necessary to be prepared but being prepared not only with stuff but mental preparation as much as you can.
Prepper dad was not at all prepared to defend his "stuff" or his family. If he had used his brain he could have gotten to a high point and taken all of the intruders out without placing himself or his family in any danger at all. He should have trained his kids to use the weapons too and let them carry a weapon while patrolling the grounds in small groups.

You should have many different plans and choices for every one thing that might go wrong. Different contingencies allow choices that are well thought out, unlike taking a double barreled shotgun to confront eight to ten desperate men.....
 
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#96 ·
Damn I love happy endings!!!!! Especially when all of those blown transformers are miraculously replaced! ::clapping::

I have many thoughts about the portrayal of "Prepper Dad", and most of them are unprintable. But seriously, if a dude spent that much time and $$$ prepping his "compound", why did he spend so little time planning to secure it beyond a wire fence and a young boy to stand guard? I discovered many years ago that TV (and movie) writers and reporters are idiots.
 
#102 ·
Watched it on YouTube. Interesting, it wasn't what I expected. I caught the factoid that there were 3 million preppers in the US, which works out to be a bit less than one in a hundred, I believe the figure may be understated, just a hunch.

I don't know quite what to make of their portrayal of a prepper. Since the general consensus among preppers is that bugging in is preferable to bugging out. Of course a well stocked prepper sitting tight and doing all the right things is not going to be nearly as dramatic or exciting.
 
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