Category 6: Day of Destruction
Encyclopedia
Category 6: Day of Destruction is a 2004 four-hour miniseries
that was broadcast in the United States on CBS
in two parts, with the first part aired on November 14 and the second on November 17. It was later released to DVD on February 15, 2005. The miniseries focuses primarily on the city of Chicago as three unusual storm systems approach from the west, north and south and combine over the city to form a massive hurricane. At the same time a hacker
-induced power outage
cuts communications leaving a journalist
and power officials scrambling to find the cause.
The miniseries was a success for CBS in terms of ratings, as it was the highest-rated movie for the channel in two years, and it earned the highest ratings during the November sweeps week with 19.4 million viewers watching the first part. Critics were less favorable towards the film, with most panning the film for its dialog, implausible science, and poor acting. Some reviewers did praise the film's high-budget special effects and felt the film had at least some "charm." In November 2005 a four-hour sequel, Category 7: The End of the World
, aired in the same two-part format.
) is a week away from a forced retirement from his position as chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service
storm prediction center. However, tornadoes level Las Vegas
, an area normally not prone to the storms. Concerned and upset that the storm system formed unnoticed and that they were unable to warn the people, Goodman begins closely tracking the system. Goodman receives field reports from his friend "Tornado Tommy" (Randy Quaid
) and assistance from new intern Sabrina Rogers (Alicia Johnston). As time passes, he realizes the system is heading towards Chicago, joined by an unusual warm storm coming from the south, which is already causing a record-breaking heat wave
in the city, and an abnormally early cold front
from the Arctic.
Meanwhile, Mitch Benson (Thomas Gibson
), the Chief of Operations at Midwest Electric, is struggling to keep power going to the residents because the six-week heat wave is straining the system and residents are refusing to follow power conservation requests. To get more energy, he is working with the company's largest supplier, Lexer, but the company's CEO is trying to find new ways to profit from this crisis. Benson also finds himself caught in a conflict of interest as he is having an affair with the Lexer's public relations representative, Rebecca Kerns (Chandra West
).
Ambitious reporter Amy Harkin (Nancy McKeon
) is stuck reporting on the heat wave while trying to find proof behind the scenes that Lexer and Midwest are responsible for the lack of sufficient power. The Secretary of Energy, Shirley Abbott (Dianne Wiest
), is actively warning various politicians and the president that the power grid is too outdated to handle real natural disasters and that it is too vulnerable to attack. Dan London (Ari Cohen), the chief engineer of Lexer, has also repeatedly warned Lexer that their systems are too vulnerable to hackers, but the company is only interested in going with the cheapest options. He decides to blow the whistle
on the company to Harkin, but as he refuses to appear on camera, Harkin's boss will not allow the piece to air.
As the storms approach, early storms knock out the city's primary power generating plant, and Benson is forced to negotiate with Lexer for even more power. Not realizing the devastating nature of the storms coming, London sets out to force Lexer to listen to his warnings by hacking the system and causing a cascading chain reaction that knocks out all of the power in Chicago. Goodman and his team are unable to warn the citizens that the storms have formed into a category 6 hurricane over the Great Lakes
and will hit Chicago head on.
Harkin realizes what happened to the power and rushes to find London, while Benson and Secretary Abbott gather energy from a multitude of other companies to get around the breakdown at Lexer. Unaware of what each party is doing, London quickly reverses the hacks at the same time as the energy starts flowing in from other companies. This overloads the system, knocking out the entire Midwest power grid as the storm hits the city.
Unable to do anything further, Benson rushes to find his family after he receives word that they are trapped at a mall and that his daughter has been accidentally shot by her ex-boyfriend. Harkin gives Benson a ride to the mall to pick up his family, then they go to rescue her pregnant sister-in-law from an elevator. After Amy's cameraman is injured while rescuing her sister-in-law, Harkin stays behind with him and their neighbor. The others rush to reach the airport during the 15-minute eye of the hurricane, where they are picked up in a plane piloted by Harkin's brother, an air force
weather pilot. After the storm passes, Harkin keeps her promise and tells London's story on air.
setup, where the special effects were added during editing, with live shots taken with the effects in place at the same time. Nancy McKeon
, who was pregnant with her first child during production, filmed some of her scenes using a green screen. She found the experience to be fun, noting that it challenges actors to use their imaginations while performing. She also found it easy to play a television reporter due to her being a self-admitted "news junkie."
Unable to find wind machines powerful enough to mimic hurricane force winds, Sertner brought in a jet engine
to aim at the actors and props during necessary scenes. Three dimensional storyboards, called animatics, were used to allow the filmmakers to see what a scene would look like before shooting, using a digital version of the actors. The various weather scenes blended together stock footage
of real natural disasters with the computer-generated shots, with care taken to match up the details of the various scenes.
as a two-part, four-hour miniseries. The first part aired on Sunday, November 14, 2004, and the second followed on Wednesday, November 17, 2004. It was later aired in Australia on February 12, 2005.
The miniseries was first released to Region 1 DVD by CBS Television on February 15, 2005. On February 13, 2007, Lions Gate Entertainment
released it, together with fellow disaster miniseries 10.5, as a two feature set.
, as 19.4 million viewers tuned in to the first part of the film and made it the channel's best-rated Sunday night movie in over two years. The second part was watched by 17 million viewers, the highest number of viewers for the channel on a Wednesday night for the fall season. Together, the two parts helped to push the channel to the top spot for the year's November sweeps week.
Despite the high ratings, the film was generally panned by critics, except for almost universal praise for the high-budget special effects. New York Magazines John Leonard found it lacking compared to the feature film The Day After Tomorrow
, though he did feel it had a certain "raffish zombie charm." Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News
called it a "third-rate disaster flick — with lame dialogue, voodoo science and wooden performances — spread out over two nights and four seemingly endless hours." Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star agreed, feeling the filmmakers spent their budget on special effects to the detriment of the film's dialog. He called the film an "assault on common sense" for positing the idea that the power outage would keep everyone in Chicago from knowing that "something bad" was coming. Daily Variety found the film to be full of clichés and felt the side plots gave the appearance that the film was cast first and that the plot had been written to work around the actors. In comparing the film to a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
, the magazine notes that it had "two or more disastrous taste treats providing a very loud macro backdrop to the micro tales that play out involving the characters." Kay McFadden of the Seattle Times also felt the storm became a backdrop "for a contrived soap opera that could take place in sunshine or rain" and that the special effects were fun, but did not feel properly integrated into their scenes.
The Chicago Tribune
s Sid Smith found the film to be "pretty lousy, despite a wealth of impressive special effects that end with an image of a completely demolished Chicago skyline." He found the plot to be overly melodramatic and "hokey" with an excessive amount of coincidences and ill-fortunes thrown at the characters, despite the performances of the star-studded cast. Australia's The Age
gave the film a slightly more favorable review, praising the stunts and special effects, though it noted the effects suffer from poor computer editing and referred to the film as "a little entertaining supertrash" that does require one to not think too much about the science to enjoy.
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
that was broadcast in the United States on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in two parts, with the first part aired on November 14 and the second on November 17. It was later released to DVD on February 15, 2005. The miniseries focuses primarily on the city of Chicago as three unusual storm systems approach from the west, north and south and combine over the city to form a massive hurricane. At the same time a hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
-induced power outage
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
cuts communications leaving a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and power officials scrambling to find the cause.
The miniseries was a success for CBS in terms of ratings, as it was the highest-rated movie for the channel in two years, and it earned the highest ratings during the November sweeps week with 19.4 million viewers watching the first part. Critics were less favorable towards the film, with most panning the film for its dialog, implausible science, and poor acting. Some reviewers did praise the film's high-budget special effects and felt the film had at least some "charm." In November 2005 a four-hour sequel, Category 7: The End of the World
Category 7: The End of the World
Category 7: The End of the World is a 2005 four-hour television film miniseries that was broadcast in the United States on CBS in two parts, the first part aired on November 6 and the second on November 13. A sequel to the 2004 miniseries Category 6: Day of Destruction, this film starts directly...
, aired in the same two-part format.
Plot
Andy Goodman (Brian DennehyBrian Dennehy
Brian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...
) is a week away from a forced retirement from his position as chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
storm prediction center. However, tornadoes level Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, an area normally not prone to the storms. Concerned and upset that the storm system formed unnoticed and that they were unable to warn the people, Goodman begins closely tracking the system. Goodman receives field reports from his friend "Tornado Tommy" (Randy Quaid
Randy Quaid
Randall Rudy "Randy" Quaid is an American actor perhaps best known for his role as Cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon's Vacation movies, as well as his numerous supporting roles in films, including his Oscar nominated performance in The Last Detail, Independence Day, Kingpin and Brokeback Mountain...
) and assistance from new intern Sabrina Rogers (Alicia Johnston). As time passes, he realizes the system is heading towards Chicago, joined by an unusual warm storm coming from the south, which is already causing a record-breaking heat wave
Heat wave
A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. There is no universal definition of a heat wave; the term is relative to the usual weather in the area...
in the city, and an abnormally early cold front
Cold front
A cold front is defined as the leading edge of a cooler mass of air, replacing a warmer mass of air.-Development of cold front:The cooler and denser air wedges under the less-dense warmer air, lifting it...
from the Arctic.
Meanwhile, Mitch Benson (Thomas Gibson
Thomas Gibson
Thomas Ellis Gibson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Daniel Nyland in the Medical drama series Chicago Hope, as Greg Montgomery in the comedy series Dharma & Greg, and as Supervisory Special Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner in the highly-popular CBS drama, Criminal...
), the Chief of Operations at Midwest Electric, is struggling to keep power going to the residents because the six-week heat wave is straining the system and residents are refusing to follow power conservation requests. To get more energy, he is working with the company's largest supplier, Lexer, but the company's CEO is trying to find new ways to profit from this crisis. Benson also finds himself caught in a conflict of interest as he is having an affair with the Lexer's public relations representative, Rebecca Kerns (Chandra West
Chandra West
-1990s:West's career began in 1991 when she played a small part in the television series True Confections, a 1950s conservative drama about a woman with an ahead-of-her-time awareness...
).
Ambitious reporter Amy Harkin (Nancy McKeon
Nancy McKeon
Nancy Justine McKeon is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Jo Polniaczek on the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life.-Early life & career:...
) is stuck reporting on the heat wave while trying to find proof behind the scenes that Lexer and Midwest are responsible for the lack of sufficient power. The Secretary of Energy, Shirley Abbott (Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest
Dianne Wiest is an American actress. She has had a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has won two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Wiest has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award.-Early life:...
), is actively warning various politicians and the president that the power grid is too outdated to handle real natural disasters and that it is too vulnerable to attack. Dan London (Ari Cohen), the chief engineer of Lexer, has also repeatedly warned Lexer that their systems are too vulnerable to hackers, but the company is only interested in going with the cheapest options. He decides to blow the whistle
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
on the company to Harkin, but as he refuses to appear on camera, Harkin's boss will not allow the piece to air.
As the storms approach, early storms knock out the city's primary power generating plant, and Benson is forced to negotiate with Lexer for even more power. Not realizing the devastating nature of the storms coming, London sets out to force Lexer to listen to his warnings by hacking the system and causing a cascading chain reaction that knocks out all of the power in Chicago. Goodman and his team are unable to warn the citizens that the storms have formed into a category 6 hurricane over the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
and will hit Chicago head on.
Harkin realizes what happened to the power and rushes to find London, while Benson and Secretary Abbott gather energy from a multitude of other companies to get around the breakdown at Lexer. Unaware of what each party is doing, London quickly reverses the hacks at the same time as the energy starts flowing in from other companies. This overloads the system, knocking out the entire Midwest power grid as the storm hits the city.
Unable to do anything further, Benson rushes to find his family after he receives word that they are trapped at a mall and that his daughter has been accidentally shot by her ex-boyfriend. Harkin gives Benson a ride to the mall to pick up his family, then they go to rescue her pregnant sister-in-law from an elevator. After Amy's cameraman is injured while rescuing her sister-in-law, Harkin stays behind with him and their neighbor. The others rush to reach the airport during the 15-minute eye of the hurricane, where they are picked up in a plane piloted by Harkin's brother, an air force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
weather pilot. After the storm passes, Harkin keeps her promise and tells London's story on air.
Production
Executive producer Bob Sertner wanted the film to have higher-end special effects to mimic the quality of those seen in feature films. To do this, the film uses visual computer effects created by special effects company Area 51 FX, which created over 100 different shots using the digital modeling program LightWave 3D. During shooting, special effect supervisor Craig Weiss noted that the scenes with Randy Quaid were particularly difficult to capture on film due to his appearing in multiple scenes where his character was chased by twisters and surrounded by their destructive aftermaths. The actors also faced new challenges, as the film often replaced traditional green screenGreen Screen
The Green Screen international wildlife film festival is held annually in Eckernförde, Germany. The festival shows full-length and short nature documentaries about animals in their natural habitat. It is the only festival of its kind in Germany...
setup, where the special effects were added during editing, with live shots taken with the effects in place at the same time. Nancy McKeon
Nancy McKeon
Nancy Justine McKeon is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Jo Polniaczek on the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life.-Early life & career:...
, who was pregnant with her first child during production, filmed some of her scenes using a green screen. She found the experience to be fun, noting that it challenges actors to use their imaginations while performing. She also found it easy to play a television reporter due to her being a self-admitted "news junkie."
Unable to find wind machines powerful enough to mimic hurricane force winds, Sertner brought in a jet engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
to aim at the actors and props during necessary scenes. Three dimensional storyboards, called animatics, were used to allow the filmmakers to see what a scene would look like before shooting, using a digital version of the actors. The various weather scenes blended together stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
of real natural disasters with the computer-generated shots, with care taken to match up the details of the various scenes.
Release
Category 6 was initially aired in the United States on CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
as a two-part, four-hour miniseries. The first part aired on Sunday, November 14, 2004, and the second followed on Wednesday, November 17, 2004. It was later aired in Australia on February 12, 2005.
The miniseries was first released to Region 1 DVD by CBS Television on February 15, 2005. On February 13, 2007, Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
released it, together with fellow disaster miniseries 10.5, as a two feature set.
Reception
The miniseries was highly successful for CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, as 19.4 million viewers tuned in to the first part of the film and made it the channel's best-rated Sunday night movie in over two years. The second part was watched by 17 million viewers, the highest number of viewers for the channel on a Wednesday night for the fall season. Together, the two parts helped to push the channel to the top spot for the year's November sweeps week.
Despite the high ratings, the film was generally panned by critics, except for almost universal praise for the high-budget special effects. New York Magazines John Leonard found it lacking compared to the feature film The Day After Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...
, though he did feel it had a certain "raffish zombie charm." Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
called it a "third-rate disaster flick — with lame dialogue, voodoo science and wooden performances — spread out over two nights and four seemingly endless hours." Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star agreed, feeling the filmmakers spent their budget on special effects to the detriment of the film's dialog. He called the film an "assault on common sense" for positing the idea that the power outage would keep everyone in Chicago from knowing that "something bad" was coming. Daily Variety found the film to be full of clichés and felt the side plots gave the appearance that the film was cast first and that the plot had been written to work around the actors. In comparing the film to a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are a brand of candy filled with peanut butter and a chocolate cover, marketed by The Hershey Company. They were created in 1928 by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. Reese was inspired by Hershey, so he left the dairy farm to...
, the magazine notes that it had "two or more disastrous taste treats providing a very loud macro backdrop to the micro tales that play out involving the characters." Kay McFadden of the Seattle Times also felt the storm became a backdrop "for a contrived soap opera that could take place in sunshine or rain" and that the special effects were fun, but did not feel properly integrated into their scenes.
The Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
s Sid Smith found the film to be "pretty lousy, despite a wealth of impressive special effects that end with an image of a completely demolished Chicago skyline." He found the plot to be overly melodramatic and "hokey" with an excessive amount of coincidences and ill-fortunes thrown at the characters, despite the performances of the star-studded cast. Australia's The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
gave the film a slightly more favorable review, praising the stunts and special effects, though it noted the effects suffer from poor computer editing and referred to the film as "a little entertaining supertrash" that does require one to not think too much about the science to enjoy.