Critical Assembly

TV Movie
2002
12
2h

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Two college students (Heigl and Smith) build a nuclear device, which is stolen by a fellow student. When it ends up in the hands of a terrorist, they work with an FBI agent (Beach) in a race... Read allTwo college students (Heigl and Smith) build a nuclear device, which is stolen by a fellow student. When it ends up in the hands of a terrorist, they work with an FBI agent (Beach) in a race against time.Two college students (Heigl and Smith) build a nuclear device, which is stolen by a fellow student. When it ends up in the hands of a terrorist, they work with an FBI agent (Beach) in a race against time.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.5/10

427

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
The film is a television thriller originally titled "Ground Zero" and scheduled to be broadcast in the fall of 2001. It was based on the bestselling James Mills novel The Seventh Power. The story centers around two students who build a nuclear device to illustrate the need for a change in national priorities; the device ends up in the hands of a terrorist following betrayal by a fellow student. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, however, the film was shelved when its plot was considered inappropriate. "Ground Zero" was deemed too direct of a reference to the name by which the World Trade Center site would become known and the film re-emerged in 2003 under the title "Critical Assembly".

User reviews4

Featured review

Another made-for-TV waste of time

I was looking forward to a taut suspenseful two hours but the only taut thing was Katherine Heigl's sweater.

A group of university almost grads decide to build an atomic bomb without a detonator just to prove they can. Of course, there's a little problem of getting enough plutonium to make the bomb viable - enter the bad guys. Most of the group thinks the plutonium was stolen from the stock at the university but of course the school doesn't really have that much and there is a more sinister backer in the wings.

The bad guys ultimately steal the bomb and add not only a detonator but a timer and anti-tamper protection which heroine Katherine has to bypass. The acting by all was credible but the story was just too much for a two-hour TV movie and never really developed a sense of tension.