Similar Films
- Alternative 3 (1977)
- Special Bulletin (1983)
- Countdown to Looking Glass (1984)
- Ghostwatch (1992)
- World War III (1998)
Special Bulletin featured a simulated newscast reporting on a nuclear terrorism incident in Charleston, South Carolina, while Countdown to Looking Glass, a Canadian production, combined simulated news footage with behind-the-scenes dramatics to tell the story of how a network covers the outbreak of a nuclear war. World War III is a German television mockumentary following the events immediately leading up to a global thermonuclear showdown as World War III begins.
Both Ghostwatch and Alternative 3 were British-produced faux documentaries that left viewers wondering what was real; Alternative 3 was broadcast in 1977 but to this day some conspiracy theorists insist the story was real.
At the end of Without Warning, viewers hear radio reports indicating the destruction of major cities (just before Vanocur's sign off). This ending is very similar to the ending of the 1978 musical version of War of the Worlds produced by Jeff Wayne.
Occasionally, DVD releases have included faux newscasts as special features to illustrate the apocalyptic events featured in the film as if the viewer were seeing the actual news reports. Examples include Independence Day, and the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. Several early episodes of the 1980s TV series V (about an alien invasion of earth) also began in faux-newscast style (featuring, like Without Warning, a real-life journalist, in the case of V, Howard K. Smith) until this gimmick was abandoned.
Read more about this topic: Without Warning (1994 film)
Famous quotes containing the words similar and/or films:
“... the truth is hidden from us. Even if a mere piece of luck brings us straight to it, we shall have no grounded conviction of our success; there are so many similar objects, all claiming to be the real thing.”
—Lucian (c. 120–c. 180)
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)