Trivia for
The China Syndrome (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• All of the music in the film, including the title song "Somewhere In Between" by Stephen Bishop, comes from normal sources of music within the film: car radios, barroom jukeboxes, television commercials, etc. There is no traditional "soundtrack" of music that the audience can hear but the characters cannot.
  
  
• Stephen Bishop was brought on late in production to write the film's title song, "Somewhere In Between." Producers wanted a song to replace the one originally chosen for the titles, which they felt didn't fit the film. The original song was a then-unknown song called "What A Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers.
  
  
• The movie was released on March 16, 1979. By a bizarre irony, the disaster at the nuclear power plant at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island happened just 13 days later on March 28th.
  
  
• Richard Dreyfuss was originally cast as the cameraman but pulled out shortly before filming was to start and Michael Douglas, who also produced the film, was replaced in the role instead.
  
  
• Jane Fonda broke her ankle towards the end of shooting and had to be flown away for treatment. Scenes were shot around her after that, though through editing, it's hard to notice.
  
  
• The Ventana Powerplant was based on the experimental nuclear reactor that Rocketdyne operated at its Santa Susana Field Laboratory east of Thousand Oaks, California, in Ventura County. The Rocketdyne reactor also had numerous failures and accidents (due to its experimental nature, not shoddy workmanship), and was finally shut down, but to this day it remains in place as one of the first nuclear reactors in California.
  
  
• Michael Small composed a complete musical score for this film, but director James Bridges and the producers of the film did not like it. This is why the film was completely devoid of music except for the song sung by Stephen Bishop at the beginning of the film. In 2009 Intrada Records released and extremely limited (1000 copies) CD of Small's score which sold out in 24 hours.
  
  
• The model for the control room of the plant was based upon the control room at the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant in Rainier, Oregon (along the Columbia River). At the time, it was the only nuclear plant in the US to offer tours that included a tour of the gallery that looked down into the control room.
  
  
• This is one of only a few American movies where no music is played over the end credits.
  
  
• The movie's title is based on the theoretical but implausible notion that if a nuclear meltdown were to occur in the United States, the nuclear core would melt all the way through the Earth's core and emerge from the other side in China.
  
  
• California Gas & Electricity (CG&E) in the film is a thinly veiled reference to Pacific Gas & Electricity, (PG&E) which operates the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County, California.
  
  

• SPOILER: In the scene where Jack Godell notices that he is being followed while he is on his way to speak to the regulatory committee, he uses a speeding firetruck to make his break for freedom. That truck was "Engine 51" from the hit T.V. show, "Emergency!" (1972)
  
  

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