Claire Winslaw, une éminente sismologue, et son équipe étudient une inquiétante série de secousses aux environs de Los Angeles. Ils acquièrent la certitude qu'un énorme séisme est sur le point de se produire. Elle avertit les pouvoirs locaux, mais ceux-ci, craignant une panique générale, décident d'ignorer ses prévisions catastrophiques. Après une nouvelle secousse, l'alerte est donnée, mais, pour beaucoup, il est déjà trop tard...
The big one: the great los angeles earthquake is a chilling, well-made disaster film that was made-for-tv and aired on nbc back in the fall of 1990 as a two-part movie. joanna kerns (star of tv's growing pains) stars as a seismologist who worries that the earthquake of the title is going to strike los angeles. but before she can make her prediction, she crosses paths with her family members, co-workers, and city officials. the movie is long at times (this review is based on the entire four hour movie that ran when it premiered on nbc, not the shortened home video version) but it kept me interested and entertained through its entire four hours. the second time the movie aired on nbc they cut an hour of footage and shortened it to a three hour film. that version was pretty good too. but then i saw the home video version with half the movie gone. this is the version to forget about. stick with either the three hour version or the full-length four hour version if you can find it on tv