American Blackout will premiere on NatGeo on October 27. The power grid down original movie depicts what life would be life in the United States after a cyber attack on the nation's electrical system. America goes black for less than two weeks, but a horrific number of deaths, massive civil unrest, and economic turmoil quickly occurs in the National Geographic film. The movie airs three weeks before the first nationwide power grid drill is scheduled to take place. The Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, and a host of other federal agencies, utility companies, and private businesses are slated to take part in the massive emergency disaster test.
Power grid down movie director Jonathan Rudd stated during a Q&A session for the media that the cyber attack in American Blackout was specifically chosen as the disaster cause because such a situation is no longer science fiction scenario. Earlier this year the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed earlier that the country has experienced approximately a 68 percent increase in "cyber incidents" at federal agencies during 2012. The DHS also warned that the cyber activity increase appears to include hacks by Middle Eastern nations such as Iran.
The NatGeo movie director had this to say about the basis of American Blackout:
"The research drove the narrative. This film is obviously a drama, but we were determined to be as informed as possible and we spent countless hours trying to get it right. We needed to know everything that would be affected in a 10-day nationwide blackout … and that turned out to be basically everything. Our team of researchers interviewed leading experts in various fields — cyber security, search and rescue, emergency medicine, sociology, engineering and more. We also sent experts the film script to have them weigh in, and we made changes based on their feedback."
The Inquisitr recently received an early copy of American Blackout to review. The movie was shot from a first-person user-generated point of view. It follows several families or groups as they deal with the power grid down scenario. Viewers may not be introduced to the character's entire back story, but quickly begin to feel that they not only "know" but can identify with the folks on the TV screen.