Keanu Reeves (probably not the first person to spring to mind when casting a scientist) plays our hero Eddie Kasalivich. It seems that Eddie got thrown out of college for an experiment that went wrong (and blew up a lab in the process). His talents have not gone unnoticed though, and he’s taken under the wing of renowned scientist Alistair Barkley and project leader Paul Shannon and allowed to work on the University of Chicago’s Hydrogen Energy Project so that he can get his degree. The project is trying to split water (two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen atom) to give off hydrogen, a highly combustible gas that can be used as fuel. The ideal is to get more energy out than you have to put in to split the water, but the project has been a long series of failures. Cue a stroke of luck and Eddie discovers the right sound frequencies that stabilise the experiment allowing the laser to split the water producing hydrogen (make sense? thought not). Barkley is an ideological scientist and, after a celebration in which more than a little champagne is drunk, wants to upload the full details of the experiment onto the internet for all to see.

Assistant physicist Lily Sinclair, played by Rachel Weisz, gets a tad drunk at the celebration party and has to be escorted home, on foot, by the chivalrous Eddie. Upon returning to the complex to collect his bike Eddie discovers all hell breaking loose. Alarms are sounding and the hydrogen reactor is running wild and about to go critical within a couple of minutes. To add to the stress, when he tries to shut it down, he discovers Barkley’s suffocated body. Unable to revive Barkley or shut down the reaction, Eddie has to make a run for it. Jumping on his bike, he has to get as far away from the complex as he can before it, spectacularly, blows.

In the aftermath Eddie and Lily try and tell their version of events to the authorities, but evidence of their collusion with unknown parties is found and they become suspects. Framed for the murder of Barkley and the destruction of a good chunk of Chicago (an explosion sequence that’s right up there with the ones in Independence Day) Eddie and Lily have no option but to make a run for it and try to clear their name.

Chain Reaction’s director Andrew Davis has a good pedigree for thriller/chase movies having directed the excellent The Fugitive. While I quite enjoyed this movie, it didn’t have the strong characters on the running, Harrison Ford’s Richard Kimble, or chasing, Tommy Lee Jones’s Sam Gerard, side of things. Keanu isn’t bad, Rachel Weisz is good as the standoffish physicist and Morgan Freeman is the best of the lot, with the most interesting character, you’re never really sure whether he’s good or bad. Unfortunately he has more of a managerial role rather than a hands on chasing role and so doesn’t really contribute to the action. The plot is quite good, but linear. What plot twists there are you see coming a mile away, so the thriller part of the film never really delivers and as such the film relies more on its action and chase sequences, which are pretty good. It does seem that elements of this film have been lifted from The Fugitive. Falsely accused individuals on the run trying to clear their name. Police trying to catch them who start out believing their guilt but as the film progresses start to see their innocence. We have seen it all before but I still quite enjoyed it.


As with most UMDs this title has no extra features, although the language options are pretty comprehensive. You can view the film in English, French or Italian languages or with French, Italian, Sweedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Dutch or English for the hearing impaired subtitles. The picture in places I found to be a bit dark, making it difficult to make out what’s going on (possibly made a little worse by viewing it on a small screen). I think this is more to do with the cinematographer shooting things in dark conditions to introduce tension rather than a lack of performance of the PSP screen, which in lighter scenes performs brilliantly. The sound is excellent through a decent set of headphones (I say it every time in my UMD reviews but it really is worth investing in a decent set of sound isolating headphones) with good stereo effects throughout.

I found that I quite enjoyed this movie. Other reviews tend to state that it’s rather dull, predictable and doesn’t live up to the Fugitive. Whilst I agree that it doesn’t stand up well as a thriller, as an action/chase film with a few thriller elements thrown, in I think it works quite well. I don’t think you can slate the acting either. Rachel Weisz was good, Morgan Freeman was excellent as he always is and we all should know what we’re going to get from Keanu by now so if you watch a film knowing he’s in it, just accept it. Don’t go into this expecting a film that’ll keep your cerebellum pulsing, just sit back and go with it and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.