Cannes 2010: 'Countdown To Zero'

World-ending explosions aren't usually found at Cannes (the Croisette has kept Michael Bay at a distance), so some of the epic fireballs in Countdown To Zero might be surprising even if the meaty subject matter isn't. Lucy Walker's documentary examines the threat of nuclear weapons using a John F. Kennedy quote for structure and context: "Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness." It's those three causes that come under the spotlight, with talking-head help from the likes of Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Valerie Plame Wilson (the subject of Doug Liman's Cannes entry Fair Game) and a host of other ex-government and intelligence high-flyers.

Early on, Countdown looks at Oppenheimer's role in the Manhattan Project and the subsequent nuclear arms race that ignited across the globe. It's a fairly engaging start, if familiar territory for anyone who's stepped into a GCSE history classroom, but the pace flags when Walker explores the mechanics of bomb-building and the obtaining and smuggling of uranium. Once that's out the way, the "accident, miscalculation and madness" gives the film footing and leaves you with the depressing thought that we're only one misunderstanding away from Armageddon.

Boris Yeltsin, in a rare moment of sobriety, decided to move Russia's finger away from the nuclear trigger in 1995 after a US rocket over Norway was mistaken for an an attack. Counter to that, Walker finds a bad guy in Pakistan's former nuclear weapons head AQ Khan and reveals how he essentially armed Iran and North Korea. Countdown makes a point that's loud, clear and probably worth repeating: the planet won't be safe until the 23,000 nuclear bombs become zero.



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