Made-for-TV apocalyptic film following a family that while vacationing in the California mountains their friend that is with them suddenly gets ill, dies, and turns to powder. The remainder of the film follows their struggle to get back home to Malibu where Jay W. MacIntosh, in the role of the mother/wife, has returned. Along the way father Peter Graves queries son Michael James-Wixted, a physics student, to try to determine what has exterminated most of the population and why they haven't been affected. Nothing too out-of the-ordinary happens in this. Kathleen Quinlan in the role of the daughter does some occasional narration which doesn't add much. One interesting aspect is that dogs have become particularly menacing. There is an obvious Biblical theme to this movie that never gets explored and might have made this a bit more interesting. Despite being cliché it's pretty well done for a made-for-TV.

Technical I think it was a nice movie even though old and no special effects it worked fine.Plotwise and later in the story I was simply lost as I could not make myself believe it anymore. I know it is a movie and not real life. But the deaths were just too silly.The start is great and gives a good promise about the rest of the movie. I was exited to see what would happen.I think they acted realistic hysterical and under pressure in the start of the movie after the big light glimpse. And it gave good excitement the way one of them had something described as radiation sickness. I was at this time exited guessing what could really have happened. And here I soon got my first letdown.SPOILERS start: But after dying they turned to white powder. Ehh were they delayed incinerated by the flash? No unfortunately even worse. It was a virus that made them white powder. And a virus that hit all over the world at the same time.Had they just let people be dead bodies, then everything would have worked great. And then let us know the virus had gradually spread instead of appearing worldwide at once, then I would have loved the movie. A bit like the old BBC series Survivors (I think it is).

Another TV movie that has stayed with me ever since I first saw it, aged about 12, resurfaced recently, prompting this review.Peter Graves, complete with gray hair – I bet he was born with it that color - plays Steve Anders who, as the movie starts, is on vacation with his family in some unspecified California mountains. His daughter (a young Kathleen Quinlan) and son stay with him, along with Clancy (Noble Willingham), a friend, digging for fossils in a cave, while his wife leaves them to return to LA. Not long after, the sun brightens dramatically for a few seconds, which phenomenon is followed by an earthquake.In short order, Clancy, who was the only one of the four on the surface when the sun flared up and told the others about it, falls ill. The family thinks it is radiation poisoning and he dies as they try to get him back to civilization. When they themselves get there, they find towns that are empty, apart from clothes full of a strange powder, mad dogs, and a very few survivors who tell of a disease that wiped out most of humanity within hours.There isn't actually much more to it than that, but I found the story oddly absorbing and the whole treatment pleasingly creepy.Peter Graves turns in a solid performance and the two kids aren't too nauseating, though a little shrill at times. It was also fun to see Noble Willingham, whom I otherwise only know from "The Royale", a better-than-average episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", in something else.Camera work and effects are fine considering when the film was made, the music is adequate, and it doesn't go on too long. All in all, then, well worth seeing.Rating: 7/10.

My parents had gone out and I was home alone when I watched this on TV many years ago, lol! Yes, it terrified me as I was only 8 or 9 then. I'm 41 now and would love to see it again, this time without the pillow, blankets, and dog in front of my face! It starts out with a camping trip, one like I have taken so many times with my own family, so true to life. When it's over you have to wonder if something like this could really happen, has it already happened? You have to go look out the window to make sure the world it still the same as when you last saw it. I have only seen the movie once, but it has stayed with me all these years. I think you can get it on DVD now, but if not, find an old VCR & watch it!