Build a movie plot around this: in old family film whose birthday surpise party ? tom
Answer:
The Wetherly familyhusband Tom (William Devane), wife Carol (Jane Alexander), and children Brad (Ross Harris), Mary Liz (Roxana Zal), and Scottie (Lukas Haas) -- live in the fictional suburb of Hamelin, California, within a 90-minute drive of San Francisco, where Tom works.On a routine afternoon, Carol (a stay-at-home mom and volunteer for school functions such as directing the school play) listens to an answering-machine message from Tom saying he's on his way home for dinner. Scottie watches Sesame Street on TV as Brad adjusts the TV antenna on the roof, when the show is suddenly replaced by white noise; suddenly, a San Francisco news anchor appears onscreen, saying they have lost their New York signal and there were explosions of "nuclear devices there in New York, and up and down the East Coast." The anchorman is cut off by the Emergency Broadcast System tone with the Civil Defense Insignia being shown on the Screen, then an announcer's voice states that the White House is interrupting the program: "Please stand by for the President and do not use the telephone." At the introduction of the President of the United States (who is never seen; only the Presidential Seal is shown on the TV), the phone rings but it goes dead along with the TV and electricity just as Carol answers it. Suddenly, the blinding flash of a nuclear detonation is then seen through the window. The family huddles on the floor in panic as the town's air-raid sirens go off; minutes later, several of their neighbors are running around on the street outside, dazed in fear and confusion. The family hopes Tom will return, but the circumstances are hard to ignore.The suburb of Hamelin survives relatively unscathed, because apparently the town is far enough from San Francisco to avoid blast damage. Frightened residents meet at the home of Henry Abhart (Leon Ames), an elderly ham radio operator. He has made contact with survivors in rural areas and internationally, and tells Carol that he was unable to reach anyone east of Keokuk, Iowa; a...