Omega Diary

Four friends take a road trip from Colorado to California's Pacific Coast as a vacation and, while frolicking upon a beach shortly after their arrival, they hear a radio news broadcast that tells of a full nuclear war beginning between Russia and the United States with California being one target. Fortunately for the stunned travelers, a young man who proffers use of his late grandfather's nearby bomb shelter and accompanied by a woman met at the beach, speed to the shelter, reaching it immediately prior to a ground rocking nuclear explosion. Two small rooms that comprise the shelter become the setting for the remainder of this movie which develops into a largely character focused drama, tension mounting due to cramped conditions, an aura of hopelessness, and the six characters displaying their true selves, conflicts among the group becoming nearly unendurable, finally resolving themselves by acts of passionate violence. —Larry B.