Not a great movie, but fascinating Though, as a geophysicist, the reality of "Earthquake" was so far off base as to be laughable, this movie does occupy a special place in my heart as I personally knew one of the people at Universal Studios that worked on the crew of the movie. He explained how the special effects were done--Matte photography, flexible mirrors, etc.--and, at the time, to a junior high school kid, it was impressive. Even now, as I watch it from time to time, I am impressed by how realistic some of the damage scenes were, especially Lorne Green and Charlton Heston engineering a rescue from a heavily damaged high rise. True, with computer technology, this feat of the mid-1970s seems primitive, but it still stands, special effects-wise, as a milestone with movies such as "The War of the Worlds," "Crack in the World," and, yes, "Star Wars." As for the premise...well, a few more seismologists as writers would have increased believability--a M8.0+ on the San Andreas fault would not wipe out Los Angeles as depicted in this movie. And as for the plots and subplots, that's not why I watched this movie. Unfortunately, in many cases, movies with spectacular special effects have weak plots, hoping for the FX to keep the thing floating.