Argonne is the star in 'Chain Reaction'

Reprinted from the Argonne News, Aug. 5, 1996.

The action movie stars Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. It opened nationwide Friday, Aug. 2.

Reeves plays Eddie Kasalivich, a brilliant-but-unorthodox machinist for a University of Chicago research project aimed at finding a cheap, nonpolluting source of energy using water. Kasalivich makes a breakthrough that helps create an inexhaustible energy supply using lasers, sound waves and apparently, intense looks of concern.

But before the results can be released to the world and wreak havoc on oil industry stocks, the visionary scientist who pioneered the concept is killed and the project blown up, along with about half of the south side of Chicago. Kasalivich is framed, and the chase sequences begin.

Much of the movie's action occurs in the Zero-Gradient Synchrotron ring room and tunnels and the former Continuous Wave Deuterium Demonstrator laboratory. Several other areas are backdrops for scenes and will be instantly recognizable, including Building 364 and Eastgate.

In addition to scenes at Argonne, many institutions in and near Chicago are used as locations, including the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry and Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin.

Many Argonne employees who participated as extras in the film won't be disappointed. But some others will be, especially those who spent a cold morning trudging up the ramp to Building 364, then running back down again -- all for about three-quarters of a second of screen time.

The movie is not particularly violent by Arnold Schwarzenegger standards, and the brilliant-but-unorthodox machinist and the brilliant-but-orthodox physicist-love-interest (played by Rachel Weisz) never even kiss.

Argonne employees will want to stick around to the very end of the credits to see one of the best scenes in the movie.