Here’s one from the “It was never so relevant” files–it’s a lesser-known title from the depths of 1995 called The Trigger Effect.

What with all the goings-on and such in the wider world; Israel looking seriously like it’s going to tear holy hell out of Iran, the world’s economies continuing their slide with each passing day, lootings, shootings, stabbings and more make the whole planet look like it’s starting a descent into either a bad horror flick or Mad Max on an epic scale.  And so, The Trigger Effect offers one simple premise–what happens to our seemingly civilized world when the greatest impetus to that civility, electricity, suddenly goes out?  We follow a young married couple with a baby who’s just come home from a fairly unsuccessful night at the movies.  Later that night, the power goes out across the city.  And thus begins a descent into looting and barbarism and downright incivility that only takes a couple hours.

If The Trigger Effect, and it’s all too likely scenario of a world without electricity collapsing into savagery within hours isn’t enough to get you to buy a generator, a gun, and stocks of food post-haste then it’s hard to imagine just what will.  Okay, sure…maybe even without electricity it still would take a whole lot longer than overnight for the world to finally collapse.

Seriously–I remember one particularly bad thunderstorm, it involved tornadoes, that’s how bad it was.  And the power was out for THREE SOLID DAYS.  But we didn’t descend into barbarism and looting and such.  But I suppose when you live out in the middle of nowhere, things are a bit different.

That may be the biggest failing with The Trigger Effect: the pacing is all off.  Oh, I don’t doubt that if their kids had ear infections and a pharmacist wouldn’t hand over a dose of antibiotic because his computer was down someone would steal a bottle, even the morning after a power outage.  But seriously–watching the progression of events in The Trigger Effect is like someone jammed down on the fast-forward button.  The power goes out that night, and the next day you’re hearing rumors of lootings that involve MULTIPLE DEATHS.  It’s like in that particular city, everyone’s got their crowbars by the front door and they’re all sitting at their window, muttering to themselves, “Man, if the power goes out tonight, I’m gonna go get me a TV!”

But if you leave aside the pacing, what you’re left with is a clever and thoroughly plausible look at just what might happen if the power goes out for an extended period of time.  Yes, all this nonsense manages to go down within a couple days.

But stop and think–what would it have been like had they gone a week, even a MONTH, without power? Considering what happened after a couple days, a month would probably mean the end of their entire world.

So really, at the end of the day, The Trigger Effect is a solid cautionary tale about the virtues of preparedness and the potential serious ramifications of a natural disaster that causes an extended power outage.  See it with someone you love before you go hit the stores.