Solar Crisis

SOLAR CRISIS was announced in 1989 as an epic Japanese-American sci-fi co-production extravaganza, an adventure movie that would push back the boundaries of special effects spectacle and debut with a ready-made theme park opening in its honor. Four years and $43 million later, SOLAR CRISIS limped quietly out onto home video, with production personnel concealed behind pseudonyms.

SOLAR CRISIS opens with an echo-chamber voice stating that by the year 2050, the menopausal sun is having hot flashes, such as the present thousand-day heat wave. Experts predict it's a preview of the main attraction, a "colossal mega-flare" that will burn all life from the Earth. In a...