The Sky s on Fire (AKA Countdown: The Sky s on Fire!) is a 1998 made-for-television film featuring John Corbett as Dr. Evan Thorne, Josie Bissett as Jennifer Thorne, Ben Browder as Racer, Bradley Whitford as John Morgan and directed by Dan Lerner.

Synopsis

A hole in the ozone layer has appeared over Los Angeles, causing all sorts of ecological disasters. Birds, whales, insects and people all succumb to the effects. Dr. Evan Thorne, who has been trying to alert the authorities to the looming disaster, finds it falls to him and his friends to save this small part of the planet from an environmental apocalypse.

Reception

Jack Nicholls wrote in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, A painfully low-budget disaster movie, Countdown: The Sky s on Fire has little to distinguish it except its lurid title. A hole in the ozone layer above the Pacific threatens to burn to death the population of the western United States. When this is discovered, a group of scientists, politicians, soldiers and journalists sit around and talk about fixing it while their womenfolk are threatened by insect swarms driven insane by the Sun s radiation. As the threat to humanity is invisible, and there was little money available to show its after-effects, the film is less a bad movie than a very dull one.

A reviewer for the site Disaster Movie World shared the opinion: The Sky s on Fire is a treat if you re into bad movie physics, plot holes and logical inconsistencies in general. Forget the fact that Our Heroes can fly all the way up to the ozone hole without being burned while people down on the ground get baked to death — the most absurd part of all is the final resolution when the ozone hole is sealing itself up in a matter of seconds! While there s some potential in the various animal attacks, those scenes are all rather short and lack any real energy… While this film is nowhere near being good , and descends into the downright ludicrous during the final third or so, the silliness of it all is kind of enjoyable.

Year	1999
ReleaseDate	2000-07-15
RuntimeMins	89
RuntimeStr	1h 29min
Plot	The ozone is depleted and as a result of this all sorts things are happening like lethal insects flying around. A scientist tries to warn everybody about this but no one seems to believe him. When his predictions come true they no…
Directors	Dan Lerner
Writers	Michael Tobias, Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor
Stars	John Corbett, Josie Bissett, Bradley Whitford
Produced by	David Gerber,Larry Levin,Art Levinson,Michele Sacharow,Michael Tobias
Music by	Jeff Eden Fair,Starr Parodi
Cinematography by	Eric Van Haren Noman
Film Editing by	Paul Dixon
Casting By	Penny Ellers
Production Design by	Richard B. Lewis
Set Decoration by	Sam Gross
Costume Design by	Dorothy Amos
Makeup Department	Matt Danon,Michael Hancock,James MacKinnon
Production Management	Art Levinson,Lorin Bennett Salob
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Jerry Ballew,Richard Gonzales,Bill Kent,Ruth A. Redfern
Art Department	Jamie Archer,Mark Bodine,Shannon Brock,Louie Cervantes,Michael Koppy,Michael Mikita,Christopher Redmond,Peter Roderick
Sound Department	Victoria Bowes,Vince Renaud,Don Summer
Special Effects by	Scott Dwyer,Matt Kutcher
Visual Effects by	Bill Kent,Michael Morreale
Stunts	Larry Holt,Scott Leva,Chuck Waters
Camera and Electrical Department	Mark Davison,Michelle Deal,Robert Driskell,Eyal Gordin,Heather Green,Frank Parish,Michael Pizzuto,Tony Rivetti,Joseph M. Setele,John Virak
Casting Department	Jan Powell,Dixie Webster
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Malou McCartney
Editorial Department	Barbara Palmer Dixon,Kent Pritchett
Location Management	Mike Jarvis
Music Department	Laurie Higgins Tobias
Script and Continuity Department	Maxine Bergen
Transportation Department	Oliver Eisenger,Lawrence J. Romanoff,Jay Wylie
Additional Crew	April Ballard,Melody Beam,Sheldon Brigman,Tammi Campbell,Kimber Hightower,Grant Kaufman,Amanda Kelly,Bill Kent,Kathi Weissberger
Genres	Action, Adventure, Drama
Companies	All American Television, OTL Productions
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ImDbRating	4.2
ImDbRatingVotes	412
Keywords	natural horror,creature feature,ecological footprint,ozone layer,environmental crime