In terms of reviewing the movie as a whole, which isnt really what this post is about, I’d say it was okay. Definitely did a great job of keeping the stress on. My interests were more in the aspects of the characters situations and how they relate to my own anticipated situations.

Freaky lightning storm, lotsa mysterious rumblings in the ground, all electrical devices fail AND ALL THE CARS STOP DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS. That last little tidbit just screams EMP and since the usual cause of EMP is something bad, once I felt the ground rumble and start thinking EMP I’d be running my ass back into my house and getting my gear together. Like, five minutes ago. There is no benign EMP.

Cruise yells for his kid to put some food together. They stuff a cardboard box with, basically, condiments. Brilliant. No backpack? Who is gonna haul a cardboard box around in a crisis? I dont know about you but I want my hands free. And you can bloody well bet I’d have ‘real food’ to pack..freeze drieds, MRE’s and the like. Not four bottles of barbecue sauce, vinegarette, and mayo.

Cruise has the only functioning vehicle in a city of disabled vehicles. He eventually realizes that this does make him a target and he starts getting cautious but still manages to lose the vehicle to a mob. Heres the thing…he had to traverse some waterway so that meant a ferry or tunnel, both of which were natural chokepoints. Since he established that replacing the solenoid (!!!) was all that was needed, he should have grabbed some tools and solenoids for some common vehicles (remember, in this movie Cruise is a car guy) and beat feet with the rest of the masses until he was on the other side….then find a vehicle, repair it and get the hell out of dodge.

Killing the guy in the basement. Man, that was a tough call. If it had been just me I’d have either left or found a different place to hide. If I had a loved one along who couldnt take care of themselves and this was the only safe place and nutjobguy was about to blow our cover? Mmmm…well, its an ugly world so I guess I’d do it. Wouldnt be happy about it though.

Major kudos to the news crew that was salvaging bottled water and food from the plane wreck. Exactly the thing to do.

Things learned:
Have the bare minimum (BOB) ready to go.
If your stuck in a population center you must have multiple exits mapped out
Its quite often better to go to ground, hide and wait for the bad stuff to pass over
Panicked sheeple are dangerous. Be alert. Avoid other people.