Publication Date: 09-09-2025

Blast from the Past (1999) review

Dir. Hugh Wilson

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

Blast from the Past is the breed of comedy that inspires a grin on your face. The kind that sticks on your face, whether you know it or not. There are multiple reasons for this. One is the inherently charming cast of instantly lovable characters. Another is the fact that this is a high-concept, multi-genre picture that takes its quirky-yet-fascinating concept and mines all its possibilities in the realm of comedy, drama, science-fiction, and romance. It reminds me a lot of Groundhog Day in that respect, and should at least be in the conversation for one of the most successfully original works of the 1990s.

The film — co-written and directed by Hugh Wilson, creator of WKRP in Cincinnati, one of the all-time great sitcoms — opens in 1962, at a dinner party hosted by Calvin and Helen Webber (Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek, respectively) at their home. Calvin is a beloved yet eccentric scientist who has meticulously constructed a massive, subterranean bomb shelter beneath their home. His years of preparation finally warrant action when, in the midst of the party, President John F. Kennedy appears on TV to announced that Soviet missiles in Cuba are likely to be fired at the United States any minute now. Calvin orders all the guests out of his home and shuffles the pregnant Helen down to the bomb shelter, which has been designed and engineered to look like an exact replica of their home, complete with a whole front-porch/backyard setup.

No nuclear war occurs. Instead, a plane crashes onto the Webber’s home, and the ensuing blast leads Calvin to believe his wish…err…prediction has come true. Once in the bomb shelter, a large steel door locks the couple inside and won’t open for 35 years (enough time for radiation levels to mostly die, Calvin claims).

The bomb shelter quickly proves to be homey. Calvin has recreated a warehouse-sized supermarket with perishables where they can “shop” for groceries. He’s stored kinescopes of Jackie Gleason reruns to watch for entertainment. Tuna casserole becomes a regular meal. How do they obtain electric? It’s a complicated system that involved Calvin tapping into the sewer system. Don’t ask. Be like Helen and just go with it, even if it means going a little stir-crazy.

Eventually, their son, appropriately named Adam is born, and he grows up to be Brendan Fraser. Obviously homeschooled, knowing no other world besides this underground concubine, Adam learns to speak several different languages, absorbs everything there is to know about world history, mathematics, and science, and is mindful of his manners. Helen hopes that when the steel door can finally open, her son will meet and marry “a nice girl from Pasadena.” It’s also Adam who is sent up to Earth to assess the “damage” from the nuclear holocaust the three believe has occurred.

Come 1997, Adam ventures above ground, and sees the suburban enclave in which the Webbers lived in the 1950s has slowly devolved into a dangerous neighborhood of boarded-up storefronts, sex shops, prostitutes, and drunks. He walks thru the world with the giddiness of a child, and the manners of someone who read Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier cover-to-cover (because he probably did at some point in the past 35 years, at the insistence of his father). This helps him in some respects when he meets a woman, appropriately named Eve (Alicia Silverstone), who suspects that Adam’s perfect manners, odd choice of fashion, and vast array of knowledge about various subjects is a ruse of some kind. No way she of all people — so enamored by men with muscles, strong arms, and not an ounce of charisma nor couth — could be infatuated with her.

Fraser is the ideal conduit into this “ruined” Earth that is the 1990s, so charmingly naïve and innocent that he couldn’t possibly navigate it any other way than being himself. His chemistry with the equally amiable Alicia Silverstone is palpable, and Silverstone conveys the torture of a woman being conflicted with her head and her heart. Wilson and co-writer Bill Kelly’s script juggles a variety of characters and makes their moments worthwhile by fusing character development with comedy, or at least situational relevance. Minor supporting players, including Eve’s gay best friend (Dave Foley) and Joey Slotnick, who eventually operates a diner-turned-bar that replaces the Webbers’ ruined home, have credible characterization and purpose. Given Wilson’s background as a sitcom writer, this feels germane to his pedigree.

Blast from the Past is absolutely lovely in various respects, from its narrative to its very natural, quizzical inclusions of social commentary. From a tonal standpoint, it has a lot in common with The Brady Bunch Movie insofar that it has the same sort of parodic, sarcastic disposition — one that is practically winking at the idea of the inanity of the premise and committed not to playing it too straight. The fact that it lacks rigidity makes it all the more easy to watch and embrace, which is evident as it has slowly but surely found its audience amidst critical re-evaluation and a renewed appreciation for the eternally wholesome Brendan Fraser.

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley, Joey Slotnick, Hayden Tank, Ryan Sparks, and Douglas Smith. Directed by: Hugh Wilson.