You’re Community Has been Hit With a WMD Attack – Now What?

I had dinner the other night with friends and their friends. At the dinner was a hospital administrator that just came back from a seminar that taught medical first responders how to handle a terrorist WMD attack.

I sat nicely and listened how medical personnel would handle the triage process of separating those that were infected or radiated from those that were not. I listened to how obedient citizens would stand in line in the area waiting to be cleared or brought to a segmented holding hospital away from non-infected citizens. The process described was orderly.

I said bull cookies!

The first thing I would do is vacate the area before the authorities came in. I said I was not about to wait around an infected or radiated area or downwind of one while I turn my life over to the authorities. My wife, a medical professional, said that was very selfish of me to willfully leave the area and expose other people. I said how do you know I would be infected or radiated? She said how do you know you weren’t? I said I’ll make that decision myself and when I leave you’re coming with me.

Selfish of me.

The reality of the situation is that my reaction and many others like me would be normal and a movie entitled Right At Your Door explores that scenario. According to the film's official website the synopsis is thus:

After multiple dirty bombs are detonated, spreading deadly toxic ash across Los Angeles, Brad (Rory Cochrane) inadvertently quarantines his wife, Lexi (Mary McCormack) outside their new home by safely sealing himself inside. With the city under siege and Martial Law in affect, Brad and Lexi struggle to survive with little supply, limited time and no information—all the while separated by thin doors and thinner sheets of plastic. When "help" finally does arrive, it appears to be anything but.

“The "help" referred to consists of squads of toxic suit wearing troops and cops that cuff and take away contaminated survivors in unmarked black vans. Cochrane's character even suggests that he has seen cops on the streets exterminating survivors by shooting them in the head.”

Right At Your Door relays a personalized account from two isolated characters with only confusion and dread propelling the plot.

Living in Los Angeles, Brad begins his daily routine of worship for his wife Lexi. While most men deeply in love with their wives may not wake up extra early just to prepare a nice steaming latte for their wives, Brad is an out-of-work musician, happily supporting his wife's 9 to 5 work routine while he languishes about strumming a guitar at home.

Having seen Lexi off to work, Brad is just settling into his deadbeat shuffle when he hears over the radio that dirty bombs are exploding all over Los Angles. Brad makes a mad dash to find his wife, but is turned back towards home by police barricades.

Scenes of people fleeing a disaster plagued downtown, only to be gunned down by police officers, are unsettling.

As the film depicts, would you trust the authorities? And would you still trust them after they have left a red mark on your front door without explanation? Would martial law replace the US Constitution? And think about this. In 2003, UK police revealed that they may have to shoot any victims of a chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological strike.

What cinematic value the film has, I don’t know. But the story posited by the film is a lot closer to reality than the orderly process described by the hospital administrator.