Official Trailer for ‘Time Bomb Y2K’ Doc About the 1999 Tech Freak Out
by Alex Billington
December 12, 2023
Source: YouTube
“I pray that people don’t panic.” HBO has unveiled an official trailer for a documentary called Time Bomb Y2K, which HBO will be debuting just in time for this year’s New Years right at the end of 2023. 🍾 An immersive, all-archival retelling of the “Y2K” millennium bug and mass hysteria that changed the fabric of modern society. With access to tons of rare archival material, including home video & never-before-seen outtakes, the film features first-hand accounts from computer experts, survivalists, scholars, militia groups, conservative Christians, and pop icons grappling with a world that could descend into chaos. Having lauded the transformative power of computers and the internet, President Clinton invests billions of dollars and appoints a “Y2K Czar” in 1998 to tackle the problem. Yet, despite the government’s best efforts, hysteria still leads many to buy guns, stock up on supplies, cancel travel plans, and even move off the grid entirely. The looming deadline prompts a deep evaluation of our relationship to computer technologies. I guess it is time someone finally retold this crazy story! Looking back 24 years later, it all seems so nuts. Humanity, right…?
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Becker & McDonald’s doc Time Bomb Y2K, from HBO’s YouTube:
“With Y2K now in the rearview mirror and with new technological threats emerging daily, Time Bomb Y2K raises concerns about the digital infrastructure we’ve created and takes a prophetic and comical look at our dependence on complex systems vulnerable to future glitches. Y2K forced us to consider what would happen if computers worldwide suddenly stopped working. Even worse, what if this failure led to nuclear catastrophe? Against this backdrop, the world rose to the challenge and exhibited unprecedented cooperation to ultimately avert disaster.”
As the clock counted down to the dawn of the 21st century, the world was bracing for the largest potential technological disaster to ever threaten humanity. The problem is comically simple yet incredibly complex – a bug that could cause computers to misinterpret the year 2000 as 1900, sowing chaos throughout the world as electronic systems failed. Crafted entirely through archival footage, the HBO Documentary Time Bomb Y2K is a prescient and often humorous tale about the power and vulnerabilities of technology. By re-appraising both the cooperative efforts and mass hysteria surrounding this millennial milestone, Time Bomb Y2K explores how modern life has been dramatically transformed by the digital revolution. Time Bomb Y2K is directed by doc filmmakers Brian Becker & Marley McDonald (editor on associate editor on Spaceship Earth and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), both making their feature directorial debut. It’s produced by Brian Becker and HBO Documentary Films, in association with Spinning Nancy. HBO debuts Time Bomb Y2K streaming on Max starting December 30th, 2023 right before this New Years. Who’s in?
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