The China Syndrome uses a fictional situation involving the malfunction of a nuclear power plant to address corporate credibility, media cover-ups, and environmental safety-issues that were significant to audiences when it opened in March 1979. Eleven days after its release, a real nuclear power plant crisis occurred at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, and turned the Hollywood fantasy film into a historical nightmare that terrified the public.

The movie opens with Los Angeles TV newscaster Kimberly Wells (played by Jane Fonda) presenting a fluff story about singing telegrams and introduces her role as a naïve but ambitious reporter. Her next assignment is a publicity piece about "magical" nuclear power and its promise of producing national energy self-sufficiency. Accompanying her is cameraman Richard Adams (played by Michael Douglas), shown as a critic of TV news coverage.

As the TV crew receives a bland guided tour from the power plant's media manager, an unexpected vibration triggers the emergency alarm system. From their observation perch, the crew watches chief plant engineer Jack Godell (played by Jack Lemmon) handle the emergency. With Kimberly's assistance, the cameraman surreptitiously shoots the crisis in the plant's control room.

Thrilled by this accidental "scoop" and anxious to move from "soft" reporting to "hard" news, Kimberly rushes back to the TV studio to give the station the lead story. To her dismay, studio executives reject the opportunity, stressing the need for "responsible" reporting. Instead, the day's headlines report a public hearing about a new nuclear power plant. When executives learn about Richard's footage of the crisis, they warn him that "unauthorized photography" could be a felony. "It's all a goddam coverup," says Richard, who proceeds to steal the footage from the station's vault.

Meanwhile, engineer Jack Godell testifies about the incident to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the government agency responsible for nuclear power safety. The NRC then reports, "the overall result was the swift containment of a potentially costly event" and gives the plant "a clean bill of health."

As Godell continues to investigate the plant's safety by checking old company records, the film shifts to the public hearings about opening a new nuclear facility at Point Conception, California. Outside, protesters carry signs saying "No Nukes." Inside, a physics professor warns of causing the "China Syndrome"--an uncontrollable meltdown of the nuclear core that would blow a hole through the earth all the way to China and that would "render an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable." (Hearing this line after the Three Mile Island disaster, movie audiences would invariably gasp in fear.) When she observes the proceedings, reporter Kimberly Wells begins to question the safety of Godell's plant.

Godell has found questions of his own: evidence that earlier safety inspections had been based on fraudulent X-ray data. Angered by this discovery, he decides to bring this new information to the NRC. His determination to tell the truth alarms his corporate employers, who enter into a conspiracy to prevent the evidence from reaching the regulatory agency. They arrange to kill a messenger from the TV station.

Escaping from the conspirators, Godell flees to the power plant and armed with a gun takes over the control room. He demands that Kimberly be allowed to enter with a camera crew so that he can tell the public of an impending catastrophe. As Kimberly rushes to produce the show, the owners of the plant conspire to retake the control room and to prevent the broadcast. Godell manages to say a few words of warning before the SWAT team cuts the cable and kills him.

In the end, the public receives an ambiguous message: The company dismisses Godell as an "emotionally disturbed employee," but a co-worker calls him a hero. Kimberly's signoff is also ambiguous: "Let's just hope it doesn't end here."

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