Seconds From Disaster

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now, something has gone wrong: the system built to protect Earth is attacking it, and it becomes a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything and everyone along with it.

The film explores the background and build-up to this final flight to disaster. Using dramatic reconstruction, archive footage and exclusive interviews with leading historians and engineering experts, the special delves into the political and scientific events that led up to the catastrophe.

Originally produced for The Learning Channel, this documentary aims to dissect the events surrounding the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, addressing many of the questions that still continue to haunt the public. Through CGI graphics, interviews with witnesses and discussions with those who designed and engineered the buildings, this program examines the horrific incident in full detail.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic remains one of the most enduring and mysterious tragedies of the 20th century. For decades, investigators and amateurs alike have floated theories for why it occurred and who was to blame for the extraordinary loss of life, but no one answer could fully explain what happened. Until now. To mark the 100th anniversary of the infamous disaster, Smithsonian Channel will premiere Titanic's Final Mystery. The two-hour special investigates a century of theories and uncovers astonishing new forensic evidence that proves the most likely theory for the case.

The precautionary prowess of the British is proudly on display in this programme which proves that the wonder of apocalyptic wariness isn’t purely an American phenomenon. Civil unrest, financial chaos and natural disasters are everyday news – and, whether it involves survivalists stockpiling away in Surrey or completely upping sticks and moving to Slovakia, Preppers UK: Surviving Armageddon features British preppers who’ve armed themselves with much more than just a stiff upper lip. In Surrey, Royston is preparing for the aftermath of a solar flare and hosts a radio show for fellow preppers. Over in Buckinghamshire, tree surgeon Malcolm explains how he prepares for disaster by sampling the local wildlife – he has feasted on squirrel, rabbit, magpie, and even tried ant eggs! ....

Documentary which follows the construction of a trailblazing 36,000-tonne steel structure to entomb the ruins of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

THE BRAIN is an astonishing voyage of discovery into our last biological frontier. Although today s computers can make calculations in one-100th of a second and technology can transport us outside the bonds of Earth, only now are we beginning to understand the most complex machine in the universe. Using simple analogies, real-life case studies, and state-of-the-art CGI, this special shows how the brain works, explains the frequent battle between instinct and reason, and unravels the mysteries of memory and decision-making. It takes us inside the mind of a soldier under fire to see how decisions are made in extreme situations, examines how an autistic person like Rain Man develops remarkable skills, and takes on the age-old question of what makes one person good and another evil. Research is rushing forward. We’ve learned more about the workings of the brain in the last five years than in the previous one hundred.

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the third of the six films, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," filmmaker Barry Levinson delves into what we, as Americans, thought the future would be as we traveled through the 20th century. Houses and cars of the future, the promise of technology, and the other hopes and dreams of the early part of the century gave way to the fears and anxieties brought about by the atomic age and the Hollywood disaster films that followed. Soon we wondered if we could control technology, or if it would control us. This film is by turns light-hearted and thoughtful, and rare historical and archival film, produced by government and industry, alternates with on-screen interviews with people as diverse as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, cartoonist Matt Groening, futurist Alvin Toffler, comedienne Phyllis Diller, and actor Martin Mull.

The aftermath of a shocking explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station made hundreds of people sacrifice their lives to clean up the site of the catastrophe and to successfully prevent an even bigger disaster that could have turned a large part of the European continent into an uninhabitable exclusion zone. This is their story.

In 79 AD, one of the infamous natural disasters in human history occurred when Mount Vesuvius erupted. With speculative dramatizations of various inhabitants' final hours along with detailed documentation of the known facts concerning the eruption, the horrific day is vividly brought to life.

An exploration into the various ways in which, within the circumstances of one day, civilisation could be brought to an abrupt end..

1986, Chernobyl disaster. Couples, friends, and a risk-taking journalist are woven into the larger framework of the disaster. Panic follows.

A haunting evocation of the aftermath of the explosion at Chernobyl, 25 years on. This visually stunning road movie takes the spectator on a bleak journey from the shores of the Black Sea to the frozen heart of Chernobyl, passing through desolate, snowy landscapes, littered with abandoned villages. Squatting in this icy wasteland, the ghostly sarcophagus of Reactor No.4 is a constant reminder of the threat still lurking below. Accompanied by testimony from a group of unseen veterans of the disaster, Precarious bears witness to both the folly and resilience of humans and to nature's fragility.

Bill Nye the Science Guy is an educational television program that originally aired from September 10, 1993 to June 20, 1998, hosted by William "Bill" Nye and produced by Buena Vista Television. The show aired on PBS Kids and was also syndicated to local stations. Each of the 100 episodes aims to teach a specific topic in science to a preteen audience. The show is frequently used in schools as an education medium, and it still airs on some PBS stations for this reason. Created by comedian Ross Shafer and based on sketches on KING-TV's sketch program Almost Live!, Bill Nye the Science Guy was produced by Disney Educational Productions and KCTS-TV of Seattle. Bill Nye the Science Guy won nineteen Emmy Awards during its run.

E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and also well-known public figures. Among the topics covered on the program include salacious re-tellings of Hollywood secrets, show-biz scandals, celebrity murders and mysteries, porn-star biographies, and "where-are-they-now?" investigations of former child stars. It frequently features in-depth interviews, actual courtroom footage, and dramatic reenactments. When aired on the E! network, episodes will be updated to reflect the current life or status of the subject.

Real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world are solved by experts using scientific laboratory analysis which helps them find previously undetectable evidence. Brilliant scientific work helps convict the guilty and free the innocent.

Weird or What? is a series on the Discovery Channel and History hosted by William Shatner. Each episode contains three separate stories of the bizarre and unexplained. As the show unfolds, it weighs various supernatural and scientific theories that attempt to explain the story, and sometimes features tests conducted as proof of a theory's plausibility. The show features strange occurrences such as ghosts, aliens, monsters, medical oddities and natural disasters.

World's Most Amazing Videos is a reality television series that showcases accidents, disasters, police chases and other extraordinary events that are caught on video camera. These videos normally shown anybody involved in these aforementioned incidents survive nonetheless. Although it is similar in content to the other series Real TV and Maximum Exposure, it takes a more serious tone. Originally, the show appeared on NBC as a timeslot filler program. A new series of episodes of the show were created in 2006 first-run for Spike TV, after a six-year hiatus from the NBC stint. Until the year 2008, all episodes of the show were narrated by Stacy Keach. From that point on, the season was narrated by Erik Thompson. The show is broadcast in the UK on Bravo and Channel One, in which David Wartnaby served as the narrator of the first season followed by Lee Boardman in the second season of broadcast in the particular country, and is expected to return in 2012. In Australia, it is shown on the pay-TV channel FOX8. The series was given its own local name titled Global Shockers for the Philippines market and it was hosted by Johnny Delgado.

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

Space Cadets is a British television program made by Zeppotron for Channel 4. Presented by Johnny Vaughan, it was aired across ten consecutive nights beginning on 7 December 2005, with the final episode aired on the evening of 16 December 2005. It was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes sister show Space Cadets: The Satellite Show, with interviews and phone-ins.

Ultimate Factories also known as Megafactories is an American documentary television series that premiered in 2006 on the National Geographic Channel. The program explores the inner workings of factories worldwide. Each episode profiles the machinery and manpower behind each factory's main product, featuring close-ups, breakdowns, interviews, and side stories to show the sequence of events to produce the product in the factory. Hoff Productions was one of the principal producers of this highly successful series. It also airs in non-US markets as Megafactories.

Lost Worlds is a documentary television series by The History Channel that explores a variety of "lost" locations from ancient to modern times. These "great feats of engineering, technology, and culture" are revealed through the use of archaeological evidence, interviews with relevant experts while examining the sites, and CGI reproductions. These visual re-creations take the form of rendered 3D environments and photo manipulated overlays, allowing the "lost world" to be seen over its present-day state. The pilot episode "Palenque: Metropolis of the Maya" was first aired on April 4, 2005. It was followed by 12 more episodes in 2006, and a further 19 episodes in 2007.

People's Century is a television documentary series examining the 20th century. It was a joint production of the BBC in the United Kingdom and PBS member station WGBH Boston in the United States. First shown on BBC in 1995, the 26 parts of one hour deal with the socio-economic, political, and cultural movements that shaped the 20th century. The documentary won an International Emmy Award, among others. A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men, People's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century, accompanied with a theme music score by Zbigniew Preisner. A very short introduction of the episode would then follow, often illustrated by a dramatic event that illustrates the episode's particular theme coming to the fore. The British version was narrated by Sean Barrett and Veronika Hyks, the American by actors John Forsythe and Alfre Woodard. People's Century was coproduced by the BBC and WGBH with executive producers Peter Pagnamenta and Zvi Dor-Ner, respectively; along with producer David Espar.

Natural and man-made catastrophes retold by eyewitnesses and dramatic reconstructions.

Weird Nature is a 2002 documentary television series produced by John Downer Productions for the BBC and Discovery Channel. The series features strange behavior in nature—specifically, the animal world. The series now airs on the Science Channel. The series took three years to make and a new filming technique was used to show animal movements in 3D. Each episode, however, tended to end with a piece about how humans are probably the oddest species of all. For example, in the end of the episode about locomotion, the narrator states how unusual it is for a mammal to be bipedal. In the episode about defences, the narrator explains that humans have no real natural defences, save for their big brains.

Evolve is a 2008 documentary television series on History. The series premiere, "Eyes", was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming. Each episode attempts to explain the evolutionary origins of a particular trait of living creatures: for example, Tyrannosaurus Rex's 13-inch teeth, the gecko's "Velcro-like" toe pads, and the bald eagle's "telescopic" vision capable of spotting a hare a mile away.

Series presented by Nick Knowles which shows the split-second moments when everyday events are transformed into disasters and meets the people who lived to tell the tale.

A dramatic and detailed 3-part documentary series that reveals the events that led to the 1986 nuclear accident.