TIME BOMB Y2K Documentary to Debut on HBO This Month

The HBO Original documentary TIME BOMB Y2K, directed by Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, and executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Penny Lane (HBO's “Listening to Kenny G”), debuts SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.

As the clock counts down to the dawn of the 21st century, the world faces 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, 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.

Through access to rare archival material, including home video and 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 thousands 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.

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.

Taking aesthetic inspiration from the techno-thrillers and disaster movies of the 1990s and including a propulsive electronic music score by Nathan Micay and stylized graphics by Grin Machine, the film plays as an immersive time capsule of the period. Entirely composed of archival material, the film features “the Millennium Bug Man,” Peter de Jager; the “Y2K Czar,” John Koskinen; early tech giants Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates; computer programmers; pop culture icons such as Busta Rhymes and Matt Damon; plus survivalists televangelists, militia leaders, and Christian extremists.

The documentary comes from HBO Documentary Films, in association with Spinning Nancy, presents TIME BOMB Y2K. Directed by Brian Becker, Marley McDonald; produced by Brian Becker; executive produced by Penny Lane, Gabriel Sedgwick. For HBO: executive producers, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Tina Nguyen.

Watch the new trailer here:

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