'RadioFlash' wraps filming on Highway 200 bridge

HOPE — The Bridge to Nowhere and Lake Pend Oreille were ready for their close-ups this week.

Film crews spent two days filming on the span for the upcoming independent film “Radioflash,” a survival tale about a group seeking refuge after an electromagnetic pulse brings down the nation’s aging electrical grid.

The film’s director, Ben McPherson, said Hope was chosen as one of the film’s locations because he and the film’s financier have family in the area. The film at one point was to be set in an urban area, but they settled on rural locations because it opened the story up to new possibilities.

“It’s a head-for-the-hills movie, but what if the hill don’t want you there,” McPherson said during a lunch break at the historic Hope Hotel.

Moreover, northern Idaho and western Montana would be logical routes of migration for people fleeing urban areas such as Spokane.

“It does sort of take a natural route,” McPherson said of the film’s location.

The bridge was used for a practical-effects crash scene in which the film’s protagonists barrel through a road blockage authorities were unable to clear.

“That stunt’s rigged up right now,” said McPherson, adding that precautions were put in place to keep the cast and crew safe, in addition to preventing damage to state highway infrastructure.

McPherson said the film also takes on a popular misconception about electromagnetic pulses, also known as EMPs. It’s long been believed that EMPs will disable automobiles, as was depicted in the Cold War-era television film, “The Day After.”

“The consensus is that would not be the case,” McPherson said.

In both pictures, the EMP was triggered by a nuclear attack on the U.S. The EMP shuts down grocery stores, fuel stations and cellular communications.

“It expedites the panic,” said McPherson, a producer, writer and director of television movies, short films and documentaries.

The film’s crew also conducted pre-production interviews of Inland Northwest inhabitants, some of whom expressed a willingness to help travelers in a time of need, but drew a line when it came to untold hordes of people.

“Some said they would start blowing up bridges,” said McPherson.

The film does not yet have a firm released date, although McPherson said it is expected to come out in 2018.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.