Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Brian Becker, Candace Turner, documentaries, John Koskinen, Marley McDonald, Max, movies, Peter de Jager, reviews, Time Bomb Y2K, TV, Y2K
August 25, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Brian Becker and Marley McDonald
Culture Representation: Taking place in various places, mostly in the United States, from 1996 to the early days of 2000, the documentary film “Time Bomb Y2K” features a predominantly white group of people (with some African Americans, Latin people and Asians) who are talk about the Y2K computer transition, where computers had to adjust to the years 2000 and beyond.
Culture Clash: Many people had fears that this Y2K computer transition would be disastrous if the problem was not corrected in time.
Culture Audience: “Time Bomb Y2K” will appeal mainly to people who interested in watching archival documentaries that show a chronicle of people’s hopes and fears of the future and computer technology.
“Time Bomb Y2K” isn’t as exciting as the title suggests. “Time Capsule Y2K” is a more accurate title for this all-archival documentary that looks back at the fears and preparations for computer operations transitioning to the year 2000. It’s not a bad movie, but it could’ve been better with hindsight interviews.
Directed by Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, “Time Bomb Y2K” has archival footage from 1996 to the early days of 2000. The movie is formatted like a countdown, with footage shown in chronological order by year, in order to show the growing sense of urgency (and often panic) that computer scientists and other members of the public had about the Y2K transition. Because the outcome of the Y2K transition is already known, there’s not much suspense when watching this documentary, but it’s an interesting study in sociological fears.
In the simplest of terms, for those who don’t know about the Y2K transition: In the mid-1990s, computer scientists and other experts noticed that most computers were not coded to understand years go past 1999. The theory was that on January 1, 2000, computers and computer programs would malfunction or stop working because of this inability to understand a year in the 21st century or beyond. There was an intense rush to have computers and computer programs recoded to be capable of understanding years beyond 1999, in order to prevent any computer-related catastrophes.
The leading expert who warned of the potential Y2K disasters was computer consultant/alarmist Peter de Jager, who is seen in several TV interviews in the documentary’s archival footage. This footage includes a contentious “Crossfire” interview with de Jager, where de Jager gets very defensive and angry when he is accused of unscrupulously profiting from his doomsday predictions. Also prominently featured in the documentary is John Koskinen, who was the leader of the President’s Council on Y2K Conversion.
Bill Clinton (who was president of the United States at the time) and Al Gore (who was vice president of the United States at the time) are seen in multiple segments showing them talking about testing new computer technology in the years leading up to Y2K. There’s some footage from 1996 of Clinton and Gore visiting Freepoint Elementary School in Sacramento, California, and testing what was an early version of webcam technology.
The documentary also has some acknowledgement of Grace Hopper, the U.S. Navy admiral/computer scientist who coined the term “computer bug,” which was literally inspired by an insect bug that accidentally got caught in a computer and caused a malfunction. Famous technology moguls such as Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) are seen in some interview and news footage, talking about how their companies are preparing for the future.
There’s also a lot of archival interviews and footage of a diverse array of everyday people giving their opinions on Y2K and what they think it means to them. Some of the more memorable comments are from young people who talk about their hopes for the future and what they think computer technology will impact people’s lives. Online chat room existed in 1999, so there’s also some foreshadowing of social media and how it can be addicting.
People who took their Y2K fears to the extreme get a lot of screen time in this documentary. Militia groups and fundamentalists Christians were among the most ardent doomsday preppers who stocked up on food, water, weapons and other survivalist resources. A farmer named Candace Turner talks about selling all of her assets to prepare for Y2K. Also featured is John Trochman, a militia man from Montana who peddled Y2K paranoia.
One of the documentary’s noticeable flaws is that it is very much focused on what was going on in the United States. There is very little screen time given to how people living outside the U.S. reacted to Y2K, even though the Y2K computer problem was said to be one that would be disastrous on a worldwide level. Toward the end of the documentary, there is a montage of what New Year’s Eve celebrations looked like in certain places around the world on December 31, 1999, and what happened when it became January 1, 2000, in those places. And this is not a spoiler alert: Nothing disastrous happened with computers worldwide when the Y2K transition actually happened.
People who will appreciate “Time Bomb Y2K” the most are those who were alive during the Y2K panicking and can remember all the doom and gloom forecasts that predicted apocalyptic-type computer malfunctions if the problem wasn’t fixed in time. It can be argued that the Y2K disaster potential was over-hyped. It can also be argued that the Y2K disaster potential was real but was prevented due to the work of untold numbers of people who toiled diligently behind the scenes. “Time Bomb Y2K” is not the movie that is going to give viewers all the technical data or personal stories about the people who were in the trenches of it all. However, the documentary is a fairly good historical compilation of how the Y2K transition affected people who were mostly in the United States at the time.
HBO and Max premiered “Time Bomb Y2K” on December 30, 2023.