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Code of Silence

Written by Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack and Mike Gray

Directed by Andrew Davis

U.S.A., 1985

Eddie Cusack (Chuck Norris) and his crew (among them Dennis Farina, Ralph Foody and Joe Guzaldo) are undercover cops stationed just outside a rundown apartment complex in a Chicago slum, waiting for the right to storm the building for a drug bust. Unbeknownst to the detectives, a rival gang is also prepping to raid the building, and when both forces collide, the entire operation explodes into a mess for all three factions. At present, two Chicago gangs are on the cusp of war and Eddie Cusack must contend not only with that terrible situation but a cover up within the force following the unwarranted demise of a teenage boy during the muffed raid. As the film’s tagline states, Eddie Cusack is a good cop having a very bad day!

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Jane Fonda movies on TCM: ‘The China Syndrome,’ ‘Klute,’ and Jean-Luc Godard drama ‘Tout Va Bien’ among highlights (photo: Jane Fonda in ‘Klute’) Turner Classic Movies’ 2014 "Summer Under the Stars" kicked off earlier today, August 1, with a day-long series of Jane Fonda movies. Still reviled by American right-wingers because of her 1972 trip to North Vietnam while the United States was at war with that country — she was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft battery — but admired by others for her liberal views, anti-war activism, and human rights advocacy, the two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner has enjoyed a highly eclectic film career, eventually becoming a rarity among rarities: Jane Fonda is the child of a film star (Henry Fonda) who not only became a film star in her own right, but who went on to become an even bigger screen legend than her famous parent. (See also: Jane Fonda “Summer Under...

The late writer of The China Syndrome and an active member of the Guild will be posthumously awarded the 2014 Morgan Cox Award in recognition of his service.

The awards will be presented at the Writers Guild Of America, West’s 2014 Writers Guild Awards West Coast ceremony on February 1 2014 in Los Angeles.

“Tom was a beloved member of this Guild, renowned both for the remarkable work he produced and for his unending commitment to give something of himself back,” said Wgaw president Christopher Keyser.

“His service touched on every corner of our mission and lasted over three wonderful decades. Even in his final days, as a trustee of our health and pension fund, he never forgot the needs of his fellow writers, and we, in turn, will never forget him.”

Cook was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 25 1947 and shared Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations with Mike Gray and James Bridges and won the WGA award for original...

Mike Gray, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for The China Syndrome about a nuclear power plant disaster cover-up, has died. Gray passed away Tuesday of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home, his family told the Los Angeles Times. He was 77. Gray developed the China Syndrome screenplay after researching the dangers of nuclear power. It turns out the timing was uncanny. Just three weeks after the opening of the film starring Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas, a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania went into partial meltdown. “I meant China Syndrome to educate people about what I’d found … that our heavy reliance on nuclear plants hadn’t been clearly thought through,” Gray told the Chicago Tribune in 1998. Gray co-wrote the script with T.S. Cook and James Bridges. Gray also collaborated with Chicago’s Second City comedy group founder Howard Alk on several documentary films, including...

Thomas S. Cook, an Academy and Emmy Award-nominated writer, has died at the age of 65. Cook, who was also a winner of the Writers Guild Award, died on Jan. 5 at his home in Hollywood after a battle with cancer, according to the Writers Guild.   Cook, also known as T.S. Cook, is best known for co-writing the screenplay for the 1979 nuclear power suspense thriller "The China Syndrome" with Mike Gray and James Bridges. The trio shared Academy Award, Golden Globe, and British Academy of Film and Television screenplay nominations,...

Screenwriter and producer T.S. Cook, best known for penning the 1979 thriller The China Syndrome died Saturday after battling cancer. He was 65. Cook, a Cleveland, Ohio native, received Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Screenplay for The China Syndrome, an honor he shared with co-writers Mike Gray and James Bridges. Cook was a decades-long active member of the Writers Guild of America and a “tenacious advocate” for writers, his longtime manager Jeff Aghassi tells Deadline. Cook was honored by the WGA in 1980 for The China Syndrome. He also received an Emmy nomination for penning The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) and won a second Writers Guild award for Nightbreaker in 1989. His other TV credits include Project U.F.O., Baretta, The Paper Chase, Airwolf, Texas Justice and most recently The Hive and NYC: Tornado Terror, which both aired on Syfy in 2008.