Trying to find a old 70s or 80s film

[catch.22]

Please help.

One of my earliest memories are of a Sci-Fi film I saw in a hotel when i was young.

I would have seen it between 1981 and 1983 and it was in colour and american.

I seem to remember the ending which was in a restricted area of a building (accessed via a long tunnel) where one person got went into. He found a body of a person in a pipe (maybe just alive, not too sure if he survived). For some reason i think the area was radioactive or the environment was poisonous.

In the end it was all ok and a large "crane tyre hook" opened a large circular white door and the place was 'saved'

I know it sounds a lot of nonsense but perhaps it will spark something with someone and put me out of a live time of frustration!!!

Thanks
Matthew

 

[Ray Pullar]

I recall the film as well having watched it on TV back in the eighties. The two heroes spend most of the story inside the containment hall of a nuclear reactor which has been set to open its reactor cover (using the hook) and extract the control rods causing a meltdown. The man found in the tube turns out to be the disgruntled maintenance worker who set up the disaster. I believe the name of the movie is Red Alert (1977), starring William Devane (of Marathon Man fame), M. Emmet Walsh (Blade Runner, The Jerk and too many others) and Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Escape from New York).