By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff
For the average person, an initial thought upon clicking “play” to watch the trailer for Radioflash might be, “An apocalyptic thriller? Cool.”
For a North Idaho resident, that first thought is more likely, “Wait, isn’t that the Gas N Go on Fifth Avenue?”
In one scene in Radioflash, a car accident clogs up the bridge leading into Hope, Idaho. Courtesy image.
Inland Northwest locales are recognizable throughout the trailer, starting with a blackout over Spokane. Radioflash follows teenager Reese as she and her father fight to survive after a nuclear strike leaves the western United States without water, power or means of communication. The film depicts “a perilous trek through a world gone mad where every encounter with a stranger could be your last” — a trek that includes scenes on the boat basin bridge in Hope, hiking over Kootenai Falls and, yes, even the main characters pulling up to Gas N Go. In all, the movie’s IMDb entry lists Spokane; Sandpoint; Hope; Clark Fork; Heron, Mont.; and Kootenai Falls, Mont., under filming locations for the movie.
Filming in Bonner County took place largely in the fall of 2017, when an apparent car wreck scene being filmed on the bridge above the Hope boat basin caught the attention of locals and got them asking, “What is this movie? When is it coming out?”
The answer, according to IMDb, is Friday, Nov. 15 — though where the movie will show is not so readily advertised.
Radioflash features Brighton Sharbino — known for her recurring role on The Walking Dead — as lead character Reese, and Dominic Monaghan — Merry from the Lord of the Rings trilogy — as her father, Chris. Other cast members include Will Patton, Fionnula Flanagan and Miles Anderson.
Radioflash is written and directed by Ben McPherson, a American fine art painter turned filmmaker. The movie, credited to IFC Films, is McPherson’s first feature-length film.
To view the trailer, search “Radioflash – Official Trailer” on YouTube or go to youtube.com/watch?v=ILUTmGY7BV4.
