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Premonition or Coincidence? Netflix Movie Predicts Ohio Crash Two Months Before It Happens!

White Noise predicted Ohio's environmental disaster before it happened

Premonition or Coincidence? Netflix Movie Predicts Ohio Crash Two Months Before It Happens!
Juan Carlos Saloz

Juan Carlos Saloz

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In the streaming era, with so many series and movies being released day after day, there is so much current audiovisual material that sometimes phenomena happen that seem to be made by magic. One of them is the prediction of events that are going to happen, something that The Simpsons are specialists in but that, if we look for it, happens with increasing assiduity.

The latest big fluke of this style has to do with the accident that occurred last February 3 in Ohio and is being echoed by media around the world. Apparently, the Netflix movie White Noise, directed by Noah Baumbach (A Marriage Story) and starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, announced the disaster before it happened.

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Accidente en Ohio: comenzó liberación

An unprecedented catastrophe

The incident occurred when a train of Norfolk Southern, a major U.S. railroad operator, derailed and exploded on the Ohio-Pennsylvania line near a town of about 5,000 people called East Palestine.

In the accident, more than fifty carriages, half of the long train, were completely engulfed in flames. One fifth of the train was carrying a highly toxic, carcinogenic and dangerous material normally used to manufacture PVC: vinyl chloride. As many as fourteen containers were carrying this substance. So, for fear of what the accident could mean, they exploded the wagons “in a controlled manner”, which generated a large toxic cloud that resulted in acid rain in the following days.

In the following days, more chemicals transported by the train, such as butyl acrylate and benzene residues, were announced, making the accident one of the biggest environmental disasters in the US in recent years.

Ohio train derailment prompts controlled release of chemicals on board

White Noise: the movie that foretold it all

But the most curious thing has happened when we discovered that, as we announced, a Netflix movie “announced” this terrible accident just two months ago. It is the movie White Noise, and its premise is as follows:

An industrial accident causes a terrible environmental incident in a bucolic Midwestern American town, blanketing it in a toxic cloud. Jack, a college professor who has lived surrounded by the white noise of high tech, electromagnetic signals and consumerism, is forced to confront his own mortality.”

In this way, the environmental catastrophe forces the protagonists to leave their homes and face not only the disaster, but also their own individual fears that may transcend into the lives of others. It is, therefore, a more introspective work that uses the disaster as a backdrop to bring out the emotions of the protagonists.

Well, beyond the synopsis, the accident they point to is the derailment of a train that causes a major environmental catastrophe due to the hazardous material it is transporting. But the most impressive thing is that the filming took place in East Palestine, precisely the small location where these events occurred. As actor Ben Ratner, who participated in the film, told CNN, “the first part of the film is exactly the same as what is happening now”.

Considering that this is a very small town in the middle of a practically desert-like place and far from big cities, the coincidence is getting bigger and bigger. Perhaps it is because it is a common route for freight trains of this style, but it is surprising nonetheless.

The idea for the film, however, is not original to the director. It is based on a book written by Don DeLillo in 1985, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction, and in fact the film is set in the past. DeLillo, moreover, is known for writing “prophetic” books about events of this kind. The writer’s work is full of such disasters, criticisms of the future of society and reflections on technology. This has caused that in more than one occasion his texts have ended up deriving in future “coincidences”.

According to Baumbach, the idea of making a film adaptation of this book came to him after rereading it during the first months of 2020, in the middle of a vacation. Weeks later, the Covid pandemic invaded the entire world and, while in quarantine, everything slowly began to take shape.

Juan Carlos Saloz

Juan Carlos Saloz

Cultural journalist specialized in film, series, comics, video games, and everything your parents tried to keep you away from during your childhood. Also an aspiring film director, screenwriter, and professional troublemaker.

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