🚨 Trigger warning: The movie is based on real science. The Yellowstone Caldera is overdue for a super-eruption (though no one knows when), and given recent FEMA budget cuts, some may find it an unsettling watch.
That said, if you can stomach the existential dread, Supervolcano is a fascinating look at how cascading failures unfold—and why preparation and communication are everything.
It's not a cybersecurity film, but Supervolcano, a BBC-made-for-TV disaster movie, plays out like a textbook case of crisis escalation, miscommunication, and real-time disaster response. The movie is free on YouTube, and the BBC documentary for the Yellowstone Caldera is associated with it.
If you've ever dealt with an active cybersecurity incident, you'll recognize the themes:
🔹 Initial warnings dismissed
🔹 Decision-makers caught between action and optics
🔹 The slow realization that things are far worse than expected
🔹 Recovery (albeit partial, less than one-third of the impacted population
survived).
The only part I was missing was the all-important Lessons Learned portion, though the movie does explore that with post-event interviews with the different characters.
This movie imprinted on me when I first saw it back in 2005 (yes, twenty years ago). One line has stuck with me ever since:
"It seems like our worst-case scenario wasn't the worst case."
If you spent the time watching it, thank you for trusting me. I hope you're going to remain my friend. I would love to hear your thoughts on seeing it. Especially if, like me, the themes resonated with you.
#CyberSecurity #IncidentResponse #CrisisManagement #Supervolcano