Dennis Quaid has a scary proposition he wants to share — and it just so happens, Fox News is happy to oblige.
Quaid — star of such films as “The Right Stuff,” “Innerspace” and “The Rookie” — made a return appearance on the network Thursday night to promote an Armageddon-style documentary he narrated about the U.S. power grid, “Grid Down, Power Up.”
“Every aspect of our lives that we take for granted every day is — we’re going to have to deal with it another way. And it won’t be good,” Quaid told Sean Hannity, warning of the dangers involved if the nation’s power grid goes down as the result of a cyberattack, an electromagnetic pulse or “even a massive solar flare.”
Hannity was in full agreement, calling them “attacks we’ve never dreamed of.” You can watch the video interview in the embed above.
But Quaid — surprise! — has answers to the problem, and they require the government to act.
“Definitely a nonpartisan issue, that’s for sure,” the “Wyatt Earp” star said, explaining that the installation of surge protectors connected to electrical substations will help.
To kick off a preview of the film, “Hannity” cut to an ominous voiceover of Quaid delivering a frightening message.
“Virtually every study you’ll see has an anarchistic component that leads to rioting,” Quaid says in the voiceover, referring to studies that remain unclear. “It is almost inevitable.”
“Imagine what will happen if there’s no food, no power, no money, no transportation,” a U.S. Army general then says in another excerpt as video rolls of empty store shells, rioting in the streets and citizens armed to the teeth with firearms. “Only people with guns and the boldness to go and take what they need to survive will live.”
“It could literally end civilization as we know it,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich then says in a punctuating soundbite.
Quaid, who boasts more than 110 acting credits from a Hollywood career that dates to the 1970s, explained his reasons for doing such a project.
“It’s something I read about — it chilled me — quite a few years ago,” Quaid said, adding that producer David Tice later approached him with the idea to do the documentary.
Quaid then pointed out that “before 1920, we all lived in the dark.”
“I guess we were quite used to it,” Quaid said, adding that if an attack or catastrophic event wiped out the U.S. power grid, “we’d be back in the Stone Age again.”
“That’s a frightening scenario,” Hannity said, after running through the list of potential power grid cataclysms. But to completely hammer home the point, Quaid cautioned that Americans would lose refrigeration and access to food and communication.
“From that, chaos is going to erupt,” Quaid said. “And it’s something we’re very vulnerable with.”
Hannity, putting the scenarios even further into context, said it reminded him of the Denzel Washington-starring 2010 film “The Book of Eli.”
“That kind of scenario, where it just — whoever’s left, it’s just total anarchy,” Hannity said, before revealing he owns “two huge generators, in part so I can broadcast if, God forbid, such a thing happens.”
The Fox News host added he also has “thousands of gallons of propane under ground” in case the generators don’t work.
Quaid’s “Hannity” appearance wasn’t his first on Fox News to promote the documentary. The actor appeared as a guest on “Jesse Watters Primetime” in March, albeit with a much different hairdo, warning that a “bad actor” such as a Chinese spy balloon could knock out the U.S. power grid for as long as a month.
Watch video of that interview below.