After receiving word that the area is about to be hit by atomic missiles, a California sheriff sets up a road block on a quiet mountain road to keep drivers from entering the city or adding to the massive traffic jams on the highways. The citizens who are stopped comply, at first confused by the policeman's demands, then panicked once they are briefed on the situation. The sheriff declares martial law and orders a semi truck emptied of its cargo to use as a makeshift bomb shelter. The group is a typical cross section of humanity: a swinging beatnik couple, a kindly old man and his teenaged granddaughter, a cowardly businessman and his sexually repressed wife, a lonely truck driver, and a homicidal maniac. As they work and argue together, strange alliances arise. The bulk of This Is Not a Test is fairly talky like a filmed play, but the performances are fine within the tight constraints of each actor's assigned stereotype. The film moves quickly towards its inevitable conclusion, however, gaining considerable tension with every minute. Ultimately, each character has to make and face a choice regarding their impending deaths. Work together desperately to secure a shelter that has no serious hope of providing safety? Or climb up on top of a mountain alone and watch it all go to hell? Director Frederic Gadette (a TV director, this rarity is his only known feature film) does an exceptional job with bare-bones resources in this honest, humane thriller.