Tells the powerful true story of Karen Silkwood, a labor activist and nuclear plant worker in Oklahoma who became a whistleblower after uncovering safety violations at the Kerr-McGee plutonium processing facility. Played by Meryl Streep, Karen is an ordinary worker whose growing awareness of corporate negligence and danger to her fellow employees drives her into union activism.

The film depicts the intense personal cost of speaking out. Karen faces harassment, isolation, and physical contamination from plutonium exposure as she gathers evidence of wrongdoing. Her story culminates in a mysterious car crash on the way to deliver documents to a journalist — raising questions that remain unresolved about whether her death was an accident or an attempt to silence her.

Silkwood is both an intimate portrait of a woman finding her voice and a larger indictment of corporate secrecy and government complicity in the nuclear industry. Her story became a touchstone for the global anti-nuclear movement, fueling demands for stronger safety standards and for an end to nuclear power altogether. Decades later, Silkwood’s sacrifice resonates in ongoing struggles over nuclear energy — from the legacy of Chernobyl and Fukushima to today’s debates about whether nuclear power should be part of the climate solution.