When denial is a national crisis, the psychological implications of security issues become paramount. In resistance to Canada's recent Anti-Terrorism Act, Ready to Cope comments on the ways in which society's chronic obsession for safety and security has become both a private and public crutch. Edited from clips from horror and science fiction films, thrillers, self-help guides and motivational instruction videos, Ready to Cope is an impassioned record of collective anxiety. The characters are in an unknown tragedy: the baths they take, the halls they walk down, and the air they breathe become more important than the crisis itself. Ready to Cope is made from the moments before and after, when the plot is at an impasse and the dialogue is silenced, forming a new yet familiar narrative of defensiveness and self-protection.