"The Nuclear War Movie That Traumatized a Generation" Topic

… is Back.

"That bomb was Threads, a well-researched TV movie about nuclear war. Unlike so many other movies, books, and television shows that deal with the subject of nuclear weapons, Threads showed what life was like for normal people on the ground during a nuclear war. It is one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen on screen.

Threads traumatized an entire British generation. The BBC only aired it twice—once in 1984 then again in 1985, on the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan—then put it in a vault for 20 years. When TBS aired it in the US in 1985, media mogul Ted Turner introduced it personally. "The more we know about what could happen, the less chance it is that it will happen," the millionaire told Americans before airing the unsettling feature…"
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Amicalement
Armand

A well done and miserable to watch film.

Yes, I remember being suitably depressed after watching it in 84.

It emphasizes the phrase: "the living will envy the dead".

Here I was thinking it was "The Day After", but I guess it only messed up US kids of Gen X.

Although, the only thing I remember is when the mother was giving her son a sponge bath in the sink and it was filled with blood afterwards. :(

youtu.be/yif-5cKg1Yo

Or Special Bulletin, the News reporting on Nuclear Terrorists in NY bay one in which everyone was confused on whether or not it was a real news broadcast or a movie.

The Day After was a depressing one to me.
Rouge fingers on the trigger was not scary.

We watched it at school – I was 9 :-)

Here I was thinking it was "The Day After", but I guess it only messed up US kids of Gen X.

Watched them both, Threads was a much better movie.

Threads was much better than The Day After and more realistic. The Day After is still worth watching though.

I can also recommend the anime Barefoot Gen. I think this was also made into a live action film. Based on the memoir of a youngster that survived Hiroshima.

The War Game (1965), directed by Peter Watkins, is worth watching as well. The film takes the form of a documentary about the effects of nuclear war in the UK.

One thing about the Day After, it was not a movie but a mini-series. Iirc.
The quality of most mini series was always less due to budget limitations.

Was it only the West that made these types of movies?

I never understood the mental devastation these films caused.

I grew up in the 60s and had conversations with classmates in grade school who knew that they would never live to vote.

The 80s were not even a patch on the 60s.

Unilateral disarmament was a Western ideal and these films were part of that.

It was shown in the area I was living commercial free, so I taped, still have that VHS tape. The quality has dropped over the years, just barely viewable. Good movie, but I think we all pretty much knew, just like in "The Day After" what it would have been like after an attack. Life would have sucked for sure!

Haywire,that scene(the bathroom sink sponge bath) with Jane Alexander and a young Lukas Haas,was "Testament". There also was an early appearance by Kevin Costner in that one too.

I remember "The Day After" and even duck & cover drills in the early '60s at school. I guess I was not really too upset about the MAD, nucs ending the world, etc.

I guess I figured if it happened there was nothing I could do about. I always was a bit of a realist and pragmatic. Or just too dumb to care …

And some people dare to say that we didn't live under fear of a nuclear war.

(Ironically, they are many of the same people who typically claim that movies reflect the feelings of the public)

Dan

There was never a realistic danger of global thermonuclear war in the '80s due to deterrence and MAD (and a "red phone" if it comes to that). However, there was the threat of a conventional war in Europe escalating to a nuclear one if the Nato "tripwire" gets overrun by overwhelming Soviet and Warpac forces and had to resort to tactical nukes (not just artillery shells but theater nuclear missiles like the Pershing 2).

The Day After scared the hell out me! I had nightmares for months

28mmFanatik: "There was never a realistic danger of global thermonuclear war in the '80s due to deterrence and MAD (and a "red phone" if it comes to that)"

"Never? I love that word as much as I love hearing the word "always". In other words, I hate absolutes.

How many times did the nuclear powers put their fingers on the button, because of radar glitches or other misread signals, or stand-offs like in Cuba but lesser known?

Many would have us believe that we live in constant threat from nuclear reactors, despite all the environmental hoops required to build and manage the damn things, but some of those exact same people would have you believe that nuclear war holocaust was never a real possibility. It's funny, ain't it?

Dan

However, there was the threat of a conventional war in Europe escalating to a nuclear one if the Nato "tripwire" gets overrun by overwhelming Soviet and Warpac forces and had to resort to tactical nukes

No matter how it happened once you start tossing nucs around … It's a bad thing …

I did get selected for Atomic Demolition Mission Officer training in '82. So I guess someone was taking it seriously. Of course if I was ordered along with the team I would be leading as a 1LT. To deploy with atomic weapons. I'd figure things would have gotten really up beyond all recognition. And it would have been a one way trip.

Only senior 1LTs were selected for this type of training. You were experienced enough to get the job done. But low enough in rank to be expendable …

I was 9 years old living in Miami during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We had many of those Civil Defense Drills too.

I went to the military NBC School in 1974. When we went to the Med it was my job to plot the area and direction of fallout if a nuke went off nearby.

Wolfhag

Threads was quite good. The Day After was overblown and didn't make sense in some places.

Back to the 60s, I grew up in a more rural area of SW Colorado. However, the primary economic activity was uranium mining and the mills were 4 and 10 miles away. It was presumed (have not seen verification) that the Soviets would lob a nuke at the mills just on general principles.

Definitely not the same level of concern by the time the 80s rolled around.

Have to disagree a bit CC – an awful lot of the anti-nuclear power crowd were in the unilateral disarmament movements as well. Better Red than Dead…

Day After was good, Threads was better. And both were optimistic…

Spent my youth ('75-'79) staring across the IGB. And the running joke was that German villages were spaced about 1 Sov 10kt nuke apart. We had no illusions that if the balloon went up that it'd go nuke in no time. Not that it matter (at least for me); I'd probably be dead by then (that happens when you're in tanks).

There was never a realistic danger of global thermonuclear war in the '80s due to deterrence and MAD (and a "red phone" if it comes to that).

Are you familiar with "Able Archer 83?"

MAD and communications certainly helped, but there was a serious chance of things getting out of control before those kicked in.

Many would have us believe that we live in constant threat from nuclear reactors, despite all the environmental hoops required to build and manage the damn things, but some of those exact same people would have you believe that nuclear war holocaust was never a real possibility. It's funny, ain't it?

Who's afraid of nuclear reactors? I merely said that the threat of global thermonuclear war was overblown by the government and media in order to justify our defense spending.

Instead of making overarching generalizations, you might read this and may even learn something useful:

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Who's afraid of nuclear reactors? I merely said that the threat of global thermonuclear war was overblown by the government and media in order to justify our defense spending.

Maybe you are right and the threat was overblown. Even if it is true, that kind of mindset has a tendency to create the conditions that make conflict possible. It takes a small step to cross the threshold from propaganda for inner consumption to actual conviction that the threat is real and about to happen.

When Able Archer 83 scare, many in the Soviet government were convinced that the NATO was about to launch a preventive strike under the pretense of maneuvers. It took a lot of sang-froid for Soviet leadership to resist the pressure not to order a mobilization of their own nuclear strike forces. That and, apparently, an opportune warning from their own spooks in NATO HQ in Brussels that Westerners Able Archer was what it pretended to be: just an exercise. The Soviets decided not to let the counsel of their fears to rule their actions, but they could have gone the other way.

Anyway, the point is that the risk of thermonuclear exchange was very real. We dodged the bullet just because neither of the actors that could take the decission of going to war could imagine a scenario that didn't involve the destruction of the world as we knew it. But it was too close for comfort.

Basileus66: "We dodged the bullet just because neither of the actors that could take the decission of going to war could imagine a scenario that didn't involve the destruction of the world as we knew it."

That, and more than a little bit of luck. :)

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Dan

Yes and no. There were a couple of close calls, all the result of either technical malfunctions or human error.

And the Missile Crisis. My dad was a targeteer in that one. Said it was the scariest few days of his USAF career (not counting the times he was shot at).

Wasn't there a story about a lone Russian soldier in a silo getting an order to fire his missile by error many years ago? If I remember correctly he ignored the order and contacted his superiors against military SOP's.