I’m surprised how dark this tv-movie went, almost as much as Mick Jackson’s Threads one year later. Overall a classy, hard-hitting production. No remorse really, which I like. Great cast, even Steve Guttenberg.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
I’ve never seen that. When I was a kid one of my teachers decided we should all watch Threads. That traumatised me so badly I’ve stayed away from nuclear war films since!
I'm old enough to remember when they both first came out, and how dark they both were. Between that and Chernobyl at the time the 80's had a real sense of nuclear doom about it. Not much fun to watch as a teen at the time.
That movie caused me some harm. I saw it when it first aired. I was too young to handle it. I spent most of my childhood thinking there would certainly be a nuclear war by the year 2000 so why try in school? Just have fun because I would die soon. I never discussed it with any adults. I should have.
When I was a kid my entire family sat down and watched this movie together when it first aired. It scared the living shit out of me. I was 6 years old having nightmares about mushroom clouds. Until the USSR collapse I was convinced I’d never make it to adulthood.
One thing about this movie, they tried to be really accurate about the effects of a nuclear explosion. For instance, the scene where nobody's car would start (because the electrical components were fried by the electromagnetic pulse). Nowadays I think all cellphones would be dead too.
Watched it as a teen in school with the whole class. When we came outside, it was snowing. We all were thinking of the fallout in the movie, it was scary.
“Threads” makes the American-produced “The Day After” look like a laughable, cheesy disaster flick. But both pictures are depressing AF, I wish I never saw either of them. But those Brits really went there. Should be mandatory viewing for any head of government/state in control of a nuclear arsenal.
I actually watched The Day After last weekend. (watched it when it was first on TV as a made for TV movie). Then I watched Threads for a double feature end of the world as we know it evening. Both fine movies. Testament (1983) is another fine one made for Public TV.
I'm reminded Sci Fi channel back in 2000 or something during the Bush presidency actually aired it. It was really dark. Goose Boose did a video on this tv movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_HVdwoe348
That’s where I first watched it, on Sci-Fi, now SyFy, during the Bush era in the mid/late-2000s. They aired it quite often. I had known about it before I watched the whole thing, but my viewing was when relations with Russia started to deteriorate and the DPRK was building up their arsenal.
Comments
And it may still.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_HVdwoe348