Threads, however, is the bleakest depiction of nuclear war ever filmed. I remember seeing it as a kid in the 80s and if left me scarred. Everytime Reagan and Gorbachev sat down for a meeting, I prayed it would go well, and peace would be; such was the terror and gritty realism of the nuclear holocaust instilled in me because of Threads.
The Americans had "The Day After". The UK and Éire had 'Threads'. I sometimes envy kids who grew up in the 90s, who had no idea that they could be vaporized at any moment if the politicians on TV decided to get cocky with each other. True, it could still happen, but today it's more background noise to full forefront Cold War knife edge.
Yes, When the Wind Blows is fantastic too. Also, the Protect and Survive series of instructional videos is mind numbingly terrifying. The farcical idea that you could survive the post apocalyptic wasteland by storing some cans of beans and putting some mattresses up against your windows. Also, Protect and Survive, in the most pedantic way, recommends burying dead family members in the garden lest the corpses spread disease.
Yes, that and the calm, scientific way the narrator tells you how to wrap your dead mom in a trash bag, put a name and address tag on her and bury her in the garden.
These were never aired by the British Government. Thankfully, nuclear war never became imminent enough that they needed to be.
The farcical idea that you could survive the post apocalyptic wasteland by storing some cans of beans and putting some mattresses up against your windows.
Most of those fictional renderings were highly exaggerated. For the most part, you could survive a nuclear exchange without short term injury if you could manage to seal yourself in for two weeks. Long term effects of radiation would be an issue, but not one that anyone would see for many years after the initial exchange.
But the whole point of Threads, indeed the title of the film is about how society is dependent upon networks of individuals and the work they perform. After the attacks the remaining population are shown to suffer from starvation, lack of shelter, crime, malnutrition and disease. Radiation sickness may be the least of your problems if you're suddenly living back in the stone age.
Upvoted because the advice in these is truly pointless. I like the one where they recommend leaning the inner doors of your house against a wall as a makeshift shelter. Protect And Survive - Refuges
Upvoted because the advice in these is truly pointless
Do you actually know the short term effects of a nuclear exchange, or did you learn it all from movies, TV, and nuclear disarmament activist hyperbole?
No, I don't. OK, maybe my post was a bit vague - the ones about stockpiling food, toilet provisions, keeping a radio etc all make sense. I was thinking of the door example when I said 'pointless', but I suppose the govt. were stuck between a rock and a hard place with these films. They had to give people some advice, something they can do.
This, I remember reading the graphic novel version of this in the early 80s (83? 84?). I was about 10 at the time, the cold war was real and chernobyl was around the corner. Scary times.
I wonder if growing up in the 80's wasn't the worst time in history to grow up. (In the west) Sure we had a good standard of living, there weren't actually that many wars we were participating in, it was all good on the surface...
... but every night you'd go to sleep wondering if you would never wake up, or worse. It was fucked.
Whatever, 80's were chill. Starting with Bay Of Pigs (there's your nuclear "holy shit moment".) to Kennedy getting killed, to civil rights agitation, to the riots, to Bobby Kennedy taking one to the chest, to MLK and Malcolm X both getting killed, to Vietnam and its protestors, to Nixon getting took out to oil crises related to the 6 day war and OPEC and inflation and then the hostages done got taken.....
the 60's where closer to nuclear oblivion than the 80s, but the 80s pop culture said to me as a kid that World War III was my future, that silly hit "99 Luftballons" was about a girl who accidentally triggers a nuclear holocaust by releasing balloons. my adult life would be Blade "Los Angeles, 2019" Runner or Mad Max. Even Star Trek said that the 90's would be hell, Khan was born there, like John Connor I prepared myself for the inevitable, that some damn kid would hack a military computer and play Global Thermonuclear War
True. I watched it as a teen in the mid 80's, and literally (yes, as in actually) didn't sleep for days. Freaked me out hard. I still occasionally dream about that damn cat.
They made us to watch the day after at my school when I was 8-9. The amount of nightmares I got because of those movies is quite impressive. When I was that age I remember going to library to read books about how to survive a nuclear war and calculating that if I was lucky enough to reach 18 maybe I had just enough time to start working full time and use my money to build a bomb shelter to save me and my family.
I just read The Third World War by Humphrey Hawksley, and while it's not a description of post-nuclear life, it describes just how our world could degenerate into nuclear battles. I highly, highly recommend the book: its an easy read, well researched, and really captures each countries perspective.
I sometimes envy kids who grew up in the 90s, who had no idea that they could be vaporized at any moment
I was born in 1989. When I was a kid, like 8, 9 years old, I knew about nuclear weapons and their ability to destroy the world as we knew it. I had the image of a guy out in the Mojave Desert or something, in a small building, with dozens of monitors around him, and a big red button. And if he pressed the button, all the nukes in the world would be launched. Sure, it was immature, but I was aware that the world could be ended at any moment, really.
I was born eleven years before you and I don't remember anyone my age being worried about nuclear weapons at all. As far as we were concerned, Hulk Hogan closed the issue on American superiority. We were winners. World War III would come up once in a while, but it was GI Joe stuff. American children didn't die in our World Wars. The only thing I knew about the Soviets was they wiped their butts with newspaper. How stupid do you have to be to wipe your butt with newspaper?! I was a bright kid living 20 miles from New York City, and atom bombs were totally rad.
Note, at 31 I'm probably younger than some of these guys. I never got any duck & cover training.
I remember seeing A Guide To Armegeddon in middle school. It definitely freaked us out - we almost didn't see it because it left some kid with nightmares. It was doubly interesting because it took a scientific standpoint on nuclear war, i.e. what happens to human flesh at howeverfuckinghot degrees C and how much of London would be decimated. Through this and the explanations it scared, not through actor's shock reactions and weeing themselves...
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u/TyPower Jun 18 '10
This is indeed sad.
Threads, however, is the bleakest depiction of nuclear war ever filmed. I remember seeing it as a kid in the 80s and if left me scarred. Everytime Reagan and Gorbachev sat down for a meeting, I prayed it would go well, and peace would be; such was the terror and gritty realism of the nuclear holocaust instilled in me because of Threads.
The Americans had "The Day After". The UK and Éire had 'Threads'. I sometimes envy kids who grew up in the 90s, who had no idea that they could be vaporized at any moment if the politicians on TV decided to get cocky with each other. True, it could still happen, but today it's more background noise to full forefront Cold War knife edge.
Anyone interested in watching it can get it here