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The Day After: 35 years later

WarpFactorZ

WarpFactorZ

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
November 20th marked the 35th anniversary of "The Day After", directed by Nicholas Meyer (yes, the same one). The film -- which aired on ABC during prime time -- depicted the effects of an all-out global nuclear war. The focus was on the residents of small town Lawrence, Kansas, and was so shocking in its imagery that it caused Ronald Reagan to rethink his position on arms control.

This was one of the first movies I ever taped on our Beta machine, and I watched it over and over again. Partially out of fascination for the science and power of nuclear weapons, partially out of fear that it was minutes away from becoming a reality. To this day, I'll pop in the DVD and re-watch key portions of the movie.

One of the most chilling scenes in the film is that of a choked-up and panicked news anchor, interrupting Saturday morning cartoons, to announce the beginning of the end of the world: "Three... NUCLEAR weapons.. in the low kiloton range... were airburst this morning, over advancing Soviet troops." A lone child watches the special report with no understanding of what it means.

Let's hear where you were when you saw this iconic film, and what you thought afterward!
 
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I wasn't born when this movie aired but I happen to see it a while ago on LMN. I thought the telefilm was boring, and way too preachy for my liking. If then President Reagan was shocked at the imagery shot from that film then he would've been horrified seeing the tons of footage from the after effects from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I doubt that TV special had anything do with his position on Nuclear Arms.
 
Another movie that came out at the same time was Testament that followed the life of a suburban family after a nuclear attack. It started Jane Alexander, William Devane, Kevin Costner, and Lukas Haas' film debut. It was originally intended to be a made-for-TV movie but was so powerful that it was released as to theaters. This film was a much more intimate look at the impact to one family. Not by the physical shock wave of the attack but the aftermath to society and the effects of radiation exposure.
 
STEPhon IT said:
I wasn't born when this movie aired but I happen to see it a while ago on LMN. I thought the telefilm was boring, and way too preachy for my liking.
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Interesting. Quite a difference a generation makes, particularly if you can't identify with the subject matter the film portrays.

If then President Reagan was shocked at the imagery shot from that film then he would've been horrified seeing the tons of footage from the after effects from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I doubt that TV special had anything do with his position on Nuclear Arms.
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The effects of one 15-kt device are completely different than the effects of multiple megaton warheads. The Day After was fairly conservative in depicting the latter, and it still depressed Reagan upon viewing it. It's in his memoir, "An American Life". And for the record, there wasn't "tons" of footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, particularly in the hours and days following the bombings.
 
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Non Sync said:
Another movie that came out at the same time was Testament that followed the life of a suburban family after a nuclear attack. It started Jane Alexander, William Devane, Kevin Costner, and Lukas Haas' film debut. It was originally intended to be a made-for-TV movie but was so powerful that it was released as to theaters. This film was a much more intimate look at the impact to one family. Not by the physical shock wave of the attack but the aftermath to society and the effects of radiation exposure.
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Testament is equally as horrifying, and as a psychological thriller that impact is even worse. It was hard to watch without kids, and with a 9 year old today I don't think I could get through it.

"Threads" is the BBC version of "The Day After" (released a year later), done in a documentary style, and is also a must watch. It chronicles the life of Ruth, a humble resident of Sheffield, as she works her way through and 13 years after the apocalypse.
 
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Testament and Threads both impressed me greatly; The Day After did not.
 
I saw it when it originally aired on ABC. Haven't seen it since.
 
WarpFactorZ said:
"Threads" is the BBC version of "The Day After" (released a year later), done in a documentary style, and is also a must watch. It chronicles the life of Ruth, a humble resident of Sheffield, as she works her way through and 13 years after the apocalypse.
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We watched Threads in my 9th grade poly sci class. It makes The Day After look like a walk in the park.
 
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I saw the 'Day After' when I was 12, scared the shit out of me. I actually saw 'Threads' last year on line and that was very grim also.
 
The main takeaway from all these productions, over three decades later, is how pervasive public anxiety about the military standoff between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. was in the 1980s.
 
I was 16 and in High School when it came out. It was pretty awful but Threads was even more horrifying. Younger people today can't conceive of a time when nuclear war seemed inevitable and it was just a matter of time. It was in the background of everyone's life every single day. I can't imagine anyone could go more than a few days at a time without thinking about it at least a little. Today, I worry far more about an EMP from Iran or North Korea than I do about total war.
 
I was in my early 20's when it first aired and there was a lot of hype about the movie before and after it was aired. It even made the cover of Time magazine as I recall. I thought it was pretty cheesy and melodramatic and I also thought the acting was just marginal. I did however like the special effects showing the detonations which were a little stylistic. I love to watch movies over and over but I never had any desire to watch that one again. I think the reports of Reagan changing policy is all PR, I don't believe for a second that a cheesy TV movie would have any great influence on national policy but it's a good story anyway.
 
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I worry about terrorists getting a nuke. The technology to make nukes is almost 80 years old, and you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Good thing is, Plutonium and Uranium are not easy to get for your average terrorist. Still, I believe that within the next 20 years a small nuclear device will go off in a city somewhere in the world. Radiological detectors have gotten better, but I feel it is inevitable that will happen someday.

As for global warfare, while the US and Russia still have enough warheads to destroy the world a few times over. the interceptor missile technology has increased greatly and should knock out most ICBM's (but not all!) . Although US and Russia are always working on ways to get around that.
 
My family was into watching event miniseries, so i was parked in the living room watching with them when it came on. I found it chilling, but I found the later movie "By Dawn's Early Light" much more compelling.
 
I was a teenager in the 80s and found the threat of nukes to be more of an abstract thought-experiment or a convenient plot-device in movies for the sake of generating suspense. Despite this or movies like Wargames or the future scenario in The Dead Zone I had my doubts that WWIII would start. It just seemed like something that was more of a pressing issue in the previous generation to mine with all the duck and cover and the Cuban missile crisis.

For instance, this music video was in heavy rotation in MTV at the time, which sort of retroactively goofed on all of the nuke hysteria of the 50s from an 80s perspective.

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I think the main impulse to do The Day After and make it a national event was from the older generation at the time.
 
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