2/3 The Day After | 1983 Nuclear War Movie

A 30-minute rework of the 1983 nuclear war film The Day After focused on the documentary aspect of the movie.
The Day After is an American-made-for-TV movie first broadcast on the ABC television network in 1983. More than 100 million people, in nearly 39 million households, watched the initial broadcast. The film hugely impacted US audiences and aired on Soviet state TV in 1987. The Day After is often credited with helping to usher in a period of nuclear arms reduction treaties in the late 1980s and was ranked the highest-rated television film until 2009.
The Day After depicts a scenario of rising tensions along the East-West border of a divided Germany during the latter phase of the Cold War. Relations between NATO and Russia rapidly deteriorate as events spiral out of control leading to armed conflict and nuclear war. The film focuses on Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri where several family farms sit close to nuclear missile silos. The Day After documents the actual state of nuclear readiness maintained by the US and Russia. Both nations maintain a nuclear triad in constant readiness for thermonuclear war.
The Day After was first conceived by ABC Motion Picture Division president Brandon Stoddard who came up with the idea after watching The China Syndrome. Veteran television writer Edward Hume undertook a massive amount of research on the likely effects of nuclear war and went to work on a script in 1981. Due to the graphic content of the subject matter, however, several drafts were rejected by the network until the characters and plot finally seemed acceptable for a family audience. Most of the actors in The Day After were Kansas City residents recruited from local shopping malls.
Director Nicholas Meyer had just completed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and wanted to create a film that accurately portrayed the consequences of nuclear war. After wrangling with the US Department of Defence and the ABC censors, Meyer released a compromise version of The Day After for primetime TV screens. According to the message at the end of the film:
‘The catastrophic events you have just witnessed are, in all likelihood, less severe than the destruction that would occur in the event of a full-scale nuclear strike against the United States.
It is hoped that the images of this film will inspire the nations of this earth, their peoples and leaders, to find the means to avert the fateful day.’
The Day After: amzn.to/3jGzX3H
This channel is not monetized. All ads are run by the copyright owner.

[@adhk]

The joys of growing up in the Cold War. I watched this on TV with my parents when I was 10 or so. Afterwards I asked my mom if it was just a movie or if it could really happen. She said it could really happen. I asked her what would we do? She said it wouldn't matter what we did. Then I went to school the next day and thought about it nonstop for 20 years.

[@kevinbushey1879]

I’m like you been a real thinker about everything when I was young, my friends at that age couldn’t comprehend how I thought that way I thought way much older than most of the kids I grew up with I don’t know why.

[@josephhoward4697]

@@kevinbushey1879Honestly, it makes you appreciate getting older. You meet more people, and by sheer chance you run into others like you.

[@BigChungus-zg6zw]

You mom is not a very nice person.

[@dennisveazey4469]

Omg YES!!!

[@terrondt]

She was being honest and realistic. I was 13 when this came out and i wanted to know then truth about this horror

[@JulieannesAussiesandFLWildlife]

As a young teenager, I watched this on television when it first aired. The fact that not a single commercial was to be aired during the broadcast once the missiles were launched was unprecedented. Now, as a 50+-year-old, the scariest part about this movie is that it is a heavily toned-down version of the result of a nuclear war.

[@charliewerchan7252]

I agree, what they show on this movie is not even close to what would really happen. What's worse is how close we are to that reality right now.

[@JulieannesAussiesandFLWildlife]

@charliewerchan7252 As an adult, the most despicable thing is the realization that the people who are most likely to survive nuclear war are the same people who provoked nuclear war in the first place

[@charliewerchan7252]

@@JulieannesAussiesandFLWildlife A bunch of them will be. But also, they will lose alot of family and friends due to the fact they are not part of the govt infrastructure.

[@XXSkunkWorksXX]

As a young person born and raised in the UK, we had 'Threads' where the US had 'The Day After'. 'Threads' is many times more grim than 'The Day After' (which is a difficult enough watch anyway) - 'Threads' does not sanitize thermonuclear war nor - importantly - its aftermath. Where 'TDA' implies internal injury from radiation sickness, 'Threads' shows deformed births after rape. It shows graphic depictions of people burning to death and voiding their bowels/bladders as the firestorm rages. No sentimentality, unremitting and horrific, it remains without question the most terrifying thing I ever saw as a child and is no less impactful 40 years later when watched as an adult. Now I am become death - destroyer of worlds.

[@charliewerchan7252]

@@XXSkunkWorksXX I watched both. Both show rather dismal results after the war, but both also did not show the aftermath as bad as it will be. Darkness, and death. There is no writing a script for something so utterly heinous as completely destroying the world God created for us.

[@vanterry08]

They need to broadcast this movie again right now worldwide for free. Scared the hell out of the public when originally broadcast and now more important than ever before.

[@ianashton1593]

World leaders should be forced to watch it, those with the authority to press the buttons. They may be safe in their bunkers short term but they’d have to come out at some point !

[@user-ze7mu8hk8u]

Как он называется?

[@vanterry08]

@@user-ze7mu8hk8u The Day After

[@insideoutsideupsidedown2218]

@@user-ze7mu8hk8uthe movie name? “The Day After”

[@burrco3086]

Yeap I was a kid when I seen it living in Kansas City. It scared me. But these brain dead elites seem to want a ww3. Crazy time we live in. Much luck

[@slamjam9858]

never forget that Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov saved humanity from nuclear destruction on September 26, 1983 and this is a true story.

[@angelocavaliere4196]

Questa cosa non è provata

[@tubelectron1667]

Is it what was called the Able Arch exercise ?

[@juansa847]

And Vasili Arkhipov

[@tomislav8193]

And Nickolai Volkoff 🙌

[@user-ji9zb3uc6w]

위대한 사람

[@jamescannon220]

As a kid, this movie scared me more than any 80's horror film. Freddie, Jason and Michael Myers had nothing on this reality. And yes, I've seen Threads. This is far more realistic, has better acting and special effects.

[@tomcisneros5965]

Exactly what I was thinking. It was pretty scary, especially in those cold war days. Not even the Excorsit was as scary, and that was a terrifying movie in itself.

[@Johnnymkttrains]

Same

[@ildona8813]

True...

[@neilschroeder7854]

We were at a friends house smoking a joint watching this movie. Just before the first nuclear explosion, with all the tension, my friend tapped me on the shoulder to pass me the joint, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

[@DJhuggo]

Well my friend , the terror is back !! This situation in Ucrania second me not are a good finish ! My hugs to you in Brasil my brother and , God blessed and protect we !!

[@johnsmallberries3476]

It's almost impossible to overstate what a huge TV event this was. Everything stopped the night they aired this.

[@dawood121derful]

yes, and many local news stations came on the air afterward to have extended discussions about it because so many people were upset by it.

[@mariaharrison7228]

It was brilliantly done, it shows the absolute horror.

[@ukissrulez]

Liar

[@jeffrowisdabest]

They need to have a remake/updated version of this, where the missiles launch due to the software being so outdated. It's a very real possibility it malfunctions in the coming decade, and people don't seem to care until they see the horror on the screen.

[@shwmehvn]

Yes everything stopped. Next day at school (jr high) there were counselors available and whole class discussions. I think it scared a whole generation.

[@jii-otombicji3579]

I'm from Russia. Born in the Soviet Union in the late 80s. Today my great Motherland does not exist. We ourselves are to blame for this, having trusted the traitors who destroyed our strong country. I would not wish for any country to experience the poverty, lawlessness of crime and national humiliation that we experienced in the 90s. Many foreigners will never understand this. I wish everyone peace and goodness. I sincerely hope that what is shown in this film will never happen between Americans and former Soviet people.

[@vonmuschinski3935]

Send you peace and love from Germany. Growing up in East Germany in the 80. You are in my mind.... ❤️✌️

[@donsavage-mw7gf]

The USSR was a beautiful country with a rich culture. I’m sorry you had to lose it.

[@axeman999]

Tell your suka Putin…..

[@Andrei_Akimov]

@@donsavage-mw7gf , you don't history of the USSR. It was rich culture of lie and of forced labor camps.

[@Andrei_Akimov]

The 90s were a time of hope and freedom. Now Russia is a bloody evil empire again.

[@MarkJohnson-ki6qv]

I was in the USAF when this came out on TV. I retired from the service in 1994. This came out in 1983. I was stationed at a SAC Minuteman missile base in South Dakota a couple of months before and we had just moved to Turkey so I didn't get to see it until my wife's parents sent it to us on VHS tape. When we returned to the states in 1985, I was stationed at the Omaha SAC Headquarters and I was on the HQ staff in the Command and Control division until SAC was deactivated in 1991, so I am very very familiar with the details of this whole movie. They cut out a few scenes in this production. Mostly very graphic scenes. There are a few other full versions of the whole movie on KZbin but they are a little bit grainy. This was more of a documentary than a dramatic movie. All of the scenes at the beginning involving SAC aircraft and the missile launch facility scenes, both above ground and below ground were real. Most of the actors were actual Air Force personnel and all of the scenes of the Airborne Command Post with the General on board were real with real people. All of this is still in play. SAC was deactivated but now it is replaced by the AF Global Strike Command. The missiles are still on alert and the B52s are still on alert as well. Everything is ready to be launched at a moments notice. The number of weapons have been reduced but they are still there.

[@insideoutsideupsidedown2218]

3:46 US Air Force and the hidden missile silos right outside the residence halls on the KU Campus.

[@MarkJohnson-ki6qv]

the depiction of missiles being launched and rising into the air with contrails behind them as shown at 3:46 is meant to show what might have been visible from Lawrence, KS. The missiles being launched from silos near Whiteman AFB. Whiteman is located near Sedalia MO and is about 120 miles distant from the KU campus. Whiteman now hosts a wing of B2 bombers and has deactivated all the missiles as a result of the START treaty signed in 1991. This treaty eliminated the Minuteman II missiles in inventory which Whiteman had 150. Its probably a little doubtful that the missile launch would have been that visible from the KU campus and only the ones located close to Whiteman would have been visible at all. The missile launch facilities where located mainly to the south of Whiteman for a pretty long distance. BTW missiles were never launched for any reason since they were always on alert. The only time they would have been launched would be a a result of launch orders being issued by the president. Missiles were test launched at times by pulling randomly selected missiles without the warhead from their launch silos and transported to Vandenberg AFB located on the Pacific ocean north of Santa Barbera. These were test fired and targeted at empty atolls in the south Pacific. Since this test firing was a one way trip it was only done infrequently. There are clips in this movie of missiles being launched from Vandenberg. There were no missile silos hidden or otherwise anywhere close to the KU campus. Or any other location not on a very tightly controlled launch facility.

[@uberlpn]

Thank you for your service to our country, I also was in the USAF stationed at Anderson AFB on Guam,

[@MarkJohnson-ki6qv]

@@uberlpn Thank you for your service too. When were you on Guam? My wife was there as a military brat from 1967 to 1969. She said they always watched the B52's come and go from Viet Nam and Thailand. Some were pretty shot up when they came back.

[@Gillan1220]

40 years later, this movie still hits hard.

[@TheKATON132]

Yea... because it has a higher probability of happening today than it did then.

[@markcritic2409]

@@TheKATON132 my thoughts exactly. :(

[@elrond3737]

@@TheKATON132 to true. back then leaders seemed to have some semblance of a soul. no so now

[@mtsky-tc6uw]

@@elrond3737 they are all insane--they have their underground shelters,rat holes..we have nothing

[@ct87gn25]

@@TheKATON132 I was going to post the same exact thing you did........

[@MrStiv13]

I was a junior in high school. Watched this while babysitting. The kids were already sleeping when the movie played. I distinctly remember when the movie ended, hearing John Lithgow’s character calling on a ham radio…”This is Lawrence Kansas….is anyone out there…anyone at all…”. Ted Kopple hosted a discussion after the movie. He looked at the camera and said, “Take a deep breath, look outside. It’s still there…”. Still brings me to tears after 40 years.

[@rainbowwarrior2635]

The issue is now we're looking at global extinction in 2 years. Already 80% of life has gone extinct, and 50% of that is since 1980. So now we know it's happening and we can see in front of our eyes in slow motion.

[@kd6836]

@@rainbowwarrior2635Sure. We will all be dead in 2 years. If there is a nuclear war due to the constant warmongering from both political “sides” then yes everything could be done. Rachel Carson said we would have a Silent Spring in 1963; we were to have an ice age by 1980, acid rain and no ozone layer in the 90’s and the oceans were supposed to be hundreds of miles inland now. Just stop with your environmental doomsday fairytale. I’ll come back in 2027 and point out we are still here, unless Zelensky, Trump, Putin, Biden and all of them take us out.

[@chadjohnson450]

Don't worry, the scumbag elite and their slaves will endure, miles underground with all the supplies they bought with our tax dollars. D.u.m.b. is the acronym

[@garyowen9044]

@@rainbowwarrior2635 get a grip rainbow. So, “we’re looking at global extinction in two years”? I’ll be back in four, God willing, and the Creek don’t rise, and we’ll see how that global extinction thing worked out for you. The only threat we face, is from a global elite who fancy you living in 15-Minute Cities, desperately wondering when your next protein laden cricket meal will arrive. All this because “farms, cow flatulence, and food storage deep freezers”, are bad for the environment. Read up on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - a ravenously hungry population is easier to control.

[@Aduysvmncmkouyf]

@@rainbowwarrior2635What?

[@darkangelmichael6148]

This movie devoid of CGI or AI...for it's time, was very well done. It brought the horror of nuclear holocaust into everyone's living room.

[@darkangelmichael6148]

@@Don-rl1sm Hey ..we have a SCHOLAR in our midst. Bet you know how to spell masturbation real well.

[@darkangelmichael6148]

@@Don-rl1sm Guess your mom sure is proud of you...bet you please her constantly.

[@svetasveta9569]

Всех,кроме тех,которые до сих пор угрожают всему миру ядерной катастрофой

[@shirleytracz8298]

I had a 2 year old when this aired. It tore my heart out to see the little child suffering from radiation sickness😢

[@thevikingwarrior]

Better than being barbequed alive.

[@daddyrabbit835]

What a lot of people that weren't around back then, don't understand, is that there were only 3 main channels in the U.S. and EVERYONE in the country watched the same shows. This one was horrifying growing up as a kid in the 80s.

[@jeffreystreeter5381]

Channel 3 ....8.....& 30 in Hartford Connecticut....yep that was it. The skeletons gave me nightmares for a decade

[@jeffreystreeter5381]

Q

[@andytay5507]

Actually 4. PBS too. But your point is still valid.

[@ella-vm6vf]

I watched this movie when I was the mother of a small child, and I literally shook when when the missiles came out of their silos. It was too real at seeing that.

[@paulsonj72]

If your market was big enough you may have had an independent station as well as PBS giving you five channels. My folks were ruffians we had a booster on our antenna allowing us to pull in Twin Cities stations as well as our in market stations

[@dungareedave8604]

I was a senior in high school when it originally aired in November 1983. This movie is still as significant today as it was 40 years ago.

[@lisawilliams2013]

Same on both points. I remember antinuclear rallies that some of our teachers invited us to. This movie scared the crap out of me then and it still hits hard. It came up in my KZbin feed seemingly out of nowhere!

[@gloriaannopperman2734]

It was terrifying then and is more terrifying now. May God protect us but I know if it happens then Bear and I will be above in Heaven with my beloved Jerry and Sugar Bear.

[@sergedeleon9592]

This movie that tell us how those weapons are evil

[@tommiatkins3443]

More relevant now. Since Feb 22 we are living in a extended drawn out nightmare, where nuclear threats are casually made daily. That happened perhaps three times in the previous seventy years

[@RandoWisLuL]

yes, but with defense weapons about 100 times as powerful and smart as back then. If we could destroy the world with nukes before, now we can 100 times over plus all the other tech we have( rail guns, pulse lasers, Project Thor( nicknamed "Rods From God") tons of other things we probably don't now about.) The environment has changed pretty drastically. I thinks that's why we have gone so long without nuclear war. Besides, the west as a whole would decimate the enemy. ( with the exception of China. that would be a hard one)

[@samwheat8348]

People don't understand how close we are right now to this breaking out at any moment.

[@EphemeralProductions]

😐😔 its so damn scary and sad

[@simunator]

hardly, nukes are strategic weapons. no one is dumb enough to use them and they have so many failsafes in place that the only way to launch them is for an entire echelon to desire the extinction of humanity unanimously, simultaneously

[@peterherrington3300]

You were great in ghost . Especially when you died , I liked that bit

[@EphemeralProductions]

@@peterherrington3300 lol

[@willembass]

Lets get it over with. Humanity is done on this planet. Too many People.

[@user-ku6tr4vd6z]

This sure brings back some personal history. I was 13 when this came on TV, and lived right in the area where the story happens, surrounded by nuclear missile silos. In fact, there was one less than three miles from my house. A few years later, in my 20s, I dated a guy in the Air Force whose job was to actually fire one of those missiles. He arranged for me and a couple of his family members to get a private tour of one of the bases. It was pretty awesome. Two years after that, all of those silos in Missouri and Kansas were decommissioned and the missiles were all removed. I've often wondered how much this movie influenced the decision to remove them.

[@bigchuckyinkentucky6267]

This movie scared the heck out of me as a kid because I knew that it could happen. It scares me now because it still can.

[@johndanielsforJesus]

It's inching closer......

[@xAquinasx]

I was 7 when this was shown on network TV. F'd me all up, lol.

[@BjornJohansen-cm1sb]

Live in fear? Not me I live everyday as it could be my last with some regrets but not fearful

[@dr._breens_beard]

Theres LESS of them now, but the fallout is still gonna significantly impact human population for decades and probably centuries to come.

[@pattyamato8758]

I was aware of that every single day of the four years that we had a madman with this power in his hands

[@yurimilanchik4315]

This film should be shown to all politicians. And, more often ...

[@jonnyblayze5149]

Why?

[@jond4324]

Problem is a lot of them do not give a fuck. They've got their luxury bunkers fitted with just about any creature comfort you can think of. While the people are left to suffer and die on the surface. Thus paying the ultimate, final price for the personal enrichment of the officials they elected to represent and serve them. When this inevitably happens on US soil I hope I am as close to the epicenter as I can get. They will be the lucky ones

[@DavidThomas-fb8bq]

They've seen it. It gives them ideas.

[@belladrapeau8234]

it wouldn’t do any thing they got their bomb shelters and will in them before you know what’s going on

[@yurimilanchik4315]

@@jonnyblayze5149 В конце-концов,у них есть дети,родители,друзья...И,вообще,невозможно долго сидеть в убежище...Рано или поздно придётся из него вылезать...Хотя...политики = это какая-то особая категория...Они уже не люди....

[@tommy965]

And even so, 80's was the decade registering the highest music composition creation and the best decade in terms of music, singers, styles, etc. That confirms that human beings reach its peak point when they're stepping in the razor edge. Any day could be the last one. Amazing.

[@UCl-UmxGwz1shcI7oYOaXYRQ]

In May 1987, this film was shown in the Soviet Union on the main TV channel, and I watched it with my parents. I was 11, and the details were remembered for a long time; this film was then perceived almost as a documentary. And I’ll tell you what: no matter what they say about Gorbachev, his policies at least removed the fears of nuclear war for many years.

[@free322001]

Interesting. Was it to show the "defeat" of the US? What do you think was his purpose in showing it on TV.

[@UCl-UmxGwz1shcI7oYOaXYRQ]

@@free322001 No, I think that “Perestroika” had already gained momentum that year, and this film was shown on TV in order to emphasize that we need to be friends with the United States, and not fight. In those years, the Posner-Donahue “teleconferences” were already in full swing, and in general the narrative was promoted that for the sake of world peace it was necessary to establish a dialogue with the United States. This film turned out to be appropriate in the general outline of Soviet anti-war rhetoric, they say, “look, the Americans themselves made a film about the horrors of nuclear war, which is what we have always talked about.”

[@free322001]

@@UCl-UmxGwz1shcI7oYOaXYRQ I see. Thanks. I hate the way relations between our leaders have gotten worse as of recent.

[@misterbornoof2675]

Горбач развалил СССР

[@Xpunkpro]

@@free322001Because it’s about greed. Be careful with who you call a Leader because most of them are not they are being told what to do by someone else not seen.

[@skittlesandfriends5710]

I had just joined the US Navy in September of 1983 and was in My Tech School when this movie came out, I remember watching it the “TV Room” In our Barracks with the other students. During the attack and right after it you could have heard a pin drop, everyone just sat there in silence taking it all in. This movie helped to bring home the reality that there are No Winners only losers in a Nuclear War.

[@mikehutchison5002]

Ronald Reagan said a nuclear war was winnable. He didn't say who those winners would be. But he seemed to do his dumbest to start a war with Russia

[@Haze_Nexus_real]

wow

[@Haze_Nexus_real]

@@snapcutter9596 what, when did i say the emp would affect the car or what ever tf you're trying to say?

[@Haze_Nexus_real]

@@snapcutter9596 Oh ok...

[@Haze_Nexus_real]

@@snapcutter9596 Yeah, well if it does happen, I'm in Paraguay. No one cares about that country

[@DixiePokerAce]

This movie was absolutely riveting. I will never forget watching this on network TV back in 1983. It makes you realize that for a nuclear attack there is absolutely no safe place to go.

[@dalecastellez5416]

Or hide 🙏

[@eduardomaldonado1647]

The only places to go in my opinion would be places like Latin America that always stay neutral and very far away from everyone else. Places like Argentina, Chile, they have no political, military, or economic value in a global scale. You would have to be pray you are not in direct blast when it hits and inside some kind of bunker at least 30 feet deep with enough food and water last you at least one year. 30 minute warning is nothing. Best thing to do when shit like this starts to escalate is leave the country. If you wait till the last minute no way in Hell you will be able to leave. You will have to stay inside the bunker minimum 4 weeks before it is safe to go outside. Those people that live close to an active Nuclear reactor are Shit out of luck they will never be able to go out Remember Chernobyl? that place is still not safe to live. I would not even visit if you paid me.

[@Abandoned23345]

​@@eduardomaldonado1647Switzerland is an option as well, they are always neutral too and have more than plenty of bunkers

[@Abandoned23345]

​@@eduardomaldonado1647Also, Chernobyl is safe to visit, the main rule is DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. The radiation level seems to be (almost) safe, but once the device is near some object or construction (especially metal), it starts to crack like crazy

[@jediknightjairinaiki560]

In response to the OP's comment, Exactly, so when this happens, it's just a matter of time, there's no use in trying to run, hide, etc., just accept the end is nigh.

[@sjfrank88]

The Emergency Alert System was great fun in the 80s. Every week you spent a minute not being sure if you were about to be vaporized or if you would be finishing this weeks episode of Little House on the Prairie.

[@ChildovGhad]

I live in Omaha, Nebraska (primary nuke target, our entire strategic missile force command and control is based here). Our "storm sirens", as they're called these days, are tested monthly. It's on a different day than the air raid siren tests were all my life until I reached adulthood, so it freaks me out a bit every time for a second.

[@walkingwithtretz]

They take 30 minutes to reach their target “So do theirs right?” That’s an under rated reply right there

[@scootdaws25]

I remember sitting at the dinner table during the Cuban Missle crisis and my dad wondering if we were gonna be around tomorrow. That feeling never left me. Still hasn't.

[@deanpd3402]

Alarmism has been around a long time. Better off facing up to your own mortality. It can come anytime for many different reasons.

[@danielbrown3461]

You should see our Southern Border at the moment.....This is why many young men....just out of High School have said they were going MIGTOW.....Never to marry and never have kids. It's not that they are weird in some way....they just think by going migtow they have a better chance at survival.

[@20LookInside12]

@@danielbrown3461 And sadly who would want to bring a child into this world as it is now... These poor young men have been so maligned and vilified in Western culture as well. I feel bad for them, but then again, many will be better of without the sort of 'women' out there nowadays. Too many loose, sleazy and superficial girls with NO common sense or curiosity or empathy.

[@Reshigekko]

@@danielbrown3461what’s migtow?

[@danielbrown3461]

@@Reshigekko Men going their own way. It's men who have often been Divorced so they have decided never to marry again and downsize their responsibilities in life. In Japan they call it..."The Herbivoure Man"...And many young men roughly ages 18-25-26 have decided never to marry and not date. They have seen what happens in Divorce courts to their Fathers and Grandfathers.

[@williamjones7163]

I watched this on TV the night it broadcast. I remember this as if it were yesterday. This video brings back all the terror. The irony is that I met my boyfriend in 1985. He worked in the Airforce as a Missile launch officer. He was one on the guys that sat in the silos and turned the keys to launch the Nuclear Missiles. We were together for 33 1/3 years until he died from complications of a stroke. And the world continued.

[@cybercat29]

Please accept my deepest condolences

[@peterherrington3300]

How incredibly interesting. Was he tall , what did you have for lunch ?

[@DaisyAnnabelle6]

🙏✝️❤️

[@knk4ever83]

As a kid.. living on an Army Base in the 70s and 80s.. this movie scared the shit out of me..

[@pakrej]

40 years later, closer to this than ever.

[@GotoHere]

Yes with dementia Joe Biden name calling Putin. Incompetent warmongering Biden starting wars in Ukraine, Yemen and Gaza. Biden couldn’t read the nuclear codes correctly with a 25’ teleprompter.

[@goldorakrak8939]

Thanks to the USA...

[@patrickhorvath2684]

Thanks to a weak, senile, incompetent president that emboldens our enemies. One of which, is an ideology that values deatb more than we value life. Like it or not, Mutual Assured Destruction has maintained the peace for 70 years.

[@scifikid108]

Because of the evil USA

[@mikeklug3369]

​@@goldorakrak8939 in what way

[@dorael_]

What is more scary for me than the explosion itself is the amount of effort and technology the human race is able to put in the most wrong and useless things like war and destruction. Mind blowing

[@danieldevito6380]

What's even scarier is how few people are involved in actually causing the wars. Many countries and hundreds of millions may fight and die in a war, but 99.999999999% of them have a hand in causing it, or the desire to continue it. It's just a handful of evil people pulling the strings.

[@villagernumber77]

Yet if you question any of it you are called undemocratic or a west hating communist.

[@mkay1957]

Those "useless things", also known as military hardware, saved much of the world's population from tyranny during WW2.

[@DMTEntity88]

At the end of the day, we’re just smart apes that learned to use our brain and hands to create things, We are still animals on the inside. We just need to take a Psychedelic to help us find our higher consciousness self so we can realize that war is not the answer but loving one another and advancing as a human civilization is the way towards peace and harmony...

[@mkay1957]

@@DMTEntity88 I'm glad we didn't have that mindset in the era of WW2, or most of the world would have been enslaved by Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany and the USSR.

[@jeremypreston5009]

I'm amazed at how authentic the acting at the missile silos was

[@ukissrulez]

Liar

[@tomservo5347]

They just filmed actual Air Force crews doing the endless launch drills they undergo to be certified. They still do these today.

[@ukissrulez]

@@tomservo5347 liar

[@skulldozer1462]

​@@ukissrulezliar

[@ukissrulez]

@@skulldozer1462 liar

[@kevinwasilewski598]

I was in elementary school when this movie came out and my parents would not let me watch it. I went to school the next day and felt completely out of the loop.

[@c.d.mccullum9421]

Be glad, I was terrified of airplanes flying overhead dropping bombs for years.

[@20PINKluvr]

​@@c.d.mccullum9421i still am afraid when I hear f34 jets flying overhead for a sports event flyover 😂

[@ricksiddiqui8354]

A few days after watching this movie, I was a passenger and my brother's car and then all of a sudden his car stopped functioning all electrical went out. First thing I went through both of our minds was exactly this event!

[@doorswhofan]

I remember we were assigned to watch this for homework in the 8th grade. Ironic that it's even more terrifying now, 40 years later, given the present circumstances.

[@Anarchist86ed]

It was no more a possibility then than now. It's never gonna happen as the same people who run Russia and China run us. They also run Ukraine. There's no money in nuking the world. It's a game to them and it's all for profit.

[@StinkyGreenBud]

Why is it more terrifying now than during the cold war? Putin won't do shit.

[@tacticalpossum7090]

Too bad your generation didnt learn anything from it, eh?

[@avernikas]

WEF wants this for us all! Pray for God's Kingdom

[@billy6pack887]

@@tacticalpossum7090 It's actually younger people more in favour of funneling arms to Ukraine, risking escalation to a nuclear war. The only old people pushing for it are the Biden's, Obama's, etc.

[@packard5682]

Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader after Stalin, said that after a nuclear war, the living would envy the dead. There is no way that I would want to survive a nuclear war. I would rather be at ground zero than 'living' in a bunker somewhere.

[@AlexGarcia-ze4yg]

I would want to stick around for all the radioactive girls with 3 tits!

[@Irene-iu9sj]

My idea exactly.

[@danw2112]

One KZbin channel has the full length version of the British nuclear apocalypse movie Threads. And that movie is more disturbing than The Day After.

[@duntrolling8876]

Living in a bunker? How long for. It doesn’t matter. You will eventually be forced out by starvation and emerge into a poisoned world.

[@duntrolling8876]

@@danw2112 this film is tame by comparison.

[@childrenoftheBook]

Remember watching this movie at school exactly 41 years ago 👍

[@swampwiz]

The depiction of the launch sequence for ICBMs starting at about 1:00 is great: "key turn on my mark ... 5 ... 4 ...".

[@tonyclifton265]

US President Ronald Reagan watched the film more than a month before its screening on Columbus Day, October 10, 1983. He wrote in his diary that the film was "very effective and left me greatly depressed" and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a "nuclear war". The film was also screened for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A government advisor who attended the screening, a friend of Meyer, told him: "If you wanted to draw blood, you did it. Those guys sat there like they were turned to stone."

[@dewfall56]

Apparently the Soviet Premier also saw it shortly after, and came to same conclusion. They were both horrified when seeing the realities. This film played a big part in stopping nuclear war.

[@STho205]

That's romantic, but if a fictional TV movie/miniseries had any effect it was the exact opposite of what the producers intended. They wanted it to galvanize public support for the Democrat in the next election to defeat Reagan, who was growing more popular each year. The backfire was that people decided strength was a better defense than diplomatic appeasement (a lesson from pre WW2). Reagan won every state in 1984 except the opponent's own state and DC...a handful of electoral votes. As it turned out Reagan didn't start WW3 but diffused it, to the point that Gorbachev said so at Reagan's funeral. Remember that FDR authorized and funded nuclear bomb development. Truman had them dropped on two cities and authorized a UN war against Communist North Korea. Johnson committed US troops to fight in Vietnam. Kennedy had almost overseen a nuclear exchange over Cuba, which was armed because US missiles to target Moscow were placed in Italy and Turkey the year before...and JFKs CIA orchestrated a failed partisan invasion of Cuba in 61. This is what Americans remembered in 1983, not the whitewash of history the media later painted. As it turns out, the Hollywood prediction of what would trigger or diffuse the Cold War was exactly backwards.

[@user-bl6ne3hc6n]

Yep, and it didn't take long for Reagan and Gorbachev to meet, and end this cold war crap,

[@user-bl6ne3hc6n]

​@@STho205yep you're spot on it was to go after Reagan, and Reagan turned around and threw it in their face because it wasn't that much longer that he met with Gorbachev and try to stop this cold war, and did.

[@scottmatheson3346]

​@@STho205 you know the partisan derangement has hit you hard when you feel compelled to fabricate a narrative about the movie producers' intent because you feel threatened by their presumed politics. Bonus points when you tack your fabrication onto a post that is actually conciliatory towards the politician whose side you're taking because even a conciliatory position isn't good enough for you.

[@JohnRoberts-wk6rf]

I remember watching this movie when it first came out on TV when I was 27. This scene sent chills down my spine. It still does.

[@larvancioramos9748]

Your spine??? 👀

[@vangogo6819]

Same here, I was in my twenties when it came out and it had and has the same effect on me, chills down my spine, now more than ever.

[@michaela7100]

@@larvancioramos9748 hahaha

[@michaela7100]

I remember watching this film when it came out too. I was 13 and remember laughing so hard at how ridiculous this really was. Time has only proven that to be more so

[@sandywa3057]

I was 26 when this first came out on tv, and recently gave birth to our first daughter 3 months prior to the movie. I had no idea how realistic it was going to be or I wouldn’t have watched it. My emotions were still right at the surface and it took me weeks to be able to get through the day without crying and being hypervigilant. I actually could just barely watch this again, but I think they should show it again as I don’t think the war in Ukraine is being taken seriously enough. Putin is an extremely dangerous and evil man.

[@robglennie9526]

This movie should play every year so Nuclear war never becomes normalized.

[@air265]

They should be banned and it has to be said, that there are no nukes whatsoever.

[@beeepizzle]

For its time, the high altitude detonation for EMP and the first strike impact in scenes moments later with Robards’ character taking shelter inside his Volvo while the explosion is visible in the distant background really got the point across. May we never experience nuclear war…🙏🏻

[@CurtisWhitehead-wn5bs]

Amen 💯

[@muskaan5551]

This movie needs to be shown to everyone

[@catherineblack2970]

It was!!!! 40 years ago along with the other movie called THREADS. We are TOO DUMB today to even care.

[@Mrbimmer11]

@@catherineblack2970 And the conflict in ukrane can make this become real soon more soon than the cupa crises in the 60s

[@bobgordon236]

@@Mrbimmer11 Datz fer sho sweet cakez. Dem rooskies are tuff mfers

[@ahungryspiderateme]

It's like the movie "don't look up." Most people will deny this outcome.

[@jimnfl7134]

show it to Putin in Russia 4 times by March 10th.

[@SilverSergeant]

I pulled a few alerts with "LT" Krause, one of the missile launch officers seen in this clip....in a Titan II ICBM silo in the 80s. He was a Captain when I knew him.

[@aaabbb8777]

This movie helped bring end to cold war when people see the horror

[@ChildovGhad]

I think the USSR going broke trying to take Afghanistan amidst choking sanctions on the entire Warsaw pact, resulting in the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet government, had at least a little to do with it. I'm not so sure the people knowing about the effects of nuclear war did much to cause the financial collapse of the Warsaw Pact.

[@user-hg3vu3uc6g]

"end to cold war " We are almost in a Nuclear war with Russia

[@cjhurtado73]

I remember being 9yrs old watching this. It was a huge TV event. Scared me as a kid. The UK Threads movie that came out year later was also equally chilling at this time in the 80s

[@amatomic257]

We NEED movies like this one and Threads. I usually don't like reboots but I wish this one would get a reboot as a warning for younger generations.

[@TreyVaswal]

While the whole of Threads is by far the more horrifying, the launch and ascent sequence here is the most purely terrifying scene for me of the two. A pleasant mundane afternoon and the apocalypse is beginning over there on the horizon. John Lithgow's character know's he's looking right into the abyss.

[@insideoutsideupsidedown2218]

Part to take note in “ Threads” is towards the end of the film. Those with guns determine who gets food…

[@simonwilson1237]

i saw threads when i was younger it scared the shit out of me for weeks and the teachers wonderd why no one was paying attention to school work

[@Roddy556]

Very well done for a TV movie. Scary as shit.

[@roberttownsend339]

​@@insideoutsideupsidedown2218and those who suffer the longest.

[@MrPinnieWooh]

I saw this film back in school and to this day I can say that it still haunts me. My father was in the Air Force at the time and we also had a base near us that was equipped with nuclear missiles. I had never thought about it until this film, it changed my entire childhood, at least playing outside with friends. Even when my father was relocated to Germany, these thoughts did not disappear, because there are such bases in Germany too.

[@EphemeralProductions]

1983 was THE year for nuclear war movies. You can tell it was REALLY on people’s minds back then! Testament, threads (which started filming in 83), this movie, War Games, Barefoot Gen, and probably others. All very affecting, thrilling and sobering films.

[@PriceFamPrime]

I was 11 when this came out on TV and we were all excited to see it because it took place in Kansas, where we were from. We gathered as a family to watch it at my grandparents house, and by the time the missiles fell and the aftermath was shown, we were horrified. I had nightmares for months of my parents being vaporized or dying slowly of radiation sickness. This was one of those moments that changed a generation.

[@berndmensing8707]

Sorry. But nothing changed. Every generation . The same

[@user-wq7vi3mb3u]

Вот вы наивная! Нечего не изменилось. Все ещё может случиться.

[@planetdisco4821]

This movie frightened the absolute crap out of me as a teen… And then I saw Threads…

[@nigelft]

There's a review by a couple of Americans here on KZbin, comparing 'Threads' with 'The Day After'. One of them said the former made the latter look like a Disney movie ... I was 10 when 'Threads' was shown on the BBC, here in England, in 1984. My parents sent me to bed early, so I missed it, as, iiirc, it was shown at 9.30pm. But that didn't stop other kids in my class from watching it. It wasn't until a couple of decades later I bought a bootleg copy off the Internet, that I finally got to see it. It has been many years since I saw it, but some scenes are still in my memory, especially the ending ... Funny thing is, I live only a few miles from Heathrow Airport, well within the blast radius of just a 1MT warhead, though I suspect way more than one would've/would be targeted on it. Living on the 3rd floor (4th if you count Ground Floor as 1st), I'm just high enough to see the flash, before the heat, then shock wave hits. Given the likely overpressure, the remaining three floors above my flat would collapse on me ... ... or at least I hope so ... I would highly recommend 'When The Wind Blows'. Based off of a children's book, of all things, the animated version is not graphic. per-se, but it is as chilling as hell ... even that alone should be enough to make people realise that a global thermonuclear war is unwinnable ...

[@insideoutsideupsidedown2218]

@@nigelft what i learned from “Threads” was whoever had the guns got to eat.

[@DoubleOProductions]

@@nigelft did you buy that bootleg copy from me? I sold a bunch on ebay... only £15 but I did author a marvelous dvd video menu screen and had extras.. even printed a good cover and disc... the extras included the protect and survive manual from the time.

[@johnringoo756]

I saw threads and thought it was 😑

[@TheFatesLieutenant]

Threads is/was truly terrifying.

[@laurabogue3503]

John Lithgow is such an underrated actor. He could play the captain of the Titanic. He is so stoic and calm. The realization there is no recall no way to stop what comes next.

[@ArloPignotti]

I was 5 years old the last time I saw this and remembered almost every frame.

[@smyth0077]

Anyone ever watched 'When the wind blows' it's a British animated movie about an elderly couple who lived through world war 2 and who think the cold war will be pretty similar and that the government will always have their back. It's a very disturbing movie as they try to survive and come to terms with the effect of nuclear warfare and its very visual when it comes to showing the affects of radiation sickness

[@cybercat29]

I remember reading the graphic novel, and it was so sad that the elderly couple had no idea that they were dying of radiation poisoning 😭

[@The_Greedy_Orphan]

I'd say threads is probably more disturbing.

[@robinminn271]

I just called it up on KZbin. Whole thing was there very poignant.

[@SacredandBound]

When the Wind Blows is heartbreaking. Threads chilled me to the bone.

[@robinminn271]

@@SacredandBound thought threads was dull.

[@davidglover2023]

Still a chilling movie 40 years ago this fall.

[@markcana2917]

Mee too 😵

[@chrisholland7367]

A year later, the BBC made a docu drama called Threads it was about the build-up and aftermath of nuclear strike on the northern English city of Sheffield. It depicted life before, during, and after nuclear war .It follows a group of characters, although one is waa central to the story . It pulls no punches and shows in graphic detail the horror of a nuclear strike and ten years into post-apocalyptic Britain . Nightmare fuel.

[@jesjoking]

Given recents events with Russia, uncomfortably contemporary.

[@nghtwtchmn129]

Three years later, there was an chilling mini-series that was made in direct response to The Day After: Amerika. It was about life in the United States under Soviet occupation.

[@nepntzerZer]

It's a nuclear war

[@puggins1]

as a kid this scared the absolute hell outta me, all my friends & classmates as well. we had an assembly to talk about it a few days after it showed, I was in the 4th grade. for weeks after that the severe storm & tornado sirens had a whole other level of terror to them.

[@ChildovGhad]

You don't still get a fleeting moment of panic when they test those sirens? I do. And we're closer now than we've been at any time since we were proxy engaging the USSR via our Al Qaida mercenaries in Afghanistan.

[@mariesimbeck9875]

I served in the Strategic Air Command in the Air Force back in the seventies. I was stationed on missile bases. This movie was pretty spot on as to what would happen. Scary.

[@cracker4706]

Grand Forks 80-83

[@surfbum8069]

F E Warren 79-83

[@karenlbellmont6560]

Thank you to silo operators. Most horrible position to have.

[@karenlbellmont6560]

Think about all the silos going off and then think about Yellowstone blowing up. Same end.

[@brendapannell3310]

I was born on a SAC base in the early 70s (KI Sawyer). My mom remembers them lying about there being missiles on base.

[@Paramedicpr835]

I was in middle school when this movie came out and it scared the shit out of me to the point of having nightmares for many days after watching it. Even now I am almost 55 years old and it makes me very uneasy rewatching it. The scariest part of all is that at any moment this can happen in real life.

[@jephrokimbo9050]

yes, and with the megalomaniac vlad put-HITLER-in charge of russia as a DICTATOR FOR LIFE and his fellow russian oligarch sycophants. xi jinping in china is just as INSANE! the real problem is BRANDON who has NO IDEA what planet he is on let alone wat time of day it is!

[@kevindavis35]

Yup me too, same age, I remember

[@mariaharrison7228]

I was 19, nightmares on and off for weeks, I'm glad it showed the horror, we think it will be like the movies, nothing could be further from the truth, just seeing the skin deteriorating was horrific.

[@DavidStruveDesigns]

It already happened. Twice. Nagasaki and Hiroshima, remember? Only unlike in the movie there _were_ no "air raid" sirens to warn them of the bomb, not that it would have done them much good any way.

[@jonnyblayze5149]

@@DavidStruveDesigns nope, they dont remember. Thats why it will happen again

[@ironsights1809]

Remember kids. In the event of a nuclear war hide under your school desk.

[@DesertRat332]

We sure did! Tornadoes - hide under your desk; Nuclear war - hide under your desk. They don't make desks like we had anymore. 🤪

[@jasonl1942]

I saw that propaganda video. People at a picnic hiding under the plastic cloth. Like THAT will save you. Take the vaccine too, trust the science... Governments have been lying since they were created.

[@nikolausmarggraf5507]

and cover our heads with our satchel.

[@Vexas345]

Nothing else you can really do. You're most likely going to be in the area where at least some of the building will be damaged, and getting conked by debris is an embarrassing way to go out.

[@frankcano530]

I worked the missile fields during the time this movie came out and before it did one of my worst nightmares was of working out on an LCF on a bright sunny day and suddenly on the horizon, seeing all the missiles in the wing start flying into the sky. At that moment you know that life as we know it is over.

[@Roddy556]

There are some hard nosed people with experience in the defense industry who have talked like an attack could be "shrugged off". I don't think you could ever model or simulate everything from the human factors to the scale of destruction. Nothing even close to a two way nuclear war has ever happened so I wouldn't doubt there are consequences no one has even thought of yet.

[@markcritic2409]

@@Roddy556"Threads" at least touched on that. Life after nukes will be hell. Pure hell.

[@Roddy556]

@markcritic2409 yeah 9/11 threw the world off kilter and that would be like a few drips of water into a bathtub by comparison.

[@markcritic2409]

@@Roddy556- nobody can imagine entire cities of million+ people entirely engulfed in the flames of a firestorm. ...then the long, cold, grey sickness and starvation if you survived it all.

[@jozcarter3428]

Yes they litterally went back to the stone age quite frightening

[@felipecardoza9967]

One thing to consider is that this picture had very little budget so the makers had to make do with stock defense department footage plus clips lifted from other movies. The mushroom clouds were created using the smoke in a fishtank effect. Guttenberg was an unknown; this was Lithgow's first film appearance, and Robards was only added because the network insisted on at least one known actor.

[@serdgeedgerunner]

It still can happen. So despite obsolete graphics it gives me chill.

[@garrydaniel5210]

It feels like this will happen just round the corner-utter madness!

[@santafe37s]

Agreed. Thanks to Biden!

[@jeffreyhartwig4965]

I saw this in HS... couldn't sleep after... My dad RIP was in the Dutch Air Force, in the 1960's he worked for NATO in the Netherlands before we immigrated (legally) to the US. He finally told us what he did for NATO after he was 75 yo.... Miss you Papa..

[@robw7205]

You're Dutch, "legally" was already assumed. 👍

[@datmeme8967]

Who else remembers the psychological impact this had on people in the 80s?

[@michaelellams9105]

It did me as an Aussie and still does today.

[@odysseusrex5908]

I remember it had little to none. There was a lot of hype leading up to the broadcast about how utterly traumatizing it would be and would change the political landscape of the nation. It didn't happen.

[@datmeme8967]

@@odysseusrex5908 I didn't ask if it had a political impact. Gun violence is utterly traumatizing to people but politicians continue to do nothing. The two things are often disconnected.

[@odysseusrex5908]

@@sail027li Oh, I'd say by the next day.

[@richardunger2177]

Yup..I was in the military....terrifying times.I remember the feeling from 40 yrs ago because I feel it now more than ever

[@moirapettifr7127]

Geez this movie gave me nightmares for years. And such real dreams too.

[@srsusansummers3070]

The girl with the wedding just broke my heart

[@douglee3651]

When this first aired (and this was even announced in advance several times), zero ads played after the strike. It is the only time in television history of which I am aware, that such a move was made. The impact was the point, the networks aided it, and the world heard it. Now, we just need to remember it.

[@jorgevillavicencio427]

@Doug Lee I remember that distinctly. I was 23 and recently married living in NYC. It was kind of eary to see little traffic in the city and very few people around. Everyone stayed home to watch this movie. Like everyone else, we were pretty dumbfounded by the quality of it. I also remember Reagan speaking of it in a interview in which he pledged to eliminate the nuclear arsenals as long as the Soviet Union agreed to meet and speak of the consequences of a nuclear war were there will be no winners. 6 years later the Berlin Wall came down and communism was no more. There's another nuclear disaster film called Testament with Jane Alexander in the leading role. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

[@md-ps2hx]

Looking back, from a 2020 perspective, I realise it was just FEAR porn ...

[@daleviker5884]

@@md-ps2hx It was worse than fear porn. It was deliberate propaganda from left-leaning Hollywood to help stop communism from collapsing. This movie had only one purpose, and that was to cause snowflakes in the west to agitate for the US to give up their nuclear weapons. The soviet union was in its final days, and this was a way of encouraging idiots and left wing radicals to undermine the West.

[@dasfx9909]

There’s actually an even more disturbing movie called “Threads”, which came out at the same time as this…1983. British version of nuclear holocaust. Very disturbing

[@user-eo6hq5zo4q]

Постройтесь вспоминать об этом чаще, когда отпровляете танки и бронемашины на Украину. Вы верите что Россия проиграет? Если мы почуствуем возможность проигроша у нас не будет выбора мы применим ядерное оружие по Украине и по тем кто полезет в наши внутриние разборки. Что бы чуствовали Американцы если бы у них отобрали бы Техас и еще пять штатов, которые раньше были Техасом и превратили бы их во враждебное государство. А Украина это не Техас который вы отняли у Мексики, Россию и Украину связвает гораздо более долгая история, раньше Украина называлась Малая Россия, это позже она получила название у края( не знаю поймете ли вы с автопереводчиком) Смысл названия Украина звучит на русском у края на границе России. Мы в России воспринимаем происходящие как гражданскую войну и незабудем вмешательство во внутрение разборки, "Циркон" с ядерным зарядом летит до Америки 8 мин. для подготовки к запуску американских ракет надо 40 мин. Помните об этом. Ваши ракеты могут просто быть уничтожены в шахтах. "Сармат " несет несколько термоядерных зарядов.Способен уничтожит штат средних размеров. "Пойседон" поднимает волну в пять сотен метровона пройдет в глубь континента на тысячи километров, притом вода будет радиоктивная. Прекращайте лезть во внутрение дела русского народа, не накликайте беды.

[@user-qs7qz2cf4l]

No movie has ever demonstrated such authentic raw material, being followed by our worst thoughts and feelings in case of a nuclear attack. 40 years have passed and I'm astonished like the first time for the realism i watch. A unique documentary film like no other!

[@albertoandrade9807]

You should see the British equivalent, the name is "threads" I'm dead serious that TDA looks like a Disney movie by comparison

[@user-qs7qz2cf4l]

@@albertoandrade9807 I have just watched it, truly apocalyptic and raw thank you for the answering.

[@drivingschool11]

​@@albertoandrade9807 I agree

[@roquefortfiles]

All the visuals are just lifted stock footage of nuclear test detonations.

[@drivingschool11]

War is business, and this type of movies will drop the price of shares related to war. Get real.

[@This3dviz]

Кто после коммента иллона, ставьте лайк

[@davidryan4454]

They watching the 1984 (i think) docudrama "Threads" - BRUTAL

[@colettewilliams3575]

This is, without a doubt, the scariest movie I've ever seen.

[@uskyutah]

along with Threads, the UK version

[@taraelizabethdensley9475]

Threads was even more disturbing

[@uskyutah]

@@taraelizabethdensley9475 because Threads showed the aftermath without makeup, and on longer term

[@alecbrinker7268]

I was 10 when this movie came out. Nothing before or after has scared me as much. I did not sleep for days after this. Nothing but nightmares. What a terrifying time.

[@hazmatlarry72]

I was 11 I watched this at my Aunt Berenice house. That was first time I experienced an anxiety Attack

[@antonfarr781]

I was 13 and It scared me as well. It still bothers me today knowing it could still happen!

[@johnnix862]

I was 24, and with my only child, on the way. The whole thing, had me speechless, and scared, for the next day. ( Not the movie. Real life ) I have not seen it, since that night, and gave me goosebumps, at 65. I'm not trying to one up, anyone commenting here. I just hope, it never happens, for real.

[@Roddy556]

​@johnnix862 that's extra terrifying really because you can tell your kids there are no such thing as monsters or ghosts but there is now and always will be a possibility of nuclear war.

[@roccomitchell-wo9qi]

So did I

[@lynnecromack4933]

"There will be no learning curve in a nuclear war." Robert Macnamara

[@garylantz7653]

Wow!!! I remember this movie when I was growing up.

[@PPGGORILLA]

I was 12 years old when this movie came out. It scared me more than any horror movie I've ever seen. It still scares me 40 years later.

[@marklassanske2716]

Says in the Bible that man will beg to die but won't be able too

[@gerardiovine4350]

I was 15 and it scared the heck out of me then still does now as well

[@floydbrennan9789]

"Threads" may have been more intense as far as the depiction of the aftermath. However, "The Day After" will always be THE NUKE FILM that contains the BEST depiction of the very frightening build up to the attack, as well as the very terrifying attack scenes themselves.

[@frankgraham1608]

Was watching this Film in the evening of 10.11.83. In the uk..half way through my wifes waters broke...I had to jump in a taxi to rush her to the hospital..missed the ending but gained twin daughters...I was 18 years old😊...now the kids are almost 40😮

[@mickeysmiths]

A great docu-drama! I hadn't seen these scenes for 40 years. I hope this never happens in my lifetime.. anyone's lifetime !!!

[@user-hg3vu3uc6g]

about to happen in your lifetime

[@mickeysmiths]

@@user-hg3vu3uc6g Youch. I should start building my shelter now 🤪

[@dancingvirgil]

That stock footage just ties in so seamlessly

[@DMS-pq8]

It was from a military film that showed the US losing after a 1st strike by the Soviets

[@ChildovGhad]

@@DMS-pq8 No, the stock footage is US atomic effects tests. Various objects from power substations to bridge trusses to airplanes to fully furnished houses occupied by mannequins were placed at various distances from the shot (usually on a tower to precisely control the epicenter for accurate calibration) to see how they would be affected by the various effects of an atomic bomb at different distances and orientations to the blast.

[@DMS-pq8]

@@ChildovGhad First Strike is a 1979 film created by KRON-TV and Chronicle Publishing Company under the broadcast division name "Chronicle Broadcasting Company" in partnership with the United States Department of Defense and the RAND Corporation. The film discusses the United States Armed Forces strategy for dealing with nuclear warfare and became far better known when various clips were edited into the 1983 TV film The Day After.

[@rainbowwarrior2635]

This is excellent. I really like the actors in this. This is extremely well done.

[@matsu5010]

This is the type of stuff that makes me want to go back way before any advanced weaponry was ever made, especially the nuclear ones. The fact something is capable of leveling a whole city and more in a matter of moments is terrifying, and the fact that this is a very real possibility is even more so.

[@JP3_C6Z]

It’s rather unlikely believe it or not. The problem is, any leader can decide they want to nuke another country. It’s not up to them to push the button. Those actually in charge wouldnt want to kill all of their family and friends

[@warrior6803]

Yes haw hard is to set a blaze wooden village

[@explorer47422]

Or the fact that it's actually happened already, twice

[@Avalon_1991]

There would be a lot more wars though. The threat of nuclear war has prevented a major European war because everyone is too afraid of the consequences.

[@gerrypeet4861]

@@Avalon_1991 You realize that there is a major war going in Europe at the time of your comment and is still going on to this day. Your logic makes zero sense.

[@donnawhetzel3105]

I remember watching this movie on TV and it gave me nightmares for several nights!

[@giarc0]

Physics has taken a back seat in this one.

[@ActiveAussie2024]

That scene on the highway looking back towards the city and the blast is incredible.

[@jeanaleigh1677]

I was 12 years old when this aired on TV. I begged my parents to watch with them, but they knew how scared I usually got with horror movies, so they said no. I snuck up the stairs and watched around the corner. I had nightmares for months, and was terrified everyday back then, that this would happen to us. Always listen to your parents!!

[@user-sp4gy7ko5l]

Good story. Needs more dragons.

[@BalanceEnergy888]

I saw this when it aired on tv. I was 11. It scared the crap out of me.😮

[@Tobosaku77]

It aged like a fine wine:(

[@yxeaviationphotog]

That air burst explosion over the city was just eerie as hell.

[@lethabrooks9112]

It just occurred to me that some of the footage used during the actual explosion scenes was footage from actual nuclear explosions at the testing areas.

[@mcemtpockets1775]

Love this movie. Pls remake but do NOT mess it up!

[@johnfury6481]

Never understood preppers-especially for something like this. Personally I wouldn’t want to deal with the aftermath.

[@wadavis5252]

But you might survive the initial bombs and…then what?

[@LotsOfRobotsINC]

My father was war officer on the SAC Looking Glass plane the they filmed this. They had a film crew on the plane, not flying. His job, if on duty at the time of attack, was to be 2nd in command of the SAC assets in case The Hole at Offutt AFB was blown up. This movie was certainly the talk of the town for quite a while.

[@GreatWhiteShark75]

To this very day, it is STILL the number 1 most watched televised made for TV movie in history.

[@ChildovGhad]

And it will always remain so. We will never have only 4 TV channel options (including public television) ever again. At least, not until we nuke ourselves back to the stone age and eventually rebuild back to where we rediscover how to make TV again in another 15,000 years, anyway.

[@SamaelVR]

Can’t imagine watching this when it came out. The only time I wasn’t terrified was looking at the special effects and obviously spliced in test footage that wouldn’t fly today. Well, we didn’t die, 1983. It’s been 41 years and we’re still here.

[@user-hg3vu3uc6g]

not for much longer

[@flowersofthefield340]

A Trip Down Memory Lane ........ 😱

[@artemicionkupo4367]

Wow... I got chills. Felt like 9/11 when the whole world stopped and went silent. Instead of people going outside like in this film, it was televised and people were near the TVs. Crazy memory to have. I can't ever forget that feeling. I don't think anyone can for those who remember that time.

[@Argelius1]

This movie holds up remarkably well, 40 years later.

[@shanecochran1969]

The 1984 movie THREADS was a lot more graphic, and truer to the devastation aftermath of nuclear war.

[@Indrid__Cold]

6:09 The smirk on his face says it all, "just a drill."

[@heru-deshet359]

This was a TV movie I first saw in 1983. It was galvanizing, depressing and very scary. It brought understanding of what the aftermath of a nuclear strike would do to civilization and no one liked it. Until then, Hollywood had a rule of always having a happy ending in movies. This production changed all that.

[@djinn5658]

This was the first time I ever felt depression and had no idea what it was or what to call it. I remember feeling that life was pointless and hopeless and it was inevitable that the Soviets would kill us all and this was how it would play out. I think I was in 2nd or 3rd grade?

[@5roundsrapid263]

It wasn’t the first movie to end in nuclear war. “Dr. Strangelove” did 20 years before.

[@anthonymarino7718]

The actual...much worse

[@bernieburawski1446]

@@5roundsrapid263 I think Dr. Strangelove was meant as a dark comedy and not supposed to be a realistic depiction of nuclear war.

[@rapatacush3]

No nuclear winter

[@dwslar4ever]

I've seen this movie several times and it still gives me chills....

[@ThePaleGuy01]

I see the reality and it gives me chills.