Drinker's Extra Shots - Threads

[@kurtkober]

Rented Police Academy back in the 80s, got home and this was in the box. Good times.

[@scottfrenz]

LOL. Guess you decided what the hell it's something to watch :)?

[@NineSun001]

"You wanted something funny and light hearthed to watch today? Well fuck you, her you go!"

[@rtne7137]

MAHONEY!

[@Winterydee]

That's one hell of a comedy to watch!

[@shan4680]

I once rented Friday the 13th Part 2 and found an animated film called Flower Stories in the box instead.

[@parastroika2393]

This film is true horror. Not a slasher, not a thriller but pure horror.

[@chasehedges6775]

It’s true horror because it’s reality.

[@kdog3908]

Nothing more horrible than unvarnished reality.

[@chasehedges6775]

@@kdog3908 👍

[@judyhopps9380]

My nuclear triumvirate is: Threads The Day After When the Wind Blows Between them I learned that surviving the blast would be the stupidest thing I could do.

[@chasehedges6775]

@@kdog3908 And the darkness of human nature

[@MrFrankfurt13]

"An empty eyed woman cradling the charred body of a dead baby in the smoking ruins of a devastated city"... but enough about growing up in Scotland.

[@Rendell001]

Pretty sure some areas of England and Wales can match that...

[@iroscoe]

@@Rendell001 Sounds a bit like Stoke .

[@calamitysi]

I saw the Scotch in their natural habitat, and it weren't pretty. I'd seen them huddling in stations before, being loud but… this time I was surrounded. Everywhere I went it felt like they were watching me; fish-white flesh puckered by the Highland breeze; tight eyes peering out for fresh meat; screechy, booze-soaked voices hollering out for a taxi to take 'em halfway up the road to the next all-night watering hole. A shatter of glass; a round of applause; a sixteen-year-old mother of three vomiting in an open sewer, bairns looking on, chewing on potato cakes... I ain’t never going back… not never.

[@tyrantsquirrel575]

​@@calamitysimy auntie lives there, she says it's quite nice

[@iroscoe]

@@tyrantsquirrel575 Well she's wrong .

[@Euphoricbleeding]

If you thought “The Day After” was brutal, Threads says Hold My Beer

[@jturnbow71]

The Day After doesn't even hold a candle to Threads.

[@leosowers]

@@jturnbow71 dang! and the day after changed gov policy...

[@casinodelonge]

The Day After was Disney compared to this.

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

I was a soldier taking turns to guard nuclear weapons when ‘The Day After’ was shown on local TV. That did add some spice to it…

[@marcpeterson1092]

I agree. Maybe Drinker could do a comparison. On the other hand, the marketing of the Day After was masterful. Don't watch! You can't handle it!

[@rabidspace6951]

Can we appreciate the fact that Drinker posted this on October 23rd the same day in the Fallout Universe the Bombs dropped? Great one Drinker, also god this movie was fucking nightmare fuel.

[@garytwinem5275]

There's a post apocalyptic movie called A Boy And His Dog (starring a young Don Johnson) that I believe was a big inspiration for Fallout.

[@polly_sacharride]

@@garytwinem5275 I'd say it was THE main inspiration. Sure Fallout culls from a lot of sources such as the radscorpions and radroaches from Damnation Alley but it gets more from A Boy and His Dog than probably anything else, a lone wanderer with a canine companion, underground vaults with strange practices, raiders, glowing ones, etc. Hell, Dogmeat is even named after a throwaway line in it.

[@owsie1800]

Didn't know that thanx

[@pabloznotti6883]

i well remember this. they both came out about the same time and were often compared, the hollywood version of ww3 versus the gritty realistic version.

[@izifaddag8221]

I thought it was Oct 22 not 23 2077

[@gafrers]

How the BBC has fallen. This was the BBC: Quality.

[@meatpuppet5036]

Back when they could show roving gangs of grapers as just a dire prediciton...

[@synchc]

I don't think they wanted it, even back then. There's a doc somewhere here on YT about it and the writers/producers had to fight tooth and nail for their balls nasty vision for it and find someone else to co-fund it. Something like that.

[@arbhall7572]

Yep. Exactly like Disney. Once a titan of quality and assurance. Now you can only count on it being written by a toddler with special needs.

[@jamesg9468]

The BBC's original manifesto was to Inform and Entertain. Today, it does neither.

[@liwojenkins]

@@jamesg9468 Now it's just another leftist money laundering and propaganda scheme. We don't have enough of those!

[@cheledecoltone]

I remember online someone was saying how watching this movie helped cure their depression, as the movie was so bleak and dystopian that it made them appreciate what they have today.

[@planescaped]

That's what I say, be glad you were born in the before times - before society itself begins to collapse and things get _really_ bad...

[@davidw.2791]

That’s what the so-called Insensitive Normies have always been trying to tell people all this time. 😅 Of course, many many cases of depression are truly clinical and irrational so they can’t be Cured this way, sadly. 😢

[@bentdriver]

I would rank this film as the number one of dystopian post nuclear attack films.

[@JimmyMon666]

When I'm depressed I tend to watch videos about 9/11. But I could see watching this too.

[@chasehedges6775]

@@planescaped Yep.!

[@XDWX]

I cant believe Drinker is talking about this. I cant even come up with words to describe it.

[@chasehedges6775]

It’s horrifying.

[@kenricnarbrough8191]

well, you are about halfway there. what did you want to say?

[@Gaggerlotion]

Clearly

[@alexw.8999]

@@kenricnarbrough8191 You made me spit my coffee out 😂😂😂 was thinking the same thing. Total cliff hanger.

[@alexgrenlie862]

Don't quit your day job

[@tjewald32]

It ran once on PBS in the US in ‘84. I happened across it as a bored teenager. I am still traumatized 40 years later.

[@john-pauljones878]

I think we should show it again in every country

[@uncleremus7484]

@@john-pauljones878 Yes, I agree. Hollyweird should make themselves useful and make an updated version of this and The Day After and run it on all network/free over the air TV so that all the people that don't understand what a nuclear war would mean might get the picture....

[@petesturtevant7642]

Man, that Watership Down clip brought back some childhood horror. Well said.

[@Jasonwizz1]

Yes first blood I seen in a toon besides GIJOE movie when duke was killed.

[@nighttrain1236]

There was another dark animated film where two armies fought until they were all dead? Anyone remember that? Also, Dr Seuss's The Lorax, despite being a book not a film, was also kind of dark because all the wildlife dies leaving a toxic wasteland.

[@petesturtevant7642]

​@nighttrain1236 Are you thinking of the 1977 animated movie Wizards? I never saw the whole movie, but there is a scene where the bad guys slaughter a bunch of cute elves.

[@nighttrain1236]

@@petesturtevant7642 No, it was 20th century warfare. I'll keep trying to remember it.

[@nighttrain1236]

@@petesturtevant7642 It was actually Peace on Earth, a 1939 nine minute long animated reel I was thinking off. which must have been shown on TV in the 80s.

[@wdl76]

Having grown up in the late 70s, but mainly 80s and 90s, with parents who had me late (so themselves were an older gen, born just before WWII) I grew up with an appreciation of just how terrible and close the threat of nuclear war was. With the obsession over absurd trivialities these days, when a 'micro agression' is considered a matter of life and death, I fear most modern youth and young adults have little appreciation of just how thin the veneer of civilisation truly is, and how lucky we are to live in such peaceful times (and yes, they are, though for how long...) More kids should watch some of these things. It may scar them for life, but it will also give them a better appreciation for it, and a desire to preserve what is good, along with some perspective of what is truly important, vs what the media (social and otherwise), tells us to pointlessless and wastefully obsess over.

[@500dollarjapanesetoaster8]

I wish I could upvote you more. Spot on. People don't even consider what they would do if the electricity were out for days. Some wouldn't know how to cook without a microwave. Some other thread above commented "oh people wouldn't turn into beasts", uh yeah they would. Heck, even when the police were absent or there's a natural disaster, out comes the looting. Another "comforting fact": your local hospital would be lucky to handle even a dozen seriously injured at one time. They might only have a dozen surgeons on their roster, that is even if they could *get* to the hospital with all that going on. In case of mass casualties, you're either waiting hours or you're just f-ed.

[@HarryHache-l3m]

@@500dollarjapanesetoaster8 Yeah, I'm a cold war baby and a SAC vet who knows far more about nuclear war than I want to, and how the very young adults today can't stand ANYTHING that slows their cell-phone driven life down is just amazing to me. They'd watch a movie like this or "The Day After" and say "wow, those special effect sucked".

[@kleinwolf35]

Every generation needs a crisis of major conflict in order to appreciate what they have and to weed the hopeless from the gene pool. Without that we are stuck with the Roman example. Augustus throws a party while the Goths sack Rome.

[@andym2612]

@@HarryHache-l3m I saw "The Day After" when I was 10 years old. It scared the $hitte out of me. When marshal law was imposed and I saw somebody get shot for stealing a loaf of bread the reality really hit me as a kid.

[@SchrodingerZX48]

100% agree.

[@knightofni77]

The timing of this review is fitting. October 23 is the day the bombs dropped in the Fallout series.

[@MrJACarroll]

It was originally broadcast on the 23rd of September 1984, not sure if that has any relevance.

[@randallsimmons391]

That date is also in the book: "War Day", also about a limited nuclear war but set in the US in 1988.

[@austinparker5053]

Mayyyyybeeeee.... you'll think of me..... when you are all alone....

[@shan4680]

It’s the 40th Anniversary of Threads this year as well.

[@brunorocha1328]

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

[@NikolajsenNiklas]

Threads was shown in Danish public schools in 1986 or 87, where I as an 11y old boy watched it with my class. It traumatized us all. Some cried, others did not, but fell erily silent for days. All of us, I am.sure, had nightmares for months. I myself forgot about Threads over the years, until.I fell over it by chance some 30 years later. some seven years ago. I am not a soft person, but I could barely manage to rewatch it, with all the repressed childhood memories re-emerging in force. This movie, I believe, traumatized a whole generation of Western European youth!

[@mogznwaz]

So true - watched it live on TV in 1984 and it left an indelible mark. I didn’t realise it was also shown in other countries

[@TheWolfsnack]

It should be mandatory today.....youth needs to be shocked out of ideological complacence...there are far worse things out there than the horror of misgendering...

[@sarahdymock9418]

New Zealander here. Also watched it at school in 1986 as an 11 year old. All these years later I could barely watch the snippets in this video.

[@kindnutritionist2672]

I agree, it really gave a realistic idea of what it would be like

[@sharkymouth]

I was 10 and lived in Sheffield when this was first shown. I only saw bits and pieces from when my family watched it. Those images I saw ingrained themselves in me since then (I'm 50 now). The streets and shops shown with the mushroom cloud is an area called 'The Moor'. I went shopping there with my mum every Saturday morning. It still exists now. At the time, a nuclear war was so possible, I remember seeing the leaflets that came in the post from the government about hiding in a cupboard or cellar if the bomb dropped. Still haven't plucked up the courage to watch it since then.

[@theapachevikingnomadfromhell]

As a late comer to this film, I have to agree with everything you said. I saw this for the first time about two years ago here on KZbin and was in a state of absolute shock after watching it. As soon as the end scene played out and the credits rolled, I had to close my laptop and sit there in a stunned sense of disbelief. No bullshit, it STILL kicks you straight in the teeth forty years later. Not to repeat what you said, but it is STILL pure nightmare fuel.

[@thomasrovinsky2192]

To this day, one of the most terrifying film experiences I've ever had. What made it even more shocking was that when I saw it on Swedish television back in 1984, I had turned it on about five minutes in, meaning that I missed the intro and had no idea what it was. I just thought it was a regular BBC drama. When the nukes started falling I was absolutely horrified. I watched the rest of the film with my jaw hanging open, completely rooted to the couch. And it's like you say; as bad as the nuke stuff was, the worst was yet to come. The rest of Threads is just an unrelenting, ghastly barrage of death, horror and despair. I bought the DVD in 2004 and watched it for the first time in 20 years and found to my surprise that it had lost none of its power. I've seen it a couple of times since then and always marvel at how effective it still is. An absolute masterpiece of terror that makes The Day After seem like an episode of Everyone Loves Raymond.

[@KrappiTheClown]

OMG, you were expecting Hem till Gården (Emmerdale Farm) or I Vår Herres Hage (All Creatures Great and Small) and you got this instead...? No wonder you're emotionally... you know... (Skojar bara!) I think everyone in my class saw it, I know we discussed it at lenght. (Cultural reference: Sweden had only two TV channels in those days. Everyone watched the same shows as everyone else.)

[@sevenproxies4255]

And today, we in Sweden are all on the pro-war bandwagon. Because Ukrainian sovreignty is somehow more important than avoiding nuclear war. The irony...

[@dumbunny7986]

I've never seen it and never will. What Drinker just showed was fodder enough for my nightmares.

[@sevenproxies4255]

@@dumbunny7986 I don't blame you. What made it more awful is the fact that some of the imagery is clearly inspired by the real world bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So it's a bit too real. For the record, it's not like I approve of what the Russians are doing in Ukraine. I just think that avoiding nuclear war is more important than east vs west geopolitical bickering.

[@thomasrovinsky2192]

@@sevenproxies4255 Yeah, whatever, Ivan.

[@johndrakes6867]

I was born a year after this was made, and had always heard how terrifying Threads was from my mam and dad who lived through the Cold War. Finally got round to watching it as a blase, devil-may-care, I've seen it all, Millennial. It absolutely shook me up, particularly the years of Nuclear winter that followed the attack. An absolutely outstanding piece of television

[@jollyrancher28]

Want another kick in the teeth? Keep in mind that Ruth's daughter and her stunted generation ARE Milliennials.

[@RobertHobart]

The "years of nuclear winter" were a lie with zero scientific basis.

[@ramirogarcia1967]

You forgot the most important point. This is a movie every single person on the planet needs to see.

[@mambi74]

"This is a movie every single person in the planet needs to see"

[@backoffwayoff4687]

Absolutely

[@tvcomputer1321]

100%

[@sdwone]

With the sheer amount of stupidity that I see online... Downplaying nuclear weapons... And mocking Russia, who has the most nukes... And the most powerful types of nukes.... Yes! I couldn't agree with your statement more! This Fornite / Call of Duty generation has no idea just how much Danger we are currently in!!!

[@dennisburgerkamp1013]

This film terrified me as a kid in the 80s and introduced me to how serious the Cold War was. I was delighted at the fall of Berlin war and stupidly thought the fear of nuclear war was a thing of the past. Everyone needs to watch this to understand what we face if Ukraine/russia or Israel/iran spirals out of control. Late edit: the image of the melting milk bottle has been etched in my mind for 40 years.

[@rogersjolly1]

Is it just in the Brits' blood to be good actors? I'm from the U.S., and all of my favorite movies when I was a kid (late 1970s / 1980s) have mostly British actors who were excellent. Comparing this film with the U.S. counterpart "The Day After" (1983), the people in Threads are so much more believable. There was actual sorrow and empathy for the characters that I can say I never felt in a film before; the way you feel about people in a documentary. Actually, even more than that. It's like it's happening to people who are right there with you. You're in no danger, but they are. And you feel it. And you feel for them. Thanks Drinker!

[@michaeldavid6832]

I think, yes, when it comes to drama the way we understand it today, the native Brits have evolved to be good at it because their entire civilization demanded it -- rich and poor, young and old. With that kind of demand and competition, great actors would've been successful and been able to support families. Their popularity would've made them great... um... "temporary partners". Lots of those genes were spread far and wide... and there was no pill back then. Even local actors would've been popular because there was nothing else to do for cheap entertainment.

[@darrylsloan]

Saw the original broadcast as an 11-year-old. Stayed with me all my life.

[@JohnJackson-mn4ts]

How the hell did you sleep after watching threads? This movie mentally scarred adults.

[@thedadwars]

UK had Threads. We in the US had The Day After. Came out at the height of the Reagan era and traumatized Gen X kids for life.

[@History_Coffee]

The day after was incredibly tame compared to threads and it's still pretty horrifying

[@piercedbylight]

If you lived in Canada, both were broadcast...nightmare fuel

[@ridley68]

If you haven't watched Threads then do so, "The Day After" is very very tame in comparison.

[@eldritchmorgasm4018]

Ronald Reagan was impressed & even more shocked after watching "The Day After", so I have to think, did he also watch "Threads", what did he think about that (if he would've seen it)?

[@wills2140]

Yep. _'The Day After'_ was a bit of nightmare fuel for preteen me. I still can remember a few scenes, especially when the farmer is shot in the back Fun Fact : President Ronald Reagan also watched _'The Day After'_ because Jason Robards had been a "friend" in their Hollywood days. It is said Reagan accelerated negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce nuclear weapons after watching it.

[@englishbatchers8483]

At the time that Traffic Warden was the cover of the Radio Times and everyone was talking about it. Great vid.

[@RoryMitchell00]

_Threads_ makes _The Day After_ look like a family-friendly and fun Disney movie by comparison. So much of the shocking imagery in _Threads_ is iconic, plus the: "Jesus Christ, they've done it. They've done it." line as the first nuke is seen really sticks with me. I think what makes the film so dark though is the very real science behind what happens in the aftermath of nuclear war, as so much death, famine, disease, and more, follows as everything that makes modern society function completely collapses.

[@RobertHobart]

There was actually very little "science" behind what the film depicted, and the filmmakers clearly drank the "people without modern civilization turn instantly into beasts" fantasy that is so widespread in our modern world.

[@richardhockey8442]

and the way it illustrates how most of the 'protect and survive' measures are largely ineffective and ultimately pointless

[@zombiedodge1426]

Yep. And that's saying something, because The Day After (directed by Nicholas Meyer, of Star Treks II and VI fame) is terrifying in its own right.

[@rustythecrown9317]

The Day After was another cheap american rip off from a superior British product.

[@zombiedodge1426]

@@rustythecrown9317 What's even worse is that the Yanks not only ripped off "Threads" but somehow got their knockoff broadcast on TV before production on "Threads" had even started.

[@andrewcadman951]

I am from Sheffield. Barry Hines was a local lad who also wrote "A Kestrel for a Knave". His daughter actually went to my school. I fully agree with you Threads left you feeling pretty dumbstruck. At the time in the late 70s and early 1980s there was a feeling that nuclear war could happen at any time. One night there was a fierce thunderstorm over Sheffield and a huge clap of thunder woke up many of my friends. They all thought a bomb had gone off. I remember waking up having terrible nightmares about it more than once, and have talked to others since who admitted the same. On a lighter note, the city became the butt of jokes by stand up comedians about how much nuclear war had improved it.

[@StupStups]

Thanks for that, I thought I recognised Barry Hines' name. Kes was bleak as well, I wonder if he wrote anything with a happy ending.

[@andrewcadman951]

@@StupStups I doubt it! We actually read 'Kes' in our English class. The killing of the Kestrel by his brother and meaness of spirit it demonstrated still upset me. Have to say there was sometimes that aspect to the city at the time.

[@swordscot]

I wonder if the guy dressed as the Traffic Warden with the face bandages had any idea how iconic that photo would become. I remember it as the cover of Radio Times the week Threads was first shown in the UK

[@stojmonster]

They managed to track him down this year. He did bits and pieces of work as a filming extra but work was slack so he got a job as a traffic warden. He answered an ad one day for extras needed for Threads and they made him up as a traffic warden, seeing as he had already worked as one. He then got on with his life and apart from being surprised they used his photo on the Radio Times, had no idea how much of a cult thing his image had become!

[@swordscot]

@@stojmonster Wow Thanks for that .Probably be in his 70s now if he is still alive

[@stojmonster]

@@swordscot his name is Michael Beecroft and he’s now 84 and looking well for his age.

[@swordscot]

@@stojmonster Amazing. Thanks.

[@andyforbes5553]

I watched it when I was about 11 years old, and l will never forget the woman pissing herself when she sees the monstrous mushroom cloud rising in the background, it was a moment when you realised how helpless we are in the face of armagedon. Best anti war film I have ever seen, and as you can see, it never left me.

[@johnnyjohn-johnson7738]

As Rose from the Silent Hill movie said, "A mother is god in the eyes of a child". So a little boy seeing a grown woman in her late 30s or early 40s whom he would naturally look up to as a wiser and more mature elder (and on top of it is presumably a businesswoman or in some highly respected occupation judging by her attire) suddenly losing her cool and being overwhelming by fear to the point of losing control over her bladder would be pretty fucked up.

[@His-Most-Catholic-Majesty]

That's just how Sheffield normally is.

[@wills2140]

lol

[@wills2140]

lol

[@FortisConscius]

Most people in Sheffield have two heads and age rapidly with charred, blistering skin.

[@zombiedodge1426]

@@FortisConscius And three-wheeled cars that keep tipping over.

[@NielsenDK-1]

Actually they had to clean the streets up a bit before filming 😂

[@BilldeSarse]

That is the most heart-rending "go away now!" we've ever had from you CD.

[@laRoz67]

Just watching this review made my stomach churn. I've watched this twice; once when it was first aired (as a two parter if memory serves) in about 1984 and again on DVD in about 2011. I have no wish to see it again, thanks very much. Just shows the power of really well written and executed TV. Nightmare fuel indeed.

[@dennyawright21]

A double header with BBC’s “When the Wind Blows”, that animated film about a rural couple dealing with a nuclear apocalypse. Great family fun. Force the kids to watch when they start whining about eating their vegetables. 😂

[@efxnews4776]

@@dennyawright21 watch the anime Barefoot Gen then...

[@JustFun-ho6qy]

I remember catching that one at like 11 in the morning on a Saturday on what is basically the German version of the BBC when I was somewhere between 5 and 7 years old. I didn't quite understand what was going on. Mostly remember how silent my parents were when it was over.

[@UmbertoDavidPanda]

If you wanna do the treble, do Threads, Where the wind blows and then do Barefoot Gen for dessert. You'll need a hug and a warm drink after it.

[@efxnews4776]

@@UmbertoDavidPanda Barefoot Gen looks like a very kid friendly anime until it hit you like a freight train! The worst part of all, is that anime is based on REAL FKG EVENTS!

[@PsychotoasterProd]

@@UmbertoDavidPanda Make an evening of it! Put on Grave of the Fireflies, too! (Not nuclear I know, but that's a movie that fits thematiclly)

[@atragonx7939]

Shit, man. Those Watership Down clips gave me PTSD. That was not the bunny cartoon 8 year old me was expecting.

[@KJ-of6lf]

I saw it as an adult and it was still disturbing (and I'd read the novel)! My kid and I joke about showing my granddaughter WD because it's about bunnies, so it's OK, right?😆

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

Combine it with Farthing Wood for an evening of animated trauma.

[@ANGLORUSSIANCZ]

After watching this as a kid in 1984 (Two Tribes was the best selling single too) it confirmed to me that none of us alive then would live to see the 1990s. As the years went by I grew to understand we are living in never-ending FEAR machine wash cycle.

[@Othillde]

Same, I had a whole panic attack a few years back and basically prepared to die in a nuclear war. By now I've realised that we are fed fear mongering stuff all the time, since it sells really well. Sure, something truly disastrous might happen, but we won't know till it happens because the news is terror spiced doom and gloom all the time. I barely pay attention these days.

[@oisinoc]

It was written by a commie to undermine nuclear deterrance against the soviets

[@primmakinsofis614]

And yet just six years later the Soviet Union would be gone, having collapsed into nothingness, relegating the Cold War into the pages of history books. No one would have dared make that prediction in 1984.

[@ianhunt4147]

Maybe they were never going to push that button - the fear made taxpayers accept all the waste of money being spent in missles that we’d never use

[@fyrchmyrddin1937]

@@primmakinsofis614 My wife saw Threads back in the day, and I saw it sometime in the 1990's. I agree with Drinker in that the movie makes its peer, The Day After, look like a damp squib in comparison. Threads was a far better expenditure of the USSR's propaganda budget than The China Syndrome ever hoped to be, and I'm certain that combined with the "Greenham Common Women" it was one of the centerpieces in the Soviet effort to remove European defense. I also recall the sneering, hateful nature of the "peace, love, & happiness" crowd, screaming that Reagan was going to cause the Apocalypse - yet astute observers had actually recognized that the USSR was in an untenable position as early as 1979.

[@notmyminky]

Everyone should watch this film, then appreciate the urgent need for multilateral disarmament. Thank you drinker for this review especially in the current climate 👍

[@TCL_Dasler]

Growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, minutes from Sheffield, this was the worst, most terrifying thing I'd ever seen. Talk about a reality check. Life was hard enough in a mining town and then this visual monster appeared and it's still haunting to think about now, at 50odd years old. Epic. Awful. Outstanding.

[@a1white]

Yes. Me too. I was a kid in 80’s Barnsley at the time. This hit hard.

[@wayneomartino1818]

I Watched it again about a year ago. The next day i mentioned it to the young Sheffield lad in the unit next-door, who replied with "my grandad was the milkman with the melting milk bottles". Small world eh

[@HubertCumbadale02]

at least it wasnt the guy on the toilet 🙂

[@phoenixsmith6026]

the melting milk bottles is the one bit that stuck with me to this day since i saw it as a preteen back in the 80's in school

[@561jeffkelly]

OMG So grateful someone has reviewed or rewatched this. I have said for years people should watch this movie/Doc and you will be surprised how many have never watched it. I watched this on release by myself aged 13 when my Mum had gone to her friends. Now I’d like to point out am a mad horror movie buff and thought nothing could scare me. This put the “Shits up me” as we say in England. It scared me that much I wrote a letter to our PM Mrs thatcher not to go to war and why. Keep up the great work you do Critical Drinker 👍👍

[@AchtungEnglander]

This film has traumatised me for 40 years. I am so glad a whole new generation of people can join my misery. Welcome to the club!

[@chasehedges6775]

🙏As a 2001 Gen Z guy who’s watched Threads several times, Thanks. This movie is soooo terrifying.

[@AchtungEnglander]

@@chasehedges6775 With any luck and if we are still around, you can pass on the trauma to your kids as well...if we make it that far.

[@freddiemercuryhb5910]

Drinker.....i just stumbled upon this movie literally one week ago. Never heard of it, never saw it, but i was immediately hooked by the premise of it, read a lot about it and i was just in shock....i could'nt stop thinking about that, what the movie depicts: a nightmare never seen before. I have a depression ever since, and JUST YESTERDAY i turn on YT and you uploaded that video! Coincidence?!? I don't know....but i saw it, i cursed very loudly and i watched it. My depression continues......

[@johnanthonyp]

No coincidence. It was only just shown on BBC4 and released on BBC iplayer for the first time. It's reignited a hell of a lot of conversation about it in the media.

[@freddiemercuryhb5910]

​@@johnanthonyp didn't know that :) i'm from germany and i don't watch BBC over here

[@vskane]

I was talking with my wife about this movie the other day - she never saw it. In 1984 I was just about old enough to understand it. I've seen it once then and I never want to see it again. Forty years later it's still probably the most brutally savage movie it's ever been my misfortune to watch. Absolutely fucking haunting.

[@gc4824]

I haven't thought about this movie in years, but I too am old enough to remember it scaring the crap out of me as a kid. Thanks for the throwback, Drinker.

[@a1white]

It was on BBC4 a couple of weeks back. It might well be on iPlayer (hopefully behind multiple warnings). I didn’t mean to, but I ended up watching almost all of it on the night, preceded by an excellent modern day interview with the director. I turned off before the final scene, which we all know. It still hits hard.

[@worsel555]

Ahh yes, the movie I love to counter with when someone tells me "The Day After" is the best nuclear war movie ever made. I sit them down, make them view Threads, and watch the 1000 yrd stare develop as it just keeps getting worse and worse. Truth be told, an actual nuclear war would be much worse than depicted, but this is still one of my favorites.

[@Goobnav]

This was the British version of "The Day After", they are both just as horror filled.

[@judyhopps9380]

When the Wind Blows as well

[@worsel555]

@@judyhopps9380 Top that one off with The Plague Dogs and you have an animation movie block to get depressed over!

[@Irys1997]

Also, "Testament"

[@HammerHeart3229]

I prefer Threads over The Day After but in both cases I actually prefer the first half of both movies. The build up to the war, watching the last days of the world as we know it and the actual moment the nukes drop is more interesting than the aftermath to me for some reason. It's been a while since I've seen Threads and The Day After though, maybe with Halloween coming up this would be the perfect time to give them a rewatch! Special Bulletin and Countdown to Looking Glass are both pretty good nuclear dramas too. I think Special Bulletin actually caused a bit of panic in America because it's played like a real life news broadcast and some people thought it was real.

[@worsel555]

0:33 The Traffic Warden is not running a concentration camp, he's guarding a food depot. Why a Traffic Warden? Because he's the only one left in that location alive that was with law enforcement and was conscripted by default.

[@grumpy2.0]

If memory serves, he was a true traffic warden who they picked up off the street to film the bit. Thus the mask.

[@grahamross6397]

Aye. Was an extra who worked as a warden and had the uniform to hand.

[@Garrus1995]

What exactly is a traffic warden anyway? Are they full law enforcement officers capable of making arrests and whatnot?

[@kez0o9]

​@@Garrus1995wankers in general !they hand out parking fines for there fun

[@grahamross6397]

All British citizens are capable of making arrests but it gets complicated. Traffic Wardens used to be local government employees who had the powers to issue tickets and fines for vehicles that were illegally parked or became illegally parked when the time on the parking meter expired. Some traffic direction powers as well, I think. Nowadays, that stuff is outsourced or given over to community safety officers - people who dress like modern paramilitary coppers but with red or yellow design elements, rather than the blue of coppers.

[@peterlundskow4061]

This is the kind of review of little known films that I really am glad you produce. There was a similar TV movie made in the US called the "Day After" about the city of Lawrence, Kansas before & after a nuclear war. It was intense but, not as much as the images of "Threads" you showed!

[@halfdemonhero1472]

Loving the film education and recommendation of films in your 'Extra shots'. Please keep up this type of content Drinker, it's a nice balance/addition to your more current reviews. Well done..

[@malickfan7461]

The most horrifying part for me is how the English language itself became mostly lost after the nukes fell.

[@johnsnow2161]

I think they got that idea from the book "Riddley Walker".

[@swa7169]

I thought that too. Then I found out that's just how people in Yorkshire speak.

[@TheMaleRei]

Most languages probably had difficulties after the bombs dropped.

[@manwiththeredface7821]

And kids learning about cats the same way we learned about dinosaurs...

[@smittzin7637]

Its not that the language was lost but the children born after the nukes were dropped were mentally impaired due to radiation/malnutrition/other diseases. You can see that in scenes set 10 years after adults are speaking normally, its just the children using heavily devolved language.

[@KitsuneJager]

WOAH! I did NOT expect you to talk about fucking Threads. I'm a horror fan first, but I can confidently say that no horror movie I've seen has ever unsettled me like Threads. Fucking brutal.

[@stevendee6800]

As a horror fan I can confirm threads is truly terrifying

[@rrctelles]

Same here. I watched everything fucked up I could put my hands on. Martyrs, Cannibal Holocaust, you name it. None is compared to Threads. I can't listen the sound of wind without remembering it and it has been about two months I watched it.

[@GorilaZinDaMizT]

I'm blown away also

[@JeffKantin]

I grew up in the 70's and 80's when there were true horror films. That might be why horror movies today just seem so tame...they just seem to be watered-down jump scares or just torture porn. Where are the movies that leave psychological scars anymore? 😄

[@mikitz]

@@JeffKantin Left on the floor after the pitch meeting.

[@fordprefect80]

The BBC certainly had the talent years ago, sadly those days are long gone. The War Game is another hard to watch nuclear war documentary from the BBC (1966).

[@iroscoe]

I think it was one of the Pythons that said the old structure of the Beeb was a management/talent pyramid with lots of talent at the bottom and a little bit of managment at the top has been inverted with a little bit of talent and masses of management that just neuter the bit of talent there is .

[@Pheebs77]

Nowadays there'd be a "diverse" cast and the main theme of the film would be how LGBTQ refugees were marginalised during the handing out of survival rations and blankets.......

[@markcarey67]

I love how Watership Down is such a universal symbol of "movies that scarred us in our childhood" that you only have to flash a clip of it and not even mention it by name and everybody KNOWS.

[@eoinbradley6842]

I have nothing but respect for this film. Take or leave the human drama, it is still the most informative and realistic portrayal of post nuclear war that has ever been put to film. The whole of Europe is decimated by fall out. The skys darken and all the crops fail. Technology fades to irrelevance, manual labor and brutality are the only currency. Congratulations you have survived nuclear war.

[@siegessaule]

BBC was really high quality in the 20th century, they were the best public broadcaster on earth back then. They weren't afraid of taking on controversial topics. Threads and Scum (1979) are some of my favorite movies because of how gritty and real they are. They really stretched their budgets to produce films that would stay with you for a long time.

[@mikavirtanen7029]

When you have first class showrunners, writers and actors you can deliver quality productions with low budgets. Ironically these days budgets don't seem to be a problem, but everything else is.

[@tommcewan7936]

I'm afraid the BBC aren't always quite as bold as you think. They made a similar film trying to realistically imagine what nuclear armageddon would look like called "The War Game" in 1966, but then chickened out and didn't broadcast it until 1985, a year after "Threads." It is important that such material be seen, because a certain proportion of people - and disquietingly many of them rank amongst our leaders and decision makers - simply do not have any imagination and cannot clearly grasp such things from merely having them described in words; you have to *show* them what would happen, because they cannot visualise it for themselves. Ronald Reagan, for example, *radically* changed his attitude to the nuclear situation after he saw "The Day After," the USA's equivalent to "Threads," in 1983; prior to that he'd had an unrealistic and dangerously optimistic attitude as to the survivability of a nuclear exchange. It's terrifying to think that literally the commander in chief of the USA's nuclear forces evidently *could not properly assimilate and synthesise whatever verbal or written information he was presumably given in briefings as to the consequences of using said weapons,* and thus until he was shown a damned film acting it out for him it must be concluded that he would not have been up to the task of making sensible decisions about them.

[@jamien134]

um, yeah, the same BBC that shat the Benny Hill show into the world, presumably....

[@scootertart]

@@jamien134 Benny Hill was ITV not BBC

[@diogenes7368]

One of the most brutal, depressing movies ever made. Everyone should see it at least once.

[@scionofdorn9101]

I'm ALREADY living my life, I don't need reminders.

[@JAFTW]

Right up there with "The day after".

[@500dollarjapanesetoaster8]

If you want a double-header of depression then catch the anime "Grave of the Fireflies". It's about 2 kids trying to survive the carpet bombing in Japan near the end of WW2. I started crying 2 minutes in and couldn't stop. Had to go for a looong walk to get my wits about me again. But it is a beautiful work of art and storytelling.

[@schaddenkorp6977]

@@500dollarjapanesetoaster8 Plague Dogs

[@GreyhawkTheAngry]

@@scionofdorn9101 This.

[@peterka4440]

I remember when this came out. It was still during the cold war and the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse, there was a very real fear that they could strike out in desperation. This film effectively removed any desire from the British public to engage in any kind of military brinkmanship with the Soviets. There was also, unusually for the BBC at the time, quite a lot of publicity for the show prior to the screening - I remember one actress being interviewed saying that her make up was so horrific she had to eat her meals by herself so that no one else had to look at her. My school class actually watched this all together in school the evening it was broadcast. If you ever want to know the secret of getting 40, 14 year old boys to shut the hell up, this is it

[@meatpuppet5036]

Making you got to school in the evening? Far more horrific tbh.

[@peterka4440]

@@meatpuppet5036 Even worse I think it was a Sunday, but the school thought it was important we all watch it and discuss it the next day

[@thriddoctor]

The most terrifying film ever made. It scared the shit out of me when i was 14 and it still does today.. In the 90s it seemed like the treat of nuclear war had receded but now it's back, throwing a shadow over the world. Threads is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

[@chemicalmix]

Threads is my favourite film of all time, and i tend to watch it every few weeks. It's got to be one of the most underrated productions ever made. It's difficult to make early 80s Sheffield any bleaker than it was in real life, but Barry Hines manages to do it. And how. A true masterpiece.

[@davewordsworth1251]

Do you live in Sheffield?

[@johnwebster6360]

Something you watch once and can't forget.

[@mikem10481]

Movies like Threads and another movie called Come and See are the most scariest films I've ever seen. Cold harsh reality is far scarier than anything the horror genre can produce.

[@Spurdospaerde692]

Though "Come and see" is more Soviet censor board-approved caricature than reality.

[@behemothfan1990]

@@Spurdospaerde692 I would disagree, but what the Dirlewange brigade did was very similar to the final act of Come and See. Admittedly Come and See is my 'favourite' film, not that I'd want to watch it again soon. The Western Front was a war of ideologies and governent, the Eastern Front was a war of subjugation and extermination.

[@designforlife704]

I still cannot believe he hasn't done "come and see" yet.

[@toddhanley6982]

The three darkest war films probably ever made (and three of the greatest) are Threads, Come And See, and Fires On The Plain (1959)

[@caileanthomson1286]

Threads deserves to be shown to all world leaders, especially current ones, to show the true defintion of Mutually Assured Destruction, which is very well named, for that's just what it is. MAD.

[@sdwone]

Indeed! And this doctrine is now under threat! Particularly when we see people mocking Putin when he's warning us all how close we are to that edge!

[@jabezhane]

And the muppets that pretend to be news anchors and journalists.

[@Stumpyblue]

When the wind blows, Threads and The day after. What a childhood eh? I liked how you chucked in a clip of Watership Down too. We need to make some more treats for the littlies before they go further down the wrong rabbit holes. 🙂

[@Gregg29407]

I rented this at a Blockbuster in Atlanta 30+ years ago. What a powerful film! I remember telling my co-workers afterwards that this was a movie everyone should watch at least once. It seemed so realistic and the various factoids that they inserted on-screen throughout the movie were extremely helpful and impactful.

[@grease_monkey6078]

watched it about 10 years ago, I can't imagine how scary it was watching it in 1984 though in the height of cold war tensions, it was like the BBC were trying to prepare the public of what could happen if escalations didn't die down. Whats more scary is that nuclear war is still possible in this day and age, people need to understand that the cold war never ended it was just postponed

[@johnnychopping3655]

1984 wasn't the 'height' of Cold War tensions, 1964 was. By the mid-80s it was clear Russia had lost the cultural war. We're far closer today to nuclear apocalypse than we've been in 60 years, though I don't think that's what will be the end of humanity, nobody wants to be King of the radioactive ashpile. AI on the other hand....

[@HammerHeart3229]

I saw the first half of Threads for the first time in Secondary School in either 2007 or 2008, I think I just stumbled across it somehow. I eventually watched it all the way through and what can I say? It's still to this day one of the most blunt, effective and depressing things I've ever seen. I think Threads started my interest in the Cold War as well. Either way I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been watching this in 1984 when tensions between NATO and the Soviets were at almost Cuban Missile Crisis levels and it felt like Nuclear war could break out at any point.

[@GreyhawkTheAngry]

@@johnnychopping3655 *THIS.* Far too many people today (or the last _several_ years for that matter) _radically_ misunderstand the timeline of Cold War. The Mid to Late 80s was the Soviet Unions last gasps, the decades beforehand were when the tensions and the true potential for conflict were at their height.

[@Simon-xc5oy]

@@johnnychopping3655 Yes and no. In 1964 it was a confrontation. And in the end Russia backed down and a compromise was reached. Both sides knew what would happen if they went to war, it would be the end of everything. By the time the mid 80s came around most people then had not been born for the Cuban Missile Crisis and those in charge in the 80s were all different people with their own ideas and no longer a group that had experienced World War 2. It was also the peak of escalation. With each side building more and more nuclear weapons, constant testing, and chemical and biological weapons 2. The Americans moved missiles into Greenham Common airbase in the UK. And there were other sites in Europe and the Russians were furious and the tension was really high. To the point where everyone though another confrontation was coming, but instead Russia more or less ran out of money and collapsed due to spending everything on military and weapons it was unsustainable. So they talked and the arms reductions began and deals and documents were signed to stop testing and to cut the number of weapons. This went on for many years...till Putin took power and decided he wanted to rebuild the Soviet Union. And the West had promised no constant expansion of NATO to the borders of Russia. And then allowed that to happen. So now we are back to a stand off, threats and weapon building again and the situation is tense and nasty once more. Its such a shame. And truly scary.

[@Joe._Biden]

@@Simon-xc5oy a world where the West doesnt dominate is terrifying indeed. The East isn't responsible and democratic like us.

[@gazd9493]

Watched it aged 14 , when was shown. Still have reoccurring nightmares now. Growing up living under threat of nuclear war is something you never get over.😢

[@CheesyChimp69]

I was aged 8. I threw up after watching and mushroom clouds haunted my nightmares for a decade. This film wasn't messing around.

[@piercedbylight]

Oh wow...core memory unlocked. I remember the ending vividly

[@mastertom7359]

I remember watching "The Day after" as a child, and it was disturbing. Years later I found Threads in a "to hard to stomach list", watched it and oufff. This is serious stuff and it hammers home its message: Do not push the red button. It is the way to hell. What is so shocking is, as you said, critical drinker, how casual and and irresistible the plot unfolds. It is a Masterpiece; a Masterpiece that wants you to puke. Well done.

[@jasonthorpe7087]

Over in a suburb of Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. I was 18 years old. I'm 43 now. I watched this movie on a VCR. Love Post apocalypse movies. This one brought it all home. I love guns thinking it would be fine...... Yeah Right! God in heaven. Please with all my heart, protect us from our selves! Please!

[@eugene_m_]

In the late 80-s the Soviets in cooperation with Finland filmed a very similar movie called "Letters of a dead man". (Письма мёртвого человека) It was also about a post-nuclear time with a few survivers spending their days in a bunker under the Historical Museum. A terrifying yet deeply philosophical episode of a slowly dying group of people. A brilliant role of Rolan Bykov, the great Soviet actor. A strong anti-war manifest, standing in one row with the Threads.

[@davidrenton]

thanks i'll give that a watch, it's on yt

[@sigmacademy]

Is it also the one where an old man is writing letters to a son he has no idea is even alive? Another one to check out is Admiral (2008).

[@eugene_m_]

@@sigmacademy Yes, that's the one

[@SOMEHANDSOME]

I consider myself a fan of disaster movies, watch and rewatch a lot of them. So, naturally, eventually I stumbled upon Threads (I`m from non-EU country, so have never seen it). What can I say - I wasn`t able to finish it, that how devastated I was even half way. After watching this video, I`m glad that I skipped the second part, I`d be emotionally crippled to this day. On a side note - I highly recommend British TV series "Survivors" from 1975. It also has grounded/slice of life vibe, but at least you don`t want to die after watching it.

[@aldunlop4622]

And the second is FAR WORSE than the first. I tried watching it again this year and I felt sick and couldn't finish.

[@clarkef]

I remember seeing this movie in the 80's. It scared the crap out of me. The old BBC: They didn't have much of a budget. They had to rely on good writing, direction, and acting. This movie reminds me of 'Riddley Walker'. Another underrated post-apocalyptic story.

[@evilreligion]

This is my Threads story. I was 10 when this movie aired in the UK. I was a smart arsed kid who even at 10 was interested in things like nuclear war. My mum told me that it was not suitable for me to watch. But as a smart-arsed kid I thought I knew better. We had just got one of the new VHS recorders which you could set a timer on to records things. So, I set the timer and recorded it in secret and watched it later at my leisure. I had recurring nightmares for months It genuinely traumatised me. The thing that was different about Threads was that, unlike the other horror films I had watched, I could not justify it away, I knew this was a very real possibility at the time. So, I could not tell myself that "monsters are not real" because this monster was very real. Anyway, my mum was right, I was wrong. No 10 year old should watch this movie and to be honest I think it should have its own special 30+ age rating as long as you have a signed form from a mental health professional certifying that you are not of a nervous disposition. I have rewatched it several times as an adult and whilst I think its a masterpiece of film making it's one of the few films that I am genuinely nervous about watching. It always conjours that feeling of utter dread my 10 year old self felt. It always leaves me a bit numb and distant for a while. Powerful stuff.

[@divineassassin7217]

I got caught watching it when it first aired, snuck into my brothers room while he was away and watched it with low volume. Ch 9 in Australia warned parents anyone under 16 should not watch this. Fair call as the scenes in the film have stayed with me to this day

[@stephenedavis7]

I want to personally thank you for reviewing this. Many people have yet to watch this. My generation didn't do many things well but this is one of them.

[@ExploringHabit]

I remember watching Watershipdown as a kid , i remember thinking this will be a Disney type cartoon boy was i wrong. The narrator at the start said " if they catch you they will kill you " the hairs on my neck stood up and i was hooked " I'm 46 now , i have it on Blu-ray and watch it now and again. It's a timeless classic and beautifully animated no CGI just pure artistic talent. Plus great voice acting.

[@krissteel4074]

Threads, Watership Down and Day of the Triffids (1981 TV series) are my trifecta of telly trauma

[@zombiedodge1426]

It's kind of funny that Mick Jackson, the director of "Threads," went on to make "Volcano." In other words, the the most terrifying disaster movie of all time *and* the most unintentionally (?) hilarious disaster movie of all time were directed by the same guy.

[@davidrenton]

the one where at the end and the ash was falling, and i think tommy lee jones or someone, says look we all the same now, no race, no colour. yeah you all just filthy covered in ash, it was some little house on the priarie moralising bs I prefered Dantes Peak, it weird as you had the same with Deep Impact/ Armageddon, 2 very similar movies coming out at the same time

[@thomasrovinsky2192]

Astoundingly, he also directed the schmaltzy The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.

[@mockbattles]

I saw this forty years ago on TV when I was ten years old. The grinding futility of it all never left me.

[@Mangolorian-je3eo]

When I saw it here in Australia in the 80s, my take-home was that at least “Words and Pictures” will live on.

[@neilhannan5112]

This is like Grave of the Fireflies of Britain

[@BritBattler]

Eh, closer answer would be "When the wind blows' imo.

[@NineSun001]

Well, I watched that movie not long ago and was not that impressed by it. Mostly because everyone overhyped it as much as they could, I guess.

[@xXevilsmilesXx]

No? I mean sure there are some similar themes but that's about it

[@Othillde]

​@@NineSun001I watched it not knowing what it really was and it floored me

[@johnnyjohn-johnson7738]

@@BritBattler Ah When The Wing Blows, the movie about a senile couple dying of radiation poisoning thinking that Field Marshall Montgomery is going to save them.

[@Richunclecheapskate]

The main woman sells her body for RAT meat, that’s the saddest part which stuck with me most from this movie.

[@jessemathes5126]

What about when the lady had a baby and with her mouth tears off the placenta.

[@Aurelius4114]

She sold the rat for a rat?

[@JurassicRod]

If it were made today she would have been a girl boss beating up that group of men and hunting deer with her bare hands. Then leading the rebuilding of society. Oh and she'd be black.

[@synchc]

@@jessemathes5126 After showing us this film our history teacher cheerfully pointed out that the human placenta is chock full of nutrients and would be cooked and consumed under these circumstances. We were about thirteen years old.

[@synchc]

For me it's the council HQ scene where the councillor is matter of factly told such and such suburb was flattened by the blast: no survivors. He just deflates and looks at the framed photo of his happy wife and kids on the desk. Absolutely brutally haunting stuff, brilliantly written, directed and acted.

[@bigal3055]

Wondered when you'd get round to this cheery little gem!

[@oofoof49]

Thanks for that one Drinker. Wise choice. Met my ex GF in 2017 and she was a big Walking Dead fan, as she described it as 'scary'. I told her to watch Threads, and the first thing she said to me after watching it own her own was 'why did you tell me to watch that?' Like you said yourself, I too first saw this when they showed it on TV when I was about 17.....you don't forget something like that. Keep up the good work.

[@MKJNS7086]

Can't praise this movie enough. It is absolutely merciless in it's depiction of the horrors of nuclear war and the aftermath. One of the best movies I've ever seen and I will never watch it again.

[@machupikachu1085]

The best review here.

[@frankrossi6972]

I read somewhere that the producers of "Threads" were worried that "The Day After" would overshadow their film, but that they managed to screen a copy of "Day" and realized they had nothing to worry about. Indeed, as a Yank who saw "Day" as a teen when it first aired and "Threads" just a few years ago, there's no comparison. "Day" is Hollywood-level disaster movie stuff---they didn't even darken the filter to depict nuclear winter. It was still sunny out after the bombs dropped. The carnage as the bombs dropped was slick and rather bloodless, and the human drama of the survivors overshadowed the horrors. The makeup to show survivors suffering from radiation looked like old leprechauns or elves, with only graying hair and pale/whitened skin. Looked like Halloween costumes. "Threads" punches you in the face with reality as soon as the bombs start dropping----panic, carnage, death, and despair. No lovers reuniting. No manufactured drama, e.g., the end of "Day" at Jason Robards' destroyed home. Just dirt, grime, ragged clothes, burned-out buildings, death, and decay---and it never lets up, even at the very end.

[@mupty]

Carl Sagan was a consultant on Threads providing ideas as to what an actual nuclear winter would entail.

[@danielhenderson8316]

The Day After was an ABC TV movie and was limited in what they could do. Nicholas Meyer can and would have gone further if he was allowed.

[@frankrossi6972]

I don't think the FCC has any rules on making a post-nuclear war wasteland more dirty, grimy, and grim. You don't need gore to set the scene properly, and compared with "Threads," the "Day" set design was rather antiseptic.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@frankrossi6972 It was still chopped down by ABC who edited out about 8 minutes of the attack asking with some of the more severe burn victims afterwards. I'm surprised ABC let Nicholas Meyer get away with what was shown without chopping up the "film" anymore than they did. I also cared more for the people in The Day After vs Threads.

[@visions91]

The Day After was written before nuclear winter theory became widespread.

[@mattdedasc]

I have this on DVD. Got it as Christmas present from my Mother In Law.

[@Brookspirit]

lol

[@robadzso]

What did you do to her to deserve such punishment?

[@mattdedasc]

@@robadzso her nickname is Satan. Enough said

[@whya2ndaccount]

For those of us who lived through it, its a realistic portrayal of what we trained for but hoped would/will never happen.

[@ManducaFlown]

Amazing that you highlight this. It is truly horrifying and an amazing warning siren for the dangers of nuclear confrontation. For me it’s the absolute best ‘nuclear apocalypse film’ - out of all of them. It captures the grim degradation of societal and environmental collapse perfectly. Truly disturbing stuff.

[@6079SmithW]

This as well as 'When the wind blows' are the two best nuclear war films ever made. Forget 'The day after'.

[@Hughenn]

I was 22 and in the military when it came out and although we trained for NBC warfare Threads was still super scary.

[@chasehedges6775]

Cool.

[@chasehedges6775]

This movie is just indescribable

[@chasehedges6775]

This movie is just indescribable

[@incurableromantic4006]

I watched Threads back at University when KZbin was in its infancy - and the hardest thing about it is it refuses to give you any kind of hope at all. At the end there is nothing but a bleak, dark world filled with fear and suffering that mankind is probably going to be stuck in for decades, or even centuries.

[@yomama9538]

That's why I hate it

[@Craig-u6j]

Ruth died happy she worked on a BBC commission in the 80's and Jim didn't Fix It for her......

[@Federalist10TN]

Sort of like "Manchester by the Sea"

[@lucymiau5700]

When I grew up in the 70's and 80's in East Germany, Childrens TV was full of stories about Wartime (WW2), falling bombs and dead bodies, Concentration Camps, Partisans etc. Mostly as Movies and Shows from own Country, but also a lot of Movies and Shows from other Countries. In general, Movies and Shows for Kids and Adults were more serious in tone, brutal and not as superficial and safe spacyfied like today. And this was finally a good life lession in a way as Entertainment can provide any life lessions at all.

[@zombiedodge1426]

Could you get TV signals from West Germany? I read somewhere that most people in East Germany could, at least under certain weather conditions and depending on the time of day. The exception was Dresden, which was called "the valley of the clueless" as a result. There's even an apocryphal story about East German teachers asking students to draw a picture of the countdown clock which preceded the evening news, so they could tell whose parents were watching Western television and those who were watching "Aktuelle Kamera" like a good East German should.

[@lucymiau5700]

@@zombiedodge1426 Yes, depending on the weather conditions, we got between 2 and 4 west Germany TV stations. In the 1980's almost everywone knew that the people watched West TV. Censequently, the 2 East TV stations tried to conter the West TV with own more or less interresting content. The News came half an hour before the West TV News. There were at least one days for adult late evening TV with some light nudity and lots of most older international Movies without ads. In the end, we watched both TV versions. StarTrek and ALF and Cartoons/Anime from the West, and War-Shows and Movies from the East.

[@retroshade75]

Watched this in Chesterfield where I'm from and still live ( only 12 miles from Sheffield ) in the mid eighties as a 10 year old kid, never forgotten it. Brilliant and Brutal, a lesson in living under the shadow of the mushroom cloud which we all did in those days.

[@dbsommers1]

Saw Watership Down as a kid. Bought the book immediately and loved it even more.

[@L0rd0fTh3N3rdz]

If memory serves Watership Down has a higher body count than the Childs Play movies all combined.

[@ultrademigod]

Dogs aren't dangerous

[@mr_ozzio5095]

Watership Down, When the wind blows, Plague dogs and Threads are four of the most mentally scaring films ever...!

[@johnnyjohn-johnson7738]

@@mr_ozzio5095 The Plague Dogs gives me First Blood/Rambo vibes.

[@dougfleming1708]

I have the book too, Prince of a 1000 Enemies

[@name001]

This movie made it to southeast Texas sometime in the late 80s. I was round 6 or 7 y/o. I remember my mom telling me, "You shouldn't be watching this." The image of a a mother biting through her baby's umbilical cord has been forever burned into my brain.

[@johnnyjohn-johnson7738]

I wonder if the South would be better off in the event of a nuclear war? After all I doubt the Russians or Chinese would focus their arsenal on a region perceived to be occupied primarily by country bumpkins. There's a show called "Jericho" which is about a small town that largely avoided the fate that the rest of atomic bombed America went through because the rural Midwest didn't get as much attention.

[@name001]

@johnnyjohn-johnson7738 the south is so big and varied that even if major cities in that region were destroyed, there's plenty of fertile land for farming, hunting and probably fishing that those living there either wouldn't notice or adjust relatively easily. Keep in mind, I'm just guessing.

[@ConcealedCarrier]

A few years back I went on a spree of watching end-of-the-world movies. I stopped after this one. It screwed me up for days.

[@mapesdhs597]

They did end up getting a bit cheesy though, with movies like Armagedon and 2012. However, have you seen the 8 minute clip on YT from the Russian asteroid movie, "Mira"? It's actually pretty decent, and I'm not even normally that keen on run-with or found-footage style movies, but it does have a certain something that Hollywood has lost.

[@applecorp]

I chose to watch this when it first aired on TV, when I was 14. My fascination with hammer horror didn't prepare me for the true horror of Threads, nightmare fuel indeed. A disturbing but brilliantly crafted depiction of nuclear war which still fascinates me to this day, but I don't think I'd want to watch it again.

[@frightranker]

My European Nightmare is one in a similar headspace to Threads, just way more obscure and will scar you forever.

[@C_A_W]

An absolute masterclass in filmmaking.. terrifying..!!!

[@Kungfugrip]

One of the finest films ever made. Did exactly what it meant to do; Jar you to your core and pray you never have to experience Nuclear war.

[@chasehedges6775]

Sooooo true.

[@Zavonofcats]

I'm an American and one of my favorite movies to watch every Halloween is dog soldiers. Absolute British perfection.

[@johnnyjohn-johnson7738]

Fun Fact: Cooper from Dog Soldiers is played by the same guy who voiced Soap in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and 3 (the original ones).

[@KilgoreTrout122]

I remember watching “The Day After” and being so depressed I took off from school. This review alone is making me similarly anxious. Also, I really enjoy the “Extra Shots” videos. The drinker clearly enjoys his picks for these and he usually pulls out pretty obscure stuff.

[@gulbones5687]

If The Day After made you that depressed, genuinely for your mental health I wouldn’t watch this

[@KilgoreTrout122]

@@gulbones5687 Too late. I watched it last night. What a horrible, horrible idea.

[@brokenquillYT]

This film made me see nuclear war in a new light. How the ramifications of it could affect generations to come permanently. And this is what makes it so chilling. There would be no coming back from this.

[@Rod_Knee]

We were shown "QED: A guide to Armageddon", and then "Threads" at School in the 80's. I had nightmares about nuclear war for weeks after that.

[@casinodelonge]

I still do.

[@Karter_Blackpaw]

I saw threads about half a year ago. It was horrifyingly good. My grandmother survived the nuking in WW2. Can only imagine what it would have been like back then for her.