[EAS] "1984": A Realistic Nuclear Attack Scenario (Reuploaded With Commercials & News Segments)

Set in the Cold War era, 1984 plays out the brief, yet terrifying tale of what might have happened had the Emergency Broadcast System been used for its intended purpose: to alert the public about an impending nuclear conflict.
The original copy of this video, to my knowledge at least, has been lost to the records of history save the integral EBS recording segments. The video, originally published by Jakob Hill, was taken down due to copyright claims over an included 99 Luftballon advertisement used to create the video's atmosphere. Recently, Jakob Hill said that if anyone had a copy of the original recording they were free to upload it, so, this is my best attempt to recreate that video.
Although I'm aware of the fact that the unedited version of this has been rereleased on another channel, as I listed the link to it below, part of the charm of the original video for me was the commercial breaks and horrendous advertisements therein. So, I managed to recreate the original video as best I could, with commercials, news segments, and sound effects, while still making it original enough to not be a blatant reupload/copy. Either way, all credit for the original concept and EBS segments should, and still does, go to the original uploader Jakob Hill whose' channel is linked below.
As a forewarning, If Jakob Hill manages to republish his video, out of respect, this version be taken down from KZbin so as to not take away any attention from his channel. So, if you enjoy this rendition I would highly encourage saving it for yourself
Video Clips used:
Jakob Hill - / @jakobhill
(Highly recommend checking his channel out)
1984 Unedited Video - • [EAS] 1984: A Realisti...
MicroJow: The Day After Commercials - • Video
Countdown To Looking Glass - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdo...
The Day After - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day...

[@baggyspaggy]

The woman’s blocked sinuses are a national emergency

[@TheAutisticKeybladeWielder]

Ok

[@maestroman05]

Peak of humour thats actually incredible

[@paulfranklin4276]

Cindy got the sniffles (those who know know) #bradylife

[@planemod8399]

@@paulfranklin4276 ok

[@mrsuns10]

Get her sunsets fix

[@user-xm4bb9uu2v]

Is it just me or does anyone else appericate the quality of commercials back then. Like they feel authentic and relatable while the TV commercials today feel uncomfortable and un relatable while selling the point too hard and just feel soulless

[@peaceisourprofession3677]

These commercials always seemed more down to earth and, for lack of better words, human than everything produced today. These commercials seem like something people would create whereas the stuff they produce today seems so sterile, artificial, and calculated that it lacks the heart of classic 80 commercials.

[@andre7089]

@@peaceisourprofession3677 I liked the geico scoop aye commercial

[@christopherleubner6633]

They sold the product back then, now it is just psychology of manipulation and selling an illusion of happiness.

[@francoisverkoczy5659]

Yep, same goes for music and for movies....

[@KingThrillgore]

That drinking and driving ad actually sells you on being the change, whereas nowadays ads use the threats of the police to deter it. The former was a call to action and inspires, the latter is a reminder of the punishment and reaffirms my negative feelings about authority, and probably does nothing in reality. How far we've fallen.

[@smuglife64gaming21]

I can't breath- this is a national emergency

[@advaithbarathr.b]

"I can't breathe" EBS: Anyway you wont

[@ChicagoMel23]

Ah Commodore 64. My childhood. “Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Cause the Commodore is keeping up with you…”

[@MrGruffteddybear]

If a nuke is coming in, I’m grabbing a beer and my lawn chair and I’m going to enjoy my last moments. Not even bothering to try and escape. I wouldn’t want to live in the aftermath.

[@benignasiak3465]

Yup I want to be spared the horrors of survival

[@cockula776]

Seconded, a lawn drinking bonanza until I vaporize! We'll all meet up again shortly in the upper atmosphere after we vaporize. Sky Party!! lol

[@tommyhunter1817]

Yeah, why bother. Life after would be MUCH worse than death.

[@nightweebwatcher9287]

Girl: i cant breathe The tv: we interrupt this program

[@OKChudsonWX]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@pauldavis5459]

Interesting use of the movie Countdown to Looking Glass as to what was being shown on the network at the time of the attack.

[@peaceisourprofession3677]

Thanks and good eye! I was originally just going to use more commercials to fill in the gaps, but I felt I had already done enough of that and thought some scenes from Countdown to Looking Glass might work well towards the end of the video. Turns out I was right and had made the right choice.

[@nenblom]

I also like the fact that they played a brief clip from The Day After and talked about it. “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” J. Robert Oppenheimer

[@thecaveman1755]

Well done. This was the absolute first EAS scenario I ever watched. They yanked it off KZbin for some reason and I'm glad to see it's back and redone. Good job. Keep it up.

[@Void_isnthere]

*EBS

[@cockula776]

@@Void_isntherebeat me to that lol

[@damonthaplaya8443]

Neat re-edition of an all-time classic! I especially like the fact that the moment at the 13:19 mark definitely gives off a "death is imminent, repent your sins" feeling by hearing the faint sounds of a ICBM detonation in the background.

[@Perririri]

Nuclear INRI!

[@damonthaplaya8443]

@Brandon Taylor right you are. It is basically a way of saying "gather with your friends/family during these last moments," just like they say in most apocalyptic EAS scenarios.

[@sleepinggiantstudio5965]

Excellent presentation of the subject matter. I was a child of the atomic age remember my parents worry during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In a way, I grew up with the constant fear of the mushroom cloud appearing on the horizon. You painted a really compelling narrative with the escalating EBS broadcasts and the absurdity of the regularly scheduled programming. Very powerful.

[@DeniseNelson-ob9jq]

In October 1962, was in the Littleton (Denver) area in the first grade. My dad worked for Martin-Marrieta, part of the crews that tested Minuteman II missiles. Scary times.

[@zild6426]

Surprised to see Countdown to Looking Glass here. It's one of my favourite TV movies ever! Also glad that Jakob Hill's original scenario was recreated here as it's the first EAS scenario I watched. Thank you.

[@ApocGuy]

The last broadcast is great too. And if you like "EAS" scenarios, try fictionalized BBC report ( or smth like that). It covers more recent events though

[@cockula776]

This is the pre-EAS era, Emergency Broadcast System (EBS)

[@mrjason0290able]

I miss the old version of this video but this one is just as great, Thank you !!

[@RachelKennedy50]

Literally 1984

[@taffingtonboathouse5754]

Literally 1984

[@notbugberry202]

ˈlidərəlē ˈnīnˌtēn ˈādē fôr

[@BellsofNevermore]

Very nice work on this! The bits from _Countdown to Looking Glass_ were perfectly chosen and timed. End music from _The Day After,_ the same!

[@Down_Low_B]

I'm happy I stumbled onto this. Great work dude

[@mskittygemma]

"I can breathe" Switches to EAS.

[@santi2683]

South America's game was like: "you don't have to pay your debts if the countries you own to get vaporized"

[@benski7407]

Thanks for the reupload

[@terrybardy2848]

Very authentic! Good job!

[@mizzle006]

Thanks for reuploading this great scenario. Loved the nod to The Day After (my favorite hate-watch, though I actually do find it pretty scary at times).

[@peaceisourprofession3677]

I have the same sentiment about the movie. Although The Day After has changed my life in many ways, I watch it on and off again several times in a given year, and it is easily one of my favorite movies, I still struggle to, and generally cannot, watch the attack scene even to this day. That being said, I always try to work little nods to it in anything I do with this edit being a prime example.

[@kubbayioka1858]

@@peaceisourprofession3677 The Day After is a great film; there is a reason regular people remember it 40 years on. With that said, The War Game does an even better job of portraying nuclear war with its documentary style and frank appraisal of a nuclear exchange; per Wikipedia, the film was not aired on BBC out of fear it would drive people to kill themselves, and this was before scientists theorized the probability of nuclear winter in the event of a nuclear exchange. Still, the king of all films in the nuclear genre is Threads. Threads is the most horrifying film I've ever seen, with its terrifying and grotesque imagery, depictions of suffering in the face of societal\cultural collapse, and unforgiving analysis of the effects of a full-scale war between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. I watched it alone the first time I ever saw it, and you'd better believe I finished my bottle of bourbon I was saving for graduation by the end of it. It (along with fervent study of several subjects the film dealt with) changed the way I saw war, postmodern culture, sabre rattling, and geopolitics.

[@KingThrillgore]

The Day After and Threads are both films I watch when I need to get into a really somber mood. Both are pretty bleak and unflinching.

[@mrsuns10]

@@kubbayioka1858 Threads is a true horror film

[@mrlodwick]

Bro try and find the UK movie called Threads, this is the best ww3 nuclear attack film ever made.

[@ellenbryn]

GenXer feeling that familiar old lump in my stomach. I saw the live broadcast of The Day After when I was 11, and boy did it make an impression, even knowing it was downplaying the severity of a real exchange. I'll never forget a classmate's dad who worked at Pentagon visiting our social studies class, writing Mutually Assured Destruction on the blackboard with no self-awareness of those three letters: MAD. I kept asking him in different ways, trying to pry an answer that made sense from this grownup we were supposed to trust, who spoke for those who had the power of life and death over us: if we already have enough nukes to destroy the world, each other, and ruin all life on the planet, why do we need to keep building more? And he kept telling us we had to build more, because as long as we had more, Russia would be afraid to attack. M.A.D. MAD. Someone underlined it after he left, and I can't even remember if it was me. Two years later, in 8th grade, we read 1984 in the real 1984 for English class. GenXers... some of us still have nightmares of nuclear war. We look at Ukraine and we see you all. Millennials fearing climate change and the shortsightedness of those in power, we see you all. They forget we exist. They always have. We're tired, and we ache, and this isn't the world we wanted to give you, but we're still trying to fight the madness. And you know the worst part? It turns out some of the money I use now to donate to causes like homeless shelters, environmental activism, renewables, and all that other good stuff... earned by my rocket scientist dad.... his company wasn't just building the commercial rockets that put weather and telecommunications satellites and NASA probes and the space shuttles into space. I should've known: NASA's budget was never enough to contract out and make commercial aerospace profitable, and even satellite TV couldn't offset the cost. What did? That company also built rockets to carry nukes stored in missile silos, the very ones giving me nightmares. I didn't find out until he became one of the nuclear inspectors at the end of the Cold War … thank you, Gorbachev …sent over to Russia to see they upheld their part of the treaty in dismantling some of their nukes, as we dismantled some of ours. We didn't have money for schools, infrastructure, and so much else because military spending, especially the budget to build more nukes, always took the lion's share without question. Same thing in Russia … that plus Chernobyl led to the USSR's collapse. And yet what has killed almost as many americans in the past 3 years as every war combined since the Revolutionary war? a fucking virus. Priorities. But we MUST pour billions of dollars into our military we could otherwise spend on science, on schools, on healthcare, on natural disaster preparedness and recovery, on infrastructure, on so much else everyday Americans could benefit from instead. We HAVE to have a bigger military than anyone else, right? That's the best use of taxpayer dollars, far and away. it stands to reason! M.A.D. MAD. Mutually assured Dumbfuckery hasn't changed much in the 40 years since.

[@freakwilliams]

Real Talk!

[@KingThrillgore]

As someone once joked: "One day, Russia is gonna find out why we can't afford welfare or healthcare" and it's equally chilling, humorous, and truthful.

[@Sosa10Guns]

You should turn this into a poem. Real shit. The way you wrote this is very impactful

[@jacksonvilletaxman1]

As a high school senior about to graduate in May of 1984, I would have been pissed that my college days would not arrive

[@chrishenniker5944]

Evacuation would be impossible, as you’ll only have four minutes warning of an attack.

[@KingThrillgore]

Jakob Hill's video occured over two days, it was not instantaneous.

[@maximum_axiom]

If people are in major cities, they're most likely dead. Might as well make a run for it if possible.

[@WednesdayAddamsMW]

The four-minute warning also applied to the UK. Here in the US, we'd have at least 15 minutes' warning.

[@bwc1976]

Dang I miss Certs. And I was really disappointed the EAS didn't get used on 9/11, I thought for sure that was the perfect opportunity to finally use it for real.

[@michaellovely6601]

The reason why the Emergency Alert System wasn't activated during the attacks of September 11, 2001 is because the first plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 AM Eastern time; this is when the three major national morning news programs were still on the air: "Good Morning America" on ABC, the "Today" show on NBC, and "The Early Show" on CBS.

[@mikegallant811]

​@@michaellovely6601so in other words Michael, the EAS got scooped by the Networks.

[@michaellovely6601]

@@mikegallant811 Essentially.

[@tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772]

If I heard for real that "several hundred nuclear missiles are headed toward America", I would probably have a heart attack and that would be it. Better way to go than to face the hell a nuclear attack would bring.

[@middleburgprepper2342]

Well done. I enjoy these scenarios

[@roygoodhand1301]

The fact that this is set in May 1984 would keep an ad for a movie shown in October (not November as the ad stated, lol) 1983 from showing up. On the other hand, you have this taking place while "Countdown to Looking Glass" is airing, which is hilariously ironic! All we need is the Q*Bert ad and the video for "99 Red Balloons" from the original version and this would be truly awesome!

[@jaypegman]

I swear there was a Ford Thunderbird advertisement used in this scenario.

[@supershaw3651]

@SaharanStrawberry Warner Music Group is the most thunderheaded piece of cr-p I have ever freaking heard of in my entire dang life.

[@dominicsouthern7672]

After the first warning they have us an ad about nuclear attacks, bruh.

[@voidslayerOS18]

so happy this was reuploaded

[@ctech9856]

I love the commodore ad in the beginning lmao

[@bjbeardse]

Robo voices are way too good for 1984, in fact very few were installed. IIRC LA, NYC, Chicago, Miami, and Seattle were the only one to have them in 1984, and that was in the last quarter. The voices would have been human in the DC BWI area. Also there was an EBS title card. The digital EAM message where the attack warning didn't exist back then.

[@KingThrillgore]

This video was made in a time before we had great AI voiceovers. The EAS Mock community is only now getting voice actors. It's a product of its time and its acceptable enough. DECtalk was on the market but wasn't in deployment anywhere for NOAA or EBS until 1989.

[@MacTechG4]

I grew up with these commercials back in the ‘80s/‘90s, backin the days (‘70s to ‘90s) commercials had a different *feel*, happy, optimistic, upbeat, catchy, and funny (with a few obvious exceptions). Commercials now are …darker, more cynical, more clinical, the sense of fun is gone. The changeover (in my view) was 9/11/2001, the days after the attack, the overall feel of the American experience became darker, more cynical, with an undertone of stress and anger (for obvious reasons)

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

You guys in the EAS community inspire me, I am going to do one, but a comedy version.

[@N8V_Juice]

I wasn't expecting that creepy section of "How Firm a Foundation". Great scenario!

[@stephenprior-bi5fw]

i love how the woman go from " I cant Breath" to E B S

[@TILR]

always happy to see media preserved :D

[@MelodyStark]

Holy shit... well done

[@flamegaming1846]

I’m still feeling chills even I live in Australia

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

I liked how the guy doing the special about a nuclear war keeps getting interrupted by the eas alarm.

[@KingThrillgore]

My one regret is that both Jakob and Peace didnt use the Big Bill Hell's ad in this but thats from 1990

[@fayellaf]

countdown to looking glass is one of my favourite films.

[@Zoomer30]

I had a Commodore 64 from 1983 until it died in 1992. Great computer.

[@Eric_Hutton.1980]

Countdown to Looking Glass was a decent movie. Also like the use of the music from the opening of The Day After.

[@rem145]

It’s looking more and more likely that this is only like 40 years off. All you need is a leader of a nuclear power that doesn’t care about life itself and I’m afraid this is what we may have now

[@robkrasinski6217]

You mean like Putin? He does not care about human life. Look at what he is doing to Ukraine. He doesn’t care if he hits innocent civilians. But, he said that he will only use nukes if his country’s survival is threatened. And we just lost Gorbachev who agreed with the United States to reduce the USSR’s nuclear arsenal around 1990. Now, Putin broke the treaty with the US.

[@johnhopkins6260]

Still remember those tests...

[@CJmummy]

I just saw the camera at the start and I thought “ that is really clever!”

[@curtiseisenbeis2484]

Why do I keep watching these, these are down right creepy!

[@GaylordCohen]

Well ya gonna hafta face it...you're addicted to DOOM(SDAY)! 😆

[@loricagardener4826]

Desensitization

[@santiagoaguilar6241]

Could have been better. But good enough to be companioned with "The Last Broadcast [Complete]" which is the Canadian side reporting the events. What's good is that both of these are on KZbin.

[@MacTechG4]

I grew up in the ‘80s/‘90s, these commercials give me major nostalgia… …dear Og, I’m …*OLD!* :(

[@killerwhaletank]

I do enjoy the addition of scenes from "Countdown to Looking Glass".

[@jacksonvilletaxman1]

5:16 The ads were in my town of Jacksonville. Ernie Mastroianni actually become DUUUUVALLLL's Property Appraiser for many years

[@amateuryoutuber]

I like how at the end of the video is the ending message from the day after, this eas was probably inspired by that movie, right?

[@illinois_model_railroad]

If I remember correctly the one Jakob did had the national anthem playing at the end

[@tommyhunter1817]

All these old commercials. Awesome. Always wondered what happened to Certs. Nuked apparently.

[@noobier.4877]

I love the irony of the ad saying "how do I feel horrible, I CANT BREATHE!" and then it ques to the EAS Alert

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

1:58 That font is a bit too modern. You could've go with some cheesy 80s font to make it even more authentic.

[@dihydrogen]

the person who uploaded this did NOT make the original video. you're looking for Jakob Hill

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

@@dihydrogen Does he have a channel?

[@emrilbennett8704]

Love it!!!

[@firewalker1372]

If it wasn’t for all the news broadcasts right a way. We would of seen this in play on 9/11.

[@Resprune]

The main problem I have with this is that it does not really give instructions directly, like an actual emergency alert would. I notice it goes like "this message is transmitted by [...]" etc. An alert would normally just say "This is not a drill. Seek shelter immediately", time is essential. Other than that, I will admit it's not bad!

[@nenblom]

The 80s were a very dangerous time during the Cold War. However, the 80s were, personally, my favorite decade. I’m a child of the 80s.

[@rocistone6570]

"News" Segments of this are from "Countdown to Looking Glass" which aired on HBO in October 1984. Let's give credit where it is due. "Countdown to Looking Glass" was the only one of these "Doomsday" films that ever gave me genuine chills. I have watched it once and a while since and it still chilling to me.

[@jaelzion]

I take it you've never seen "Threads"? It's worth a watch.

[@lincolnloudtheacesavvyboy2005]

I ❤ The *80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s, & 2020’s* Commercials On TV & Radio!

[@johnmonty1976]

Triangular mustache on the first news guy is on 80s point.

[@tomp8094]

During this time I was in my initial assignment as a newly commissioned USAF Officer. I was an Instructor Minuteman II ICBM nuclear certified Instructor Crew Commander assigned to the 341st Strategic Missile Wing, Malmstrom AFB MT. During this time in the Cold War , we constantly practiced, exercised, were evaluated on our readiness to fight a nuclear with the Soviet Union.

[@raymondmartin6737]

It's like sending your sinuses to Arizona!

[@Ry-dy8xr]

Anyone who enjoyed this should really give Countdown the Looking Glass (the movie used as source matierial) a watch, its here on KZbin!

[@hornet6969]

I always thought, "Countdown to Looking Glass" was the best until I watched "Threads"

[@RealRailJunkie]

Fun fact:The Emergency Broadcast wasn’t engaged during the September 11th attacks because the news coverage was so intense.

[@stevengarcia4795]

I dunno about yall but i literally thought this video was about a scenario based off the book 1984

[@stratojet94]

Im writing a novel based on this timeline if anyone is interested in reading it

[@peaceisourprofession3677]

I’m always interested in reading stories having to do with nuclear war.

[@stratojet94]

@@peaceisourprofession3677 email me

[@peaceisourprofession3677]

@@stratojet94 couldn't figure out howso here is an email address you can use to contact me: [e-mail]

[@codygist308]

@@peaceisourprofession3677 I love them as well.

[@johnmonty1976]

My mom had one of the cameras. I opened the door and exposed the film to light. ha ha .

[@adilhossain8198]

1:45 “I feel miserable” EAS: Dats tuff

[@lordmarega]

Why split these states when they can be only one?

[@Perririri]

Balkanise America!!!!!

[@MrEriccloy]

Why are there computerized voices? Would not have happened in 1984.

[@KingThrillgore]

The first DECTalk shipped in 1984. So it's plausible, but the voices were never this good.

[@CheapLux]

At 12:00 it told us a evacuation protocol for a freaking tornado 😂😂🤣

[@pauljankowski5041]

Mixed in scenes from Countdown to looking glass

[@user-lk7oy8hp2u]

Well, it's 1984, and i'm watching either "Cheers" or "The Fall Guy" on Television. Then i am soon vaporized. Stimulating thought!

[@notjebbutstillakerbal]

Big brother is watching

[@craigpalmer9196]

nuclear war survival skills a very good book

[@craigpalmer9196]

no one will come to help you

[@toddkaperak4605]

Well here we go its jan 20 th 2022, and we in this again. Putin gave USA 48 hour warning, at 19 th at like 7 pm. He asked us to stop sending weapons to Ukraine. We moving to this chess game again. Right close to cuban missile crisis all over again.

[@GaylordCohen]

"A strange game. The only winning move is....not to play."

[@williamhartline2005]

Remind me of the movie miracle mile 1990

[@captebbtide]

Several hundred middles, huh? Pretty much game over.

[@titanytofficial_]

11:51 it sounds like a Tornado Warning not a EAN

[@daredpandi6937]

Me who lives in Maryland: “WELP. HAHAHAHA.”

[@daredpandi6937]

@A A that’s to much information: )

[@daredpandi6937]

@A A I mean you could also murder me, perhaps? :>

[@KonnerSmith-oc5el]

Taco baco Tinkle Outside of the binkle

[@worm343]

I miss Certs

[@marketgardennn]

this is like george orwell’s book uhh 1984

[@polishstick0609]

1:51 this is well timed somehow

[@suehsifys_alternative]

I cant bre- eas siren

[@TroyHuber-ct3ih]

Too nad it all has to end some day

[@Circusfatlady1976]

Lol my parents had a Minolta Talker camera.

[@SBPepperminion]

This was related to 1984, ghostbusters?

[@SBPepperminion]

What's next, a Ghostbusters EBS Scenario?

[@timothy4545]

I know this is only a scenario, but, in reality people will not be calm, maybe this is not a good thing to say, but I am being honest.

[@MichaelSchneider450]

01:50: This is how the government takes care of us: The poor Lady can't breath and all of a sudden its a national security emergency! Funny cut by the producers!!!

[@wyattmann8157]

Bring back Hardcastle and McCormick!

[@hankdechabert4778]

13:43 Wario:OH MY GOD! WAAAAAAAAAAA!

[@poopyman12320]

this aged well

[@georgefeser6483]

Goddamnit I wish it wasn't Baltimore I live like... 40 minutes to an hour away from there?