The TV Movie That Destroyed Lawrence, Kansas and May Have Saved The World

[@gretchenhill7366]

On Nov 20, 1983, I was almost 30 and lived in a Kansas City suburb just east of Lawrence, and I watched "The Day After" from beginning to end the night it aired. It scared me to death. I knew it was a realistic portrayal and I was still haunted by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Later when I taught college students I would sometimes assign the film as an extra credit option, hoping to spread a little awareness about the seriousness of war and conflicts.

[@karlhungusjr1]

I was 8 and I watched the whole thing from beginning to end the night it aired. it would have been burned into my brain no matter where in the country I had lived, but being in the KC area and hearing all the familiar names of cities and towns around me, just made it burn in even hotter.

[@thetvbaby83]

I grew up in Detroit, now i live just outside the city. My father was a MP at a launch site, he said don't worry about it. You won't feel a thing 😂

[@vulcan2882]

I watched this movie with my grandpa back in 1998 when I was 5 years old. I asked him if that was a true story, he took my hand and said I hope to god it never will be. I asked him if those people in the movie felt any pain when they died, he turned to me and said with a tear in his eye if they were lucky they didn't feel anything not even for a split second. Now 25 years later I still haven't watched it again, it scared my grandpa and now I understand why.

[@water2wine1]

To my recollection the person that actually delivered the line "Is there anyone out there" was a guy named Chris Johnson who worked in the KU theatre department.

[@dawnkindnesscountsmost5991]

_The Day After_ aired about 4 months before I turned 17, in my junior year of high school. A lot of us already had strong fears about the possibility of nuclear war, destruction of most of the planet, what happens if there are survivors- then this aired, and scared the bejeezus out of us! Of course, many of us are still here 40 years later, at least 3 generations have come along since, and it seems like we might continue to continue as a species. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, though.

[@PaulaDautremont]

I still remember an event that occurred during the movie at a drive in theatre in KS. Just as the climax of the movie was to occur, a storm system knocked out the power to the area and a small tornado trashed the drive in. Many of the customers actually believed that the movie was coming true.

[@suzannchurchwell4286]

Watched this when it came out. I was a married mom of three. It was a movie that felt more real than all the "disaster" movies since. 😢

[@colinwilliams3619]

I was 21 here in London when the film was first shown and like the British film Threads, stopped me sleeping for a few nights. These days I watch the first half of the film as entertainment, enjoying the acting of Lithgow, Cullen, Robards but the scene where Dahlberg has to carry his wife down to the shelter is still so powerful.

[@hrdknox2000]

I was also just five-years old when I saw this. It's interesting to see another man my my age, who had the same experience and to hear his take! This movie helped shape the course of many of my future goals and decisions! Nuclear war survival is still my personal and family goals after having seen this!

[@kansascity1967]

It really was a very important film at the time, to make the American population aware of the threat of nuclear war. It profoundly shook American public opinion. And it could have been filmed in any American city, like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, but they chose Kansas City, Missouri, because at the time there were hundreds of ICBM silos pointed at the extinct Soviet Union.To this day, 40 years after the film was first shown on ABC TV, it is an audience record.

[@jannisares]

Threads is a British movie about nuclear war. It's much more realistic than The Day After. Don't watch if you're squeamish.

[@amandocantu]

Good to know there are others who know of Threads. It can be found in here and NEEDS to be viewed.

[@karlhungusjr1]

threads is not more "realistic" than The Day After. It's a good movie for sure, but not "better" or "more realistic".

[@marir838]

ABSOLUTELY....graphically and realistically horrifying. If u think u want to survive...you dont

[@bjdon99]

If you read the ‘Nuclear War’ book that Anne Jacobsen that was published this past year, you’d see the real thing will actually be much, much worse

[@BillBraz-b9o]

The sequel was called Waco we ain't coming out. The USA and the Russian leaders hiding from the survivors.😂

[@OrdinaryDude]

The power of propaganda

[@lisab9541]

In what way propaganda?

[@OrdinaryDude]

@@lisab9541 prop·a·gan·da /ˌpräpəˈɡandə/ noun 1. information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

[@whistlingsage9817]

@@lisab9541 The democrats at the time wanted unilateral nuclear disarmament, meaning they wanted the U.S. to destroy their nuclear weapons arsenal even if the Soviet Union didn't destroy theirs. They tried to convince the American people that nuclear disarmament was the only way to prevent a nuclear war, death, and destruction. This movie was made to hype up the fear of nuclear war. They ran ads for weeks in advance telling parents that they needed to make their kids watch this movie; that it was a matter of life and death*. The parents were mostly unmoved by the movie, but it shook up a lot of the kids who were forced to watch it. It absolutely was propaganda aimed at turning American citizens into supporters of unilateral disarmament. President Reagan ignored Hollywood and the democrats pleas to disarm, and the Soviet Union started its final collapse seven years later, when the Berlin Wall was brought down. Unilateral disarmament wasn't necessary to end the crisis. *The cheap advertising trick of convincing people that their life depended on tuning in to a TV show was parodied in 1988 by Bill Murray in the movie, "Scrooged".

[@karlhungusjr1]

@@whistlingsage9817 lol! none of that is true in the slightest.

[@whistlingsage9817]

@@karlhungusjr1 You might be able to gaslight other people, but I lived through those times. You are the one who is lying, and it is a lazy attempt, at that. "LOL".