THREADS (1984) all of the Bunker scenes

Threads (1984) all of the Bunker scenes
The Zone referred to was the Regional Government Bunker at Shipton-by-Beningbrough en.wikipedia.o..., the County Council Bunker they could not contact was the basement of Barnsley Town Hall

[@patrickcrowling-soloacoust9734]

It struck me the other day that while they were making decisions not to “waste” food and resources on people, the same decision was being made somewhere about them.

[@jonathanleblanc2140]

That's an excellent observation.

[@rosePetrichor]

yep. I think that's also part of the head councillor's realisation that his wife and family are dead. That they've casually fallen into the language of discussing deaths as statistics, because the alternative is to go mad with grief and let what little of civilisation remains fall completely to shreds. compassion died in the nuclear fire because it had to.

[@mareksicinski3726]

@@rosePetrichor well ‘civilisation’ is a concept worthy for uscussion

[@Jimothy-723]

@@mareksicinski3726 civilization is literaly just a sufficiently developed society.

[@WiseOwl_1408]

@@Jimothy-723 still vague

[@thegrandpotato6014]

I like how the film doesn’t portray them as villains. There just ordinary people trying to do their best to fight in a losing battle.

[@Neddyfram]

The film portrays them all as suffering and having awful ways to cope.

[@mauzki-]

I mean, this bunker is not to be confused with the other bunker you breifly see these are the council we never see inside the military bunker

[@besnikzogaj9887]

@@mauzki- it is!

[@mauzki-]

@Sheriff Duane Dwayne not sure if they'd be in the tube tunnels, they'd really struggle in a full on blast, but we do see brefily the bourgie or where they leave and thats the the tear gas scene, the one being guarded.

[@mauzki-]

@Sheriff Duane Dwayne ah, yeah they probs do I thought you meant they actully where using the tunnels as shelters

[@jamiestainer9389]

"I'm using traffic wardens already." Chillingly clever foreshadowing to the traffic wardens who step into the role of soldiers after the bomb goes off.

[@georgesears2916]

Well look at Covid. A minute fraction of the potential lethality of a Nuclear war but you saw similar things with the deployment of local government staff to deal with similar issues. It's just the procedure for dealing with an emergency situation in the UK.

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

The whole script has these really chilling and biting foreshadowing moments that I absolutely love. I want to do a compilation video of them.

[@thewomble1509]

PSU's, Police Support Units. Honestly, an in depth look at the plans Britain had for a nuclear attack is absolutely terrifying. Pathetic doesn't do it justice.

[@kieranfo3739]

He also says "Shoot the buggers I don't care" which also foreshadows the aftermath where any crime or stealing at all will get you executed, and that seems to only get worse as time goes by with Ruth's daughter walking past bodies that were left hanging as an example.

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

@@kieranfo3739 “We’ve run out of bullets, but thank god those mutant kids pulled those scarves and jumpers apart for the threads to make these hanging ropes.” 🥲

[@petergreen2552]

No one could remotely cope with trying to organise anything in a situation like this. Chillingly brilliant drama

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

There's a line said by an actor: "the bloody fourth wall's come down"

[@amandatait2628]

I think that's the thing that terrifies me most about this film. Society doesn't completely collapse and it doesn't turn into an every man for himself Mad Max situation. People mostly still cooperate and the government still operates at reduced capacity. Nearly everyone is doing their best and has generally good intentions. But it doesn't matter: the scale of destruction is so vast and the layers of compounding problems so severe and overwhelming that neither individuals nor society can absorb the blow. The lucky ones are dead; everything and everyone else is irreparably broken.

[@melgrant7404]

@@amandatait2628 you describe the essence of a nuclear war. No hope left.

[@garyturner5739]

That's over all message of the tv drama.

[@stephanielaurenbounds4958]

More like a SHITuation!!

[@billywiththebulgingbaloonb5105]

Anybody who thinks that nuclear holocaust would be like Mad Max and that you would be some cool survivor action hero, should be forced to see this film.

[@adammclaughlin845]

Max was immune to radioactive fallout due to the protection of his magnificent hair.

[@TonyPraxton]

Sad Max

[@raymondyee2008]

I doubt if they can even find the oil especially in Sheffield; remember in this scenario all the roads were destroyed so there’s no hope to use vehicles.

[@metrohunter-qy4fz]

The first two mad max’s don’t even take place in a nuclear wasteland the breakdown of society happens because of a lack of resources such as fuel

[@TheFirehands150]

​@@metrohunter-qy4fz I think he's mixing up Madmax and Fist of the North Star 😅

[@rosePetrichor]

I think what's also really effective here is, aside from Clive and his wife there really isn't any 'story' to the bunker at all. There is no arc where they argue with each other and then learn to get along, in fact there's barely any focus on the individual characters down there at all. We don't see any impact of their orders being carried out, or even know whether anyone is still listening to them. You just see everyone getting more run down, more stressed, more hopeless, more despondent, until finally they realise that rescue might not even be coming, ever. There's no hope spot, no valiant attempt to plan an escape. They just sit there impotently shouting at each other until they all die horribly. That's it. The starkness of it really drives home how ineffective civilian authority would be in such a situation. What were they supposed to do? They had no training, no resources, and no way to exercise authority. Who is going to listen to the words of a councillor sat in a bunker miles away when the world has ended?

[@anthonychilders9549]

There are points where it appears as though there is at least some outside communications with a nearby police or fire station going on. Considering the state of the roadways, not to mention the fact that everything's gone belly up, means that there IS no way to get help to them.

[@chiefchepa187]

Kind of reminds me of when you fail the game on 60 Seconds

[@jediknight1294]

They had plans and training but they didn't have the communications equipment to cope because NOBODY did. At least based on what we knew at the time. What we know now is EMP is massively overblown as a threat and the radio gear would work.

[@ianmangham4570]

So true just shows you its never thought out ,the idiocracy of thermonuclear warfare is insanity personified.

[@adammclaughlin845]

Some very interesting points brought up. Threads makes it clear that some form of authority DOES survive and begins reconstruction work within days, but this authority disappears from the film without explanation. Now this is probably because the survivors migrate away from Sheffield to escape this authority. But it never establishes what is going on ten years later, why there appears to be no central authority, no real organisation. Maybe it is trying to say that those generations are now dead and dying, and the new, younger generations simply don't know how to run a society, nor do they have the resources to police or control it.

[@robbiethepict2783]

I worked as an electrician for the Aberdeen city council Woodhill House HQ. This was during the cold war mid 1980's. The nuclear bunker under the HQ was just like this, no computers just lots of filing cabinets, maps and phones to local Royal Observer Corp bunkers. Reading the files was basically to establish contact with the hospital and police HQ the city prison and police stations that had any prisoners still alive were to be shot dead. The people who followed the orders were councillor's.

[@andrewdavidson665]

Woodhill House represent! I worked there briefly in IT for GRC in the mid 90s. I'd heard there was a bunker but never saw anything about it so wasn't sure at the time if it was true or not.

[@anonymoosenoname678]

christ, can you imagine being executed for pissing in the street after a night out

[@AberdeenECC1983]

Fuck sake, lifted for chuckin a pie at the ref at Pittodrie at 4 o clock. Nuked & survived at 6.. Shot dead against a wall on the remains of Queen Street in the morning by some local bobby.

[@skullsaintdead]

@@AberdeenECC1983 Yeah but most jails are filled with thieves, usually drug/alco addicts, which aren't (and to put it bluntly, shouldn't be) the priority in a post-fallout situation and who present a high risk for not only re-offending but doing so with much more violent means, as they're prob withdrawing & even more desperate than the never-offended-before, becoming-hungrier-by-the-hour civilians.

[@5ynthesizerpatel]

There's an abandoned ROC bunker up near me in a relatively remote location in Dorset - a few years ago the padlocks on the hatches had rusted through so a few locals got ropes and ladders and dropped in for a look around. It was quite chilling - every generation has that existential threat - for my parents it was the Nazis - for mine it was the threat of nuclear oblivion over a dick waving contest about who's economic model was best - for my children it's cimate change, that one might turn out to be the last

[@DanMcCudden]

9:49 The cry of a man who knows that lamb chops, pints of beer and treacle tarts don't exist anymore. Now it's stale buns and just enough Bovril to moisten the inside of a soup bowl.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

Well, lamb chops still kind of exist in the post-nuclear world as we see later, you just have to butcher the meat yourself, you can't cook it and you'll probably get radiation poisoning, plus you don't know how long it's been dead for

[@ferolcat2009]

@@satireisnotdead5804 With all that radiation, the chops will cook themselves.. :-/

[@satireisnotdead5804]

@@ferolcat2009 Aye, grim by all accounts, and to paraphrase Bob in the film, they'd have no choice unless they wanted to starve to death

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

Exactly

[@mjstefansson7466]

Plenty of 'Prawn Cocktail' crisps though

[@peacefrogx5143]

Was made to watch this in English aged 14. I lived in Sheffield. I'm 45 now and it never left me.

[@dezpatterson8441]

R.E teacher got us to watch it think I was 14. Today still don't know what this got do with R.E 😏

[@TheA8lee]

Try watching it in French; much worse!

[@danielthompson4463]

I’m from Doncaster. We get bombed to oblivion in the first half hour or so and then forgotten about.

[@divineassassin7217]

Same, nearly 40yrs on it still chills me

[@sophiebaby4102]

36 from Leeds & we was made to watch this in the main hall when I was in primary school! Insane! I wouldn’t dare let my child see this but I guess the 80’s & 90’s were different times 😅

[@lukeycc67]

The doctor being one of the calmest in there then reminiscing about the days of a nice treacle tart and a couple of pints now being gone before breaking and cursing the powers that be is fantastic development.

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

You can curse the powers that be, but Putin’s gangster Russia has satisfied me that we were right to risk it all and stand up to them. Who’d want to live in a society ruled by those swine? Also, we were successful: we never went past the brink. Thanks to all the service personnel who patrolled, then and now.

[@stu3306]

When Clive realises his wife is dead is probably the most heartbreaking scene in the entire film and that’s saying something

[@apl175]

The scene I remember the most is Clive's wife - Marjorie, I think her name was, packing his things for the bunker - in a very deliberate, caring way.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

It's a great example of show don't tell

[@charly6066]

if took me like 3 seperate viewings to realise thats what it was implying because im braindead. it makes the fact that his hand is on her portrait when theyre all dead that mich worse

[@TheDaverobinson]

Still. She wasn’t a looker was she. And now he’s freeeeee and single.

[@charly6066]

@@TheDaverobinson good thing theres plenty of mutated widows about

[@TheFingerWizard2006]

The part when the Attack Warning went off gave me chills

[@AudieHolland]

And then they calmly plot impact points on the map and calculate the number of people who just died.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

Imagine being so unprepared that you don't know whether or not the attack warning is real

[@thomasdonald3291]

It was so quick but that's exactly how it would be.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

@@thomasdonald3291 Aye 'tis true, I've always said that if I thought things were looking a bit unhealthy I'd either go to London or camp out at the nearest military base, but the problem is I wouldn't know the exact moment when everything was going to go up, so I might end up completely missing my window and have to live out the nightmare of the immediate aftermath

[@bloopy6166]

I feel like They never actually planned on anything happening. It caught them off guard because they assumed that the situation would de-escalate

[@hotelmario510]

The hopelessness of the medical officer screaming "BASTARDS" is a scene that always sticks with me. Suicidally despondent but unable to kill yourself is maybe the worst place to be in.

[@alasdairmacleod7769]

Which is why :The Day After' is a Disney movie compared to this

[@Glenn1967ful]

Join the bloody boy scouts! You can see how desperate the people are in the bunker as they know they might not be rescued and would have no homes and families to return to.

[@itsmebilly725]

The scariest thing about Threads is that unlike the majority of the horror films you’ve probably seen, this could actually happen. Any wrong move taken by any form of the worlds governments could result in a Nuclear War. Humanity as we know it would be completely destroyed, the economy would collapse, no one would have a home, money would become virtually useless and packaged food would become almost nonexistent. As they say in the film: “You cannot win a Nuclear War.”

[@stemple11100]

It would be a world where survival of the fittest truly became the only way of life

[@rewdwarf123]

It depends on how many missiles are fired. If the USA and Russia just agreed to launch half a dozen each there would be a chance. But if they launch hundreds, it's all over.

[@ryanhunter226]

@@stemple11100 Thats not what survival of the fittest means though. It means how well an organism can successfully reproduce. In Threads, high rates of Infertility, genetic and neurolgical disorders are everywhere. Unless you mean survival of the strongest. To be honest I doubt there would be much strength for anyone left in the aftermath.

[@SuperTed19021]

@@rewdwarf123 If that happens (you second nuke missile scenario like what happened here), you *really* have had it. No more point of living.

[@SuperTed19021]

*Please show this film to all the world leaders now!!!!!*

[@brettsinclair4007]

5:49 when he asks about the radiation and realises his family is dead is really striking. Even more strange for me I live ten miles away from where he points on the map (Baslow, Derbyshire)

[@mnirwin5112]

This is the most terrifying nuclear war movie I've ever seen.

[@fredwest3708]

I can stomach the vilest movies but Threads is certainly one for the books. This took horror to a new level.

[@barrycollins795]

Watch the film come and see it’s miles worse than this

[@english_electric7125]

What makes it so strong I think is the documentary style, following ordinary people who don't really have any idea what to do or what's going on. With a lot of these doomsday type films you seem to get flashy actors and there's always a radiation / survival / whatever expert and they find an unlooted shop with all the supplies they need and a good solid place to bunk down and fight the monsters. Whereas this is realistically the scenario most of us would face - sheer terror, lack of preparedness, what little shelter can be provided by civilian structures. The monsters being disease, malnourishment and other ordinary survivors driven to desperation. The lucky ones died in the initial blast.

[@mjstefansson7466]

Its the most terrifying film I have ever seen. Scared me when I saw it as a child. Scares me now as an adult.

[@alexxxXXXrus]

Wach "letters from a dead man" 1986. Buzz stuff.

[@kurtdelune2635]

The saddest fact about these scenes is that they wanted it to be the Battle of Britain, and it was to be the end of everything we know and love.

[@SuperTed19021]

If only you can tell that/show this to either Boris Johnson or Liz Truss *now!*

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@SuperTed19021 Boris Johnson? Vladolf Putler, you mean.

[@Jimbo8012]

@@RideAcrossTheRiver - Comparing Putin to Adolf Hitler is quite frankly offensive and borderline anti-Semitic. Putin may be an unpleasant authoritarian right winger but he's not a racist eugenicist who deliberately and systematically killed not only 6 million European Jews but erased nearly all records of their very existence. We may abhor Putin's invasion but he banged the nuclear war drum for important reasons. He did not want a repeat of NATO no fly zones like in Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Libya. It was his warning to NATO that if they shoot down Russian jets over Ukraine, it's WWIII and thankfully, NATO has shown restraint. Learn 1 thing about how the world operates and it's this. Nuclear armed countries are a law unto themselves. They always have been and alwasy will be. The US, Russia, the UK and Israel don't give a shit about international law and routinely breach it. They get away with it because they've got nukes. It's that simple.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@Jimbo8012 "Putin may be an unpleasant authoritarian right winger but he's not a racist eugenicist who deliberately and systematically killed not only 6 million European Jews but erased nearly all records of their very existence. " Nah, Putin just carries out executions of pregnant women and even children while he bombs schools, maternity hospitals, and refugee shelters. " He did not want a repeat of NATO no fly zones like in Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Libya" Aaaaand there's your Putin-love showing. Nobody gives a crap what Putin 'wants'. He's a subhuman killer his whole life. And you defend him--even as he points a missile at YOU. ". It was his warning to NATO that if they shoot down Russian jets over Ukraine" Yawn. Nobody cares what insanity Putin vomits. Ukraine is not NATO, so NATO cannot be there. Putin is jerking off. "The US, Russia, the UK and Israel don't give a shit about international law and routinely breach it. They get away with it because they've got nukes" Show us where the USA broke international law--without resorting to imagination. Oh, right, you'll tell us that it was democracy being installed to war-torn countries. People like you make no sense. Prattle.

[@SuperTed19021]

@@RideAcrossTheRiver Oh yes! How silly of me.

[@stevegordon5689]

"HI sorry won't be in I want to die with my family rather than suffocate with co-workers"

[@timphillips9954]

What the heii is a co worker. What happened to workmates?

[@stevegordon5689]

@@timphillips9954 that died along time ago!

[@sgc4271]

and yet better to suffocate with co-workers than survive above ground...

[@adrianh332]

@@timphillips9954 it's now considered politically incorrect

[@timphillips9954]

@@adrianh332 By whom Adrian and what does politically incorrect mean? It's the same meaningless use of English as people who use inappropriate. And ask the question Do you think that was an inappropriate thing to do or say? The answer to this mind numbing question should always be, Yes I wouldn't have done it or said it otherwise!

[@aurelius1964]

I was 19 when this came out and I've never forgotten the experience of seeing it on TV; thirty years later I spent a lot of time working in Sheffield - it always gave me a bit of pause for thought when I walked past the city hall. We need a bit more of this kind of storytelling today with all the casual nuclear sabre rattling going on. Britain is even less prepared now than it was in the 80s!

[@brownbearboxproductions3458]

I would see that black mirror seires being a decent way to do something like that.

[@AdzSONLINE]

As horrible as it sounds there’s absolutely no point in being prepared.

[@aurelius1964]

@@AdzSONLINE True!

[@afitz34]

Another thing that always stayed with me when watching the bunker scenes was how they were expecting to be dug out. No one in there had any concept of what the conditions were like up above. No one would as that level of destruction is incomprehensible to most. As one of them mentioned 'There are NO roads!' In a large city, where is all the rubble going to fall down on from blasted buildings? The roadways beside them. Plus all the cars and other debris already on them, bridges destroyed. Just getting one's bearings when there is no landmarks would be challenge enough. No to mention everything being irradiated.

[@jasontiscione1741]

These scenes are scarier than they were when the movie was filmed in 1984, because of the invention of the reality show since then. The BBC's cheap production values and the lack of background music give these scenes the texture of one. It really does look like someone put the Sheffield City Council in a bunker and filmed their reactions to hydrogen bombs exploding overhead. In fact it looks like a reality show where the producers were as surprised by the bombs as the characters and hurried downstairs with them.

[@cbrboy76]

It was scary because it was so gritty and realistic, no big production values like similar american films. Thats what things would have been like. Bought the dvd a few years ago cos my lad was doing the cold war for his history project in school. Gives you goosebumps when you watch it again. Shame the BBC dont make good stuff like this anymore.

[@geronimo5537]

Ive seen many post apoc movies. Believe me when I say this one is by far the most depressing and honest one I have ever seen. I guess reality is truly the most horrific horror.

[@crazyrabbits]

@@geronimo5537 - It's one of the few apocalyptic films that had a whole suite of scientific advisors working on it. The credits even list a number of them (Carl Sagan was apparently consulted, among others.) The one thing they didn't agree on from a scientific standpoint is whether or not the ozone layer would "regrow" within the film's 13 year timeframe or not.

[@SuperTed19021]

How I *actually* kill for the days when background music in an kind of TV medium, especially the BBC, was at an minimum.

[@KingThrillgore]

There's a lot of day for night, and it's rarely done well. This movie is a rare exception because it's bleak enough to not really care.

[@ericconnor8419]

The scary thing is this was filmed at a time when we had more effective local councils, and farms with vegetable clamps. Now the councils have been gutted and the fields covered in cheap little houses or used for glamping.

[@MJ.71]

I would rather be dead, than live through the aftermath, I'd just stand in the open and let it do what it's got to do. As Einstein once said about Nuclear War "The living will envy the dead"

[@whysosyria1]

if SHTF i'll go outside light a cigar play we'll meet again and wait for the flash.

[@turbo-charged-v8341]

Of have half a bottle of whiskey and a fat spliff , and wait for the fire

[@harrisonkey698]

Einstien also said that if ww3 is fought with nuclear bombs, "ww4 will be fought with sticks and stones"

[@elimgarak3897]

Certain rural parts of the UK with a little fortune in the wind would avoid serious fall out - but honestly your best bet is to find a sail boat and try and head for New Zealand - they would get hit by the nuclear winter but would suffer minimal fall out - i think there are 40 sheep for every person in New Zealand. The population would probably have to make do with mutton stew and bone broth and maybe some hardy root vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner but everyone would survive and probably stay relatively comfortable. These days not so much but back in the 1980's when Apartheid was still in place South Africa would have been very well placed to ride out the storm as well. They had to be fairly self sufficent due to sanctions and had a plant that turned coal into oil products. SADF would have probably been the most competent unscathed military force left on earth.

[@charly6066]

keep a bug out bag that consists entirely of ketamine so the radiation sickness isnt painful

[@idioticreborn]

9:30 you can hear him slowly recall food and drink that would only exist pre-nuke, and slowly reminisce those days before completely losing it.

[@wk1848]

when I first saw this movie and then the poor guy lost it, I needed a tissue.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

I dunno, as we see later in the film lamb chops still exist in a certain capacity, a treacle tart and a few pints of beer are definitely out though

[@sclerismockrey8506]

@@satireisnotdead5804 my wife just heard me loudly laughing and asked what was so funny. Thanks a lot! :)

[@satireisnotdead5804]

@@sclerismockrey8506 Happy to be of service :)

[@Vargon7]

The actor is Phil Rose. He played Friar Tuck in the excellent Robin of Sherwood tv series. He's fond of his grub in that show, too!

[@blakesliberator3197]

Threads _buries_ any nuclear apocalyptic film produced by Hollywood on a much larger budget.

[@thehighllama8101]

When I first saw Threads, when I was 11 years old, I remember thinking how lucky these people were to have a nice, safe place in a bunker. Well, at least until the part where they get buried alive. Now that I think about it, though, you figure they would have had at least one alternate emergency exit for such a scenario.

[@thehighllama8101]

@Butcher Bird Yea, a year or two ago, I saw a documentary on missile silos. They had alternate exits designed into them. Being buried alive was definitely something they considered (at least the military did).

[@JackTheSlayer-ok5eq]

The High Llama yes they would have an emergency exit ,the problem is, the place they are staying at is not an actual bunker, its just a place under a town hall

[@p.m.gallows3199]

Some did, some didn''t. A lot of them weren't (aren't, what's left of them) as grand as people think they were back then, especially military, and the smaller the worse! I've been in ww2 underground plotting rooms that were built better and survived their abandoned state better than some of the abandoned cold war "bunkers" etc lol

[@p.m.gallows3199]

Not including the maintained nuclear bunkers etc lol

[@josephhurdman5588]

They'd just suffocate. Not a nasty death - you'd just feel increasingly tired, then go to sleep. In perpetuity...

[@swordscot]

I remember doing a tour of my local council offices as a school kid in the late sixties or early 70s. There actually was an attack warning machine as seen here . Chilling when I think of it now.

[@AB-kx4ty]

I wonder what infrastructure we have in place now that the threat of nuclear war is the greatest it has been since Cuba?

[@jim4194]

​​@@AB-kx4tywhat are you on about?

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

Mark Felton did a good documentary about it... but basically our defences all got dismantled with the end of the first cold war. No early warning system, no Observer Corps... just the RAF intercepting unwelcome aircraft and the Trident submarine fleet for retaliation.@@AB-kx4ty

[@EuanWhitehead]

​@@jim4194I think they mean imagine what all the early warning systems are like nowadays given that we are closer to nuclear war now than we were in the 80s

[@WG1807]

It's unlikely they suffocated as pointed out in many comments. It would be curious if they were hermetically sealed underground without air. There's water dripping from the ceiling for a start. It's more likely they all died from radiation poisoning, or from starvation. The problem of food supplies is mentioned early.

[@mauzki-]

They showed fumes coming through the vents and the air becomes more and more murky.

[@mauzki-]

plus the food mentioned in context might have been importing, keep in mind the food riots you do see in the film

[@AnonURnot]

@Naylor Broughton would’ve died faster if the others came to work

[@WG1807]

@@mauzki- Yes they could more likely have died from poisoning of the air being supplied. Fumes. Carbon monoxide and various other by-products of the fires raging above.

[@ynotnilknarf39]

they would have had food for months

[@Witnessmoo]

What they don’t cover in this film is the cannibalism that would probably be common

[@maxclifford937]

Basically, I don't want to be too grim but that is one of the main reasons people say the living would envy the dead.

[@howardchambers9679]

Lucky Sharon

[@SuperTed19021]

With this, you may as well. *For real!*

[@soeffingwhat]

Cannibalism would probably come much later, maybe with remnants of the human race, so called "survivors" a number of years later.

[@theorangeoof926]

If they were crazy enough to film a young girl getting raped and giving birth to a mutated, stillborn infant in a dilapidated hospital they should’ve thought of this as a film detailed as this

[@winkinggerbil]

The food situation is scary. The issue was the generator goes out after two weeks and then the food. The food could be rationed to the point that they were saving it while dead. People in the desert rationed water and found with litres because they never realised how close they were. Its so sad.

[@Crusty_Camper]

I once worked in the town council of a large town on the south coast. The leader of the council would have been in charge of this kind of set up. I saw his list of essential equipment. It included a ball of string, pencils, elestic bands... We would have had no chance.

[@leecambell5487]

until today I forgot about this. Anyway I am dead boy under a gate in this film. I am 50 now. It was a great exerience

[@leeosborne3793]

Cool! Not quite as impressive as Traumatised Woman Holding Charred Baby, though.

[@leecambell5487]

@leeosborne3793 she's my hero but the best part has to be pram pushing pissy lady.

[@leeosborne3793]

@@leecambell5487 True. The close-up of the pool of pee gathering on the pavement is a classy touch.

[@adamrobinette6832]

Less than a minute in and you see how their governmental power is pretty much useless. Clive had no authority to make any of these people show up to that bunker and half of them chose not to. He tells the guy to tell them to come immediately, like he still believes he has any authority at all.

[@rosePetrichor]

and how unreasonable it is to expect civilian elected authority with little training take over such monumental tasks. The inherent ridiculousness of the idea of a bunch of councillors who spend most of their days squabbling over planning permission and parking tickets taking over the job of deciding who lives and dies in a post-nuclear wasteland is as horrifying as anything else about the war, but it was what was planned. The booklets Clive is reading from in the film to learn his role were not far off the real ones that existed.

[@SuperTed19021]

In this scenario, the British government failed both their civilians and their public services. You have *no* chance if you are so unprepared for such an attack like shown here.

[@SuperTed19021]

@@rosePetrichor *That is just it!*

[@adamrobinette6832]

@@SuperTed19021 I think the general sentiment of the movie is there is literally no prepping at all for the devastation. It just doesn't matter. For example, it said that the bombs that hit the UK left 2/3 of homes in fire zones. Which suggests that likely 2/3 of emergency vehicles and 2/3 of fuel stores in the whole of the country likely went up too. More than that if you include vehicles that were running at the time of the attack and had their electrical systems fried from the EMP. Along with 2/3 of any stocked food. Blast damage in major cities that would make much of it not traversable by vehicle even if you had one that still functioned. Pretty much all running water. Any surviving crops were likely irradiated. All electricity gone, with no crews to repair if repair is possible. The list just goes on and on. Think about the fact that if there were no bombs, or anything else on the list, and simply only had the irreparable level of devastation to the electrical grid alone, the country would descend into apocalypse and millions would die. The most well prepared government system will come apart ultimately if there is ever a full scale nuclear exchange and most of us will die. It's just that simple.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@SuperTed19021 Yes, tell us how to defend against a hundred fifty 1-Mt bombs and another five hundred 100-kt hits.

[@TheA8lee]

"Go make me a tea, Sharon" "Go shove it. I'm not your bloody wife" "There's no 'I' in 'team', Sharon"

[@tinto278]

🤣🤣🤣

[@devriestown]

Bloody sharon would've been sagged

[@charly6066]

best line in the whole film

[@emjackson2289]

The only thing that surprises me is that there's no suicide

[@averagejoe8358]

No, because unlike the survivors on the surface, they still had hope of being rescued.

[@ellemjay]

I support if anyone was that desperate they could take comfort in knowing death would probably come sooner rather than later

[@SuperTed19021]

There were probably an grand scale of citizens doing so in this scenario. If elected by local government, you still had to do a job.

[@KiwiLimHuttons]

*_Usually, people don't commit suicide when times are hard or during wartimes. People only commit suicide when times are peaceful, good and comfortable._*

[@becky2235]

​@@KiwiLimHuttons how do you know that? I don't think that's true

[@alasdairmacleod7769]

After watching 'Oppenheimer'...... This is the scenario he feared....... nuclear war

[@asheisadora]

Even more chilling is On The Beach (1959). It's more quietly terrifying than movies that show the actual attack, and it's infinitely sad. One of the best final scenes in movie history just shows a church sign that says "There's Still Time Brother".

[@AudieHolland]

Have you seen The Wargame (tv movie 1966)? There's a scene where armed police are delivering mercy shots to horribly burnt victims. And since that movie is in black and white, the producers sneaked in a couple of World War II photographs of burnt civilian corpses from the bombing of Dresden.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

9:41, the laugh of a man who's truly given up hope

[@SuperODST1]

I find this really compelling, more than the regular human suffering, because you so rarely see the high level people(relatively speaking in this case) in nuclear war movies. Seeing them as helpless as the people on the ground is really shocking, and worse still, them KNOWING all the information... they are not hearing rumors they know EXACTLY what is happening. I would love to see an entire movie just about these folks.

[@mreme1591]

Ok, back to cat videos

[@jameslowman1355]

Yes

[@forgoatusbm5674]

Oh, there's a cat in this movie!..

[@mreme1591]

@@forgoatusbm5674 ohhhh no thanks

[@brianl7695]

One must admire how English discipline was portrayed, as the folks in the bunker were calmly plotting shots, hits & kills like a game of Battleship, all while the world around them is being destroyed. But in all seriousness, this was an amazing, powerful film. Pray that this fateful day never arrives.

[@chrisholland7367]

This would have been happening all over the UK in one form or another. Any control over the local population would be for a time be dealt with by these civil servants and business leaders they would have power over life and death. There certainly would have been more elaborate purposes, built underground bunkers for the Royal family and political elite in certain parts of the country . What you've seen here was probably thrown together, obviously in the basement of the city hall large block of offices, which became their tomb.

[@jb76489]

English discipline in the past maybe, everyone knows that’s not how people would behave today

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

​@@jb76489I bet someone from your grandads generation said something similar about the failings of your generation and so on throughout the ages, in times of trouble people step up from the younger generation as well despite your over-generalised misgivings

[@smokyquartz5817]

@@A-small-amount-of-peas You didn't see Covid panic?

[@MorrisseyMuse]

​@@smokyquartz5817what panic? 99% of people in the UK coped

[@TheFingerWizard2006]

Millions of people die• Civil Servants: proceed to calmly plot the range of destruction.

[@sclerismockrey8506]

'A very British apocalypse,' as Martin Amis once wrote about the UK's civil defence program.

[@thewomble1509]

@@sclerismockrey8506 After 1968 British civil defence was basically "your'e buggered".

[@UchronianKing]

One particular scene - not included here - really chilled my bones: when workmen solemnly began removing precious paintings from the art gallery to the safety of some underground vault. All done to the background noise of a riotous crowd, innocently, helplessly, caught up in a terrifying apocalypse. Strange how some seemingly contemplative scenes like that really hit home the increased possibility of such a catastrophic attack. Another hard, home truth is just as terrifying, as that waitress colleague said to a work-stressed Sarah Connor in Terminator: "Look at it this way, in a hundred years who's gonna care?" Jane - Ruth's daughter - certainly won't be thinking too much on what has been, as she's picking her way across brick-strewn rubble, the distant sound of a steam engine in the distance. Each day is a struggle for survival, hunting the occasional rabbit, often daring to steal from farmers who, due to their precious knowledge of cultivating food crops, are now way up in the societal hierarchy and permitted to shoot thieves on sight. If and when society does stabilize, her children, or their children, or even further down the genealogical line, perhaps one descendant might develop an interest in history, particularly investigating the ruins of nearby Sheffield... A scholar of history, but only an academic interest, not actually knowing nor caring about the actual people who lived and died in a nuclear war that, horrific as it was at the time, will eventually become a distant memory. Most of us know about the volcanic destruction of Pompeii - but, honestly, how many of us lament those who died? We didn't know them because so many centuries separate the two civilizations. When we read historical accounts of what happened, hands up those who focus more on the event rather than the casualty list? Only when an archaeologist finds a child's toy from Roman times might they feel some connection, a pang of regret. But only ghosts may happen to look on. People living 100 years, and onwards, in the future of Threads won't dwell upon what ifs because they'll be too busy trying to survive in a world that is. Only perhaps, much later, might somebody of the educational strain start rooting around in the ruins of the Kemps or Becketts household: the tattered remnants of a shopping list book, a faded photograph album that has somehow survived the damp, Alison's French homework exercise book tucked away in a weathered desk.... 'A Canticle For Leibowitz' is based upon the concept of a global nuclear war, gradual societal recovery, and full bloom into humanity spreading across the solar system, and then - guess what? - history repeats itself. It's what I call the pendulum effect: Resilience, folly, golden age, dark age.... At what point in history are we at now?

[@phenomenologicalOT]

Beautifully written comment.

[@justice_1337]

Yes, people are idealistic and civil when their stomach is full.

[@judyhopps9380]

I think in that situation, the mona lisa would only be fit for keeping a camp fire going another 5 minutes

[@UchronianKing]

@@justice_1337 Hence the adage: an army marches on its stomach. When that fails, desertion and mutiny begins to fester. An empty stomach drives many to commit acts they'd never even consider in a fair and prosperous society.

[@user-vk5qb8bi9j]

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a good book for looking at the 'big picture' based on such an apocalyptic event, but the book RIDDLEY WALKER by Russell Hoban is a much better depiction of how this kind of event affected the UK in particular and the slow, horrible, attempt to restore some semblance of a society trying to recover from this nuclear devastation...1000 years after it occurred...! If you do read this book, be aware that Hoban uses the English language of that time (which has been seriously degraded...); the reader has to really take some time to get into/used to the cadence and forms of the text - it takes a bit of an effort but is necessary to get the full effect of the story! The scrap of paper that is used as the core of the English Language here is a page taken out of a guidebook from Canterbury Cathedral...everything else stems from that!

[@2manyprunes]

Great performances from a well chosen cast. Convincingly out of their depth in a hopeless situation.

[@kencarpenter8967]

The people responsible for an event like this in real life would spend all eternity in a hell that would be more awful and terrifying than anything a movie maker or novelist or anyone of us could ever imagine.

[@Jimothy-723]

this is literaly a depiction of the rapture...

[@zosko1]

No. They would just die. Like the rest of us

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Remember, this is happening at 8 AM daylight in the UK. For USA and Canada, the attacks come in the middle of the night.

[@RaccoonKCD]

Seeing everybody talk about how they watched this movie when they were young during the cold war and how scared it made them feel. Strange to think alot of us are watching this with the same feeling today in the current state of the world

[@YuGiOhDude_]

When Threads was filmed in 1984, Phil Rose, who played Doctor Talbot, starred in an ITV series in 1984 called "Robin Of Sherwood". There, Phil Rose played Friar Tuck.

[@forgoatusbm5674]

-"You know Steve..." -"Hello, Steve. Thanks for coming. Now, where the Hell is everyone?". Would that have been so hard?

[@randommz60]

Yup, awful communication skills between all of them

[@sevynn3970]

This movie, along with the American movie "The Day after" Need to be re-aired. Too many are deceiving themselves that such a war is even winnable and our elected officials are flippantly rattling the nuclear weapon saber. It will bring unimaginable misery to the entire planet - every living thing will suffer.

[@mattbradley9022]

All tvs phones should be interrupted and shown this film

[@oddsandwindsocks5905]

Good call

[@WiseOwl_1408]

People love war it seems.

[@nickycotton6137]

Aye, don't recall it ever being repeated (in UK), but had a VHS copy & bagged DVD yrs ago. Certainly the most realistic Film seen on the subject or feels like anyway. So well done it gets right into the soul, genuinely feel for the characters, brings on the emotions + nerves (to say the least). TOP FILM

[@darrenc2721]

I would like to see a remake, have you seen "The divide?".

[@stemple11100]

10:12 the strangest part of this scene is Zak Dingle actually doing an honest days work

[@RudesbyUK]

I laughed far too hard at that, well played!

[@commandingjudgedredd1841]

"Tonight on Emmerdale Farm, things tek a turn for worse, as the USSR launch their missiles, and Zak has t' do his part, t' save humanity"

[@suesmith3744]

I watched the whole film once .. just once , couldn’t stomach watching it again .

[@lisafairclough8122]

Me too I sobbed & sobbed

[@Reupload-Kanal-Von-Lukas-Heil]

I tried to watch this film a second time, and broke up after just 1 hour , this is too much for me

[@dilltdog1158]

Likewise, once was enough.

[@DrzBa]

I remember watching this as a kid. Didn't sleep for a couple of days afterwards. British TV at its best.

[@SimDeck]

This fkn film ruined my mental health as a kid. My dad was in the RAF and we were based on a frontline operational sqaudron in West Germany during the early 80's throughout the cold war. That's when I watched it when I was 10. Still haunts me now.

[@stevegordon5689]

Because only half turned up they lasted longer oxygen wise!

[@emperorfanta364]

You know when I watched Threads a month ago I didn't even realize that. But now that you pointed it out that makes sense why they were able to survive longer than normal.

[@jamesquinney6686]

The smoked so the deminised the oxygen faster

[@mrsuns10]

Now that is a detail not talked about much often

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

@@jamesquinney6686 It balanced itself out, then.

[@cannedpiss5178]

i thought they all died from ARS? i always suspected that's what the air conditioner spewing out 'dust' was; contaminating their entire bunker with fallout.

[@mjstefansson7466]

Forget your horror films. This is simply the most horrific film ever made. With this and 'Kes' Barry Hines was a genius

[@bonnie3447]

Me and my house mates once watched this with terrible hangover's. We almost hung ourselves 😢

[@harrisonkey698]

thats a bit fucking extreme

[@MJ.71]

@@harrisonkey698 I think he's talking hypothetically lol

[@stemple11100]

Imagine watching it on an MDMA comedown

[@nigelmansell8864]

@@stemple11100 even the thought of this shocking scenario makes me not want to wake up after I go sleep tonight cos I’ll remember it again the morning thanks

[@charly6066]

@@stemple11100 thanks for the idea lol

[@MrPloxDa3rd]

The guy that got killed from debris falling on his head had it easy compared to the rest

[@schizoidboy]

England had a number of bunkers all hidden around the country. The one I remember seeing on both a show called Mysteries of the Abandoned and something I saw on You Tube from England about haunted places (this bunker came with it's own ghosts apparently - very English I guess) and it was very elaborate including its own generators, water supplies, and stores in the hopes of withstanding any nuclear attack. America also had a similar arrangement for Congress at a hotel called the Greenbrier in West Virginia. How well they would have withstood the destruction of a nuclear attack is anyone's guess, but they all looked less claustrophobic then what is shown here. Of course no one is sure how they would have handled an attack.

[@SuperTed19021]

This whole film shows an nuclear war where the world launched hundreds of them each and Britain was completely short-shifted and under-prepared for such an attack. Why during the early 80s the public were so paranoid/in fear of such an scenario. As good as it intentions were, the "Protect and Survive" campaign was not good enough. I mean, how can just doors and sandbags in your living room prevent you from the bang, fire and then fallout for 2 weeks? Along with little to next to no food and water. Especially in an targeted city like London. The Swiss campaign at the time had better planing and perpetration for nuclear war (e.g. every living condition must have an well-stocked, maintained underground cellar).

[@KingThrillgore]

There's many continuity sites in the US, Mount Weather/Greenbriar and Raven Rock are the ones known to the public and the Russians per New START. By the same extent, D6 and Yamantau are ones known in Russia. You can sleep easy knowing your country's leaders and wealthy will be well off in a bunker with no real power or future, and you'll get the bliss of immediate annihilation.

[@christopherhogg8364]

They're dotted all across the country roughly 3/4 miles apart. Observer corps monitoring posts. Some are extremely isolated, in the mountainous regions, in the middle of kielder forest etc. I once entered one up in the north Pennines which me and a mate discovered when walking the dog. It literally looked as if they just padlocked it and left, everything was as it should be, all the equipment remained etc, only the lock had been cut off. Like I said, very, very isolated hence why it hadn't been raided or vandalised. However according to the diary (still present) about 6 weeks before we discovered it, the then prince Charles had visited it for a darts and dominoes evening.

[@kentallard8852]

England never had any serious nuclear prepardness, it would have been a catastrophe

[@brhodes0]

You can visit Hack Green Secret Bunker, it’s about an hour or so drive from Manchester. It’s got all this era preserved. As you drive to it are signs saying ‘Secret Bunker ->’ :D

[@DaveFisher-cq2dr]

"well how could they? the bloody shops were empty" THAT MAKES SOME OF US THINK OF WHEN THE SHOPS HAD NO TOILET PAPER DURING THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

[@fredwest3708]

Seems those days are back again.

[@besnikzogaj9887]

😐We can tell!😕

[@MLB9000]

So this is supposed to replace Twitter?

[@blakesliberator3197]

Some of the dialogue sounds unscripted, which adds to the realism.

[@funguswungus2918]

LOOK IF YOU WANNA KNOW ABOUT TENTS GO AND FOUND THE BLOODY BOY SCOUTS

[@DaveFisher-cq2dr]

GO AND "PHONE" THE BLOODY BOY SCOUTS

[@sclerismockrey8506]

Aaawwww pissoff wil ya?! You're not the only one under pressure! :)

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

@@sclerismockrey8506 I BLOODY KNOW!!!!!! *starts weeping and wheezing*

[@ThisAintNews]

Sharon still hasn't made that tea.

[@sarahlouxo5046]

Come on Sharon! I need my tea with two sugars I’m shaking

[@satireisnotdead5804]

Nah she was busy stress-eating all the supplies when we last saw her

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

SHE'S NOT YOUR BLOODY WIFE

[@satireisnotdead5804]

@@rabidrabbitshuggers "Aye, she's probably dead, ta for reminding us, Sharon."

[@ulysses6426]

Still can't get through to county, either

[@3067jon]

Scary stuff - that traffic warden with the bandages on his face gave me proper nightmares

[@davedogge2280]

a jobsworth handing out tickets / fines at the end of the world. scary indeed.

[@Goalie002]

​@@davedogge2280 "Sorry mate but you cant park them corpses here, it's a bus stop"

[@wert7773]

I always saw the traffic warden as a testament to how strong humans are, of course the dude is burned, shot with radiation, starving, cold, and sick, but he was still strong enough to hold a rifle and protect whatever he was assigned to protect despite the circumstances.

[@qwipperty]

If you were outside when the blast happened and were far enough not to be burned, you'd still pretty much lose most of your eyesight from the light intensity of the blast. Imagine how horrible it would be to survive a nuclear blast but then have to stumble around being legally blind afterwards.....

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

Boo

[@somebody0]

Today...March 2nd 2022. I hope KZbin putting this in my view list is not a omen....... I remember this film as a kid..my father had recorded it on VHS with a hand written label 'Threads' I watched it when I was 8 or 9 so 84/85. I was aware of the fear of nuclear war but never really understood it until I watched this film. It scared the crap out of me!! It's still does!! If it drops please let it hit me right on the head..its something I would not want to survive or wish for anyone to endure. Mans madness in a nutshell!!

[@fizywig]

Threads starts on March 5th 1984

[@explorer806]

At least they had a good supply of ciggies down there.

[@yvesremy7096]

Still amazed at how it was natural at the time to go chain-smoking when stressed. Especially in a confined space, and even more so when the ventilation is blocked off.

[@blacksheep25251]

I'm still trying to figure out how a slang term for a ciggie in the UK became a homosexual slur in the US...

[@sarahlouise7163]

they all knew they were doomed. in any case, i doubt cigarette smoke featured high on their list of problems

[@Soliy87]

Thats probably why they died not from suffocation but carbon monoxide poisioning from all the cigarette smoke

[@georgesears2916]

@@yvesremy7096 There's an Isaac Asimov story where one of the main characters stuck on a spaceship with little oxygen calculates that the amount of oxygen burnt by a cigarette isn't significant enough too affect his odds of survival. Honestly, compared to fallout, it can't be that bad.

[@jackqueslack2339]

As someone who likes stressful cinema, this was my favourite section, especially around 9:51. It's still very sad, though.

[@snakegamer7150]

How a few people's grievance, crazyness and readyness to use these terrible terrible weapons and that could result in a scenerio like this is absolutely terrifying. In a way these weapons have actually saved life's because of mutually assured destruction however we have had some near misses and its one of the few things that scare me.

[@adampeters7947]

The near misses we have had (a couple of dozen serious ones) have been avoided because of those charged with missile deployment. It seems like divine intervention. But our luck can't last forever. Crazy.

[@robotzombie4754]

Most countries dont have nuclear equipment so some places in the planet are gonna die slowly from the nuclear fallout

[@ellemjay]

I always think of the song "thank God for the Bomb" by Ozzy Osbourne

[@carlteacherman194]

I worked for the GPO/British Telecom during this period, and maintained some of the equipment, WB600/400, siren and speech carrier plus telex circuits? Scary tmes! I was up a pole in Maidenhead one day and set off siren....temporarily.....OMG.

[@danBooth.guitar]

That must gotten you ear-ache.

[@millsyinnz]

Imagine, being stuck in a bunker like that, no way of getting out and no one able to come and get you...........

[@seanmcclintock773]

This movie got like to real like there all fine and slowly suffocate and the mom who got her face burned off dying alone and scared and her husband messing around with his sons toy as he slowly dies alone knowing his whole family is gone

[@seanmcclintock773]

The innocent family that had to leave the dead grandma to rot and then they get bludgeoned to death for food

[@NexusApollo]

Sean Mcclintock Sounds like you've had some repressive memories. Nothing to do with the film though

[@seedyoda5714]

@@NexusApollo It's strongly implied that Ruth's family may have been murdered.

[@AnonURnot]

@@seedyoda5714 where in the movie does that happen? I think they died in the basement right?

[@seedyoda5714]

@@AnonURnot The parents are downstairs when they hear people moving around upstairs, at which point the film ominously fades to black.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

And after 22 days, the radio of Sheffield District fell silent.

[@raymondyee2008]

Thanks for the upload. As the movie is super hard to find on YT clips like this are valuable and shouldn't be removed.

[@jamesryer406]

It's not hard to find, Raymond. It was released on HD Bluray a few years ago so you can find it and download it in a few ways if you look hard enough :). Good movie.

[@raymondyee2008]

James Ryer true just that I only got time to watch on YT while on WFH.

[@thefrogsscalp777]

I bought it pretty cheap on Amazon prime a couple of bucks. Excellent movie, better than the day after-just in gruesome scenes and realistic.

[@davidp876]

The full movie was available on here until about 3 years ago, and then it just disappeared 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@sclerismockrey8506]

@@davidp876 Well not exactly disappeared -- Severin Films bought the rights to release the DVD and the moment they had those rights they began to track down and stop all unlicensed use online. I know it can suck but they legally HAVE to do it in order to protect their property. Back when the only ways to see it were on old VHS tapes and for a brief time a UK only DVD (more like early VCD) version no one could find without spending a fortune, I think it was fair and right that everyone posted it wherever they could, because it's an important film and there was no other way to find it... but once a good (and it IS very good, with excellent supplements and so on) DVD became available worldwide, I think it's more than fair and right that the filmmakers and production company and distributor see something from sales. Not saying you think otherwise, just pointing out why it seemed to disappear online.

[@anthonyfoutch3152]

Great movie for what it cost to make but it is the most depressing movie i ever watched. I grew up during the cold war and this was always on our minds.

[@Siddingsby]

They didn't dismantle all the nukes when the USSR collapsed, you know.

[@NoDeathforDinner]

It's 2022 and we are 100 seconds to midnight, closer than when this movie was released, closer than we've ever been. This movie is still so relevant today. Even though nuclear war isn't the main or only threat to the world, it is still a big factor. On top of climate change, bioweapons technology advancement, and massive disinformation, we are inching closer and closer to a point of no return. Please urge your leaders to do the right thing and keep up the good fight for a better world.

[@theresekatie4841]

We'd have idiots uploading it to toktok

[@NoDeathforDinner]

@Dalara Razan sorry you're so pessimistic about it but I vehemently disagree.

[@NoDeathforDinner]

@@theresekatie4841 k

[@user-ce1cu5my4j]

Even more damn relevant right now.......

[@cumpanions8105]

@@user-ce1cu5my4j EVEN MORE relevant right now----

[@hapotus410]

That 9:40 "Bastards!" Came straight from the heart

[@ronagoodwell2709]

Civil servants when the shit gets real. Lots of yelling and flailing about. All they needed was body bags for everyone--minus one. Last man standing gets to tuck everyone in. Damn.

[@satireisnotdead5804]

My local council can't even fix the potholes that proliferate the town, I shudder to think how they'd cope if the roads were tarry blobs or strewn with debris to the extent that transportation of goods becomes impossible, but at least they have a nice old bunker they could dust off and update for themselves, so... that's nice

[@SuperTed19021]

You *really have* had it if you are really relying on civil servants who would normally argue about speed restrictions and town centre parking charges for then to be asked to govern and managed an region which has been obviated by an worldwide all-out nuclear war. The scenario was the British Government was just not *in any* way prepared for such an attack. Whether the USSR was going to launch one bomb against Britain or hundreds.

[@georgemorley1029]

Sorry but I read that as “last man standing gets to tuck into everyone”. Which is likely, given the lack of any other food source.

[@josephhurdman5588]

Stocksbridge Police (wherever that is in Sheffield), report "people walking around with their skin hanging off" -- you can just about hear it via the backup radio gear...

[@Jimbo8012]

Stocksbridge is too far away for 3rd degree burns or worse for a 1 megatonne groundburst explosion at Tinsley Viaduct. . What would have happened in Stocksbridge? - Flash blindness caused by the brightness of the nuclear explosion. In most cases it'd be temporary. - Radioactive fallout dependent on wind direction. - Light structural damage of homes. Windows blown out but most houses could still be lived in...at least for a short time. Rotherham would have been completely destroyed and most of Sheffield too including all of the town centre.

[@fionanatalieholden5965]

"Why don't you pull the bloody aerial out!?" "yer...but we still can't get Channel 5!" Very old joke I know but it still seems to fit!

[@DanRSN]

This was broadcast when I was 12. I slept again a couple of years later

[@Springbok295]

Watch the Soviet 1987 film Letters From a Dead Man. As a child of the Cold War, that film really touched a nerve. The Day After and Threads are excellent dramas but the Soviet one with some scenes shot in sepia tone and the dialogue is hard to watch more than once.

[@sclerismockrey8506]

Letters From A Dead Man is indeed a harrowing and difficult watch. But well worth the effort. It did a bit of damage when I first saw it.

[@KingThrillgore]

Dead Man's Letters is a hell of a watch

[@adrianh332]

It always makes me laugh when Americans desperately try to assert that "The Day After" (which is basically their version of Threads and released around the same time) is better than Threads, it's like watching a car salesman trying to convince a customer that an old battered Reliant Robin is a better vehicle than a brand new Bentley or Rolls Royce. Better special effects does not necessarily equate to better film. It's basically no contest, for gritty realism, atmosphere, sense of dread, loss of hope and excellent acting Threads beats The Day After hands down.

[@sclerismockrey8506]

No question Threads is superior to The Day After on almost every level of filmmaking, but The Day After was broadcast in Nov. 1983, and Threads in Sept 1984. It was not 'released around the same time,' and being made first was obviously not 'their version of Threads' any more than Threads was the UK version of The Day After. Threads is the superior film, I fully agree, but the films only have nuclear war in common; the tone and power of each are entirely different from one another. They are far more dissimilar than similar so comparison always leaves me a little baffled anyway, but anyone who thinks The Day After the better film is only talking about visual effects (big deal) or else is simply an idiot. Likewise, people who think Threads is 'dated' or uneffective are certainly idiots. Threads is arguably the greatest nuclear war film ever made, at least in the English language -- I have not seen every nuclear war film ever made in Europe and the then- Soviet Union, except Letters From A Dead Man which is damned near as effective as Threads... but Threads just has a power beyond the others. Victoria O'Keefe (rest in peace) especially carries the final act of Threads so remarkably well that the ending frames are truly shocking... and nothing in any of the other films about nuclear war have anything remotely like it.

[@peterp2153]

They’re different films, despite the similar plot and subject matter. It may also be cultural. A very British film like Threads might not be as interesting to an American audience, who were raised on, of course, American style film productions. The Day After is firmly in the American TV film style, even if it’s a cut above and much more serious than the typical 1983 TV Movie. Actually, if you’re interested, the 3 hour assembly cut of TDA is out there. I won’t provide links since it’s been hit with copyright strikes by ABC/Disney. But it’s about 30 minutes longer than even the extended cut and it includes a little bit more graphicness to some of the attack scene deaths, more character moments, and a slightly different ending for some of the characters. Plus it’s cool to see as an unfinished product with plenty of “scene missing” insert cards, unfinished effects (e.g., the on set yellow light that flashes, cuing Jason Robards character to turn away from the initial blast/flash, or a blue strobe effect that represents the first blast), and nearly zero soundtrack.

[@sclerismockrey8506]

@@peterp2153 I love that assembly cut, it's fascinating for all the reasons you give and more. Well worth finding for anyone interested in nuclear cinema. And I fully agree about different cultural biases with these films. I always felt (even as I first watched it in 1983) The Day After felt like a really dark episode of Dynasty or FalconCrest or any other typical American TV drama back then. Especially with the musical score and the too-on-the-nose dialogue at times. Threads was more effective for me BECAUSE it didn't feel like my usual American TV programming. It pulled me in immediately and throttled me with its realism.

[@rabidrabbitshuggers]

American here. I have yet to run into another American who saw both movies and preferred The Day After to Threads. The last time I talked about it with my friends we like WTF does the hospital in The Day After still have electricity?! The only good part is John Lithgow’s scene in the barber shop.

[@CathyKitson]

@@rabidrabbitshuggers We have completely different movie traditions. We don't have the spectacular budgets or state of the art special effects (or at least we didn't in the 1980s). What we do have is edgy, creative fim-makers and writers. If you look back at our films and TV right back to the 1950s and 60s, you'll see the grittiness and the desire for realism above everything. I think it's got a lot to do with how we came out of WW2. America had more affluence, confidence and political power. The UK was impoverished right up until the 1960s and 70s. You still had kids running around on bomb sites as late as the 60s. So we were less powerful, less optimistic and more connected to gritty realism.

[@nickatnights]

No more deodorant and no more soap. No wonder the living will envy the dead.

[@sclerismockrey8506]

hahaha!

[@SuperTed19021]

*HAHAHA!*

[@shauntbarry]

I was 14 then and terrified of the real threat of a nuclear war.. I'm now 52 and the threat is more real than ever..

[@ThisIsTEC]

10:36 “PISS OFF, WILL YA?!!!” - Zak Dingle, 1984

[@josephhurdman5588]

According to the Wikipedia entry, these poor sods suffocate...

[@geronimo5537]

I thought it was the dust they let pour in through the vents. Like it was radiated or something.

[@battenburg6089]

@@geronimo5537 The ventilation was just recycling dust and irradiated air I assume, so turning it off would stop them becoming sick, but not turning it on means they lose air.

[@averagejoe8358]

My guess is that they used the water pouring through the ceiling to stay hydrated, which would of course be contaminated.

[@SuperTed19021]

Plus radioactive fall-out flowing through the vents.

[@jread3906]

Imagine the BBC having the balls to produce thus now.

[@kieranwhite6647]

I always get a knot in my stomach when the attack warning comes

[@DaveFisher-cq2dr]

"look if you wanna know about tents go and phone the bloody boy scouts" JESUS WE KNOW YOU'RE UNDER A LOT OF ANXIETY, STRESS, PRESSURE, HUNGER ETC. BUT IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE QUESTION

[@noonecaresaboutgoogle3219]

The fact this will probably happen some time in the future, possibly in our lifetime, makes me feel slightly dizzy and sick.

[@teaman2779]

That's the scariest part of the film

[@Chaggy1978]

I hate to tell you this but the Russians put their nuclear forces on high alert.

[@noonecaresaboutgoogle3219]

@@Chaggy1978 Putins generals will likely put a bullet in his head before that goblin can launch a nuke. I doubt this will be the event that triggers a nuclear war.

[@alex_harnar_618]

This movie takes me back to childhood during the 80's. A time when life was much simpler and people talked to each other, face to face, for hours. If you needed answers, you rode your bike to the library and hung out with Dewey Decimal. The entire summer was spent at the public pool where the air was full of chlorine, kids were taking turns seeing how far they could swim underwater on one breath, and for snacks we had Mello Yello and Chick-o-Sticks. Riding my bike all over town because everyone knew everyone and we looked out for each other and didn't have to worry about getting snatched up or shot at. If you got in trouble, you're bike was never fast enough to beat the phone call home to your parents and you were held accountable for your actions. No cellphones, no computers, no video games (unless your parents had money). We weren't allowed to sit in the house on a sunny day and we never ate a meal at home that wasn't at the table. My God, how I miss those years. I wish I would have realized how special they were.

[@bastogne315]

Hours and hours playing football in the street. F#ck we were army fit at 8. Skinny and light but we could cycle, walk, fight and play for days on end. The summers lasted forever and it never seemed to rain.

[@anthonychilders9549]

They were no less special than my generation's childhood, because you often remember your childhood for the good that happened and not the bad. Time marches on and with it, technology. I would not want to live in a world where there was a more probably and realistic threat of nuclear war.

[@TheBrianp1]

Note to self 1: Headsets so one can listen even if people are talking and yelling. 2: Before people go down emphasis the importance of staying calm and that your are going to at best do a shit job so no reason to not remain calm.

[@josephhurdman5588]

Even before the attack, the cops are having to rely on traffic wardens. Terrifying...

[@MarineAqua45]

At that time,Traffic Wardens were police-employees & were like the modern-day:PCSOs.

[@lonl123]

Saw this in the 80's while I was in the military...made me think that I wouldn't live to see my 30th birthday....and here I am now 57 and it feels weird to think of that time when I partied to abandon because I felt I didn't have all that much time left. So fucking glad it didn't happen...and kids nowadays don't realize how truly fucked up the 80's was with the threat of human extinction.

[@jasondrummond9451]

The threat level now is higher than then.

[@LilyGazou]

I’m going to start partying.

[@nyx7664]

@@LilyGazou Ditto

[@outlaweduk]

todays snowflakes would have to endure a 3 week waiting list for the quiet room lol

[@satireisnotdead5804]

The ironic thing is the town hall basement still looks relatively tidy compared to the rest of Sheffield.

[@ynotnilknarf39]

lol

[@WorldNews92]

For the last three years I worked in an office that looked EXACTLY like this bunker. And it didn't even have a toilet!

[@satireisnotdead5804]

@@WorldNews92 Now just imagine being trapped in it with your co-workers for the best part of a month (correction), I can't imagine anything worse, they all had families and friends outside of their jobs, so after the attack they were all each other had, the horror, Steve was probably wishing he'd used the "car broken down" excuse in the end so he could die with his family.

[@stronkman9157]

If the bomb falls down on Sheffield, would it really be any different than it is now?

[@GrimReader]

It's a really good throwaway line about keeping food as a threat to make people work

[@kieranwhite6647]

R.I.P Steve Halliwell

[@zamiadams4343]

Cups of tea after the apocalypse, "No Nuclear War Please, We're British"

[@georgesears2916]

Makes sense. During WW2 Britain purchased the entire tea production of the globe. After WW3 I would kill for a cuppa...

[@SuperTed19021]

At least Goering's bombs were *not* the same as nukes!

[@kenn743]

2 aliens are talking in outer space, looking down on Earth. "It seems the inhabitants of planet Earth have created nuclear technology and missiles" says one alien "are they showing signs of intelligence?" asks the other I dont think so. They seem to be aiming at themselves"