Threads (1984) – Documentary style account of a nuclear holocaust and its effect

[threads2]

Heads up to anyone reading: Threads is so disturbing - and I'm not sensitive to this kind of thing. I grew up browsing 4chan. It's just so, so bleak. The scene where the husband and wife are behind that mattress...

My gf and I couldn't stop thinking about it for like a month - and looking back on it, I think I was walking around a little bit depressed. Too real.

I don't know if there's much to gain from watching it. 5/5 bags of popcorn.

[jvanvleet]

The only movie to give me nightmares and sleepless nights. The Day After had little impact on me but Threads was on a whole different level.

For some reason I also still remember a scene from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin - the news crew trying to understand why the NEST bomb squad was running away just before cutting out...

[snthpy]

Interesting. I watched both about ten years ago (around the birth of my first child incidentally) Andi remember The Day After a lot while Threads had little impact on me. I think I should rewatch Threads.

I thought the scene in The Day After where the silos open and the missiles go up was the most chilling thing to experience. At that point you've got a couple of minutes until the end of the world ...

[CalRobert]

There's a pretty well-done War of the Worlds-style film where a local conflict escalates in to nuclear war at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHLU0Uej1WA

[BMc2020]

Someone said the perfect ending is both a surprise, and inevitable.

This movie has one.

[jhbadger]

There's also a similar American film that seems to get forgotten -- 1983's Testament, which is about a small American town distant enough from big cities and military bases to avoid actually being damaged in the actual nuclear war, but which suffers from radiation sickness due to fallout and dwindling supplies a few weeks later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_(1983_film)

[tablespoon]

> There's also a similar American film that seems to get forgotten

There's also a similar but more famous American film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After

It's pretty similar to the one you describe. It centers on Lawrence, Kansas, which doesn't get nuked, but has to deal with fallout, refugees, insufficient resources, etc.

[somedude895]

There's also On the Beach: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film)

Great book, great movie.

[KerrAvon]

Experts often cite Threads as the most probable accurate depiction of life after the bombs drop.

[LVB]

A bit unnerving that the story's timeline begins "Saturday, March 5th".

[alergnon1234]

I enjoyed that movie years ago, but I think my anxiety of a nuclear holocaust is already maxed out right now.

[dehrmann]

We still have 100 seconds til midnight.

[FerretFred]

well worth a watch. I remember it the first time around, with a new baby, and thinking, hoping it could never happen. We, the public learned from it but it seems that generations of politicians never did. Now it looks like the rerun might be scheduled to happen in real life. How very sad.