‘Threads’ will scare the bejeezus out of you. Aired on the BBC in 1984, it is far more bleak than America’s ‘The Day After’. We see none of the military perspective, but rather experience nuclear war through the eyes of its victims. I never saw it as a kid but have watched it several times as an adult as I am fascinated by all things Cold War.
Threads from Peski TV on Vimeo.
IIRC, this was shown just once here in the US on TBS back in the mid 1980s. I looked for this for years and when I found it on youtube, I was thrilled. I agree, it is much more darker than The Day After. Another one to check out from the BBC is The War Game. It was set to broadcast in 1965, but was pulled because it was considered too upsetting. It was finally broadcast in 1985. There is a lot of influence of The War Game in Threads.
Thanks for the heads up, great old movie.
Another one to check out is Testament from 1983. Of all the Cold War nuclear war movies, it is probably the most depressing. It does have a young Kevin Costner and Rebecca De Mornay in it as well.
SSD Depressing As F&@k Saturday Night At The Movies – ‘Threads’
SSD, this is a topic I also find most fascinating. Do you have book recommendations on cold war nuclear warfare? I remember enjoying Arc Light by E.L. Harry.
The ‘Third World War:The Untold Story’ by Sir John Hackett.
Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunekta. It’s formatted like a travel journal written during a cross-country trip through America 5 years after a limited nuclear conflict.
Threads. That movie still makes my soul turn cold with despair.
I have read that book.
Loved that book. Loved this movie. Chilling…
Red Storm Rising” is Clancy’s world wide WWIII epic.
I personally like the individual tales vs. the focus at the General officer level. If interested try “Team Yankee” by Coyle, A US company commander’s experience in WWIII Europe. “Red Army” by Ralph Peters (former Army intel officer) is the Soviet version.
Cheers!
“‘Third World War:The Untold Story’ by Sir John Hackett” –
If I recall correctly, Sir John Hackett wrote that the very first radio transmission of the Third World War was “Shovel, this is Six – Oh my God here they come”.
As all of the afore mentioned movies were released on DVD, I bought them. I consider ‘The War Game’, Threads’ ‘The Day After’, ‘Testament’, ‘By The Dawn’s Early Light’, ‘Miracle Mile’ and a few others to be cornerstones of my DVD collection. Thank you for this post, SSD!!
All favorites, except for ‘Testament’.
I haven’t seen Testament since I was a kid. I remember it being the most depressing thing I’d ever watched.
SSD, I don’t know if this counts as the ‘original’ Cold War movie, but 1962’s “Panic in the Year Zero!” is the story of the fictional Baldwin family trying to survive in post apocalyptic America. It stars Ray Milland and Frankie Avalon. The depictions of confusion and the break down in law and order are pretty good for the time period of it’s production.
I love that movie!
That is a great movie. A great example of the old CONELRAD system that existed.
Another one from 1962 is This Is Not A Test. It chronicles the interactions of a group of people at a traffic control point out in the desert in the middle of the night when an attack is imminent.
There was an anime called Future War 198X that I saw once years ago.
But every uniform and weapon was drawn in full detail as of 1982 when it was “present day”. It even had a 10 minute sequence illustrating how a fight at the Fulda Gap would’ve gone just before the nukes hit. A-10s, Frogfoots, T-72s, M60s. M1s, Bradleys, BMPS, ZSUs. The whole deal.
The dude and some girl end up on a ln SDI space station and survive the Nuclear War but now they can’t get back to Earth as there is no NASA or anything.
One of the best Cold War movies out there is “Fail Safe” from 1964, which is best described as a deadly serious doppelganger to the satirical Dr. Stangelove.
Really haunting ending.
Does the original Omega Man count? 😀
I love that movie.
Is this movie kid-friendly enough to watch with my 11&14 y/o boys?
I’m showing them cold war movies so they can get an understanding for things we worried about when I was their age.
Oh Good Lord, no. None of these are suitable for kids. Both Testament and Threads left me shattered, and I saw them both in my early 30’s, circa 2005.
Agreed! ‘Testament’ was thoroughly depressing but it’s subliminal message was throughly clear(e.g. post nuclear war, everyone looses everything). I’d totally forgotten Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka`s book ‘Warday’. An absolutely enthralling read, to be sure! And as Mark mentioned the Cold War classic ‘Fail Safe’, let’s not forget the 2000 re-make with Richard Dreyfuss as POTUS and George Clooney as Colonel Jack Grady! Loved the fact that Walter Cronkite was announcing it, they made it as ‘event TV'(like ‘The Day After’) and shot Fail Safe(2000) in black and white – a very obvious homage to the ’64 edition. A few years ago, I found a two-for DVD for $1.99 with ‘Panic in the Year Zero’ and ‘This is not a Test’ on the same disc. Definitely a cool find and a great addition to my ever evolving Nuke movie collection… Thanks again SSD!!
NBC did a miniseries in 1982 called World War III starring Rock Hudson as the President and David Soul as an O-5 assigned to the 172nd Infantry Brigade in Alaska. The setting is 1987 and the Soviets starving due to a US-led grain embargo. A KGB osnaz unit is sent into Alaska to capture a key pipeline pumping station to hold it hostage to end the embargo. Due to a storm, all that’s available to defend it is some AKNG and Eskimo Scouts and Vietnam veteran Soul. Not the worst NBC fare. At least they got the 172nd patches right and Soul introduced America to what the “Buzzsaw” defense was. The end is rather ridiculous however and jumps the Defcon scale rather precipitously.
As for Threads and Testament they had political agendas so show almost nothing of the positive side of the human spirit. The problem with ALL apocalyptic movies–nuclear war, zombies, aliens–is they focus on depravity and suffering rather than counterbalancing forces for order. I’m NOT saying nuclear war is a picnic but in Testament the lead characters could flee Marin County for refugee camps in Canada but choose to stay and die to stick it to Ronald Reagan.
A friend and I were recently discussing the NBC movie. He has a copy. Love your comment regarding ‘Testament’.