Threads (1984 UK)

[BoG]

This UK TV production was made in the wake of other then-recent TV movies focusing on nuclear war, such as The Day After (1983) and Testament (though the latter was released to theaters). There was even another on TV I remember called The 5th Missile, I believe, starring Robert Conrad and David Soul. I think there was even a TV movie called World War III, also starring David Soul. This Threads was regarded as even more stark and uncompromising.

The film has a more involved  build up to the bombs going off than the other films; the bombs strike at about the 45-minute mark. The story begins a full 3 months before the nuclear strike. The emphasis in the early going is that the world is focused on life; it's imperfect, clumsy - a young unmarried couple find themselves accidentally pregnant - but a strong, vibrant, living world nonetheless. Some stats in the film: the UK is hit by 210 megatons; overall, about 3,000 megatons are unleashed.

I watched this again after a long period following the initial airing. This is as bleak as I remembered. Right after the bombs hit, there is a scene of a house cat dying, extra disturbing for me now because I'm a cat owner. But, a few minutes later, I realized the cat was, in a sense, the lucky one; the cat died swiftly. The remainder of the film is basically about slow death. It doesn't just cover the weeks or months afterward, but a full 13 years of events after. Things don't get better as time wears on.

BELOW IS THE FULL FILM: