"Threads" (1984 BBC Film)

[ChicagoRonin]

I wonder how many folks remember the controversial 1984 BBC made-for-TV movie �"Threads."

It was produced as an answer to the ABC TV-movie �"The Day After,�" and in typically British fashion it excelled its American counterpart in scientific accuracy, drama and sheer horror.

Scariest thing about it: the WW III scenario in the film involves a US-sponsored coup in Iran followed by Soviet incursion to seize control of the oil fields.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-2023790698427111488&hl=en-GB"http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-2023790698427111488&hl=en-GB

[Little Wing]

1. I thought Threads came first

IMDB says I'm wrong, but I still believe it did

The Day After was a piece of shit

[shadowknows69]

5. Either should be required viewing

for anyone in the military. This is the theoretical and perhaps inevitable endgame of man's violent folly.

[shadowknows69]

8. I thought it was made first

but didn't get aired in the US until after...uh...The Day after.

[Taverner]

2. I still like Testament

No politics - just the sheer horror and suffering that comes from even being near a Nuclear blast.

[soleft]

3. Testament - one movie I can never watch again

Rips your guts out.

[shadowknows69]

6. I hear that

I used to have some pretty good nightmares in the 80's thanks to those three movies. The hollywood cowboy with his finger on the button didn't help either.

[sarge43]

9. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one.

I bounced off all four walls when he started the "You ain't seen nothing yet" crap. However, the one that really did it was a lecture by Carl Sagan when he remarked in passing "Our lives are depended upon Soviet computer technology." Knowing something of the troops who manned our computers ...

[shain from kane]

11. In addition to Fail-Safe, there is also another movie that I purchased

at a flea market that addresses the reliance on computer technology to execute a war.



http://www.amazon.com/Dawns-Early-Light-Powers-Boothe/dp/B00021R7CG/sr=8-3/qid=1166549623/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/105-9756374-2534843?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

[Taylor Mason Powell]

23. I LOVED that movie!

I'd totally forgotten all about it. Thanks for reminding me!

[soleft]

19. I was so freaked out during the 80's the sound of planes made me nervous

Then came 8 wonderful years in the 90's where I felt pretty secure. Then the sound of planes made me nervous again = still do.

[Taverner]

7. Yes - definitely

Especially if you're a parent. I don't remember the movie hitting me as hard as it did watching when I had kids.

Very tough watch, but better than any of the WWIII scenarios - because in the end it's the people that pay the price. Not the politicians, not the generals, not the CEO's...

[Lerkfish]

24. agreed. the scene where she frantically searches for the teddy bear

to bury with her son is indelibly etched in my psyche.

[SoCalDem]

17. "On the Beach" did it for me.. n/t

[nashville_brook]

4. boy, do i remember! we watched it in Global Relations (peace studies) class.

i was massively moved by this film. it played the interpersonal relations so well that it was difficult to focus on the geo-political framework. i cried like a baby.

[booksenkatz]

10. I saw it this summer for the first time

I've had nightmares ever since.

I love Jason Robards, but "The Day After" pales next to "Threads." I love Jane Alexander, and "Testament" makes me cry, but it's got nothing on "Threads."

It should be required viewing for every human being on this planet.
:scared: :cry: :scared: :cry: :scared: :cry: :scared: :cry:

[murielm99]

14. I was going to a peace church

when "The Day After" came out.

Our adult Sunday School class studied the movie. We had study materials and everything. I remember that our pastor cried.

[MamaBear]

12. Yes.

It was much clearer on the horrors of nuclear winter and didn't flinch on the probability of social breakdown -- unlike The Day After, or Testament.

For an American, made-for-TV film, The Day After was remarkable. Placing it in the "heartland" -- away from the easy iconic geography of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- gave it some punch. And for the American public to see the guys in the planes and especially in the bunkers go through their drill, coldly, clinically, without expression, emotion or hesitation once the order had been received and decoded was eye-opening. The drama was very soap opera: a doctor, a soldier, a bride.

There are scenes from the final reel of Threads that I still see in my nightmares.

[booksenkatz]

13. The lack of any and all sentimentality in "Threads"

went through my marrow like ice. "Testament" is fabulous, but there is still the humanity at the end, the attempts at dignity. In "Threads" there is no humanity, there is no dignity, there is only hunger and need, and it's every man for himself; the lizard brain is in charge. It's horrifying and very likely the most true.
:scared:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. In "The Day After's" defense...

They didn't avoid the probability of social breakdown. A major story line ends with a family being killed by marauders. Attempts to reform social order totally fail.

Not that it's an accurate depiction though.

[MamaBear]

18. The Day After hinted at social breakdown.

The father of the farm family was murdered by squatters, true; other squatters embraced the Jason Robards character in the final scene. There was one small food riot depicted, but no hint of utter chaos. That people would be for all intents and purposes abandoned by the federal government was implied. The people who made Threads had a much darker vision, and did not soften every hard with a corresponding soft.

Also, Threads followed the survivors for a longer period than The Day After did, so the effects of radiation, starvation and nuclear winter were laid out in greater detail. I remember a scene of people trying to work the ground with their eyes clouded (cataracts?) from the ultraviolet, the ozone layer having been effectively destroyed.

[ChicagoRonin]

16. Government inadequacy

Forgot to mention this in my original post:
Rewatching the film for the first time since I was a kid (something I swore I'd never do - I had such bad nightmares back then), one of the elements that I cannot ignore is how facile and inept government snd bureaucratic attempts to maintain order are in the face of sheer catastrophe.

Replace "nuclear war" with flood and Sheffield, England with "New Orleans" and you can't help but think about Katrina.

[rman]

26. I think no government can be adequate to prevent total disaster

in case of all out nuclear war.
Though that may not exactly be the point you're trying to make...
Otoh i do think in this movie the government did in fact manage to maintain order reasonably well, until it was to late for there being any point in trying to maintain order. Though given the context, it's virtually irrelevant.

[devilgrrl]

20. I can't get myself to watch it...

there's so much tragedy in the world... I can't do it.

[smokey nj]

22. I watched the first 35 minutes but couldn't follow through to the end.

[Feron]

21. Thank you for the link to Threads

I hadn't seen it before. Great movie.

While I think that "Threads" is more realistic (and lacks the awfully fake bomb scene in "The Day After"), both are good movies. And both scare the bejeezus out of me.

[maine_raptor]

25. There a better British film about Nuclear war.

"The War Game"

Came out during the 60's concerning a nuclear war. It focused on the folks living near an American airbase in Britain. It was shown on the BBC, but was banned by the Johnson Administration from being shown in the US. After "The Day After" came out, copies of it were sold in the US. I have a copy of that film in Beta format.