The most scariest TV I can remember seeing to this date.

I can remember getting up the next morning after seeing this movie & saying "Whew!"

Any nits? Comments? Rants?

The SFX rocked.

Is there any way I can get a copy of this? My history teacher talked about this some because it aired when he was in the same grade was we were. Said that the next day, everyone wanted to talk about it at school, but the administration forbade any classroom discussion of it on pain of firing because they didn't want to encourage the attitude that a nuclear war was unwinnable. I figure that anything that encourages this much controversy has got to be good.

When it aired ('82 - '84, don't remember exactly), the school admins *DIDN'T* want to "encourage the attitude that a nuclear war was unwinnable"?????? What the H*LL were they smoking? Their attitude was what? "Let's nuke the Russkies now?"??????

"Unwinnable" in the sense that "we'll all die, no matter what side we're on."

The teacher's conjecture was that they didn't like the attitude that it would cause untold devastation on all sides. They didn't mind nuking the Russians, they just didn't want people to think that Americans would die too.

Hey, I just report it.

I heard a RUMOR that this movie will be on VHS and DVD soon.

Interesting perspective, Matthew, from US schools - we were shown this in high school in Australia and were actively encouraged to talk about nuclear war and how it was unwinnable, showing us how pointless and wasteful it all was.

Along this line I'd like to recommend "Testament" starring Jane Alexander, which was shown on PBS stations around the same time. No big SFX, just a devastating story about the how it affects one family and their neighbors.

Chris- Well, I guess you guys weren't exactly in the same situation. If it came down to nuclear war, it was very likely that the United States would be responsible for a lot of the destruction. And our educational system is focused around duping people into thinking our government is perfect, so of course they wouldn't want people to know what would really happen.

Has anyone seen the British equivalent of this film, Threads?

Yes, saw that around the same time. What a depressing year -- The Day After, Testament, and Threads all shown around then.

And I wouldn't call Threads an "equivalent". It was by far the most powerful and upsetting of the three. I never watched it again.

Oh, if anyone's interested, there was a commercial VHS release of "The Day After." Saw it at Blockbuster yesterday. Didn't get it, but at least it's there.

Any reason why this board is lumped with the 007 movies? Is it because this film shows what would have happened if Bond failed on any of his "Save-The-World-From-Nuclear-War" Missions?

It's not. It's under "Bulletin Brash Reflections: Movies: Jared's Movies: Misc. TV Movies & Miniseries:The Day After"

It may say that here but there is a link o the James Bond board which leads here.

I happen to have a tape of the original broadcast in 1983, which I watched tonight as it was showing on the Sci-Fi channel. Slight nit, the image on SFC was bigger, in that it was cropped on the sides, top, and bottom, in order to make the image more of a close-up. No matter, though. It was the content that was important.

I imagine a lot of younger readers of this board don't know about the controversy that surrounded the first airing of this movie. It showed on network TV (ABC, to be precise.) (An aside: The first part of the movie was sponsored by the Commodore 64, touted as the computer in more homes than any other!) The film was shown uninterrupted for the last hour or so (unheard of for network TV at that time). It was followed by a live discussion featuring Ted Koppel, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Carl Sagan, and others.

I remember how it affected me as a 25-year-old then (I'm 42 now). I'm interested to hear how it appears now to those seeing it the first time?

R.I.P Jason Robards

How the heck did this board pop into the James Bond section?

Threads is now available on Region 2 DVD.

For anyone still looking for The Day After, it is now on DVD. It is a Region 0 release. No extras, just the basic film without subtitles, but for £4.99 you can hardly complain, can you?

Region 0? Why all those Evil Content Pirates™ will steal it!

My calculus based physics instructor recomended this movie to me.

On this movie site:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheDayAfter-1005349/dvd.php

There appears to be three different versions?
Does anybody know why there would be different versions? ...and is one of the versions the best?

Maybe for TV airing reasons? Do remember that Battlestar Galactica had the same thing with their pilot episode which was also cut for theatrical release as well as god knows how many TV aired versions.

The versions are simply three different video releases (1990, 1995, 2001). They've just repackaged them to make them fresher on the market. Their content (to my knowledge) is the same for each of them. I think all of them contain the longer, European cut (which is about five minutes longer).

Nearly three years later, and this is still sitting in the James Bond section. How come?

Three years later, and this is still in the James Bond section. How come?

Don't you mean "two minutes later"?

Bug in the board, D.K. We've tried to correct it, but the problem seems to be in the software itself. An interruption while moving boards caused it, I believe.

The effects of the nuclear explosion,etc. are rather awful when seen today, especially after the ones in Terminator 2, True Lies, Sum of All Fears, etc.
Needless to say, when seen today, all the cold war stuff is a bit tedious too.
I do remember, at the time it came out, many felt this film presented a too 'sanitised' view of a nuclear blast and its aftermath. Threads was more realistic, if less spectacular (effects-wise).

This movie comes to DVD on May 18.

Actually, Treklon, IIRC, the explosion shots were from archival film from the nuke tests of the '50s. Therefore the nuke shots are MORE realistic than T@, True Lies, etc...

Or were you talking about the mushroom clouds?

Scott, I have it on tape. Some of the explosions are original effects shots that look almost if they were done in a cloud tank. Not impressive now, but back in the early 80s they might have been.

Also the thing that T2 did was show what would happen to a city that was hit by a Nuclear blast. You couldn't get that from 50s test footage because they had those as far away from civilivation as possible for obvious reasons.

On the other hand, I recall seeing a documentary in high school in the mid 1980's that used models to demonstrate blast effects on a city. Nothing spectacular like T2, but more original than the re-used test footage eveyone had become familiar with by that point. Another scene I recall, though I don't know for certain if it was the same documentary, showed blast effects against a pane of glass in extreme slow-motion, with a pumpkin next to the glass to show how wind-driven debris alone (heat and radiation effects were not part of this footage) could shred an object.

As for the tedium of Cold War movie plots, well, that's what was going on back then. Besides, then, as now, Hollywood lacks creativity and imagination when tying to attract the largest audience possible.

By the way, I was somewhat disappointed by this film when I first saw it the first time it aired. I think it may have been because there were so many characters introduced to try to cover all walks of life, that they all became little more than stereotypes instead of real people.
One of my high school teachers showed Testament in class sometime after The Day After aired, and I agree that it's the more powerful of the two films. Haven't seen Threads yet, and I'm not sure if I want to if it's as disturbing as it's been made out to be. (Besides, I don't need to be convinced that nuclear war is bad!)

Oh, I remembered another thing that shot down The Day After for me: one of the pre-nuke scenes shows an entire grocery store full of people panic-buying batteries, first aid supplies, food and the like, only to have them all wait in line to get checked out by the cashiers! If I'd seen this film for the first time today, my response would be "Yeah, right!" Back then, I don't think "Get real!" had been introduced into the vernacular, so I probably just said something like "That's pretty fake! Those people would be mobbing that store!"
I recall a similarly unrealistic scene during the actual attack showing a couple of cars in a fender-bender downtown while citizens desperately try to evacuate. What happens? The vehicle drivers get out and argue with each other about who hit whom! I'm surprised they didn't get out their insurance cards!

Another nit. The cars all fail *BEFORE* the blast. What are they, psychic cars? The reason the cars should fail like that is due to EMP, which is a RESULT of the blast, not a precursor.

Not to mention the fact that the Russians decided to launch nukes sometime after one of their subs got sunk.

A little hot-headed, aren't we?

Aside from its flaws, "The Day After" had a great soundtrack...done by...none other than....

James "Star Trek II" Horner

Familiar faces:

Bibi Besch: (Dr. Carol Marcus- STII)

Jeff East: (Teen Clark Kent- Superman The Movie)

Wasn't there an air burst over the continent that knocked out power before the other nukes landed? I could have sworn that was the case, but it's been a long while...

I finally watched the movie when it was shown on TV (I had avoided some of the previous TV times because I thought it would be too depressing).

The visual images of the blast, the destruction and the dying people with skin lesions were pretty impressive, I think. (My fiance argued with me, when I told him the story, that the outbreak of the war - the russians invading west germany - was unlikely, since the sowjets wouldn't have started such a high risk adventure. But to me the way the tension and crisis built up until suddenly war was unavoidable seemed believable.)

Of course, what happenes after was the real point of the movie (and I haven't seen the other 2 movies mentioned, testament or threads.)

When I was a teenager, I saw the movie "When the wind blows" - an animated movie about an old english couple believing in the govt. and dying of radiation poisoining - and felt reminded of what the young couple said in that movie "We'd rather die quick in the blast".

Another famous 80s quote about nuclear war "the survivors will envy the dead" was also strengthened by the visuals of this movie.

The ruined city of Kansas in the last shots reminded me of photos of bombed german cities in WWII, and if Americans ever had known what war is like for the population, they wouldn't always be so eager to bomb other countries.

Not all Americans are eager to bomb other countries. (I know you didn't mean to include all Americans, but this is a nitpicker's website, and I couldn't resist picking! )
Speaking for myself, I have studied military history, and I'm familiar with scenes of destruction wrought throughout Europe by World Wars I & II. (One could add Russia & Japan, for that matter, in the case of WWII.) I think you make a valid point about many Americans being unfamiliar with such a situation on their home soil, of being insulated (as I've heard it described), and how that insulation does indeed give a generalized feeling among Americans that such destruction is someone else's problem.
Detachment is the word I'm looking for.

Not all Americans are eager to bomb other countries. (I know you didn't mean to include all Americans, but this is a nitpicker's website, and I couldn't resist picking! )

Thanks, you understood my meaning. I think eager was maybe the wrong word; but europeans are still somewhat shocked to see the apparent ease with which a majority of the american population seems to think the bombing of other countries in war (or conflicts) is an acceptable way of preventing the loss of life of a few american soldiers, but the loss of civilian life and the resulting problems aren't mentioned.

I guess this is also the reason this movie showed only what was taking place in Kansas - we hear that Russia has been hit hard and is devastated, too, but we never see anything outside Kansas. Probably the american viewers wouldn't have been affected so much by the sight of foreigners dying as with true-american heroes.

I guess there never was a documentary or movie in America showing the real-life effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombs on the Japanese, people, since this was "justified" with spurious explanations, and there were yellow foreigners, anyway, right? (But then, TPTB have a very bad view of the american public/viewers anyway, which hopefully isn't 100% true )

I know this isn't PM, but I think most Americans know the effects of the A-bombs on the Japanese.

There have been several films in America that documented or relayed exactly what happened to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I guess this is also the reason this movie showed only what was taking place in Kansas - we hear that Russia has been hit hard and is devastated, too, but we never see anything outside Kansas. Probably the american viewers wouldn't have been affected so much by the sight of foreigners dying as with true-american heroes. - constanze

The reason the movie never goes out of Kansas has nothing to do with supposed antipathy towards foreigners or their deaths. It's because the movie wasn't about the global effects of nuclear war... it was about demonstrating the price of nuclear war on a personal level.

Too many people live in a bubble, and don't grasp the larger issues at stake. Terrorists fly planes into buildings, and there's a gut reaction, "Let's just blow them to kingdom come." Well, there's a price for such drastic measures. Just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should.

Leaving the small community of characters in order to see what was happening elsewhere in the world (Europe, the USSR, or even New York) would have robbed the film of its impact. Additionally, keeping things in the area helped us to sympathize more with the characters because we knew what they knew. As an audience, we weren't privy to the larger scope... we didn't know more than the characters. It gave a sense of isolation. And that was the point.

If you're referring to the producers' decision to locating it in America's Heartland instead of, say, a Russian village or West Berlin... keep in mind that it was an American production, geared towards an American audience, designed to scare the bejesus out of Americans. So yeah, it's going to take place in America... much like the Japanese-produced Godzilla films take place in Tokyo instead of Sydney.

Hey, Darth, I was going to make a similar reply to constanze's point about the film's setting.
I would add that nobody in the film was really a hero, either. The people were just ordinary people (well, stereotypes of ordinary people) caught up in events beyond their control, events so bad that heroism wasn't even an option.

...keep in mind that it was an American production, geared towards an American audience, designed to scare the bejesus out of Americans.

That's what I was hinting at. I don't doubt that this way it had much more impact; I just wonder if TPTB's view that the american audience won't care as much / the movie won't have as much impact if the setting is not the US is justified or not. (Since almost all Hollywood films center on America, and foreign movies have little commercial success, I fear that the audience and TPTB are both inforcing each others conception what CR above called the insulation of many Americans.)

CR,

I would add that nobody in the film was really a hero, either. The people were just ordinary people (well, stereotypes of ordinary people)...

To me they seemed more like American heroes rather than ordinary people because they are so much stereotypes: the hard-working doctors, the straight, clean-living, bible-fearing farmers family, the naive students. (There is an expression about these old-fashioned values and people which I thought was american hero.) There are no hippies, lefties, drug users, gays - though its remarkable they have at least one Black and one Asian as characters. There are no drunk, wife-beating husbands, no divorced families, no incompetent or careless doctors, no thieves (until everything collapses at the end) or scumbags or tricksters. Everybody is a good person whose world falls to pieces. (And yes, I understand that this way it has more impact - babys being killed affect us more than soldiers or old man. I just found it a bit too thick laid on.)

That's what I was hinting at. I don't doubt that this way it had much more impact; I just wonder if TPTB's view that the american audience won't care as much / the movie won't have as much impact if the setting is not the US is justified or not. - constanze

Keep in mind that there are other factors that influence a production, including cost. Setting it in America is also cheaper.

But keep in mind that the film also didn't take place in New York or Los Angeles (the two typical settings for films), which is a step forward as well.


(Since almost all Hollywood films center on America, and foreign movies have little commercial success, I fear that the audience and TPTB are both inforcing each others conception what CR above called the insulation of many Americans.) - constanze

See... I see it a bit differently. I think the film addresses the insulation of Americans, and opens their eyes (or at least attempts to).

As part of this isolationist mentality, there are too many people for whom war is an abstract... a matter of numbers and something that happens elsewhere. Out of sight, out of mind. Heck, there are many for whom the deaths and destruction on 9/11 mean little because (in their minds) there was nothing personal lost (at least nothing that they recognized). Just like people are quick now to sacrifice personal liberties left and right... because it usually happens to someone else.

This film serves as a reminder that, no, war is not an abstract. There are very real consequences. And perhaps by recognizing the consequences on our side, we might begin to recognize the consequences on the other.

Also, constanze, the US doesn't have ICBMs located in Germany. The point was that these people lived near the ICBM silos, and we were following *THEIR* stories.

ScottN,

there were quite some Pershings stationed in Germany during the Cold War. (Pick, Pick ).

BTW, is this based on a book? The plot reminds me of the Pat Frank novel "Alas Babylon," but not in terms of details.

Pershings were medium-range ballistic missiles, not ICBMs.

I'm well aware of the Pershings, the political significance we can discuss over on PM. However, as Snick pointed out, they were INF, not ICBMs.

Also, constanze, let's say they focused on a German family near the Pershings. Wouldn't some people then be saying, "They just show that war is something that happens to foreigners 'over there'"?

CORRECTION:

The music was written by:

David Raksin & Virgil Thomson

One of the scenes during the nuclear invasion was taken from those 1960's atom bomb films. It was the shot of the house being torn apart by the explosion....except they flipped it!

Once the nukes are launched, everyone...and I mean EVERYONE...gawks at them go up in the air. HEY MORONS!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Ummm John. Run Where?

To the nearest fallout shelter.

The people FINALLY do so MINUTES after they gawk awhile.

I know the exact air date, because I was returning from a vacation in California. Sunday November 20 and MOnday, November 21, 1983. (Unless it was just a one-night movie... that I cannot remember.) I watched Part One in Vancouver in a hotel room, and then finished flying home and saw Part Two.

I think it was rerun once.

Another miniseries that doesn't seem to have rerun potential is "Amerika". I think it was made around the time Gorbachev became premier, or just before. Apparently, it wasn't a new idea... I've seen a snippet of a 1950s movie about a man discovering his American home town is now Communist and everybody who used to be red-blooded American is now going out their ordinary red-flagged business. That would be interesting... they might be different studios but it would be interesting to release that earlier movie in a DVD set of "Amerika".

What was really discouraging about "Amerika" was that people mostly gave into their country being remade the way Moscow wanted it, with a bunch of client states each made of a chunk of what use to be one country. The region roughly corresponding to the upper Midwest becomes "Heartland" with a repetitive, sappy national anthem.

Kris Christofferson (Sp?) seems to be one of the few patriotic Americans left who wants to lead the country back to its former dignity. It seems when he was running for president, he was an Independent or minor party candidate, while the Repub and Dem candidates were representing parties already coopted by the Communists... a sort of Kang and Kodos situation - "It's a two-party system, you have to vote for one of us! And you'll get Moscow running things no matter which of the two of us you vote for!"

Not the greatest series, but it had some poignant comments on how committed the people in free countries are to preserving their freedom, those who choose not to even bother voting.

In my video collection, I have the 1983 movie "Special Bulletin", where the "RBS" network ("Republic Broadcasting System"?) newsroom covers a crisis in Charleston, SC - five people seize a vessel and threaten to detonate an atomic bomb unless America unilaterally starts disarming its strategic nuclear weapons, to encourage the Soviets to do likewise.

I saw some program in the late 80s or early 90s about a family living a little ways from San Francisco or thereabouts. Dad's in the city, left a message on the answering machine that doesn't get heard for a long time. The TV suddenly quits working while the kids are watching it, then the faraway city is nuked. Later, widowed Mom, looking for more batteries, discovers Dad's unheard message.

In the late or mid-80s on Canadian Pay-TV, I saw a movie called "Countdown to Looking Glass", with "looking glass" supposedly being a code word for Air Force One when the president takes off at the outbreak of war.

In this movie, presented in the format of a news special, they go "live" to a reporter on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf or adjacent Indian Ocean area. The reporter sees a mushroom cloud and challenges the ship's captain that it is, isn't it... the ship used nuclear depth charges to sink a Soviet sub. The captain won't comment that he used nukes.

The movie ends with Looking Glass taking off, then the network feed is taken over by the Civil Defense emergency broadcast transmission.

There seem to be a plethora of movies about pending nuclear devastation, some of it happening. Red Dawn is another movie of this genre, although nukes aren't evident in the part of the playing field where this movie takes place. (Apparently, publicity shots show Commies standing outside the town's McDonald's, but in the movie itself, no McDonald's is seen. Perhaps they decided the town is too small to have one.)

Oh, yes, re things quitting before the nuclear blast. Apparently, the EMP is most effective from a large blast way up in the atmosphere, rather than down near the ground. That way, it affects a much wider area.

Some things about Day After that hammer it home: the doctors operating using dozens of flashlights in what must be an absolutely filthy atmosphere.

The man who can't be with his family because "it's an alert", and the soldiers, after they've fired off the ICBMs, arguing about whether they're supposed to remain on duty until orders come.

I saw "Special Bulletin" too. That was pretty good. Only a matter of time before that comes to DVD too.

I saw some program in the late 80s or early 90s about a family living a little ways from San Francisco or thereabouts. Dad's in the city, left a message on the answering machine that doesn't get heard for a long time. The TV suddenly quits working while the kids are watching it, then the faraway city is nuked. Later, widowed Mom, looking for more batteries, discovers Dad's unheard message.

That would probably be "Testament" with Jane Alexander and William Devane. Probably the most devastating of all the ones I've seen.

Wasn't there also a mini series called simply "WW3" or "World War 3" focusing on a Russian invasion of the US through the Bering Straits into Alaska.

All I can remember about it is that it starred Rock Hudson as the US Commander.

Yep. Saw it. The last scene was the President pressing "the button"

Wasn't there also a mini series called simply "WW3" or "World War 3"...
Director Boris Sagal (father of actress Katie Sagal) was killed in a helicopter accident on the set of this mini.

The Soviets actually sent a task force into Alaska and they tried to take over a crucial station along the pipeline from Prudhoe Bay. Hudson's team of auxiliary military (National Guard?) found themselves the only available defense. It became evident that by seizing that station, the Soviets could put explosive devices into the pipeline and, after putting enough in, detonate them all, cutting the line.

I think Brian Keith played the Russian premier, but I'm not sure. He and the President met in Iceland, then agreed to take a recess and let the world sleep that night.

Except the Soviets started showing their muscle... "Red Flag", "Red Star" whatever, so the President ordered Defcon ONe, then Defcon Two and so on, matching the Soviets tit for tat.

There's a last minute conversation between the premier and the president about pulling back, but the president seems distressed that he can't pull back, but go forward. The miniseries ends with the sound of some kind of weapon increasing in crescendo, people going about their business and looking up into the sky.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, the opponents seem to agree to a ceasefire, but someone drops a grenade and kills the two leaders.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, the opponents seem to agree to a ceasefire, but someone drops a grenade and kills the two leaders.

How Arthurian.

BLOWN LINE:

Before the bombs drop, the engaged woman and her fiance' go off on a motorbike to "make whoopie". (They suggested doing so before leaving)

After the bombs drop, in the basement, the engaged woman yells, "If I hadn't been wearing that thing (condom) I'd be MARRIED by now!

I think she meant "pregnant"

Another nit on the same line.

"If I hadn't been wearing that thing (condom) I'd be MARRIED by now!"

Also, I'm assuming that she wasn't wearing it, but the fiance was.

My mistake. All I know for sure is she was wearing SOME KIND of birth control device. That's all I know.

I apologize for my mistake. It tough when you've never had sex.

I believe it was a diaphragm. Her kid sister snatched it. There was an extended scene of her chasing "Jolene!", hollering the name over and over.

YEAH! THAT'S IT! THANKS!

Why did the Civil Defense wait so long to sound the sirens? They should've went off the minute the Russian missiles were spotted on radar.

Moderator, any way the link to this board on the James Bond section could be deleted?

The new TV show Jericho seems to have a similar theme as this movie(it even takes place in Kansas)

########actual attack showing a couple of cars in a fender-bender downtown while citizens desperately try to evacuate. What happens? The vehicle drivers get out and argue with each other about who hit whom! ##########

When people are driven into a sheer panic, they may end up doing strange things, just because their mental faculties aren't working correctly. Something like this is actually quite plausible.

Minutes before the bombs hit, they show a traffic backup as far as the eye can see, as people are desperately trying to flee) while the doctor drives in the opposite direction on a completely empty adjacent road! Why aren't people crossing over to use it? There is even a wide grassy median that looks fairly drivable between the roads.

I saw this when I was in college and that secretary doesnt even run...I would have!


Panic in year zero and Fail-Safe (the orignial) was wayyyy much better...Henry Fonda demanded a recount!

Best line: I had to eat my hair! (gross).

anyone has the dvd?

Somehow I think the grocery stores would skip the cash register bit and let people take what they need for survival. There would be no time to quibble about paying for groceries in a national crisis

When Marilyn Oakes (the brunette at the art museum) is talking with her father, Dr. Oakes...she is wearing glasses. However, near the end of her conversation, she is no longer wearing glasses.

Six years later...

By GCapp on Sunday, November 28, 2004 - 1:02 pm:
What was really discouraging about "Amerika" was that people mostly gave into their country being remade the way Moscow wanted it, with a bunch of client states each made of a chunk of what use to be one country. The region roughly corresponding to the upper Midwest becomes "Heartland" with a repetitive, sappy national anthem.

Due to network restraints on making this movie, this was Nicholas Meyer's only TV movie.

I think Nicholas Meyer should make a "Director's Cut" for this movie and release it to theaters (Rated R..for graphic content)

With CGI, he could remake all the nuclear blasts, show people burning up and getting incinerated, and show more devastation

BEST LINE: This is Lawrence. This is Lawrence, Kansas. Is there anybody there? Anybody at all? (Joe Huxley)

WORST LINE: Get out of my house! (Dr. Oakes)

[It's bad because his house does not exist anymore]

The thing that puzzles me is...why was Kansas City nuked? It's not a military target.

When the EMP occurs, people try to re-start their cars....and all the engines restarting sound alike.

Very unlikely.

Grocery Store scene:

NOBODY is leaving without paying for their groceries first.

UNREAL....given the circumstances.

I once thought that the scenario that this movie covered, M.A.D., had been forever laid to rest in the early 1990's.

Thanks to current events, it has risen, like a vampire, and once again stalks the night.