In 1983, a movie called The Day After was aired on ABC TV. It told a speculative story about a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a movie that stuck with me for a long time and actually taught me a few facts about what humanity would face if anyone was unlucky enough to survive the initial blasts.
I didn’t know until recently that the BBC aired a movie in 1984 called Threads that told a similar story but from a British perspective. It too featured a scenario where tensions escalated between the U. S. and the Soviet Union to the point of a nuclear conflict.
My memories of The Day After are faint but I do remember it being bleak and depressing. After watching Threads, I can safely say that had I seen it in 1984, I’d probably still be in therapy now. It is a deeply disturbing movie that still packs a punch 34 years after it was originally aired. Sadly, due to the recent developments in our world, it’s also relevant again.
Threads concentrates on the city of Sheffield, the fourth largest city in Britain. Because it’s a center of industry and located near an air base likely to be used by U. S. planes in the event of a war in Europe, it’s bound to be targeted in a nuclear exchange.
We’re introduced to Ruth (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy (Reece Dinsdale), an unmarried couple who have just discovered they’re going to have a baby. They let their respective parents know that they plan to get married and soon they pick out an apartment. As their parents meet, and they start to paint their new place, background news stories about escalating military conflict between the U. S. and the Soviet Union, centered around a coup in Iran, gradually become more prominent.
Soon, we see the entire city starting to make preparations for war. Shelters are built, medical supplies are inventoried, and food warehouses are locked and put under armed guard. People begin panic-buying groceries. All the while, the government tries to assure the populace that these are just precautions and nuclear war is unlikely. Still, the news stories become more and more menacing as time goes on.
Of course, the war starts and nuclear devastation comes to Britain and its people.
Threads does an excellent job of documenting what the destruction might look like and does so in a way that is surprisingly frank for a made-for-TV movie. It not only shows the material damage but focuses even more on the effects that nuclear war has on humanity. A narrator and text graphics also spell out what is happening as Britain’s population numbers fall, the sun is blotted out by fallout, and the temperature drops as a result of nuclear winter.
We follow Ruth and Jimmy’s paths as the bombs fall and afterwards. We see what their families go through and what their neighbors go through. It’s sobering and hard to watch. It’s even harder to comprehend a real situation that would justify unleashing this kind of hell on Earth. Yet, here we are 34 years later and no better off than we were when this was made.
It’s hard to recommend a film like Threads because it is so disturbing. But, frankly, I think it remains essential viewing even 34 years after it was made.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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