How does all of that compare to the explosion depicted in The Sum of All Fears? I always seemed to me that that bomb was not very large. It was devastating to the stadium and the people in it, but otherwise not as harsh. The President, after all, had enough time to get a survivable distance away. A dirty bomb might be more destructive, but not nearly as effective (from a terrorist’s point of view) at creating an immediately recognizable danger.
That was “Testament”. I remember that scene too, and then after he dies, the mother won’t bury him until they can find his teddy bear.
I have to nitpick this, but no. Very few weapons used in a nuclear exchange would be that powerful. Russia does have a few 20-mt-capable land-based weapons remaining, the gigantic SS-18, but the great majority of strategic nuclear warheads are far smaller, almost all under one megaton. Increased missile accuracy has allowed the nuclear power to actually reduce the size of their weapons and concentrate on MIRV deployment.
Pretty much this. I also thought it felt “toned down” from what things would really be like after.
I saw Threads some months later on PBS, and that had an impact.
It was unsettling. The doomsday clock hasn’t improved since then.
I never saw it, but didn’t at the end of TDA, come up a message saying that in a real nuclear exchange, the effects would have been even worse.
The following is largely my opinions and information that I have gathered over the years. I’m not certain this is all correct. But you can search for the info and I hope you will find that most of the following is correct.
I believe a “dirty bomb” is a much different kind of bomb than a nuclear bomb.
A dirty bomb does not produce much of an immediate problem. But it will make life in that area very unpleasant for a very long time. People who live there will suffer many long term cancers and other diseases they will want to avoid.
But the problems from a dirty bomb will last much longer and will remain in effect for many many years.
The immediate aftermath is not extreme. There is no big explosioan. No immediate deaths.
But the area is still unliveable and remains unliveable for many, many years.
Dirty bombs are much easier to construct. They are cheaper to construct and harder to detect than nuclear bombs.
I was a Junior in high school never saw it, I was doing something other than TV all the time. I didn’t even watch SNL in the eighties.
Actually, it most likely way overblew the way things would have been.
People, particularly rural farmers, wouldn’t have laid down and died that easy.
I saw it, but it did not make much of an impression. Trust a TV movie to be overly melodramatic about the end of the world. Plus I also got the impression that the network was trying to scare me into not supporting Reagan’s ideas vis-a-vis the Cold War by telling me something of which I was already aware. Nuclear war would be a bad thing - who knew?
I was reminded of the story about Cal Coolidge. He came back from church, and someone asked what the sermon was about.
“Sin”, said Cal.
“What did he say?”
“He was against it.”
As it turns out, we managed to avoid being blown up by nuclear missiles. But we didn’t do it by watching TV.
Regards,
Shodan
I was just out of college, and living in a student co-op. I had no idea that this show was going to air. I got four channels on broadcast tv. I turned on the tv just as they were showing the “breaking news” portion. I bought it. 100%. I completely freaked out and went running down the hall. I can still vividly recall the guy I didn’t much like anyway giving me that “Jane, you ignorant slut” look as he explained it was just a tv show.
Reagan was, according to his autobiography, affected and depressed by the film, and he included it in a list of things that moved him to pursue nuclear disarmament.
Plus, a flim isn’t supposed to tell you things you don’t know. Its supposed to make you feel them. I knew storming the beaches of Normandy sucked before I saw Saving Private Ryan, but that doesn’t make the Normandy beach scenes in that movie pointless.
The film aired in 1983, when Reagan had been President for two years already. I find it difficult to believe that Reagan had had no impulse towards preventing WWIII before seeing this movie, or that he came up with the Strategic Defense Initiative or the “zero option” towards missiles in Europe because of it.
Regards,
Shodan
God damned movie stole my innocence. I started having major panic attacks that very night. I was too young to be watching such scary stuff. I think maybe 11? Or 12 depending on what month it aired. Watched it again last time this topic came up and it was just a crappy made-for-tv movie but that brief part with all the immediate destruction still gives me trouble to watch.
Exactly.
Cheesy, over-the-top, and cliches out the wazoo.
I was a freshman at the local community college and it’s all we talked about… the day after (sorry).
It did leave a lasting impression on me and when we bombed Libya in 1986 I went into a bit of depression, thinking this is where things were headed. Hey, I was in community college and not the most aware.
I was really shocked to see the ratings for The Day After: when it aired it was one of the top 10 most-watched programs of all time.
Sometimes I think even we who lived through it forget just how pervasive the nuclear exchange fear was then. Obviously not as bad as it was in the 50s and 60s, but Reagan added quite a bit of oomph to the imminence of it happening that had drained away with the 70s and Detente.
I remember hearing some of my nieces and nephews were required to watch it.
I sent them copies of this short story by John Varley called “The ManhattAn Phone Book - Abridged”
My parents told me I was not allowed to watch it shortly before it came on (not that I had planned to, I hadn’t even heard of it) but the next day in elementary school the teacher made us sit in a circle on the floor and talk about it. Kinda dull when you haven’t seen it.
My friend (who was in another class) was later talking about it and he made it sound really cool.
I finally saw it sometime around the turn of the century when it popped up on cable, and it was pretty crappy, IMO.
In the vein of that:
Failsafe…that sound the phone makes when melting…devastating.
I’ve only seen parts of By Dawn’s Early Light but some were fantastically well done. The guys in Omaha still doing their job though they know death is moments away.
and of course Dr. Strangelove
I’ve often tried to imagine what I would do if in my car and it and all the cars around me suddenly shut down. Hope it was a sun flare I suppose.