h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nearly 3 minutes into this clip. Scared the bejesus out of me at the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52dWAY_J_E&mode=related&search=

"Nearly 3 minutes into this clip. Scared the bejesus out of me at the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52dWAY_J_E&mode=related&search=" I actually think it would be interesting for someone to make an alternative-history film where the USA and USSR really do start a nuclear war and details the outcome from the perspective of the major political players as well as ordinary people on the ground. Could be fascinating. Reminds me of when I went to see "The Sum Of All Fears" and was disappointed that it wasn't set in the early 1980s (as I believe the novel was) but was contemporary with some "Russia being angry over Chechnya" nonsense which simply didn't ring true. The reveal about who's really behind the bomb makes even less sense when you realise Europe wasn't divided between the NATO and Warsaw Pact blocs anymore.

I think Sum of All Fears is the film that has on the commentary track Tom Clancy introduce himself as "The man who wrote the book that was almost entirely ignored when making this film."

<<Nearly 3 minutes into this clip. Scared the bejesus out of me at the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52dWAY_J_E&mode=related&search=>>

That is one scary piece of television. Though not quite as scary as some of the viewers' comments on the youtube page...

'The Sum of All Fears' is well worth reading. Alert – Tom Clancy spends one chapter describing, in some detail, the sequence of events in the nuclear device as it detonates, it goes on for some pages before the casing of the bomb gets round to rupturing!

Lx

Then there is the sixties film ‘The Day the Earth Caught Fire’.

It concerns the accidental simultaneous detonation of two 'super' H bombs by the USA and the USSR which knocks the Earth off its orbit and creates global heating on an unprecedented scale. The only answer to the Earth’s plight is to detonate another two bombs to try to counteract the misalignment.
The final scene in a newspaper office during the last countdown shows the headline about to be printed ‘Earth Saved’.

Then the camera pans slowly to one side to show the alternative headline ‘Earth Doomed’…

DK

Whoops Apocalypse, both the sitcom and the film.

Yup, I remember the 80's. The feelings of futility as has been pointed out. There were no jobs and, to a teenager at least, an almost certainty of all-out nuclear war.

Interestingly, I'm now married to someone who was in the Royal Observer Corps at the time. She was supposed to be on the metereology staff at the main Scottish government bunker. They war-gamed and exercised extensively.

In 42 exercises between 1983 and 1988, they never managed to save more than 2% of the civilian population.

I think the diference between now and the 70's/80's , is that although nuclear weapons are still around and could be used , they are unlikely to come raining out of the sky by the dozen at any moment . Plus these weapons would have been top of the range soviet high yeald jobbies .
Being near ground zero and evaporating instantly was the prefered way to die , rather than suffering the aftermath .


best fishes .......tod

I like to think that scaring the crap out of past generations with films like Threads, The Day After and Duck and Cover ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WVPHXW6_lk&NR ) has helped to "remove" the nuclear threat.

I've always found the warning sirens (used in WWII and the Threads clip) the most chilling sound imaginable.

Not a film, but related: this song from the Eighties gives an idea of the kind of thinking that was prevalent: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_This.html#lyrics

RF

I don't remember that one. I always thought this one hit the nail on the head -

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/sting/russians_20132086.html

I highly recommend the documentary, "The Atomic Cafe". It features the Duck and Cover film and other archival footage from the 50's. It's sublime.

well yes that's where the route of evil starts tv land young minds get ideas from .