"Threads" and other nuclear holocausts.

sleepysilverdoor · Post by **sleepysilverdoor** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:41 am

So based on seeing discussions of how incredibly bleak and "Tomorrow's Harvest"-ey it was, I made the decision to watch Threads last night.

Jiminy Christmas.

I couldn't sleep and kept thinking about nuclear winter and radiation sickness all night.

Shew! What a horribly draining piece of work!

Anybody got any other recommendations for 'everything is destroyed civilization dies' movies?

Also on a side note, listening to this song during the movie makes it way better.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 11:30 am

It's a bit harrowing isn't it?

More here by the way.

(not being a thread-Nazi - just cross referencing for completeness

)

sleepysilverdoor · Post by **sleepysilverdoor** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 11:38 am

Ah, thanks! Perhaps I'll go over there.

vballs · Post by **vballs** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:48 pm

Where did you watch this 'Threads'? On you tube or something? Id love to see it.

sleepysilverdoor · Post by **sleepysilverdoor** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 3:44 pm

vballs, it's on youtube here!

vballs · Post by **vballs** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 3:53 pm

Thank you

I shall watch it later.

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:04 pm

Warning to those of you who like the idea of ever sleeping again or not having your days clouded by the idea of total oblivion:

Don't watch Threads.

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:13 pm

On a similar note - The War Game is also very good.

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:43 pm

I have Threads on DVD - probably the scariest film I've ever seen.

For more Cold War scary shit I recommend the Protect and Survive public information films. Thank whatever we never had these transmitted for real:

http://youtu.be/ceVmnRlUEO8

I would not be surprised if there were some nods to these on Tomorrow's Harvest, particularly the scary synth sting.

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:52 pm

I also recommend this for more period feel...there was a lot of paranoia about nuclear war back in the early 1980s:

http://youtu.be/7AYMS1po0L8

http://youtu.be/rLUUbZpfwoE

http://youtu.be/h0E8pNX9viE

I comforted myself with the thought that as I lived near a probable target, I would be engulfed in the fireball and vaporised in a millisecond.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 8:14 pm

I think it's fair to assume that BOC have seen Threads. It was pretty notorious in Britain at the time.

rhysosborne · Post by **rhysosborne** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 11:29 pm

i just watched Threads and it was superb! hauntingly realistic.
I'll come back to this topic in the morning to see what else has been posted here, thank you.

Cupz · Post by **Cupz** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 12:30 am

I found a vhs tape of The Day After not to long ago. Might pop that in. Those mushroom cloud effects in there are really surreal.

El Camino · Post by **El Camino** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 4:16 am

I also watched Threads last night, the movie didn't really terrify me but it was really entertaining and interesting. Imagine how scary it would've been seeing that in the 80's in Britain, when it was still a possibility.

sleepysilverdoor · Post by **sleepysilverdoor** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:31 pm

El Camino wrote:I also watched Threads last night, the movie didn't really terrify me but it was really entertaining and interesting. Imagine how scary it would've been seeing that in the 80's in Britain, when it was still a possibility.

It's entertaining in a weird sort of way, but even better as food for thought, I agree.

Living in Corpus Christi, we'd be in the same position as Sheffield was in the film: not exactly an enormous metropolis, but given the Navy Base, multiple oil refineries and chemical plants, and the high traffic shipping port, we really would make for a great strategic bombing target if one were to try and cripple the US economy.

Personally, the image that burnt itself into my brain the most from the film were the marginally successful attempts at agriculture at the end of the movie...with their silhouettes on a barren landscape.

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 7:07 pm

I have found another film about the government bunkers built under London and what would have happened had the balloon gone up:

http://youtu.be/p3So5cFDSA0

http://youtu.be/4fFm0rjv2ZQ

http://youtu.be/FaUgHspK1Tc

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 7:12 pm

El Camino wrote:I also watched Threads last night, the movie didn't really terrify me but it was really entertaining and interesting. Imagine how scary it would've been seeing that in the 80's in Britain, when it was still a possibility.

Threads was terrifying when it was shown - although I remember at school we used to laugh at some of the scenes too!

mucephei · Post by **mucephei** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 7:17 pm

And here's some helpful advice from HMG on what to do if grandad dies during a nuclear attack:

http://youtu.be/hGMdnod8VPI

El Camino · Post by **El Camino** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:20 pm

Well i can't recommend any other nuclear war movies but this reminded me of an album, This Heat's "Deceit" from 1981. The band members were fearing for a possible nuclear war and the whole album is based around that, really chaotic, unsettling and is kinda post-punk/industrial.
Plus the last track sounds like after a nuclear explosion, just an eerie drone with buzzes that sound like flies and other occasional screeches.

aperture · Post by **aperture** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:00 pm

Cupz wrote:I found a vhs tape of The Day After not to long ago. Might pop that in. Those mushroom cloud effects in there are really surreal.

I saw this when I was 7 and it fucked me up hard. I thought I was still looking at Mahoney from Police Academy. We lived near one of the towns where they filmed it and my brother told me every grain silo held a minuteman. I think The Day After and Threads were released months apart in 83/84. I probably read Children of the Dust a year or two later. Interesting time to grow up.