2/3 The Day After | 1983 Nuclear War Movie
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Published 2022-11-17
The Day After is an American-made-for-TV movie first broadcast on the ABC television network in 1983. More than 100 million people, in nearly 39 million households, watched the initial broadcast. The film hugely impacted US audiences and aired on Soviet state TV in 1987. The Day After is often credited with helping to usher in a period of nuclear arms reduction treaties in the late 1980s and was ranked the highest-rated television film until 2009.
The Day After depicts a scenario of rising tensions along the East-West border of a divided Germany during the latter phase of the Cold War. Relations between NATO and Russia rapidly deteriorate as events spiral out of control leading to armed conflict and nuclear war. The film focuses on Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri where several family farms sit close to nuclear missile silos. The Day After documents the actual state of nuclear readiness maintained by the US and Russia. Both nations maintain a nuclear triad in constant readiness for thermonuclear war.
The Day After was first conceived by ABC Motion Picture Division president Brandon Stoddard who came up with the idea after watching The China Syndrome. Veteran television writer Edward Hume undertook a massive amount of research on the likely effects of nuclear war and went to work on a script in 1981. Due to the graphic content of the subject matter, however, several drafts were rejected by the network until the characters and plot finally seemed acceptable for a family audience. Most of the actors in The Day After were Kansas City residents recruited from local shopping malls.
Director Nicholas Meyer had just completed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and wanted to create a film that accurately portrayed the consequences of nuclear war. After wrangling with the US Department of Defence and the ABC censors, Meyer released a compromise version of The Day After for primetime TV screens. According to the message at the end of the film:
‘The catastrophic events you have just witnessed are, in all likelihood, less severe than the destruction that would occur in the event of a full-scale nuclear strike against the United States.
It is hoped that the images of this film will inspire the nations of this earth, their peoples and leaders, to find the means to avert the fateful day.’
The Day After: https://amzn.to/3jGzX3H
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All Comments (21)
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The joys of growing up in the Cold War. I watched this on TV with my parents when I was 10 or so. Afterwards I asked my mom if it was just a movie or if it could really happen. She said it could really happen. I asked her what would we do? She said it wouldn't matter what we did. Then I went to school the next day and thought about it nonstop for 20 years.
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never forget that Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov saved humanity from nuclear destruction on September 26, 1983 and this is a true story.
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They need to broadcast this movie again right now worldwide for free. Scared the hell out of the public when originally broadcast and now more important than ever before.
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As an 18 year old watching this movie first run,it scared the hell out me. It changed me. It took months to get back to normal.
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It's almost impossible to overstate what a huge TV event this was. Everything stopped the night they aired this.
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As a kid, this movie scared me more than any 80's horror film. Freddie, Jason and Michael Myers had nothing on this reality. And yes, I've seen Threads. This is far more realistic, has better acting and special effects.
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John Lithgow is such an underrated actor. He could play the captain of the Titanic. He is so stoic and calm. The realization there is no recall no way to stop what comes next.
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When my ex and I watched this the first time it was aired, after huge media promotion, we stared at the TV screen for the entire movie and never said a word to each other. It was a state of shock that I have no words to describe...
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40 years later, this movie still hits hard.
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As a young teenager, I watched this on television when it first aired. The fact that not a single commercial was to be aired during the broadcast once the missiles were launched was unprecedented. Now, as a 50+-year-old, the scariest part about this movie is that it is a heavily toned-down version of the result of a nuclear war.
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2:46 expression on that kids face is just perfection, what an actor!
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This movie should play every year so Nuclear war never becomes normalized.
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US President Ronald Reagan watched the film more than a month before its screening on Columbus Day, October 10, 1983. He wrote in his diary that the film was "very effective and left me greatly depressed" and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a "nuclear war". The film was also screened for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A government advisor who attended the screening, a friend of Meyer, told him: "If you wanted to draw blood, you did it. Those guys sat there like they were turned to stone."
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What is more scary for me than the explosion itself is the amount of effort and technology the human race is able to put in the most wrong and useless things like war and destruction. Mind blowing
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This sure brings back some personal history. I was 13 when this came on TV, and lived right in the area where the story happens, surrounded by nuclear missile silos. In fact, there was one less than three miles from my house. A few years later, in my 20s, I dated a guy in the Air Force whose job was to actually fire one of those missiles. He arranged for me and a couple of his family members to get a private tour of one of the bases. It was pretty awesome. Two years after that, all of those silos in Missouri and Kansas were decommissioned and the missiles were all removed. I've often wondered how much this movie influenced the decision to remove them.
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Special effects in this film were off the charts for that time. Mushroom clouds look so realistic
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I was a junior in high school. Watched this while babysitting. The kids were already sleeping when the movie played. I distinctly remember when the movie ended, hearing John Lithgow’s character calling on a ham radio…”This is Lawrence Kansas….is anyone out there…anyone at all…”. Ted Kopple hosted a discussion after the movie. He looked at the camera and said, “Take a deep breath, look outside. It’s still there…”. Still brings me to tears after 40 years.
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I was born in USSR in late 70's, honestly we haven't had this kind of movies in cinemas, but a lot of documentaries and real pictures from Hiroshima were demostrated during special course of co called "civil safety" courses at scool. I remember how shocked and impressed I was, even having nightmares when I had 10-12 years. I do remember this constant feeling of possible eventual catastrophy. The problem is that we never saw the same deception of American people, which is a way of manipulation and artifical creation of enemy perception. I hope those who remember and understand that may make effort to reduce actual tension and progression to madness. We share same values of family and peaceful life, and we sould never forget that we have same uniqie home - Earth.
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The population of the world needs to see this and everything to educate us. The danger is very close and we need to be scared now.
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If this ever happens in my lifetime, I'm going to sit by the river and be ready to go to God and my family. 🙏🏾
