Threads

I was about eleven or twelve when this harrowing made-for-TV docu-drama was repeated by the BBC, back to back with 'The War Game'. 'The War Game' didn't faze me much, for various reasons, but 'Threads' - that grabbed me instantly and wouldn't let go. It was not only horribly real, seeing a lower-middle class family rather like my own suddenly plunged back into the dark ages by a nuclear holocaust, it was also entirely believable (the cold war was still very much an ongoing concern back in the eighties) and shockingly compelling. I wanted to look away, but couldn't. I wanted to run from the room in fright, but couldn't. For better or worse, this film showed in full, unflinching, uncompromising detail exactly what it would be like if your home town got nuked, and gave us graphic realism in spades. Melting milk-bottles, spontaneous urination, houses reduced to rubble in seconds, burning cats, dead kids, gore, vomit, armed traffic wardens shooting looters, filth, decay, disease...it's certainly not a barrel of laughs, but Mick Jackson's aim was to shut up all the ignorant gung-hos who believed a nuclear war could be "won". He succeeded, unequivocally. The scene that made the deepest impact on me was the ravaged makeshift classroom with a ragged bunch of shell-shocked adults dazedly watching an ancient videotape of a schools programme (Words and Pictures, in fact) in an attempt to regain their numeracy and literacy skills. That was a show we used to watch at school. Work it out for yourself. In short, this is a downbeat, depressing, bleak and utterly horrible film, but I recommend it wholeheartedly to everyone. The cold war may be gone, but the threats portrayed are still very real.

Every zombie and vampire movie ever made are Disney cartoons compared to Threads. One begins to realize the complete impotence of Hollywood crap like The Walking Dead and 100 variations of Vampire films. There is absolutely no need to see a horror film after viewing this piece; no horror film ever made could even have a tenth of its impact. The ghastly scenes are too numerous to mention; the horror all too real and unspeakable. The lucky ones are those who were killed instantly. A fable about a nuclear attack in England hits the bullseye for horror. Mr. Hines has created a horror masterpiece. The only thing is that vampires and zombies are fantasies; these survivors of a nuclear holocaust are real-life people. Well, I would not exactly call them people, but lower life forms of animals, as the human race would no longer exist as we know it. Only subhuman animals seeking water, food, shelter and clothing. This is the Rolls Royce of Nuclear Holocaust films. And now we have the US-Russia crisis over Ukraine. How much different is that from the one portrayed in the film? Not much. Might be time to stock up on bottled water, canned foods, a first aid kit, a supply of generic drugs, and a 38 with lots of cartridges and head for that remote cabin at the lake.

This is perhaps one of the most masochistic films ever made. You are taken into the personal world of two British families in Sheffield (site of a major NATO installation), who have children that are about to be married. Thousands of miles away, World War 3 slowly starts, and the ultimate horror happens. Thermonuclear war breaks out. The world, literally, grinds to a halt, in one of the most scientifically accurate depictions of nuclear war since "War Game, The" (1965). Unlike the US film "Day After, The" (1983) (TV), the film gives detailed information as to what is happening on a scientific basis. You are shown how a worst-case scenario can happen, and what the effects are, as you follow the surviving members of the two families through the aftermath. The scenes of death, destruction and disease are so realistic, I had to shower after seeing this film for the first time. But what is most disturbing is that the film includes the long-term effects of global thermonuclear war, going into weeks, months, years, even decades. The film ends thirteen years after the nuclear attack, and the final frames of the film will burn into you like no other film ever will. There can be no question that this film MUST be re-released in the USA on DVD, so that it's message will be heard and felt.

The 80's were a different time. Everybody was making money, everybody was having a great time, things never looked better. Except there was always the threat of nuclear war hanging above our heads. This was more than just an idea. We felt it. It was always there just at the edges of your awareness and you could never really ignore it.

Enter "The Day After" which was an American made for TV movie showing what would happen. It was scary and it was effective but it showed an undercurrent of hope. That even in such a tragedy we could survive, pull together and win. Threads has no such message. It shows that even in a limited strike we are well and truly boned. No hope. No chance of a better world. The lucky ones would be the ones that died in the initial blast or that died shortly afterwards. The unlucky ones are the ones that would go on living and slowly get sick before dying.

This movie gave a detailed version of what would happen. From the initial blast to the radiation sickness to the lack of any kind of support or infrastructure afterwards. The worst part showing the long term effects of it. The birth defects, the lack of medicine and aid, the fact that suddenly food and clean water, things we take for granted becoming the most precious resources around.

This movie is a punch to the gut followed by a slow but deliberate beating until you are left spent on the ground quivering in fear. This needs to be required viewing by anybody in the East or West that might even consider that a nuclear strike is a good idea.

It's not. It would literally mean the end of life as we know it.

I first saw "Threads" in high school, and saw it again recently as a grown adult. It does make a measure how old you are when viewing this movie; you take the actions on screen more seriously.

"Threads" plays like BBC documentary about a catastrophic nuclear war, interjecting live scenes with a bland monologue and various statistics, although one wonders what audience would be viewing this documentary.

Since it does play like a documentary, it feels no need to either overplay events or sugarcoat things for our sensibilities. There's no speeches or heroic actions, everything occurs as it happens, no matter how horrifying.

The gore is moderate (it was a TV movie after all) but is unsettling because it's taken to be real. Throughout you look for some hopeful thought to intrude, even comic relief, but "Threads" stares you down, making you watch the horror and woe to the bitter end. There is no hope or salvation, only despair.

It's worth seeing a movie like this as a reminder of the horrors of nuclear war; the threat of a mututal destruction by superpowers seems to be fast fading, but there's always the possibility of terrorists or new enemies.

"Threads" is to nuclear war what "Saving Private Ryan" is to war movies, a landmark film that delivers a strong political message without ever really mentioning it.