Threads: A Nuclear Nightmare: A Movie Review

This movie was made in the United Kingdom and shown in 1984 to an unsuspecting populace. It tells a story beginning on May 5, of normal people going about their business. Occasionally a fighter jet is shown taking off. In the background radio announcers speak about events unraveling in the Middle East. People maybe are hearing the reports but are pretty much ignoring them. There are newspaper headlines but people aren't reading. They're just trying to get on with their life, right? In the movie the Soviet Union and US are blustering over Iran, and both nations are sending troops. It's a setting much like what's happening today, except today Iran is the major player.
      Every person alive from 10 years old and up should see this movie, so that several generations of people can see what could happen if we don't get our act together about nuclear weapons. The US and Russia have somewhat done that. Unfortunately, today, there are some difficult players in the nuclear club, namely North Korea and Iran (according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, just announced, 2-6-13)  and a spark in either country could set off the conflagration. More about the bad players later.
      I'm not a dove by any means. There are bad people and bad nations out there, and I'm including the 'bad' when I say everybody should see the movie.

Photo has nothing to do with post; just showing a little peace on earth

      The movie begins by showing several people and what they are doing. Adults are gardening and preparing meals, young people are studying and playing computer games. Most are followed through the movie but it begins to get a bit difficult to remember who is who. The main characters, to me, are a young man and woman courting and planning marriage against the wishes of the young man's parents.(I refer to them as Bride & Groom, since I was never able to understand their names, because, as you know, the Brits talk with a different accent.) The young couple moves ahead with their plans and find a place to live, even begin remodeling and scraping wall paper. Groom is at work when the sirens begin and tries to get home. He doesn't make it. We don't see what happens to him, but to my knowledge he doesn't appear again.
      Bride is pregnant: Another human being to carry on with and/or rebuild civilization, so that's a good thing, right? Well, right after a nuclear attack maybe not. In just days social networks will be breaking down fast.Think of it, the survivors of a city--all with severe burns--come to the hospital and overwhelm it. Soon no water, no drugs, no bandages, nothing but pain and screaming. Good luck with prenatal care.
      May 8th, Red Army tanks enter Iran.
      May 11th, US submarine sunk; US blames Soviet Union.
      May 12th, Soviets complain to US. UK government sends troops to help, and begins transferring power and authority to local, larger cities, which have command centers beneath town halls and city centers. Groom appears to be trying to listen more closely to news reports.
      May 21st, demonstrations to end nukes. Good luck with that.
      May 22nd, demonstrations both anti war and "Go back to Russia!" US ultimatum to the Soviets expires at noon. Riots in East Germany. People begin stockpiling food. Prices rise, steeply.
      May 24th, people are leaving cities, heading for countrysides, are told to stop jamming the highways and to go home. American carrier Kittyhawk is sunk. Lines of autos for fuel everywhere.
      May 25th, Civil Defense giving instructions to people (what really got me was how to care for a dead body, as if there wouldn't be many.) Heavy equipment, fire engines, ambulances, begin moving. Bride is very pregnant and sick. Phone service is lost...but does not mean war, says Civil Defense. The people called to emergency centers have no training, many are not even aware of their future duties. Civil Defense keeps giving instructions and preparing for the worst.
      May 26th, the sirens begin...for real. People begin running, as if it's possible to hide from a nuke.
      Single warhead detonates over North Sea. Electricity and communications gone.
      Groom is at his job. He and another worker crawl under a truck, later crawl out and see a mushroom cloud rising. There will be more. Groom tries to start his car. Won't start. We don't see him again.
      Fireball, blast, 80 megatons are used on UK. Lights out, all windows in UK broken. Groom's family pretty much lost. Bride's family better, but Bride, sick, leaves, will return later and open the door to the basement to a terrible smell and the sound of a gazillion flies. She now is pregnant and alone and will wander. She will see vacant-eyed people, a woman holding a dead baby, a child running and crying looking for his mother. Devastation and burning everywhere.
      June, the mushroom clouds have blocked the sun, temperatures fall. Rioting for food. People told to return to their homes. Bride begins carrying a bundle, inside a hairbrush, a burned book of bird identification, other miscellany. Rats are everywhere. Cholera, dysentery, typhoid. Soldiers shoot looters.
      Mid-June, work projects begin. People who can work are fed. Many people are dying, which means more food for others. Disposal of bodies. 10-20 million corpses and no fuel to burn them. Detention camps are set up for looters.
      July, people, including Bride, are wandering away from cities. Plane flies over, and, ironically, orders people to return to their homes. Bride, with another man, finds dead sheep; they eat raw meat, just tearing it apart with their teeth like early cave men probably did.
      September, Bride is hallucinating, sees Groom and a child in a stroller. Agriculture is dead, but seeds are planted anyway. Bride finds shelter, which is protected by a chained and angry dog; she gets past him and gives birth, alone. She loves the child and eats her own afterbirth.
      May, one year later. Her child crying during a snowstorm, Dead rats are now currency.
      Ten years later. The young Bride is an old woman, gray hair, teeth missing, almost unrecognizable. She dies, leaving her child alone. Daughter takes her belongings, including the tattered book of birds.
      Thirteen years. Daughter has some food, is attacked by two looters. One is shot by police or military. Not clear. A shot rings out and one looter is dead. Daughter and the other run away, find shelter. The looter still tries to take her food; he rapes her. Now Daughter is pregnant. She wanders. She gives birth to a dead baby. Story ends with Daughter staring at the bloody baby bundle, she screams, screen fades....
      Thank God it's over....
      I tried to keep dates and events correct, but probably didn't.
      There were no emotions shown when Daughter's mother died. Daughter just accepted it. After the attack there were no more smiles from anyone. No empathy for anyone. Watching this movie disturbed me, as there seemed to be no hope for the future. I, too, have written a book about nuclear war, "Winter in July," but even with the endless research I did, which sometimes caused night-after-night nightmares, I still didn't really experience what this movie said.
      In the end, I hope it's not only the UK experiencing such devastation. If the US, Russia and China are also destroyed...the movie didn't say.
      More about the two contemporary bad player nations: They both have joined the nuclear club, which already has too many members. So such a hopeless future again seems possible. A scenario: North Korea, now with her long range missile, threatens to send a nuke to California, unless the US rescinds all sanctions. US refuses. The nuke is sent. China, North Korea's best friend, says "Do not retaliate." Which, of course, the US does retaliate.
      So begins the exchange.
      The only thing that will stop a nuclear war...well, I was trying to think of a reason, a good ending for this post, but probably nothing will stop a nuclear war. We have the weapons. We might as well use them and find out if it will really be as bad as they say.

Thanks for reading

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