The 1980s films terrorized us with nuclear warfare before Putin.

Since the time Americans were terrified at the thought of nuclear war, it has been decades since that moment. A sword of Damocles. But with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion and attempted conquest of Ukraine, and The attendant nuclear saber-rattling, we’ve all been reminded that, oh yeah, the world could still blow itself up many times over! The possibility of it happening never went away, but we chose to forget about it, or, more accurately, not to think about this in post-Cold War America.

However, not that long ago, entertainment and our news media reminded us of this fact. The early to mid-1980s — the last decade of the Cold War before Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on his democratic-leaning principles of perestroikaAnd glasnost — was an especially chilly moment in our country’s relations. And at that moment, the prospect of an instant nuclear holocaust and its aftermath was dramatized in scores of ’80s movies.

Nuclear war in pre-’80s Hollywood

Hollywood started making movies about nuclear after Japan had used its nuclear weapons against the United States just a few short years prior. The Beginning or End (1947),About the Manhattan Project is the American film which tackled this issue. Following that, ’50s horror and science fiction cinema Of course, the threat of nuclear war and radiation is often portrayed as a metaphor.Movies about mutation like Them!And Godzilla(both 1954) And alien invasion in films such as The Day the Earth Stood StillAnd The War of the Worlds (both 1953).

The 1960s was the first “golden age” of nuclear war-themed movies, which dramatized the threat literally, rather than allegorically. The introduction of the hydrogen bomb in 1956 — which was Many times more powerful than the atomic bomb — and the escalation of the Cold War and the U.S. arms race with the Soviet Union, presented an existential threat to all of the civilizations that Hollywood captured in features like Dr. Strangelove (1964), Bedford Incident (1965), Failing Safe (1964), Seven days in May(1964) The Best Man (1964). These movies were made to show post-apocalyptic survival. At the Beach (1959), The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959), The Time Machine (1960), The Day the Earth caught Fire(1961), Panic in Year Zero (1962).

Hollywood has occasionally made films about nuclear war or nuclear holocaust, as well as other topics in the 1970s and 1960s. Glen and Randa (1971), A Boy and His Dog(1975), Damnation AlleyIt was however a period of inactivity for the genre. Although nuclear war remained a serious threat, it was not as pronounced in the public imagination as other issues of the time, such as the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the emergence of counterculture, Nixon’s presidency, and urban crime problems, which informed Hollywood of the late 1960s and 1970s.

’80s Nuclear war dramas

This dormant period came to a dramatic end in the early 1980s, when American movies and television ramped up production of nuclear war films to reflect the Reagan administration’s prominent expansion of the arms race and the president’s Anti-Soviet Union demonizing rhetoric. These developments sparked national panic, which eventually led to A politically powerful peace movementA selection of anti-war films.

’80s nuclear war-themed movies dramatized both the danger and the imminence of a nuclear holocaust, exploiting our collective national fear that it could kick off at any second. The following dramas were produced during this era The China Syndrome (1979), Testament (1983), Silkwood (1983), Radioactive dreams (1985), The Manhattan Project (1986), Miracle Mile (1988), Fat Man and Little Boy(1989) Hunt for Red October (1990). Both James Bond movies were made in 1983. OctopussyAnd Never Say Never Again, presented the threat of nuclear explosions (of course, Bond films have this same threat).

Perhaps the most well-remembered of the era’s nuclear war-themed dramas, and one of the biggest hits of 1983, was WargamesJohn Badham directed the film. While trying to steal software, the movie’s teenage hero, David (Matthew Broderick), accidentally hacks into the main computer at NORADThe U.S. nuclear missile stockpile launch capabilities is controlled by. The computer, nicknamed “Joshua,” has been programmed to play military strategy games, but has also been programmed to trick the powers-that-be into thinking a real nuclear war is occurring. As Joshua counts down, the U.S. brass ready what they think is a counter-strike to a Soviet first strike (the Soviets aren’t really launching, but of course, they WillIf the U.S. starts to fire first, launch.

David, a man of great strength and determination, is the only person who can guide Joshua through the maze. He is the one person who not only understands how to communicate with and use the technology, but how to get the computer system to “learn” that global thermonuclear war is a game that can’t be won. The frightening part of the movie is that it seems unlikely that America would hand over control and command of its nuclear arsenals to one computer.

Manhattan Project(1986), directed and produced by Marshall Brickman, is an thematic retread WargamingWith a white male teen genius/hero, Paul Stephens (Christopher Collette), he shows the adults the dangers of militarism. Paul is a physics, chemistry and engineering expert who creates an atomic bomb out of plutonium he robs from a local facility near Cornell University. His goal is to inform the community that radioactive material can be made in dangerous ways. But, as with WargamesHe seems to have only one goal: to impress Cynthia Nixon (Cynthia Nixon), who follows him everywhere, and unquestioningly supports all of his plans. Ahhh, the ’80s.

Not surprisingly, given that Hollywood movies of the era were aimed at teens, many of the nuclear war/WWIII movies represented teenagers as the last hope for civilization — technological savants who could intercede on behalf of adults who had lost their way. This can also be seen in Red Dawn (1984), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome And Real Genius(both 1985), among other. The teen saves the planet from nuclear weapons sub-genre is a late, but crucial entry. Terminator 2: Judgement Day(1991) With its indelible dream sequence Los Angeles destroyed by nuclear fire.

Science fiction and nuclear holocaust

James Cameron’s T2 can be considered the culmination of the era — not only of Cold War nuke movies but of the ’80s golden age of sci-fi in general. Cameron’s The Terminator (1984) was one of the most terrifying of the sci-fi nuke movies, a hard-edged, violent vision of where we were potentially headed if we didn’t change our ways fast. The franchise is so inundated in our culture now, it seems like it’s always been around, but the bleak vision of the original Terminator, and its message that nuclear war is inevitable felt shocking during one of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War.

George Miller’s Mad MaxAustralian movies were also amongst the most beloved sci-fi visions. The first Mad Max(1979) suggested an uncertain dystopian future. However, with larger budgets, the sequels The Road Warrior(1982) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome elaborated and specified a post-nuclear holocaust. Alluding back to the OPEC Crisis of the 1970sIn the Mad Max films, oil scarcity was depicted as contributing to the fall and destruction of civilizations in the early Mad Max movies. Mad Max: Fury Road(2015) Updates the scarcity crisis to water reflecting current global shortages.

Other nuke-themed ’80s sci-fi films include Dreamscape (1984); Robocop (1987)In this case, nuclear bombs pose an existential threat while toxic waste is more immediate; and even Back to the Future (1985) With its Libyan terrorists, nuclear-powered time machine and nuclear-powered time machines. As I write elsewhere, John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing (1982) “is all about existential dread. Like the threat of nuclear war, the alien entity in the movie is unseen, could strike at any moment, and leads to the rearranging of human beings at the cellular level.” In a similar allegorical fashion, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn(1982), even though it is set in outer-space in the 23rd Century, concerns a planet destroying doomsday machine, while one major character dies of radiation poisoning.

Finally, hard-R zombie and radioactive mutant movies were the ’80s equivalent of ’50s sci-fi horror. Movies like The Aftermath (1982), Night of the Comet (1984), The Toxic Avenger (1984), Re-Animator (1985), George Romero’s Living Dead movies, and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies struck a major chord, especially in the new home video market.

Made-for TV movies also dramatized horror

Unlike the broadcast of “The War of the Worlds,” Americans didn’t think that The Day AfterIt was a live portrayal of a nuclear conflict, but it did increase the fear that a civilization-ending civil war was possible. Kim Newman suggestsMeyer linked the two broadcasts, inserting in the last scene of The Day After, a quote from the very Welles show about which he had written: “Is there anybody out there . . . anybody at all?” intones a character played by John Lithgow. Even President Reagan was influenced by the movie.Who wrote it? In his diary, “It’s very effective and left me greatly depressed. … My own reaction was one of our having to do all we can to have a deterrent and to see there is never a nuclear war.”

The Day AfterThis was not the only TV film to discuss the dangers and consequences of nuclear war. Other movies included Testament (1983); World War III (1982); Amerika (1983); Special Bulletin (1983); Countdown until Looking Glass(1984); and the BBC film Threads (1984), This is equally terrifying.Its realistic portrayal of nuclear war, and its inexorable aftermath is as convincing as any other counterparts across the Atlantic.

These TV productions stressed realistic portrayals of the danger and imminent nuclear holocaust. He discusses his approach to The Day After, Meyer, “I never viewed this as a movie per se, more like a big public service announcement. I wanted it to be as crude and in your face as possible.” The idea of the public service announcement — TV as a disseminator of information — is consistent with the way that the networks traditionally represented the threat and consequences of nuclear war beginning in the mid-1960s. It’s also probably why the TV films, both in the US and the UK, were typically scarier and more realistic than their Hollywood counterparts.

You might find nukes funny!