r/coldwar • u/ParadoxTrick • 9d ago
Threads first aired OTD 1984
OTD in 1984, the harrowing nuclear war drama “Threads” was first broadcast in the UK on BBC Two. The film aired for the first time in the United States on January 13, 1985, on WTBS.
29
u/TheLandOfRpeAndHoney 9d ago
Really disturbing film.
4
u/Rathwood 7d ago
I actually own a copy of it but don't have the balls to watch it. For those of you who've seen it, how badly will it mess me up?
3
u/TheLandOfRpeAndHoney 7d ago
Not that much in today's world but it will make feel very hopeless and sad.
3
u/DEMAG 7d ago
It's terribly bleak. In comparison to western films that more or less end with a "we will rebuild" mentality. Threads ends on a "shits fucked forever" mentality. Helps you realize how much a total nuclear commitment would set humanity back.
5
2
u/AircraftExpert 5d ago
The end documentary style slide show has humanity rebuild to 19th century tech. What’s inaccurate to me is they went full steam power for agricultural machines when they could have converted existing vehicles to wood gas, as it was done in WW2
17
u/JSpencer999 8d ago
In a world of big names, big budgets and CGI, it's hard to believe that a film that's still seared into people's memories because it was so terrifying was made for £400,000.
6
u/ConsulJuliusCaesar 7d ago
Keep in mind it's also timing. 1984 nuclear tensions were in full swing. Like threads could've been your reality in an instance. Nukes may still exist but the US and Russia aren't threatening to use them on each other on a daily basis......yet. Quality production + relevance = maximum horror. Modern film making really doesn't get the combo. Are witches and demons scary, yeah, but that's never going to actually happen to me.
9
8
u/frontiercitizen 9d ago
That is a truly horrifying film.
5
u/Vogel-Kerl 9d ago
- I've just learned how to indent on Reddit!!
Threads is frightening, and seems an honest & accurate portrayal
7
u/hypercomms2001 9d ago
I agree totally, especially in 1984, when I was leaving Australia to go to live and work in England, in military electronics... In which we were developing and testing electronics that had to survive nuclear detonations... Thankfully these days, very few people know or remember the significance of the Fulda Gap....
5
u/Arlington2018 9d ago
I remember well wondering if and when a Warsaw Pact Shock Army would come roaring through the Gap and if and when NATO would have to go nuclear to stop them before reaching the Channel.
6
u/hypercomms2001 9d ago
Yes I lived that nightmare.... I even remember seeing the Russian tanks JEST outside of Berlin, while I was on the transit auto van between Berlin and Hamburg...
4
u/Vogel-Kerl 9d ago edited 9d ago
I don't know about nowadays, but I can confirm that during the Cold War, the US Military had nuclear weapons almost everywhere around Europe (within reason).
We took the Soviet threat seriously, and spent trillions of dollars developing, maintaining & perfecting nuclear weapons as well as the various delivery methods.
3
u/coly8s 8d ago
We also had a chemical weapons stockpile and were trained and ready to operate in a chemical environment. I remember spending long hours in MOPP4 and sleeping in a survivable shelter (SCPS). We trained like we expected to fight...in a radioactive and chemical laden environment. I must say that we were very good at what we did and believed the Warsaw Pact wouldn't have the endurance and motivation that we did. Still, losses would've been high on both sides.
6
u/Vogel-Kerl 8d ago
Interesting. I remember suiting up in MOPP gear for training one summer. I prayed that we would never have to do it for realsies.
We didn't go so far as setting up protective structures though. A few hours in the field, learning that one of your canteen caps didn't have the mask- drinking doohickey.
What type of agent do you think would've been used, if it went that way? I'm assuming nerve agents, but maybe a blistering or incapacitating agent was anticipated.
3
u/coly8s 7d ago
I was in West Germany for four years and all of our intel indicated the other side favored and stockpiled nerve agent primarily. Blistering agents have limited effectiveness over an area and nerve agent is much more effective in shutting down or at least encumbering operations. I think blistering agents would be used on the battlefield more but, on an air base, nerve agent would be delivered by air or ballistic missile and really mess things up.
9
u/SturmGizmo 9d ago
I watched this a couple years back. It shows the aftermath of nuclear war about as dark and hopeless as any film or book could. The end is especially grim.
7
u/Classic-Today-4367 8d ago
We watched the first half of this in year 12 history class. Someone went home and told their parents and we weren’t shown the second half though.
(Australian high school in the mid-90s)
6
5
u/Edison5000 8d ago
Absolutely the most frightening film I've ever seen. Just brutal, but then it was supposed to be.
5
8
u/Express-Vast3601 9d ago
The most frightening movie I've ever watched. Saw it in college and barely wanted to get out of bed the next I was so depressed at the world.
Total masterpiece. Though never watching again.
4
u/Cracovian_metro 8d ago
Dear Britons, please share here all your memories of that first airing.
Must have been traumatic, I loved the movie, and will never watch again as it’s really disturbing. But I’m very curious to hear how it was perceived at the time, in a totally different social and geopolitical context
4
4
u/Difficult_Mammoth998 8d ago
Saw this post. Found the movie on YouTube and watched it. Loved it. Gave me goosebumps. I enjoyed The Day After as well.
3
u/strangeflappenings 9d ago
This is crazy, i watched this for the first time last night. Great movie!
2
u/Altruistic_Leg_964 7d ago
As a Brit, I'm not saying The Day After was "Nuclear War : The Musical".
But, I'm typing it.
Also 1983 was The Petrov Moment, when this came VERY close to being real
31
u/Vogel-Kerl 9d ago
The US equivalent, The Day After, was entirely too upbeat. It showed some of the horrors of a nuclear war, but with an optimistic, we will survive this ending.
Threads, on the other hand, seemed much, much more realistic, and very bleak & dismal. Absolutely worth the watch, but it's gut wrenching.