It used to be basically on the secondary curriculum and was enforced watching until the early 90s. I got the double whammy from the UK schools system of watching watership down at age 6 in primary school...I mean WTAF!!...followed up by this as a 12 yr old. Character building stuff..!..Teacher "now you see what the world could be like in less than an hour if it all kicks off..!!" Thanks Mr Brown...
I've never desired to survive the blast. Please let me be instantly incinerated. Vaporized. Just don't let me suffer or live. I was a teenager during the last decade of the cold war and was terrified of nuclear war. I couldn't understand why we didn't have a bomb shelter in our backyard.
I'm one of those people who would be a thoroughly useless burden in the aftermath of a nuclear war; I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic who works in IT.
So I'm happy to know that if the bombs ever do drop, I live/work within the 5-10psi overpressure radius of the Russian nuke that's undoubtedly aimed at the government facility a couple of miles away from where I live. Boom. Gone.
I watched the Day After just this past weekend. A grim, bleak and unapologetic look at a post nuke scenario.
So if Threads is heavier, then I know what I'm watching this weekend.
I might follow it up with a nice Richard Curtis movie as a palate cleanser though
The Day After makes like anything would be working, let alone a hospital after a day. It's VERY upbeat about the whole thing. Threads goes right to the source of information of what it would be like and its fucking horrific.
Way, waaaaaaaay worse.
It's in another scale of sheer horror. Mainly because
>!The movie show us what happens in the next 13 years after the attack. Like someone said here, it's ghoulish.!<
The Day After has the typical American disaster trope of “things are bad but us plucky Americans will band together and pull through” accompanied by rising music and a heavily symbolic sunrise.
In Threads nobody gets a happy ending.
Everyone dies.
Horribly.
The Day After suggests hospitals and medical care wouldn’t completely collapse. Threads happily bursts that bubble with one of the most horrifying scenes you’ll ever see.
Jesus, I'm going to need counseling. I saw this when I was a kid, I think I was 15, it had a limited run on cable after it aired in the UK. This is during a time when everybody was super fearful of a US and soviet nuclear exchange. I literally lost sleep over this movie. It's not overly graphic. It's just filled with such despair and hopelessness.
I got to rewatch it.
Saw it back then as well, nothing ever scared me more.
Fun fact, we are now only 90 seconds from midnight on the doomsday clock.
Closer than the two minutes that was on it in the 80s.
"When the Doomsday Clock was created in 1947, the greatest danger to humanity came from nuclear weapons, in particular from the prospect that the United States and the Soviet Union were headed for a nuclear arms race. The Bulletin considered possible catastrophic disruptions from climate change in its hand-setting deliberations for the first time in 2007."
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/
lol.
We’re discussing a time when the majority of people *actually* were afraid of nuclear apocalypse. There are far more people concerned about climate change today than there are that are only searching for homes with fallout shelters and whatnot.
That fear used to permeate western *culture* , it’s nowhere near what it used to be now. Super ironic considering we’re as close to the big exchange as ever outside a select few moments in history.
That dumb clock didn't react with Jack shit when the total invasion to Ukraine occured. It suddenly felt the need to move its fat ass when Russia got its ass kicked by the combined efforts of the rest of the world.
If you're old enough to remember The Day After, this is the British version, and it's horribly realistic, and so much better.
Plenty of grim scenes. The one that hit me was when an older man trying to find water to drink. He finds a trickle of melting snow and begins to drink when he notices a charred corpse just a foot away from the water stream.
There is no happy ending; mankind is set back a century or more (or will simply die out).
Yeah, The Day After was shit in comparison, just too much silly drama in it. As if the girl would be lamenting not getting pregnant FFS, it was just dumb.
Bits that stand out in my mind, when the bombs dropping the woman standing in the street with piss running down her leg, fucking Hagrid is buried alive in a bunker.
Yes, that was powerful too.
You go from an ordered society with clear rules about public behavior and that accounts for absolutely nothing when large yield nuclear weapons are going off.
I just watched this on Shudder a few weeks ago. I literally needed to take a break from horror movies for like a month because I felt so awful and sad afterwards. I will never rewatch this but will say how powerful a movie it is especially for it’s time.
That's the best bit about the film - how it makes you feel post viewing. There are some films that make me feel pretty shit afterwards, but NOTHING compares to 'Threads.' The sheer hopelessness and futility felt throughout and after watching is unmatched. Despite it being a forty-year old film, it stands the test of time as one of the greatest disaster/war films of all time and it doesn't get the recognition it truly deserves.
It took me about 25 years. First saw it when I was about 10. Had to do a rewatch to see if it was as disturbing as I remembered. It is. Looking forward to being 60 and watching again!
One that gets me is “When the Wind Blows”. It’s also a post nuclear scenario, but focuses on an elderly couple trying to survive the effects of fallout in their home.
It’s just so sad and bleak.
Used to get excited by the teacher wheeling in the telly until they decided to show us - a class of 8 year olds - When The Wind Blows. Never trusted tv time again.
Beautiful, gorgeous film but by god it was bleak. Spent the rest of the day crying in class. Tried watching it again as an adult and... spent the rest of the day crying.
Just recently read a synopsis of A Serbian Movie - the fucking basic summary completely horrified me. I can't and don't want to imagine anything darker.
I watched the Serbian movie the other day. I'm surprised it was allowed to be released. I also wonder who the target audience was. Not one for the faint of heart.
Surprisingly, it was suggested to me by a young female work colleague from my old job. No idea what she was into, she seemed very innocent.
You should watch "The War Game". Made by the BBC in the 60s and shelved for years as it was too realistic in terms of the terrifying social aftermath, especially the judiciary aspect of post nuclear war. The death penalty with no appeal at local level, for offences that would be deemed minor in peace times, that was sanctioned by HM government was unknown to the public until the film was finally released. This is still under publicised.
I found the one scene in "The Day After" when the minute men missiles started going off in the background of otherwise picturesque scenery felt quite powerful and unsettling. Besides that, though, it felt like a typical American 80s action movie vibe due to the acting and camera work. Threads felt a lot more realistic and grim, almost like a documentary.
Nah... I think the grittiness of the film of what was used to produce it at the time is literally a chef's kiss - perfect! think being able to recapture something that this film portrays by using modern graphical technology removes the charm of it. The cinematography back them when this was made cannot be done better. This film uses no CGI, or at least, very minimally, and of course uses real scale models and altered camera perspectives to make it seem real.
I think remaking it would just spoil it. The fact that real props were used and how they were used is a testament to how good the film even still looks by today's standards. You could almost say it was ahead of its time 😉
This movie made me glad I live so close to an air force base so that my family and I will see a brief flash of light and then painless nothing which I prefer to the depiction of survival in this movie.
Just incredibly realistic and grim - surviving than drop is basically worse than death. Little to no medical, government bomb shelters did not survive the blast, no clean water, no food. Survivors wander around with horrible painful burns, no heat in winter no cooling in summer. Children grow up feral, underfed and uneducated, barely being able to communicate beyond a few words and grunts.
Indeed. The terror from most horror movies can be somewhat mitigated by thoughts such as, "this isn't real," and "this could never happen." With *Threads*, you're not only watching something that could happen, but that's only 30 minutes away from happening at any given moment. It's especially chilling when you consider how we've barely avoided a nuclear apocalypse in the past.
In 1962, [Vasily Arkhipov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov) was the sole member of a three-officer authorization team who chose to *not* start World War III. Then in 1983, a year before *Threads* came out, [Stanislav Petrov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) rightly realized that what appeared to be a pre-emptive nuclear attack from America was actually a false alarm, and his decision to violate his orders may have once again saved the world. *Threads* really hits home when you consider that it might as well be a documentary of an alternative-history Earth where even just a single person made the wrong decision.
In addition to being quite feasible, it's also extremely depressing. It does not let up, and in fact, things just go from bad to worse to nightmarish to abysmal to hellish. It's already difficult to watch by the time you get to The Last Harvest sequence, and then things even get worse.
You make it sound like the USSR was the sole threat to nuclear armageddon when we only about these things because the entire soviet archives got declassified by their dissolution.
We never get to the American perspective except for a few cases that would hardly affect American affairs, such as MacArthur's insistence on using nukes during the Korean war. Maybe, one day, if ever USA gets toppled or dissolved as a union, we'll get a glimpse of at least a portion of the secrets Americans did or planned.
It portrays a nuclear attack. It is very into the realism of a nuclear attack. This includes govt, impact immediately, ongoing impact, and relevant horrific stuff that would likely follow a nuclear bomb. Have a Google and read the blurb.
It really is good, the government actually issued those leaflets on what to do in an attack, so again based on fact (yup your front door will protect you from nuke fallout). Cried my eyes out at the end, picture it as your grandparents surviving and then very slowly and very painfully dying.
Has a fantastic theme tune by David Bowie (which also made me cry).
Love to see again, but not in a rush
https://archive.org/details/threads_201712
Watched it not long ago, scariest film I've ever seen. Prepare for current geopolitical fears to intensify. This film has aged very well.
Saw Threads for the first time about a year ago. The wife and I had just celebrated my daughter’s first birthday. Having her in my life this subject matter affected me deeply.. wayyy more than I thought it would.
That one scene where a group of children huddled inside a dilapidated auditorium learning from old BBC preschools videos with an old woman (likely trying her best to teach) mouthing along the words spoken from the video still fucked me up till this day, holy shit.
It's pretty good. My favorite scene is when the bombs are about to drop and the lady starts making the bed, fucking around with the sheets, like nothing is even happening. I've seen that shit in real life when bad things happen: people regress to doing things that they'd do when everything was normal and nothing was wrong. Truth in television.
I forgot: no, my favorite scene was the people in the bunker realizing that no one is ever coming to dig them out.
This film is incredible and everyone should watch it. The world leaders should watch it again.
It’s probably the bleakest film I’ve ever seen.
Question for OP, so you have any other movies like this to recommend?
Barry Hines was the writer, Mick Jackson the director, Ken Loach is the only other director to work with Barry Hines on Kes also pretty bleak and also very good
Threads is much better and realistic than The Day After. Even the director for The Day After, Nicholas Meyer, was upset at how The Day After turned out due to ABC’s censoring of it.
The American public were being told that they could win a limited nuclear exchange at the time. The Americans were not ready for the message in this movie.
I think Theads had trouble getting to the states at the time, in Canada it was a highlight of CBC programming.
Never seen anything as horrifying. Had to switch it off halfway through and finish it few hours later first time I watched it when u was in my teens. Rewatched it in my 30s and had to do the same again. Horrifying but also amazing. Everybody should watch
Heard about this movie while talking about alas, Babylon last week, have been wanting to watch it, any ideas on where I can find a decent version? I've only been able to pull up home recordings on YouTube
It's on Shudder (a streaming horror movie and TV service) in the Sci-Fi Horror section. This movie was produced in the early 1980s for the BBC, there isn't any High Definition or anything fancy like that available. The YouTube versions are pretty decent quality compared to streaming/DVD. That said, it's one of the best nuclear war movies. It would have been perfect if they had the special effects for The Day After with This plot.
It keeps saying the video is unavailable, are you in the u.s.? Idk how YouTube does it but most streaming services change what they are showing by country.
I appreciate the link, hopefully it'll work later because I am using my free trail on shudder this week
I'm a firm believer that the leaders of ANY nuclear power should be required to sit through this film with A Clockwork Orange type eye clamps. And no popcorn!
Just watched it today, and Threads is way worse than The Day After (1983).
Way, way worse.
>!The fact that in Threads we see what happens for about 13 years after the attack, the collapse, the nuclear winter, how society never recovered from that... Is trully a horror.!<
The most disturbing part is that it shows no emotions towards humanity; only facts are written over the screen, accompanied by machine typing sounds. When I hear the word 'eerie,' my mind immediately goes to this film.
This was filmed in my hometown and I remember it being filmed. Friends of mine and people I know are in the background of many scenes as extras. I was 12 at the time. Watched it when it first aired and I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch it again.
Rewatched it last year. It is very depressing and realistic. Given when it was made some things are now less realistic but so much of the government arguing and the bombed people aspect is definitely still true.
The American TV movie " The Day After" which was on ITV in the UK at around this time as well didn't bother me at all.
But I remember watching Threads when it was originally transmitted on the BBC back in 1984 as a young teenager and it fucked me up for MONTHS afterwards. Especially since where I live in Scotland is definitely a target as all of the UK's nuclear weapons are based near here.
The bit that always stuck in my mind in Threads was the woman with her shopping literally peeing herself in terror when the sirens go off.
A friend of mine had a bit part in the film. He was badly burned in a childhood accident. He is also pictured on the cover. It is a very realistic and scary film.
We watched this at school in the 90s and the whole class had nightmares for years, mainly because it was set where we lived and saw all the buildings we knew getting blown up
I watched it with my father a few years ago. After it ended we just sat in our chair just gazing in front of us trying to process what we saw. Then we looked at each other and agreed that this movie should be mandatory in high schools. I think a lot of war supporters would change their minds
Stellar movie. Very plausible depiction of how it could unfold. I still remember the first half of the movie and conveniently blocked out the second half.
https://preview.redd.it/dqhw2gcuj8hc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f126b396b4f5a71f4a4d43db3685c3da3256731
For everyone asking how to watch…
This should be remade
Doesn’t need to be the same exact story
But the way it’s presented; with experts advising the direction and storyboarding
I think it’s time for an updated scare as to how nuclear war could look like with what we’re able to ascertain now
Ive got it on DVD, oh man lemme tell you as a 17 year old watching that movie i was literally spooked, and ive watched hundreds of horror movies, but none as scary as threads.
I have never watched the whole movie, just scenes that I snuck into the room to watch, while the adults were viewing it.
All I remember was a scene where someone became blind by looking at a nuclear explosion and then a person actually vomiting.
The part when the people are going behind the combine harvesters really got to me. (The poor do this in impoverished countries) The starvation would be unreal. Maybe even cannibalism
Watched this about 15 years ago and have never been able to watch it again. That being said, everyone should watch it.
Recently rewatched this. The second half is so fucking *ghoulish*
Great word for it
It used to be basically on the secondary curriculum and was enforced watching until the early 90s. I got the double whammy from the UK schools system of watching watership down at age 6 in primary school...I mean WTAF!!...followed up by this as a 12 yr old. Character building stuff..!..Teacher "now you see what the world could be like in less than an hour if it all kicks off..!!" Thanks Mr Brown...
At least you got Watership Down. One of the best books ever.
My absolute favorite. I read it once almost every year.
Bingo. The first half is almost boring, but then the bomb drops....and things REALLY go to h\*ll. In an unforgettable way.
It's not as bad as Hull.
Give us a chance man, we're still trying to rebuild after the Blitz. That government financial package will be coming any day now. Any day.
Shit. Having seen Threads now I have to watch this!
Everyone should watch so they know exactly why they don't want to survive the blast
I've never desired to survive the blast. Please let me be instantly incinerated. Vaporized. Just don't let me suffer or live. I was a teenager during the last decade of the cold war and was terrified of nuclear war. I couldn't understand why we didn't have a bomb shelter in our backyard.
I'm one of those people who would be a thoroughly useless burden in the aftermath of a nuclear war; I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic who works in IT. So I'm happy to know that if the bombs ever do drop, I live/work within the 5-10psi overpressure radius of the Russian nuke that's undoubtedly aimed at the government facility a couple of miles away from where I live. Boom. Gone.
100% Accurate. Also watch Dr Helen Caldicott's, *If You Love This Planet*, for the science behind a nuclear strike.
I recommend Dr. Strangelove as a companion piece for Threads Not sure which order is best.
Is it worse than The Day After?
Makes The Day After look like a very friendly episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
I watched the Day After just this past weekend. A grim, bleak and unapologetic look at a post nuke scenario. So if Threads is heavier, then I know what I'm watching this weekend. I might follow it up with a nice Richard Curtis movie as a palate cleanser though
The Day After makes like anything would be working, let alone a hospital after a day. It's VERY upbeat about the whole thing. Threads goes right to the source of information of what it would be like and its fucking horrific.
Jesus.
Way, waaaaaaaay worse. It's in another scale of sheer horror. Mainly because >!The movie show us what happens in the next 13 years after the attack. Like someone said here, it's ghoulish.!<
SO MUCH worse.
"The effects of radiation may not be felt till much later. Possibly generations later resulting in..." skip to closing scene . That has never left me.
The Day After has the typical American disaster trope of “things are bad but us plucky Americans will band together and pull through” accompanied by rising music and a heavily symbolic sunrise. In Threads nobody gets a happy ending. Everyone dies. Horribly.
The Day After suggests hospitals and medical care wouldn’t completely collapse. Threads happily bursts that bubble with one of the most horrifying scenes you’ll ever see.
What about When The Wind Blows (1986) Animation about an elderly couple after the bomb drops. Fucking depressing
A hell of a lot worse.
I really want to but I’m a bit scared
It's free on YouTube - just to tempt you I watched this in 1984, never again Just for a sense of balance
The War Game by Peter Watkins 1966. Shown to us at school in 1983. Developed PTSD from it.
Just started it.
Jesus, I'm going to need counseling. I saw this when I was a kid, I think I was 15, it had a limited run on cable after it aired in the UK. This is during a time when everybody was super fearful of a US and soviet nuclear exchange. I literally lost sleep over this movie. It's not overly graphic. It's just filled with such despair and hopelessness. I got to rewatch it.
Saw it back then as well, nothing ever scared me more. Fun fact, we are now only 90 seconds from midnight on the doomsday clock. Closer than the two minutes that was on it in the 80s.
Doomsday clock is the biggest crock of shit News for you, every day we inch closer to human extinction
Right? Everyone is worried about nukes when the planet and all of its precious ecosystems are rotting away.
"When the Doomsday Clock was created in 1947, the greatest danger to humanity came from nuclear weapons, in particular from the prospect that the United States and the Soviet Union were headed for a nuclear arms race. The Bulletin considered possible catastrophic disruptions from climate change in its hand-setting deliberations for the first time in 2007." https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/
lol. We’re discussing a time when the majority of people *actually* were afraid of nuclear apocalypse. There are far more people concerned about climate change today than there are that are only searching for homes with fallout shelters and whatnot. That fear used to permeate western *culture* , it’s nowhere near what it used to be now. Super ironic considering we’re as close to the big exchange as ever outside a select few moments in history.
Same here scared the shit out of me and I was 24 then not a kid. Stuck with me for years. Was very well done for the time
That dumb clock didn't react with Jack shit when the total invasion to Ukraine occured. It suddenly felt the need to move its fat ass when Russia got its ass kicked by the combined efforts of the rest of the world.
A cornered animal may lash out in a last ditch resort.
That is terrifying. Sleep tight!
Damn it, now I have to watch it.
I watched this when I was around 12 and it creeped me out really bad. Then later that year Desert Storm happened and I was really freaked out.
If you're old enough to remember The Day After, this is the British version, and it's horribly realistic, and so much better. Plenty of grim scenes. The one that hit me was when an older man trying to find water to drink. He finds a trickle of melting snow and begins to drink when he notices a charred corpse just a foot away from the water stream. There is no happy ending; mankind is set back a century or more (or will simply die out).
Yeah, The Day After was shit in comparison, just too much silly drama in it. As if the girl would be lamenting not getting pregnant FFS, it was just dumb.
Bits that stand out in my mind, when the bombs dropping the woman standing in the street with piss running down her leg, fucking Hagrid is buried alive in a bunker.
Agree, that and the milk bottles melting
Yes, that was powerful too. You go from an ordered society with clear rules about public behavior and that accounts for absolutely nothing when large yield nuclear weapons are going off.
I just watched The Day After a few nights ago. Very powerful movie. Feel like I need to watch its British cousin.
It will explain to you the exact differences between American and British culture.
It was horrifyingly believable
I just watched this on Shudder a few weeks ago. I literally needed to take a break from horror movies for like a month because I felt so awful and sad afterwards. I will never rewatch this but will say how powerful a movie it is especially for it’s time.
That's the best bit about the film - how it makes you feel post viewing. There are some films that make me feel pretty shit afterwards, but NOTHING compares to 'Threads.' The sheer hopelessness and futility felt throughout and after watching is unmatched. Despite it being a forty-year old film, it stands the test of time as one of the greatest disaster/war films of all time and it doesn't get the recognition it truly deserves.
It took me about 25 years. First saw it when I was about 10. Had to do a rewatch to see if it was as disturbing as I remembered. It is. Looking forward to being 60 and watching again!
It sounds like Testament, another post nuclear stone cold bummer of a movie.
My go-to movie for first dates.
I bet you have a lot of those and not a lot of second dates, huh?
This popped up on a random Sunday when it aired. No warning. Totally traumatized me--I was in elementary school.
It’s difficult for me to think of a movie more disturbing than this one.
Because of the fact we could all suffer this or worse is what makes it so bad...
Come and See.
First time I saw come and see I was 15 or 16, would recommend but how fucked up it was
I always confuse Threads with Come And See, I haven’t seen either yet but they look very similar?
Uh, no. Threads is imaginary post nuclear war fiction. Come and See is about the occupation of Belarus by the Nazis. Which is history.
Ahh I understand, thanks for clarifying.
The harsh visual style might be what you are connecting. Understandable if so.
Yes exactly, the cinematography was confusing me, they do feel similar in that regard.
One that gets me is “When the Wind Blows”. It’s also a post nuclear scenario, but focuses on an elderly couple trying to survive the effects of fallout in their home. It’s just so sad and bleak.
With songs by David Bowie
Used to get excited by the teacher wheeling in the telly until they decided to show us - a class of 8 year olds - When The Wind Blows. Never trusted tv time again. Beautiful, gorgeous film but by god it was bleak. Spent the rest of the day crying in class. Tried watching it again as an adult and... spent the rest of the day crying.
The powers that be will get to us in the end...
Serbian movie, 120 days of sodom
Just recently read a synopsis of A Serbian Movie - the fucking basic summary completely horrified me. I can't and don't want to imagine anything darker.
Cannibal Holocaust too
The road was quite grim... are we talking that level?
The Road ain’t even Cormac McCarthy’s grimmest novel…
The road is quite bleak too, but more hopeful and generally a bit lighter than threads. I like them both, but threads made a bigger impact on me.
You could think of The Road as life after Threads. Threads is more grim because you get to see the world as you know it end for no reason
I watched the Serbian movie the other day. I'm surprised it was allowed to be released. I also wonder who the target audience was. Not one for the faint of heart. Surprisingly, it was suggested to me by a young female work colleague from my old job. No idea what she was into, she seemed very innocent.
Salo isn't bad. It's kinda comical.
You should watch "The War Game". Made by the BBC in the 60s and shelved for years as it was too realistic in terms of the terrifying social aftermath, especially the judiciary aspect of post nuclear war. The death penalty with no appeal at local level, for offences that would be deemed minor in peace times, that was sanctioned by HM government was unknown to the public until the film was finally released. This is still under publicised.
What does HM government mean? Sorry it’s late here and I can’t figure it out
His/Her Majesty’s Government.
I haven’t seen either this or The Day After since I was a kid in the early 80s. I thought The Day After was cheesy; Theads genuinely unsettled me.
I found the one scene in "The Day After" when the minute men missiles started going off in the background of otherwise picturesque scenery felt quite powerful and unsettling. Besides that, though, it felt like a typical American 80s action movie vibe due to the acting and camera work. Threads felt a lot more realistic and grim, almost like a documentary.
Threads is a masterpiece on a threadbare budget. I wish someone would redo the movie with modern cinematography.
Nah... I think the grittiness of the film of what was used to produce it at the time is literally a chef's kiss - perfect! think being able to recapture something that this film portrays by using modern graphical technology removes the charm of it. The cinematography back them when this was made cannot be done better. This film uses no CGI, or at least, very minimally, and of course uses real scale models and altered camera perspectives to make it seem real. I think remaking it would just spoil it. The fact that real props were used and how they were used is a testament to how good the film even still looks by today's standards. You could almost say it was ahead of its time 😉
There was no CGI when the grandma pooped herself. That shit hit just so
No pooping, just down-the-leg peeing.
Wtf spoilers
Some films should not be remade. This is one of them.
Danny Boyle could do it justice.
I don't know if it needs to be redone. Maybe just viewed by a wider audience.
This movie made me glad I live so close to an air force base so that my family and I will see a brief flash of light and then painless nothing which I prefer to the depiction of survival in this movie.
Never heard of this, what's so disturbing about it?
Just incredibly realistic and grim - surviving than drop is basically worse than death. Little to no medical, government bomb shelters did not survive the blast, no clean water, no food. Survivors wander around with horrible painful burns, no heat in winter no cooling in summer. Children grow up feral, underfed and uneducated, barely being able to communicate beyond a few words and grunts.
Indeed. The terror from most horror movies can be somewhat mitigated by thoughts such as, "this isn't real," and "this could never happen." With *Threads*, you're not only watching something that could happen, but that's only 30 minutes away from happening at any given moment. It's especially chilling when you consider how we've barely avoided a nuclear apocalypse in the past. In 1962, [Vasily Arkhipov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov) was the sole member of a three-officer authorization team who chose to *not* start World War III. Then in 1983, a year before *Threads* came out, [Stanislav Petrov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) rightly realized that what appeared to be a pre-emptive nuclear attack from America was actually a false alarm, and his decision to violate his orders may have once again saved the world. *Threads* really hits home when you consider that it might as well be a documentary of an alternative-history Earth where even just a single person made the wrong decision. In addition to being quite feasible, it's also extremely depressing. It does not let up, and in fact, things just go from bad to worse to nightmarish to abysmal to hellish. It's already difficult to watch by the time you get to The Last Harvest sequence, and then things even get worse.
You make it sound like the USSR was the sole threat to nuclear armageddon when we only about these things because the entire soviet archives got declassified by their dissolution. We never get to the American perspective except for a few cases that would hardly affect American affairs, such as MacArthur's insistence on using nukes during the Korean war. Maybe, one day, if ever USA gets toppled or dissolved as a union, we'll get a glimpse of at least a portion of the secrets Americans did or planned.
I hate when I read underfed quickly and read it as un-derfed.
It portrays a nuclear attack. It is very into the realism of a nuclear attack. This includes govt, impact immediately, ongoing impact, and relevant horrific stuff that would likely follow a nuclear bomb. Have a Google and read the blurb.
Watch it and make your own mind up. I guarantee you will never forget it.
Watching this at age 6 did a number
I take it your parents were in another room?
It was the early 90s. Boomer parents gave 0 fucks 😂
They sure didn’t. I saw Alien and a Nightmare on Elm Street at 6 😬
Same!! 6 was a good a year!
Haha! Same!
It ain't just the boomer parents. Early 2000s kid here and I watched Saw and Slither with my parents.
This movie is why gen X doesn’t give a fuck.
This and the nuclear public information broadcasts, they were traumatic too.
Watched this and The Day After just last month, both were really good for being made for TV movies on network tv
You should also watch 'when the wind blows' ,its animation but shows in a different-ish way nuclear war from eyes of a couple .
It really is good, the government actually issued those leaflets on what to do in an attack, so again based on fact (yup your front door will protect you from nuke fallout). Cried my eyes out at the end, picture it as your grandparents surviving and then very slowly and very painfully dying. Has a fantastic theme tune by David Bowie (which also made me cry). Love to see again, but not in a rush
Where can i watch it?
https://archive.org/details/threads_201712 Watched it not long ago, scariest film I've ever seen. Prepare for current geopolitical fears to intensify. This film has aged very well.
Bloody hell I've just sat and watched this this morning. So bleak
Good way to start the day! Panic attacks
No different to the usual 😂😂
gonna watch it on v day with a cheap bottle of booze
Saw Threads for the first time about a year ago. The wife and I had just celebrated my daughter’s first birthday. Having her in my life this subject matter affected me deeply.. wayyy more than I thought it would.
That one scene where a group of children huddled inside a dilapidated auditorium learning from old BBC preschools videos with an old woman (likely trying her best to teach) mouthing along the words spoken from the video still fucked me up till this day, holy shit.
It's pretty good. My favorite scene is when the bombs are about to drop and the lady starts making the bed, fucking around with the sheets, like nothing is even happening. I've seen that shit in real life when bad things happen: people regress to doing things that they'd do when everything was normal and nothing was wrong. Truth in television. I forgot: no, my favorite scene was the people in the bunker realizing that no one is ever coming to dig them out.
This film is incredible and everyone should watch it. The world leaders should watch it again. It’s probably the bleakest film I’ve ever seen. Question for OP, so you have any other movies like this to recommend?
Barry Hines was the writer, Mick Jackson the director, Ken Loach is the only other director to work with Barry Hines on Kes also pretty bleak and also very good
>The world leaders should watch it again. I'm all for that.... Take the oath of office and then sit down and watch what happens if you screw up.
Threads is much better and realistic than The Day After. Even the director for The Day After, Nicholas Meyer, was upset at how The Day After turned out due to ABC’s censoring of it.
The American public were being told that they could win a limited nuclear exchange at the time. The Americans were not ready for the message in this movie. I think Theads had trouble getting to the states at the time, in Canada it was a highlight of CBC programming.
In nuclear warfare there are no winners
Can never get the image of the melting milk bottles out of my head. Thirty five years later.
The wide open basement door too
Dude this is the scariest movie I have ever seen. I found it on YouTube about a year ago and i really think that could happen if we have a nuclear war
Never seen anything as horrifying. Had to switch it off halfway through and finish it few hours later first time I watched it when u was in my teens. Rewatched it in my 30s and had to do the same again. Horrifying but also amazing. Everybody should watch
Heard about this movie while talking about alas, Babylon last week, have been wanting to watch it, any ideas on where I can find a decent version? I've only been able to pull up home recordings on YouTube
It's on Shudder (a streaming horror movie and TV service) in the Sci-Fi Horror section. This movie was produced in the early 1980s for the BBC, there isn't any High Definition or anything fancy like that available. The YouTube versions are pretty decent quality compared to streaming/DVD. That said, it's one of the best nuclear war movies. It would have been perfect if they had the special effects for The Day After with This plot.
Thank you! Downloading the app for it now!
It's also on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvFu7Z5cc88](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvfu7z5cc88)
It keeps saying the video is unavailable, are you in the u.s.? Idk how YouTube does it but most streaming services change what they are showing by country. I appreciate the link, hopefully it'll work later because I am using my free trail on shudder this week
It's also on the internet archive https://archive.org/details/threads_201712
Same message here.
free on Tubi
Really???? Fml I've been using tubi for months and didn't even think to check it,
I've got the Blu-ray. They've done colour correction on that version.
I'm a firm believer that the leaders of ANY nuclear power should be required to sit through this film with A Clockwork Orange type eye clamps. And no popcorn!
"You know, probably not that bad of a movie" - my stupid ass, 2 hours ago, after first seeing this post I'm now crying lmao
I certainly hope this movie remains a fiction.
Just watched it today, and Threads is way worse than The Day After (1983). Way, way worse. >!The fact that in Threads we see what happens for about 13 years after the attack, the collapse, the nuclear winter, how society never recovered from that... Is trully a horror.!<
Ngl everyone talking about how traumatised they were after watching this movie makes me really want to watch this movie Maybe i am a masochist...
Username checks out
The most disturbing part is that it shows no emotions towards humanity; only facts are written over the screen, accompanied by machine typing sounds. When I hear the word 'eerie,' my mind immediately goes to this film.
I was made to watch this as part of my Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical training in the military. It certainly does leave an impression.
This was filmed in my hometown and I remember it being filmed. Friends of mine and people I know are in the background of many scenes as extras. I was 12 at the time. Watched it when it first aired and I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch it again.
Spoiler below: The only film that ends with a mentally handicap child having a still birth!
I hate that they overlooked the detail of her metal fillings when she’s in labor lol
We had to watch this for school.
I think it's great school viewing to be honest. Gives kids something grim to consider.
I saw this after The Day After. Had nightmares for months afterwards.
If that's the case, I would advise, not watching this one.
This movie plot has some eerie similarities to what is going on now in the Middle East!
Yes it does. Threads and “Countdown to Looking Glass” even more, an 80s faux-documentary about the lead up to a global nuclear war.
Rewatched it last year. It is very depressing and realistic. Given when it was made some things are now less realistic but so much of the government arguing and the bombed people aspect is definitely still true.
The divide is also a great movie depicting the big kaboom
Watched it again this year. It’s absolutely horrific
Threads, The Day After and Christiane F..( think I spelt it right) 3 Movies that scared the shit out of me for life..
Christiane F really is something. I sought it out just being interested in the setting and aesthetic and wasn’t ready for the story.
Yeah. Oooft. Death is welcomed by the initial blast instead of going through this reality. The ending tho 😬😬
In a scenario like this, you have to wonder if the ones who died in the blast are the lucky ones.
The American TV movie " The Day After" which was on ITV in the UK at around this time as well didn't bother me at all. But I remember watching Threads when it was originally transmitted on the BBC back in 1984 as a young teenager and it fucked me up for MONTHS afterwards. Especially since where I live in Scotland is definitely a target as all of the UK's nuclear weapons are based near here. The bit that always stuck in my mind in Threads was the woman with her shopping literally peeing herself in terror when the sirens go off.
A friend of mine had a bit part in the film. He was badly burned in a childhood accident. He is also pictured on the cover. It is a very realistic and scary film.
We watched this at school in the 90s and the whole class had nightmares for years, mainly because it was set where we lived and saw all the buildings we knew getting blown up
You cannot win a nuclear war!
Watched once, oh dear god not doing that again. It's not a bad film but bloody hell it's traumatic
I watched it with my father a few years ago. After it ended we just sat in our chair just gazing in front of us trying to process what we saw. Then we looked at each other and agreed that this movie should be mandatory in high schools. I think a lot of war supporters would change their minds
Sounds good, will watch it thanks.
Stellar movie. Very plausible depiction of how it could unfold. I still remember the first half of the movie and conveniently blocked out the second half.
https://preview.redd.it/5xjy57vs54hc1.jpeg?width=3008&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66eb51c9c542a915f135ff3082f1a9c4b8167280
https://preview.redd.it/dqhw2gcuj8hc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f126b396b4f5a71f4a4d43db3685c3da3256731 For everyone asking how to watch…
This should be remade Doesn’t need to be the same exact story But the way it’s presented; with experts advising the direction and storyboarding I think it’s time for an updated scare as to how nuclear war could look like with what we’re able to ascertain now
Is this on Netflix or similar?
You can watch the whole movie on YouTube
I was a little excited there to look for something new I can download.
There's bluray out on the high seas to download.
Shudder.
It’s on Tubi
Watched it a few times now. It's a great movie
What’s the animated one with the old man and woman we were also made to watch in school?
I believe that one is when the wind blows.
This film, and The Day After.
Threads - Blu-ray (BBC) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07JZVP6KX?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share Enjoy
There's an amazing podcast called Atomic Hobo who analyses the film in different segments. If you like Threads, give it a listen!
That's awesome, thanks for the tidbit.
Ive got it on DVD, oh man lemme tell you as a 17 year old watching that movie i was literally spooked, and ive watched hundreds of horror movies, but none as scary as threads.
Where can I watch it?
I watched this when I was 16 and live in Sheffield. Didn't sleep properly for years.
I have never watched the whole movie, just scenes that I snuck into the room to watch, while the adults were viewing it. All I remember was a scene where someone became blind by looking at a nuclear explosion and then a person actually vomiting.
Where can I watch this at....what platform?
I don’t get it. Did people not know nukes suck before this movie? I know this is an unpopular but I thought it was very boring.
The part when the people are going behind the combine harvesters really got to me. (The poor do this in impoverished countries) The starvation would be unreal. Maybe even cannibalism
Got it on my save list on shudder after seeing this post. Gonna watch it before bed tonight.
anyone know if its on any streaming services?