Threads (1984) – Terrifying

Genre: Post Apocalyptic / Dystopia

Platform: You Tube – free

Time: 1 hour 57 minutes

Director: Mick Jackson

Plot:  International tensions lead to World War 3 with free exchange of nuclear weapons. The British survivors try to cope with the aftermath…

Spoiler/ fair Warning :This is NOT an easy watch. There are repeated scenes of distress the survivors go through.

Threads was first broadcast in 1984 immediately after its final cut. And quietly withdrawn from British Screens. It was shown in America and other countries but not to much effect as the much more publicised The Day After(1983) was making waves ; US President Ronald Reagan who spouted venom against the Soviet Union , supposedly toned down his rhetoric after watching The Day After. There was very little mention of Threads  till it surfaced a decade ago and was acclaimed as one of the most honest depictions of life AFTER all out nuclear war.

Today, US President Trump, talks of a ‘glowing Iran’ – a not so subtle reference to the threat of using nuclear weapons against Iran in the ongoing on-off America vs Iran war.  He would probably sing a different tune if he saw Threads (and then maybe he won’t ). Other leaders talk of getting nuclear weapons not for festive purposes and so on. In my view, they all should watch this film – maybe , just maybe, they may sing a different tune.

A quick historical background to the film and how its setting reflected British hopes and fears. The 1960s was when the Cold war was at its peak with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis , almost leading to World War 3 with the Russians blinking first and backing down.  The British V Force bombers were fully armed and ready to fly at 2 minutes warning while American B52 bombers were continuously in the air at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. That “humiliation” led to an urgent and rapid Soviet expansion of their nuclear capabilities, so much that in the 1970s their nuclear arsenal outnumbered the West. The result was a thaw of the Cold War. The 1980s brought renewed fears of a new Cold War with Ronald Reagan calling the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and vowing to dismantle it, leading to one of the most intensive KGB led spying programs called Project RYAN. The Soviets were convinced that The West was planning a pre-emptive strike against them and almost all Russian spies in West were tasked to find out proof of these preparations. When none were found, Moscow felt that these preparations were well concealed or the agent reports were fake. Thanks to a British agent in the KGB, Colonel Oleg Gordievsky (who died last year in a safe location in the West), Reagan and Thatcher dialed down their rhetoric . The film is based on those real fears as Britain hosted and still hosts many American nuclear capable warplanes in multiple bases across the country.

In this atmosphere , Threads heightened all Western anxieties , especially in Britain, who knew that just a few bombs in the megaton range, could lay waste to almost all of Britain. It is these anxieties that are presented onscreen with the camera being just a passive observer to what’s happening.  Once the ‘war’ is over, the real war begins – that of survival.

It is no wonder that the film was not shown again on British and American screens as the visceral impact of the film will make even the most hardened war lover into rethinking his views.  Albert Einstein supposedly said  : “I don’t know how World War 3 will be fought but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones”.  This MAY be fiction onscreen but is based on harsh scientific facts with such dry data as megatonnage, range of fallout, number of cities destroyed and so on. Not an easy view ; yet the overall ENDURING HORROR OF NUCLEAR WAR’s AFTERMATH is perfectly presented onscreen. Why enduring ? because the end shows that the results of the ‘megatons’ is far more horrific than any horror movie can show. The mix of first time professional actors and amateur actors also adds to the overall feeling of innocents going about their daily business struck by a horrific irreversible calamity.

The film is free on You Tube. (click on the link)

Script – 5 out of 5

Story – 5 out of 5

Direction – 5 out of 5

Photography – 5 out of 5

 Total – 5 out of 5