Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

With our idiot politicians popping their buttons when it comes to a nuclear confrontation, here in 2017, everyone should be required to see this film. It takes place in England and focuses on a small space and involves the aftermath of a nuclear confrontation. It is a companion piece to America's movie "The Day After." As powerful as that film is, this one eclipses it in its horrifying portrayal of the lives of people, trying to deal with all the fallout (both literally and figuratively) of such an event. Here we see what would actually happen to people and communities. There is nothing the least bit optimistic. The kind of devastation is beyond belief. I mentioned fallout. As bad as the original wave of fire is, at least most of those people were incinerated. It's those left alive that are the focus. Pregnant women, little children, young people who had a future, local politicians trying to aid people when they are totally unprepared. We need to recognize that the ones that would have to help us could be themselves destroyed or decimated. This is one of the most troubling films ever produced and can barely be watched. Much scarier than any commercial effort because of its documentary style and ultimate messaged. There is no letup in it and no real reward, other than this is an unacceptable thing to have happen.

I don't know where to begin with this movie. It's really good, but it's also really frightening. I assume their goal wasn't to scare, but to actually depict a realistic nuclear scenario, and by golly they've done it. I watched the entire movie and the events depicted in it burnt into my memory like no other movie has.Where to begin? Well Ruth and Jimmy are apparently going to get married due to an unexpected pregnancy, but there are rising conflicts between America and Russia, and they are really beginning to get into a nuclear skirmish. Where the UK, where this movie is set in, fits in I have no idea. But much of the public is aware of this, and they start having peace protests and vendors start selling food for more money. The explosion itself occurs about halfway into the movie, and after that is a bunch of people trying to survive after it. As much of us know, being in a nuclear explosion zone certainly isn't a walk in the park. You have to deal with fire, radiation, all that stuff. But it appears society there is beginning to gradually recover over the next few years, with some subsistence farming and a few new children being born. But times may not be too well. Kids only learn English through an old, deteriorated television program, and when Ruth's daughter has a child, well... Maybe civilization may not fully recover. All in all, I highly recommend this movie for anyone interested in nuclear weapons, or citizens of Sheffield. It's very realistic and very frightening, and it's so good I give it a 9.

Ever since the first atom bomb was detonated in 1945, the world has lived in fear of the possibility of nuclear war and the annihilation of civilization. Naturally, such a scenario has formed the basis of more than one film, some going for a more sci-fi take where radiation created mutants and monsters roam the earth in the aftermath, others going for a more darker, realistic take. Those of the latter can be some of the most horrific films ever made, but few of those films reach the level of realism and abject terror that 1984's "Threads" does. Produced by the BBC for television, it came out during a time of renewed tensions in the Cold War and fears that a nuclear confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States was imminent. The American landmark TV movie "The Day After" had come out one year earlier, now it would be the British's turn, and while "The Day After" was a frighteningly realistic movie, "Threads" went one step further in becoming the most horrific film of its kind.Made in a quasi-documentary style with occasional narration by Paul Vaughan, it takes place in the northern England town of Sheffield, where two young lovers Ruth and Jimmy are just starting out in life and planning on getting married, having a baby, and blissfully unaware of the news of a growing crisis unfolding in Iran. The Soviets have invaded Iran due to a American backed coup that has overthrown the government there, America calls for the Soviets to leave, they refuse, and the situation escalates when the United States sends troops of their own. Slowly but surely, the residents can't help but notice the situation as tensions mount, and panic gradually ensues. You can feel the feeling of dread increase as the film progresses, and things reach a boiling point when tactical nuclear weapons are used by both the Russians and Americans in Iran. Tensions and protests increase, until finally the unthinkable happens: The bombs come for Sheffield, and all hell breaks loose when the demonic mushroom cloud looms over the land, but as we will soon learn the bomb is only the beginning, for what follows makes even the most horrific tale of fire and brimstone hell seem trite in comparison. If you seek even the remotest resemblance of hope, joy, or happiness, look someplace else, for "Threads" has none to offer. The scene where the bomb drops is the most realistic and disturbing of any such scene I have ever seen, for we see sheer terror on a primal scale as buildings are turned instantly into rubble, a woman wets herself in terror, milk bottles are melted, still moving human bodies are roasted alive among the fires, cats are suffocated from the heat, and life as we know it ends forever. All of this still holds over thirty years later, despite being a made for TV production. But if the bomb is bad, the aftermath is worse. There is no electricity, no running water, infrastructure is reduced to rubble and hospitals are useless as the narrator dryly tells us that with out the basic necessities of water and electricity, a doctor is no longer able to provide basic care, and is no more valuable than the next survivor, having instead to resort to primitive measures of the past, all shown in horrific detail. Fall out covers the sky, causing a nuclear winter, radiation rains down, causing sickness and misery undreamed of, the soil contaminates, and crops are no more. I can unequivocally say this is the most hopeless movie I ever seen of any genre, for "Threads" pulls zero punches, permeates your soul, and utterly rips it apart. I ended up watching this on a small screen my phone, which I normally don't do as I prefer big screens. At first I didn't know if I'd be able to watch it all the way because of that, but as the film progressed the size of the screen no longer mattered, for "Threads" pulled me in and would not let go, right up until the final moment where we find out what the future of mankind is; there isn't one. For fifteen to twenty minutes after the ending I was barely able to move or speak, as my mind couldn't completely grasp what I had seen. Even now I'm not sure it can. "Threads" shows what could have easily happened if the cold war had ever gone hot (as it almost did, many times, a lot more than most people realize), and what could still happen if God forbid a day comes when things between the west and Russia or some other nuclear power come to blows over some international incident. After all, folks, the cold war might have ended, but that doesn't mean Russia and the U.S. stopped aiming missiles at one another. This film is hard to come by in the United States, and I was only able to see it through a link on you tube, but if you get the chance and have the stamina to witness the closest thing to real nuclear war without actually experiencing it, watch "Threads", and while you're at it, whether you're a believer or not, pray this isn't the future of mankind.

When I was a kid in the 1970s, I was terrified of the prospect of nuclear war. The long Cold War years stretched on, and as a young teen, circa 1978, I decided I had to get on with living - or go nuts. This I did and so was largely unmoved by Threads. Which sounds dreadful, but that's the way it was. Ever since Ronald Reagan had been elected as American President in 1980, the left wing press and the dear old leftie BBC (which has never obeyed the impartiality clause of its charter) had been bigging up the terror even more. And Threads was another example of that. Fortunately, Gorbachev arrived in 1985, and the Cold War ice melted rapidly. The second half of the 1980s was nothing like the fearful 70s or early 80s. Of course, being a leftie myself, I had my doubts when Thatcher declared Gorbachev was a man we could do business with, but capitalism was certainly better than incineration. Threads is a dreadful drama that all lefties profess to remember and to say summed up the fears of the entire decade. Nonsense. Remember Gorbachev. Read the newspapers of 1985-1989. Remember reality. The Cold War was over well before the Soviet Union crumbled. In fact, Gorbachev himself stated that it formally ended in late 1989. And the four years leading up to that were certainly nothing like what had gone before.