The Chilly Battle spawned greater than fallout shelters and duck-and-cover drills. Throughout that period when geopolitical stress hung over audiences like a mushroom cloud, filmmakers channeled the nuclear risk into artwork, satire, and spectacle. Some explored human frailty, others turned to monsters or absurdity, however all mirrored the fears—and generally the darkish humor—of the atomic age.
From the Fifties creature options to somber Eighties dramas, these ten movies present how the nuclear nightmare performed out throughout many years of cinema historical past.
Associated: 10 Franchise Films That Wanted a Completely different Director
10 The Day the Earth Stood Nonetheless (1951)
This sci-fi traditional was loosely primarily based on a 1940 quick story however mirrored a brand new, postwar actuality when tailored for the display screen a decade later. In each plots, an odd craft seems in Washington, D.C., carrying a mysterious customer, Klaatu, and an enormous, omnipotent robotic. Nonetheless, within the movie, they carry an ominous warning to Earth’s leaders: agree to make use of atomic power responsibly or face annihilation.
The Fifties cultural local weather influenced the manufacturing in concrete methods. Actor Sam Jaffe, forged as a mathematician with Einstein-like hair, was virtually booted from the challenge after the pamphlet Pink Channels alleged he had Communist ties. Studio head Darryl Zanuck let him end taking pictures, however Jaffe wouldn’t seem on display screen once more for years.
The Manufacturing Code board additionally objected to Klaatu’s resurrection scene, declaring that “solely God can try this.” The compromise: Klaatu explains that his revival is simply non permanent, for the reason that energy of life and demise “is reserved to the Almighty Spirit.”[1]
9 Them! (1954)
Among the best Fifties creature options, Them! warned of the home risk posed by nuclear weapons—this time within the type of large man-eating ants mutated by radiation from testing websites. The outcome was a hybrid of horror movie, detective thriller, and cautionary story.
Plans for a coloration film in 3-D had been deserted as too costly, and value issues drove main script modifications. The story was moved from New York Metropolis to the desert Southwest, with the climax staged within the storm drains below Los Angeles to keep away from the expensive rental of the Santa Monica Pier. Just one full ant was constructed. A second ant head was mounted on a growth and dropped at life by a crew on a dolly utilizing knobs and levers. Extra “ant extras” had solely heads and antennae, moved by wind machines.
Regardless of the shortcuts, the particular results earned an Academy Award nomination. The flamethrowers used on display screen had been fully actual—on mortgage from the U.S. Military and operated by World Battle II veterans.[2]
8 Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956)
A prehistoric creature woke up by American H-bomb testing first destroyed Tokyo within the Japanese movie Gojira (1954). Its title mixed the Japanese phrases for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira), suggesting immense energy and measurement. The filmmakers initially wished to make use of stop-motion animation however lacked time and experience, so that they created a rubber go well with as an alternative. Below the blazing studio lights, actor Haruo Nakajima sweated by the cupful and generally fainted.
The monster’s iconic roar was produced by dragging a resin-coated leather-based glove alongside a stand-up bass string and slowing the recording; its thundering footsteps got here from a kettle drum crushed with a knotted rope. Two years later, an American distributor recut the movie as Godzilla: King of the Monsters!
The runtime dropped from 96 minutes to 80 regardless of the addition of Raymond Burr as an American reporter recounting occasions. Though publicity claimed he spent two months in Japan, his function was filmed totally in Hollywood in simply six days, then spliced into the unique footage.[3]
7 On the Seashore (1959)
Not like earlier low-budget movies, On the Seashore was a severe examination of individuals going through impending doom. Director Stanley Kramer, who had already produced such classics as Excessive Midday (1952) and The Caine Mutiny (1954), assembled a star-studded forged. After a nuclear trade wipes out the Northern Hemisphere, a U.S. submarine commander (Gregory Peck) takes refuge in Australia, becoming a member of Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire (in his first non-musical function) as they await the lethal cloud of radiation drifting towards them.
With no entry to an American vessel, manufacturing used a British Royal Navy submarine primarily based in Australia, the place most filming occurred. To spotlight its anti-war message, the film premiered on the identical date in additional than 20 cities worldwide—together with Berlin, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, Paris, Tokyo, and Moscow, a primary for an American movie within the Soviet Union.
The U.S. authorities even distributed memos to embassies overseas providing speaking factors on nuclear disarmament and reassuring diplomats that “a nuclear battle wouldn’t imply the top of the world.”[4]
6 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Realized to Cease Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Director Stanley Kubrick took the 1958 novel Pink Alert, about the opportunity of an unintended assault, and made a dizzying 180-degree flip from earlier nuclear-war thrillers. Seeing darkish absurdity within the state of affairs, Kubrick remodeled it right into a “nightmare comedy,” including the weird title character and renaming others reminiscent of Col. “Bat” Guano and Gen. Jack D. Ripper, the unhinged commander who launches a strike on Moscow over paranoia about fluoride in consuming water.
The American authorities was not amused. Aerial footage shot over Greenland was reportedly confiscated after crews by chance filmed a secret base. With out entry to an actual airplane, Kubrick’s crew constructed the B-52 cockpit set from a single printed {photograph}. Peter Sellers improvised a lot of the dialogue for his three characters. When he dropped a fourth function, the gung-ho pilot Maj. “King” Kong was recast with Slim Pickens, who wasn’t informed the movie was a comedy. His flight crew included the big-screen debut of James Earl Jones—a uncommon portrayal of a racially built-in unit on the time.
After the assassination of President Kennedy, the film’s launch was postponed from December 1963 to January 1964. Sellers earned his first Oscar nomination, and Kubrick obtained three extra for screenplay, path, and Finest Image.[5]
5 Fail Secure (1964)
Similarities between Fail Secure and Pink Alert—each involving a nuclear strike triggered by pc error—prompted a plagiarism lawsuit by the latter’s creator. Stanley Kubrick inspired the go well with to guard his personal Dr. Strangelove and guarantee his satire reached theaters first. Columbia Footage, which held the rights to each movies, settled by releasing Kubrick’s model months earlier.
Denied army cooperation, the filmmakers relied on archival bomber footage. Inside scenes had been filmed in a rented flight simulator at LaGuardia Airport, and replicas of the Pentagon and Strategic Air Command interiors had been constructed on New York soundstages. The supposedly “computer-generated” world map of planes and explosions was really hand-drawn animation projected onto the control-room display screen.
As a safeguard, the closing credit reminded audiences: “The producers of this movie want to stress that it’s the acknowledged place of the Division of Protection and the USA Air Power {that a} rigidly enforced system of safeguards and controls ensures that occurrences reminiscent of these depicted on this story can’t occur.”[6]
4 Planet of the Apes (1968)
Earlier than it spawned sequels, spinoffs, and reboots, Planet of the Apes started with Pierre Boulle’s 1963 French novel. Charlton Heston championed the variation, enjoying an astronaut who crash-lands on a world the place apes rule over humankind. The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling helped develop the screenplay and launched the well-known Statue-of-Liberty ending—his personal twist revealing a nuclear-ravaged Earth.
Greater than 80 make-up artists and almost 20% of the movie’s finances went into creating the simian characters, incomes make-up designer John Chambers an honorary Academy Award. Actors who spent three hours within the make-up chair needed to sip lunch via straws, and people who smoke used lengthy holders to guard their prosthetics.
Even secrecy was strict: no publicity stills had been launched prematurely, and actors had been shuttled to areas by helicopter to stop public sightings in costume.[7]
3 A Boy and His Canine (1975)
Primarily based on Harlan Ellison’s novella, A Boy and His Canine was billed as an “R-rated, fairly kinky story of survival.” Its prologue units the tone: “World Battle IV lasted 5 days. Politicians had lastly solved the issue of city blight. 2024 A.D.” A younger man (Don Johnson) and his telepathic canine—the smarter of the pair—traverse a desolate wasteland, looking for intercourse and meals. They come across an odd underground colony that plans to make use of {the teenager} to replenish its breeding inventory earlier than killing him.
The black comedy was produced independently for about $400,000, with only some recognizable names reminiscent of Jason Robards Jr. and Tiger, the canine from The Brady Bunch. Author-director L.Q. Jones used a lot of Ellison’s dialogue, and the creator was typically happy with the movie—apart from the final line, which made the grisly ending extra express when the younger man chooses his ravenous canine over the girl escaping with them.[8]
2 Testomony (1983)
This adaptation of the quick story “The Final Testomony” was initially produced for PBS’s American Playhouse, however its high quality earned a theatrical launch on November 4, 1983. Not like earlier, action-heavy movies, it centered on a group’s quiet battle to outlive after an unseen nuclear strike destroys main cities.
Jane Alexander earned an Oscar nomination as a mom determined to carry her household collectively in a rural California city lower off from the surface world. As neighbors succumb to radiation poisoning, flashbacks following their deaths had been shot with a handheld Tremendous 8 digicam to imitate dwelling films of life earlier than the bomb. The movie’s intimacy and lack of particular results made it one of the emotionally lifelike depictions of nuclear aftermath ever filmed.[9]
1 The Day After (1983)
Solely weeks after Testomony, an estimated 100 million People watched The Day After on community tv. Not like its quieter counterpart, this ABC TV film depicted the occasions earlier than, throughout, and after a nuclear strike on the USA, specializing in survivors in Lawrence, Kansas. Greater than 2,000 residents served as extras, some paid $50 to shave their heads to simulate radiation illness. Graphic sequences had been deleted when the four-hour lower was diminished by half.
Through the broadcast, ABC ran the movie with out commercials—no sponsors wished the airtime. The community’s disclaimer learn: “In its presentation, ABC has taken no place as to how such an occasion may be initiated or averted.” Hotlines had been opened to help distressed viewers.
This system concluded with a dwell panel that includes scientist Carl Sagan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, creator Elie Wiesel, and former Protection Secretary Robert McNamara. As U.S.–Soviet relations slowly thawed, The Day After aired in the usS.R. in 1987, finishing its international cautionary loop.[10]
