11 ms·
For fans of Threads, (or for anyone who just doesn't want to sleep tonight), I found a wonderful piece of Nuclear Fiction last week: A fake BBC news report trac
by s_kilk 10y ago
For fans of Threads, (or for anyone who just doesn't want to sleep tonight), I found a wonderful piece of Nuclear Fiction last week: A fake BBC news report tracking an escalating conflict between NATO and Russian forces.
"Nuclear Attack Emergency Broadcast - Live Breaking News from London (fiction)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VZ3LGfSMhA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VZ3LGfSMhA
It's the only piece of fiction that has made me feel deathly ill in quite the same way Threads did.
[EDIT] also, those familiar with The Day After should watch out for a little easter-egg toward the end.
[DOUBLE-EDIT] I'm just re-watching the end now and even with full knowledge that it is fiction, the Attack Warning Red sound is still absolutely horrifying.
- balabaster 10y agoWow! Just wow! I knew this was fiction the whole time I was watching it and it's still horrifying, right from the outset. They did such a great job, I can't give them enough credit for their realism.
- s_kilk 10y agoYeah, it's really, _really_ well made. Good job on whoever put it together.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- protomyth 10y agoIs that the one that they've been updating with the changing politician names and situations. I seem to remember a version that was a bit different.
- s_kilk 10y agoI think they've done a few different versions. The differences seem to be mostly in the TV trimmings at the start and end, and a few versions have US or Canadian civil-defence warnings at the end. Skimming through, the content seems to be largely the same, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were making small changes too. [EDIT] Actually, you're right, some of the older versions have different (to my ear, worse) voice work. I'm glad the iterated on the idea and polished it up.
- dmix 10y agoThat fake BBC video would be a great video to troll people with. Playing it loudly in a Starbucks or at the office for example. Quite a brilliant piece of art.
- jacquesm 10y agoI really wouldn't do that. That's roughly similar to yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater.
- balabaster 10y agoJust like War of the Worlds in 1938?
- jacquesm 10y agoThat was fairly clearly fiction and the panic was exaggerated.
- dmix 10y agoYou are underestimating the average person. That radio broadcast did create a response from a small subset. But that response was from an insignificant, poorly informed, population and was quickly tempered with a minimal amount of effort. I highly doubt it created a 'mass panic' with serious consequence, as if the average person believed Aliens were attacking earth due to a radio broadcast... The fact it was false was immediately spreading among the newspapers: > They immediately left the theatre, and standing on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, they read the lighted bulletin that circled the New York Times building: ORSON WELLES CAUSES PANIC. This type of thinking that we need to protect people has been causing comedians to needlessly apologizing for ultimately harmless art on a weekly basis. There's a big difference between a piece of humour/fiction crossing the intended audience into people who miss the obvious humour/fiction and take it seriously... and actual malice.
- jacquesm 10y ago
- jacquesm 10y agoThat's something that affects me strongly even knowing full well that it is fiction.
- monocasa 10y agoI'd add in 1965's "The War Game" by Peter Watkins. it was commissioned by the BBC as an educational film to prepare the populace for a post nuclear attack world, but was pulled at the last minute as "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting."
- arethuza 10y agoThe quote from "The War Game" that I always remember is: "the sound of the blast from a thermonuclear bomb has been likened to that of an enormous door slamming in the depths of hell."
- pmoriarty 10y agoAlso check out Seven Days in May.[1] It's kind of like a serious version of Dr. Strangelove, being more about the events leading up to nuclear war rather than the war itself. Very well done. [1] - https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Seven-Days-in-May/950294 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Seven-Days-in-May/950294
- krylon 10y agoI have managed to watch about half of that program. I can understand why they did not broadcast it. Really, really good, but more scary than anything I have ever seen in my life. So-called "Horror movies" are fairly tame in comparison.
- stuaxo 10y agoOT: Santa Sangre is a Jodorowski film where he tried to make a horrifying as opposed to horror film and IMO succeeded.
- jhbadger 10y agoAlso Testament (1983), an American movie about a small town far away from major cities to avoid the nuclear war itself, but unlike this typical situation in fiction, they don't live happily after but eventually have to deal with radiation sickness due to fallout and the problem of supplies running out.
- justanother 10y agoProductions such as the faux-BBC video and "The Day After" remind me that the word 'obscenity' is utterly wasted on pictures of naked people, when it applies perfectly to high-altitude nuclear mushrooms created by global banking interests.
- tim333 10y agoWhile I'm all against war I'm not sure how the banks are supposed to set it off. If anything the banks would be screwed. Wars mostly seem to be caused by alpha male leaders sacrificing the people for their greatness and glory. Which is why wars between democracies tend to be pretty half hearted or not happen as the people tend not to be keen on that.
- adrianN 10y agoI don't think that democracy has been popular for a sufficient amount of time to judge the viciousness of war between democratic states.
- arethuza 10y ago"We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write 'fuck' on their airplanes because it's obscene!"
- pdelbarba 10y agoThis is really well done. I think there are some issues with the chronology of how some of it would play out but that's nitpicking. If you enjoy this kind of thing, I very much suggest reading Red Storm Rising. It's somewhat old at this point but presents a very detailed account of this kind of situation.
- ocschwar 10y agoI'm not getting any sleep tonight. WOW
- hutzlibu 10y agoAnybody really worried ... should probably know, that russia actually decreased their military budget lately. And that US Military budget alone is allmost 10x higher than russias ...
- pmoriarty 10y agoThat's going to make nearly no difference in case of an all-out nuclear war. Russia still has thousands of nukes, as does the US. More than enough to completely destroy both countries many times over and pretty much end civilization as the world knows it.
- hutzlibu 10y agoWell, it makes a difference in the scenario. Because in the scenario of the fiction news, russia planned a attack. It is quite unlikely, that russia would do anything like that, beeing that underpowered.
- x220 10y agoRussia wouldn't need to plan an attack and disable NATO early warning systems. If all their nukes were detonated, humanity would be doomed regardless of where they were detonated. The fallout would eventually encompass the entire earth.
- hutzlibu 10y agoYes, but as far as I know there are not suicidal. Or why do you think they would do that?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- komali2 10y agoWhy would that make me less worried? Neither of those facts correlate, in my mind, to lowered risk of nuclear war.
- lobster_johnson 10y agoAnother scary nuclear holocaust movie: Miracle Mile (1988) [1]. Framed as a love story, it's set during a single night in LA as a man accidentally picks up a ringing pay phone and hears what seems to be a soldier who has misdialed his father and calling to warn of an impending missile launch. It's an incredibly tense film as the man anguishes about whether the phone call was fake or not, and decides to make an attempt to get out of town, but not before getting his girlfriend. It doesn't have the documentary realism of Threads, but the atmosphere of dread is a fantastic, and the structure -- a long "After Hours"-type night of craziness while nuclear holocaust is looming -- is pretty unique. [1] http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0097889/ http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0097889/
- pmoriarty 10y agoFanstastic movie, and very very 80's. Not nearly as terrifying as Threads, which is by far the most terrifying nuclear holocaust themed movie I've ever seen, but still very much worth watching, especially for fans of "what if?" scenarios, and those who enjoy wondering what people would actually do if they thought nuclear war was really going to happen.
- willismichael 10y agoNo qualifiers necessary, Threads is easily the most terrifying movie I have ever seen.
- sabarn01 10y agohttp://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html
- inopinatus 10y agoIf we're trading recommendations of harrowing things to watch, may I nominate Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies", the story of two children trying to survive in Japan towards the end of the Second World War in the face of a callous, indifferent world. The only animated feature that is guaranteed to make this grown man weep like there's no tomorrow.
- pmoriarty 10y agoAlso check out Barefoot Gen, a manga based on an eyewitness account of the bombing of Hiroshima.[1][2] [1] - https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Gen-Vol-Cartoon-Hiroshima/dp/0867196025/ https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Gen-Vol-Cartoon-Hiroshima/dp... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen
- ivanb 10y agoThere is also an absolutely harrowing anime Barefoot Gen. I remember when it came out on TV (90s Russia) all the kids who saw it were greatly affected.
- Anechoic 10y agoI nominate Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies" It's a great movie, but if you are going to watch, I highly recommend that you don't watch it alone and that you have something "fun" planned afterwords - maybe a fun dumb movie like The Hangover, play with your dog in the park, etc. Do not watch it by yourself and then go to bed. It is really haunting.
- ekianjo 10y agoExcellent movie, but the Grave of the Fireflies does not talk about the end of civilization as we know it, so it's a little out of topic.
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoIt was certainly the end of civilization as the protagonists knew it.
- armitron 10y agoThe expressions that you used ("deathly ill", no sleep tonight) make me think that you may be lacking some perspective and/or are identifying too closely with your body. Sometimes, it pays to take a step back and contemplate on the fact that you will eventually die. If you vividly visualize that projected moment of your death and make it real in your mind, you will realize that possible problems you may be having in your everyday, mundane life now appear insignificant. You may also be filled with anxiety and dread. Alternatively, you may dissociate. It is that dissociation that will allow you to identify with something other than your body (nothingness) and thus be free of such (unexamined) reactions.
- jacquesm 10y agoThat's quite a handful from reading one sentence in a comment about a person that you do not know irl.
- throwaway9475 10y agoIt also pays to realize that when people say something makes them feel "deathly ill", they're probably using it as an expression to signify how shaken they are by something.
- armitron 10y agoWhich does not contradict anything that I wrote. "Shaken" can also be an unexamined reaction.
- sgt101 10y agoWhen I was a younger man I lived as if my life was separated from death by a single sheet of paper. At any time I was ready to die, it made me free and fearless. Then I held my first child, and I understood what folly I had fallen to.
- elihu 10y agoThat was really unnerving. To me, it reinforced the idea that in a major nuclear conflict, I'm not going to have any idea what's going on. The survivors (assuming there are some) might eventually figure it out but in the short/medium term most are probably going to be left wondering what just happened, who are they at war with, did any side "win"?
- sitepodmatt 10y agoAlso check out Pandora movie. It is korean but their are good English Subs. It is available on Netflix. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6302160/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6302160/ Basically fictional Fukushima in South Korea
- throwaway6556 10y agoWell, watch the news this Saturday. Soon it won't be fictional anymore, and will come with an, uh, bombish flavour.
- rusk 10y agoI remember a few years ago RTÉ news did a fake news report about Sellafield (nearby English) nuclear reactor going boom. I was there like "okay guys let's keep calm" but the girls all went ape-shit. Running around the house bawling. That was stressful.
- MR_HANDS 10y agoseriously... this is fantastic. thanks-
- ngcazz 10y agoThanks, this is very well done. I think in a way it's even scarier than Threads, given it doesn't allow you the detachment of seeing other people. You would _be there_ watching this report and losing it.