Threads is a great movie in many ways. One of them is its accurate, well-researched depiction of the state of nuclear war planning in the UK at the time. The Sh

Threads is a great movie in many ways. One of them is its accurate, well-researched depiction of the state of nuclear war planning in the UK at the time. The Sheffield city emergency operations center is depicted much as they were in most UK cities, with some discussion of the more protected Regional Seat of Government. There is a quite accurate depiction of the HANDEL telephone early warning network, and the greasepen board which would be used to enter detonation reports reported from UKWMO. It seems primitive from the modern perspective, and it is, but the design of some of these systems was cutting edge within the cost constraints of the time---HANDEL, for example, using the distribution network of leased lines that had been established to distribute the "speaking clock" audio to telephone exchanges. The hierarchical reporting systems designed for nuclear attacks, with information moving up a hierarchy and reports moving back down, were originally developed (principally in the UK) for air defense but advanced significantly during the Cold War and created the basic architecture for many of the first networked computer systems, which were essentially automation of the established systems. The aftermath depicted in the film is largely drawn from (and accurate to) reports prepared by both UK and US civil defense organizations, but tends to take the more pessimistic route---not at all an unreasonable choice, as these agencies had a tendency to be rather rosy in their forward-looking work. This seems to have been more a political attitude than a result of the actual analysis of the time, as reports alluded to the worst outcomes being likely and some programs were secretly initiated under the assumption that survival of population centers was infeasible (e.g. the famously secretive US mass relocation program). But planners also felt that, from a practical perspective, it was important for the public to be optimistic. "Expect the best, prepare for the worst" is a positive take on the era, although for political reasons the "expect" often got a lot more resources than the "prepare."