Comments on: Mini-review: Threads (1984)

By: Iestyn

Iestyn — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:38:18 +0000

@matt: I remember seeing that yearrrrrs ago!

By: Iestyn

Iestyn — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:36:01 +0000

@dave: I was 6 when it was released, so I was a bit too young to comprehend the effects of thermonuclear war. I think that’s probably a good thing. Watching it now means I have the best of both worlds: It’s made me even more scared of war kicking off, and yet i’m old enough to rationalise it and not have reoccurring nightmares of dying a long, painful death from radiation poisoning..

I remember my dad telling me that we’d be hit by several blasts, as there were a number of strategic targets nearby. Didcot, Swindon, a few RAF and military bases.. of course, it depends whether KT nukes were used. If they were we might just die after a few weeks..

There’s an interesting article on Wikipedia about Square Leg, which shows this map of “a reasonably realistic scenario”:

By: zenbullets

zenbullets — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:48:50 +0000

Just remembered, I did a Flash anim based on the “Protect and Survive” leaflet, long, long time ago. So old it’s embarrassing to link to, but I’m going to anyway.

Dave - Newhaven port looks like a post-apocalyptic wilderness already. Do you really think someone would waste a nuke on it? Nuke’s can’t come too cheap.

By: Dave Phelan-Player

Dave Phelan-Player — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:26:42 +0000

Yezzer, you’re probably too young to have seen this on the beeb, but it’s probably a large part of why all the forty-somethings or old thirty-somethings you know are shit-scared of anything kicking off with Russia. Or China. Or India. Or Pakistan. Or Israel, who of course don’t have *any* nukes, no sirree.

We are toast the moment any President Bush, Putin or Musharaff gets a first strike in. I used to know all the first and second-strike targets round my home town, the ones that meant Protect and Survive was just BS for anyone in the 10km airburst blast radius. Did you? Do you?

For the record: Shoreham Power Station, Shoreham docks, Newhaven port.

By: Iestyn

Iestyn — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:00:50 +0000

It seems like it frightened a generation. If I had seen this when I was younger, I think I’d have been absolutely terrified.

Becca was saying they were made to watch it at school! That’s just screwed up.. but.. also I can kinda see why.

By: zenbullets

zenbullets — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:44:29 +0000

They don’t make ‘em like they used to. This scared the hell out of me as a kid. But then, in the Thatcher years, even Grange Hill was a nightmarish social distopia.