Nuclear War Movies
Mark Kloser
there are more so feel free to add to the list. Oh, and I am liooking
for the movie "Countdown to Looking Glass". I would be pleased if
someone would sell it to me.
"Above and Beyond"; 1952. Dir: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama. (The story
of Col. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 "Enola Gay",the plane that
dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. With the exception of the dropping
of the bomb at the end of the film, "Above and Beyond" sets the pattern
for later films that deal with SAC's training for war. Also, as in later
SAC dramas, war seems secondary to the personal problems of airmen, and
the dropping of the atomic bomb seems less a turning point in world
history, than an episode in Col. Tibbet's life.)
"Amazing Colossal Man (The)"; 1957. Dir: Bert I. Gordon. (Sequel: War of
the Colossal Beast. An American colonel is irradiated by a nuclear
explosian in the desert. Unlike Grant Williams, the Incredible Shrinking
Man, who shrinks to molecular size after a dose of radiation, the
colonel grows into a giant.)
"Amazing Spider Man (The)" A 1977 TV series. (Peter Parker, a student,
is bitten by a radioactive spider. As is usual in nuclear iconography,
radiation bestows unconventional powers. Parker becomes The Amazing
Spider Man.)
"Amerika"; 1972-1983, EF. Dir: Al Razutis (This is a feature-length film
that tries to serve as an antidote to commerical media myths about
Western culture. Reel 1 contains a segment called "Atomic Gardening".
Synopsis is in "Canyon Cinema, Catalog 6", p100.)
"Andromeda Strain"; 1971. Dir: Robert Wise. (Based on the novel by
Michael Critchton. The "Andromeda Strain" combines nuclear and
biological mythology. A town has been wiped out by a virus from outer
space, one for which human beings have no natural immunity. Scientists
plan to destroy the infected town with a nuclear bomb. Also, they plan
to use a nuclear weapon to destroy and decontaminate the research lab in
which the Andromada Strain has broken free. As in the film version of
"War of the Worlds", nuclear weapons fail to provide an effective
defense. Scientists realize at the last minute that a nuclear blast will
simply cause new mutations in the Andromeda Strain.)
"Any Given World"; 1982, EF. Dir: Eames Demetrios (This is the story of
a man on a submarine four years after the end of the world. He has
nothing to do all day but watch videocasettes of commercial television
over and over...The film includes a 20 minute flashback equating
architecture with nuclear war,...a concert in a post-nuclear parking
lot, and a dance on an unfinished freeway. The plot centers on the use
of a nuclear power plant to restrict civil liberties in San Francisco,
just before Armageddon.) Demetrios' statement from Canyon Cinema Catalog
6. p65.
"Around the World, Under the Sea"; 1966, Dir: Andrew Marton (An atomic
submarine tries to stop an earthquake before the latter can destroy the
world.)
"Art of Survival (The)"; 1985, EF. Dir: Beth Block ("The Art of
Survival" is a documentary film about "Target: L.A.", an anti-nuclear
arts festival which was held in downtown Los Angeles in 1982." Canyon
Cinema, Catalog 6, p24.)
"Atlantis, the Lost Continent", 1960. Dir: George Pal (Zaren, the evil
tyrant of Atlantis, uses nuclear power to defeat his enemies.)
"Atoll K"; 1950. Dir: Leo Joannon (Also called "Utopia" and "Robinson
Crusoeland". By 1950, even Laurel and Hardy rely on a nuclear theme in
this, their final film together. They inherit an island which contains a
uranium deposit. )
"Atom Age Vampire"; 1961. Dir: Anton Giulio Masano (Italian. What is of
interest in this Italian film is that the mad scientist has done
research on the victims of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima. Also, he
doesn't suffer from the usual radiation burns and other classic
attibutes of mad nuclear scientists. Instead, he betrays the corruption
of his soul by turning into a reptile from time to time. A
scientist-reptile also appears in "The Hideous Sun Demon" of 1959.)
"Atomic Brain, (The)"; 1963. Dir: Joseph V. Mascelli (A woman asks a mad
scientist to remove her brain and put it into the body of a beautiful
young woman. The scientist's assistant/shadow bears the physical signs
of moral decay.)
"Atomic Cafe", (The); 1982. Dir: Kevin Rafferty ( A classic use of
documentary footage to capture the "feel" of the Cold War. Also, the
film demonstrates the extent to which nuclear fear and fervor penetrated
American culture after World War II.)
"Atomic City (The)"; 1952. Dir: Jerry Hopper (An atomic scientist's son
is kidnapped.)
"Atomic Kid (The)"; 1954. Dir: Leslie H. Martinson ( Even Mickey Rooney
is a victim of nuclear testing. His special nuclear powers include the
ability to cause slot machines to pour out their coins.)
"Atomic Man (The)"; 1956. dir: Ken Hughes (British. Another film about
an irradiated scientist. This time, the "sign" that the scientist has
been transformed by radiation is his ability to "see" 7 seconds into the
future.)
"Atomic Monster (The)"; 1941 Dir: George Waggner (When the movie was
re-released in the 1950's the title was changed from "The Man Made
Monster" to "The Atomic Monster". Lon Chaney, Jr. is immune to the
electric chair. Interesting because the title change reflects the waning
of electricity as a symbol of modernity after 1945.)
"Atomic Rulers of the World"; 1959-60. Dir: Tevro Ishii, Akira Mitsua,
Koreyoshi Akasaka (A Starman series that was re-edited from the Japanese
originals for American television. American gangsters use an atomic bomb
to threaten the Japanese.)
"Atomic Submarine (The)"; 1959; Dir: Spencer Bennet (Another film that
features the wonder weapon of the day: the atomic submarine. In this
film, the atomic sub is earth's best defence against a biological
"flying saucer" that can operate under water.)
"Attack of the 50-Foot Woman"; 1958. Dir: Nathan Hertz ( A woman is
irradiated by an alien and then mutates into a giant. Her colossal size
enables her to settle scores with her husband.)
"Autopsia de un Fantasia"; 1967. Dir: Ismael Rodriquez (A Mexican comedy
that ends with a nuclear holocaust.)
"Back to the Future III". (A tongue-in-cheek play on anachronisms.
Michael J. Fox returns to the old West, but wears a cowboy vest that
sports the atomic symbol. Thanks to David Nickels for this nuclear note.
"Back to the Future"; 1985. Dir: Robert Zemeckis (Features an atomic
powered DeLorean that runs first on Plutonian, stolen from Lybian
terrorists, and then on a "Mr. Fusion" device that converts garbage into
nuclear energy. The terrorists want Dr. Brown to build an atomic bomb,
which he refuses to do. Unlike classic mad nuclear scientists, Dr. Brown
is cute and loveable, and he has not been horribly scarred and deformed
by radiation: the sure signs of a morally corrupt scientist. The film
conveys the message that nuclear energy has a great potential for evil
[the terrorist bomb plot] but that a morally responsible scientist [Dr.
Brown] can channel nuclear energy into safe energy sources and produce
technological wonders. Thanks to Dan Smid for this note.)
"Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (The)"; 1953. Dir: Eugene Laurie (Animation
by Ray Harryhausen, based on Ray Bradbury"s story "The Fog Horn". In the
Arctic North, atomic bombs melt the ice in which a giant dinosaur has
been frozen for centuries. The meaning seems to be that atomic energy
releases an evil power of unimaginable dimesions, a mythic theme to be
picked up in the great sci-fi films that followed, such as "Forbidden
Planet".)
"Beast of Yucca Flats (The)"; 1961. Dir: Coleman Francis (Tor Johnson, a
massive and nearly inarticuate wrestler, plays a Russian atomic
scientist who wanders into an atomic blast in the desert and is
transformed into a cave man.)
"Beginning of the End"; 1957. Dir: Bert I. Gordon (An example of the
mutant insect genre, giant grasshoppers this time. The film's appeal is
strictly camp but its iconographic twists are interesting. A female
reporter immediately guesses that some kind of nuclear energy has
destroyed the town of Ludlow, although the army refuses to confirm her
suspicions. Later, as she tours the town, she compares Ludlow to Cologne
and Dresden, cities that had been destroyed by Allied bombing in World
War II. The implication is that the devastation at Ludlow was as bad as
Hiroshima, although the latter city is not mentioned. Peter Graves is a
scientist who does research on the irradiation of vegetables, but he
does not not display the usual physical or mental abnormalities of
nuclear scientists. His mute and deaf assistant, a classic Jungian
"Shadow", bears the physical signs of nuclear tampering. When Graves' is
visited by the reporter, he immediately remarks to her that "radiation
is dangerous", thus explaining the plight of his assistant. Of course,
Ludlow was destroyed by giant grasshoppers, mutations caused by Graves'
experiments.)
"Beginning or the End (The)"; 1947. Dir: Norman Taurog (First feature
length film about the development of the atomic bomb.)
"Bells of Nagasaki (The)"; 1950: Dir: Hideo Oba (This seems to be the
first Japanese feature film about the atomic bombings. When it was made,
the Americans still forbade any overt criticism of the bombing in
Japanese films. Instead of showing devastation the film dwells upon the
heroism of Dr. Takashi Nagai, upon whose memoirs the film was based. See
Tadeo Sato's "Currents in Japanese Cinema", pp 197-198)
"Beneath the Planet of the Apes"; 1987. Dir: Ted Post (After a nuclear
war, many survivors of the human race go underground and worship the
only surviving ICBM.) TEXT TEXT ü
"Beyond the Time Barrier"; 1960. Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer (A pilot goes
through the time barrier and arrives in the future, after a nuclear war.
As in the later film, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", the survivors
have created an underground civilization.)
"Black Rain"; 1990?, Japanese (Based on the novel by Ibuse. The film
maintains the low-keyed approach of the novel. The title refers to the
black rain that fell on a young woman at Hiroshima, and which caused her
to fall ill from radiation sickness after the war. The film explores the
lingering effects of the war both on victims of the atomic bombings and
on those experienced by ordinary soldiers. A classic example of
"post-traumatic-stress")
"Blond Piano"; 1981, EF. Dir: David White ("A man in a radiation suit
discovers objects for the end of the world one one last rare spring
day...The film's main character is sick [due to radiation
poisoning]...He pursues the Blond Piano [a piano but actually a woman I
once poved], finds it being played by a fish and decides it is best to
leave it (her) alone..." The artist's description is from Canyon Cinema
Catalog 6, p243.)
"Bombers B-52"; 1957. Dir: Gordon Douglas (A Natalie Wood romance is set
against the backdrop of SAC's preparation for global thermonuclear war.)
"Boy and His Dog (A)"; 1975. Dir: L.Q. Jones. (A tale of the
post-nuclear holocaust. As is often the case, the underground survivors
have mutated into superior but mostly sterile beings while the surface
dwellers, including Don Johnson, are barbaric but virile scum. The
mutant talking dog, who is much brighter than Don Johnson, gets the last
and funniest line.)
"Brain From Planet Arous (The)"; 1958. Dir: Nathan Juran (An alien,
floating brain takes over the body of John Agar, a nuclear physicist.)
"Bride of the Monster"; 1955. Dir: Edward D. Wood, Jr. (With Bela Lugosi
and Tor Johnson. Lugosi experiments with atomic energy on human beings
with the usual results. Tor Johnson plays the mutant assistant. After
Lugosi battles with a mutant octopus, the octopus explodes and there is
a not-so-subtle cut to stock footage of a real nuclear explosion. The
recent film "Ed Wood" featured the stirring speech by the aged, dying
Lugosi in "Bride of the Monster", as well as his fight with the rubber
octopus.
"Brides of Blood"; 1968. Dir: Eddie Romero, Gerrado de Leon
(American-Phillipine. Mutants are spawned by radiation, and one of them
eats his "brides".)
"Caltiki, The Immortal Monster"; 1959. Dir: Riccardo Freda, Robert
Hampton (Italian.People melt and go insane if they touch Caltiki, a
radioactive blob from Mexico . The theme of "melting" is popular in
nuclear films, perhaps because of the numerous accounts of melting flesh
and eyes at Hisroshima and Nagasaki.)
"Canadian Mounties Versus the Atomic Invaders"; 1953. Dir: Franklin
Adreon (A Republic serial that was reedited into a movie called "Missile
Base at Taniak".)
"Captive Women"; 1952. Dir: Stuart Gilmore. (After a nuclear war in the
year 2000, small bands of people struggle to survive in the ruins of
Manhattan. This film is a nuclear updating of an earlier, pre-nuclear
theme: the tenuous survival of the human race after the "next" great
war. The classic example of the genre was "Things to Come", 1936,
adapted by William Cameron Menzies from H.G.Well's novel "The Shape of
Things to Come", 1933. In the 30's it was still possible to believe in
Well's speculation that scientists could bring rational order to a
chaotic world, but by the 1950's the stereotype had begun to reverse:
science brings about the end of civilization.)
"Children of the Atomic Bomb"; 1952. Dir: Kaneto Shindo (A film that
caused controversy in Japan because it suggested that something should
actually be done for the children of the bombed cities. A reminder to
Americans that the survivors of the atomic bombings were often shunned.
At the time, the children were often treated as untoucheables.
Sekigawa's "Hiroshima" was made in the following year to restore the
politically correct theme of passive suffering. See "The Japanese Movie"
p. 101.)
"China Syndrome"; 1979. Dir: James Bridges (Refelcts an iconographic
shift away from the threat of nuclear war to the more immediate danger
posed by "peaceful" uses of nuclear engergy.)
"Chosen (The)"; 1978. Dir: Alberto De Martino (Nuclear energy is
literally the work of the devil. As Kirk Douglas builds a nuclear power
plant in the Arabian Desert, he comes to realize that his son, the
Anti-Christ, plans to use the plant's output to control the world. Like
"The China Syndrome" of the following year, "The Chosen One" marks an
iconographic shift away from the theme of global thermonuclear war to
the threat posed by "peaceful" nuclear energy.)
"Class of Nuke 'Em High"; 1986. Dir: Richard Haines (About a nuclear
waste dump in New Jersy that spawns mutant teen-agers. Can Mutant Ninja
Turtles spawned by radioactive yellow ooze be far behind?)
"Cosmic Man (The)"; 1959. Dir: Herbert Greene (A benign alien, John
Carradine, visits earth. Of iconographic interest is the fact that only
two scientists believe that Carradine's intentions are peaceful.)
"Creation of the Humanoids"; 1962. Dir: W.E. Barry (Robots are used to
rebuild the world after the Third World War.)
"Creature with the Atomic Brain"; 1955. Dir: Edward L. Kahn (Atomic
zombies appear in this early synthesis of the zombie theme with that of
nuclear energy.)
"The Crawling Eye"; 1958. Dir: Quentin Lawrence (English. A tenacled
monster is hidden in a radioactive cloud.)
"Crisis in Utopia"; 1981, EF. Dir: Ken Ross (Renee Shafransky, writing
in "The Villager", October 29, 1981, described it as an avant-garde
version of "War of the Worlds". See Film-Maker's Cooperative, Catalogue
No. 7, pp414-415.)
"Crossroads"; 1976, EF. Dir: Bruce Conner (Uses documentary footage from
the tests at Bikini Atoll, July 25, 1946. The repetition of the
explosion 27 times gradually makes the Bomb seem akin to god or nature
itself. Canyon Cinema Catalogue 6, p54.)
"Cyclops (The)"; 1955. Dir: Bert I. Gordon (Radioactivity turns a man
into a gaint.)
"Cyclotrode X"; 1946. Dir: William Witney (A movie edited from the
Republic serial "The Crimson Ghost". The Crimson Ghost tries to steal a
machine called "Cyclotrode X", which seems to be a hollywood version of
a cyclotron. Like a nuclear blast, CyclotrodeX interferes with
electricity.)
"Damnation Alley"; 1977. Dir: Jack Smight (A tale of the post-nuclear
apocalypse. Survivors of a missile silo leave the midwest and head for
Albany, New York.)
"Dark Star"; 1974. Dir: John Carpenter (A funky satire of science
fiction films. The crew of "Dark Star" is on an interminable mission: to
destroy "unstable" planets that wobble out of orbit and pose a threat to
the colonization of space. The radiation shield that screens the crew
from the engine has broken down, but cutbacks in space funding means
that earth cannot send a replacement. Also a threat is posed by the
nuclear missiles that are used to destroy the unstable planets. The
smart bombs are so intelligent that they talk and think for themselves.)
"Day After (The)"; 1983. Dir: Nicholas Meyer (TV movie. A bland study of
the effects of nuclear war. Again, there is a typically American focus
upon familiy crises generated by global thermonuclear war. The best
scenes are the shots of American missiles streaming out of their silos:
the first warning to citizens that nuclear war has begun.)
"Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (The)";
1981 (A documentary about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic Bomb.)
"Day One"; 1989. Dir: Joseph Sargent (TV Movie. The story of the making
of the atomic bomb, with Brian Dennehy as General Leslie Groves.)
"Day The Earth Caught Fire (The)"; 1962. Dir: Val Guest (Atomic
explosians knock the earth out of orbit.)
"Day the Earth Stood Still (The)"; 1951. Dir: Robert Wise (The classic
film in which a wise alien warns earthlings to abandon nuclear weapons.
Klaatu and his invulnerable robot, Gort, land in Washington. Klaatu is a
Christ figure: he warns of the dreadful punishment if the human race
fails to heed his message, he is killed by those whom he is sent to
save, and he is then resurrected from the dead and returns to the
heavens.)
"Day the Fish Came out (The)"; 1967. Dir: Michael Cacoyannis
(Greek-British. Two Atomic bombs are lost over the Aegean. Candice
Bergen's contribution to nuclear iconography.)
"Day the Sky Exploded (The)"; 1958. Dir: Paolo Heusch (The nations of
earth fire nuclear missiles at threatening asteroids.)
"Day the World Ended (The)"; 1956. Dir. Roger Corman (A tale of the
post-nuclear holocaust. Most human beings become mutants, but some
"normal" people survive in a mountain cabin.)
"Deadly Mantis (The)"; 1957. Dir: Nathan Juran (The giant mantis is not
a nuclear mutation, but as Spencer Weart pointed out in 'Nuclear Fear",
it is tracked and intercepted as if it were a Russian nuclear bomber.)
"Def-Con 4"; 1984. Dir: Paul Donovan (A familiar theme: astronauts
return to earth after a nuclear war.)
"Dernier Combat (Le); 1984. Dir: Luc Besson (A French equivalent of the
"Road Warrior", although it is less mythic than the Australian film.)
"Desert Bloom"; 1986. Dir: Eugene Corr (A girl grows up in Nevada during
the time of the nuclear tests. Another example of the American obsession
with how atomic bombs will affect the American nuclear family.)
"Destination Moon"; 1950. Dir: George Pal (Based on Robert Heinlein's
novel "Rocketship Galileo". The Americans are determined to beat the
Russians to the moon, because the first country to land on the moon can
set up a missile base. The Russians aren't mentioned by name, but they
are obviously the "Threat", to use the name which the U.S. Army applies
to enemy forces in war games. Ironically, in Heinlein's original story,
the Nazis had been the first to reach the moon, and had established a
missile base before the Americans arrived.)
"Devil Girl from Mars"; 1954. Dir: David MacDonald (A female invader
arrives in a ship with a nuclear engine. The Martians need earthmen to
supplement their declinging supply of virile males, and the Devil Girl
is the one to ensnare them.)
"Doomsday Machine"; 1967. Dir: Lee Sholem (Passengers on a spaceship
headed for Venus learn that earth has been destroyed in a nuclear war.)
"Dr. Cyclops"; 1948. Dir: Ernest Schoedsack (Dr. Cyclops is a classic
example of the type of the mad, disfigured nuclear scientist, a man for
whom radium symbolizes unlimited power. The title reflects Dr. Cyclops
giant size compared to the people whom he shrinks in his radium
chamber.)
"Dr. No"; 1962. Dir: Terrence Young (Dr. No is a worthy successor to Dr.
Cyclops, a mad nuclear scientist in the classic mold: physically and
mentally damaged by his experiments, and dedicated to achieving
domination over the world.)
"Dr. Scorpian"; 1978. Dir: Richard Lane (Dr. Scorpian thwarts a mad
scientist who steals atomic missiles.)
"Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb";
1964. Dir: Stanley Kupric (The classic satire of nuclear war strategies
and of stodgy SAC movies. Dr. Strangelove is one of the greatest of the
mad nuclear scientists of the movies: totally insane, mutilated, and
charismatic. Strangelove easily persuades the President and the top
brass that the American elite must collect young girls for breeding
stock and take refuge from fallout in deep mine shafts; an ironic twist
on the convention that "civilization" survives underground after nuclear
war. By far the funniest movie ever made about the annihilation of the
human race in global thermonuclear war.)
"Dr. Who and the Daleks"; 1965 Regal Films. (Movie adapted from the
British TV series, with Peter Cushing as the Doctor.)
"Empire of the Ants"; 1977. Dir: Bert I. Gordon (Another of H.G. Well's
stories that is updated by addition to it of a radioactive theme: a
vacation spot is ruined by giant mutant ants.)
"End of the World"; 1977. Dir: John Hayes. (Christopher Lee is an alien
priest who, with alien nuns, is sent to destroy the planet earth. The
earthlings are contaminating the universe, and Lee punishes them by
blowing up the world. )
"Enola Gay: The Men the Mission, The Atomic Bomb"; 1980. Dir: David
Lowell Rich (TV Movie)
"Escape from New York"; 1981. Dir: John Carpenter (The President's plane
crashes in New York City, which is now a penal colony. In order to
prevent nuclear war, Kurt Russell must rescue the President and retrieve
a secret tape.)
"Equalizer 2000"; 1986 (A lone warrior fights a dictatorial government
after the nuclear holocaust)
"Fahrenheit 451"; 1966. Dir: Francois Truffaut (Interesting because
nuclear war is not included. In Ray Bradbury's original story, two
nuclear wars have already occurred when the story begins and a third is
pending at the end.)
"Failsafe"; 1964. Dir: Sidney Lumet (A straight nuclear melodrama of the
type satirized in "Dr. Strangelove". The Americans accidentally nuke
Moscow, then offer to destroy New York City in order to prevent Russian
retaliation.)
"Fall"; 1971, EF. Dir: Tom De Witt (According to one reviewer, the film
uses the fall of Icarus as a metaphor of our possible "fall" though
nuclear war. Canyon Cinema, Catalog 6, p67)
"Fat Man and Little Boy"; 1989. Dir: Roland Joffre (A melodrama about
the making of the Atomic Bomb.)
"Fiend Without A Face"; 1958. Dir: Arthur Crabtree (A scientist's mind
causes the materialization of flying brains. As is conventional, the
brains are attracted to atomic installations.)
"Final Countdown (The)"; 1980. Dir: Don Taylor (A nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier, the Nimitz, goes through a time warp and discovers the
Japanese invasion fleet just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film
seems to express a fantasy: if only nuclear energy systems had been
available in a sophisticated form in 1941, the Americans could have
defeated the Japanese fleet with a single, nuclear-powered carrier, and
could have avoided the atomic bombings of Japan.)
"Final War (The)"; 1960. Dir: Shigeaki Hidaka (Japanese. Also known as
"World War III Breaks Out". The world is drawn into a nuclear war after
the Americans accidentally detonate an atomic bomb over Korea. Oddly,
only Argentina survives.)
"First Spaceship on Venus"; 1960. Dir: Kurt Maetzig (German. Based on a
story by Stanislaw Lem, who, like many authors, denounced the film that
was based on his work. Astronauts learn that a civilization on the
planet Venus had been destroyed by nuclear war.)
"First Time Here"; 1964, EF. Dir: Richard Myers (Uses a model of a city
to show the effects of the atomic bomb. Canyon Cinema, Catalog 6, p174.)
"Five"; 1951. Dir: Arch Oboler. (Five stereotypical Americans talk
things over after a global thermonuclear war.)
"5000 Fingers of Dr. T"; 1953 (A boy dreams that he and 499 other
children take piano lessons from an authoritarian music teacher, hence
the 5000 fingers. He builds an atomic bomb to retaliate.)
'"Flight that Disappeared (The); 1961. Dir: Reginald LeBorg. (Another
film in which a a plane goes to another dimension in time and space.
This time, the passengers are not astronauts who discover a future earth
that has been destroyed by nuclear war: they are atomic scientists who
are indicted and tried by the unborn, the people of future generations.
The charge: conspiring to destroy planet earth.)
"Forbidden Planet"; 1956. Dir: Fred McLeod Wilcox (The film uses
Shakespeare's "Tempest" for a story line and draws upon psychoanalysis
to modernize the source of demons: they come from the violent,
primordial instincts within the Id. A now-vanished race, the Krell,
combined mental power with nuclear energy. The latter was generated by
hundreds of vast computer/power plants that extended deep into the
earth. The story line is vague at the crucial point, but somehow the
Krell's nuclear/mental power gave material form to their very
nightmares: monsters from the Id destroyed their civilization. What is
"forbidden" is obviously the kind of knowledge that created nuclear
fission. Once the Pandora's Box of nuclear energy is opened, innate
human evil virtually guarantees a tragic ending to the story. The film
suggests that the seeds of future destruction have already been planted
on earth: the astronauts use a nuclear engine in their ship, and atomic
symbols abound on their clothing and equipment.)
"Fourth Protocol (The)", 1987. Dir: John Mackenzie. (A nuclear thriller
in the manner of James Bond movies. The plot recalls "Octopussy".
Russian agents plan to set off a nuclear bomb at an American base in the
British Isles, thus creating friction within Nato.)
"Frankenstein Conquers the World"; 1964. Dir: Inoshiro Honda (Japanese.
During World War II, the Germans take the obvious strategic step of
sending the heart of Frankenstein's monster to their allies, the
Japanese. The heart is irradiated at Hiroshima. As one might expect, the
heart is then eaten by a boy and the radiation causes him to grow into a
giant.)
"Frankenstein Unbound"; 1990. Dir: Roger Corman (Combines relativity
physics, nuclear themes, the Gothic horror genre and the Wellsian theme
of space travel. A scientist in 2031 accidentally blows himself and his
nuclear-powered car back into the days of Mary Shelley and Dr.
Frankenstein. Thanks to Pat Davidson for this note.)
"Gamera the Invincible"; 1965 Dir: Masaichi Nagata, Sandy Howard
(U.S./Japanese. This time around, the atomic bomb frees Gamera, a giant
flying turtle.)
"Gamma People (The)"; 1956 Dir: John Gilling (British. In an East
European dictatorship, children are used in experiments with gamma
radiation.)
"Gathering of Eagles (A)"; 1963. Dir: Delbert Mann (Another example of
the SAC-in-Peacetime genre, this time centering around the personal
problems of Rock Hudson.)
"Genesis II"; 1973. Dir: John LLewellyn (An unsuccessful pilot for a TV
series. A man sleeps for 60 years and awakens to find that a nuclear war
has occurred.)
"Georg"; 1964, EF. Dir: Stanton Kaye (A German veteran of World War II
emigrates to the United States, then seeks to escape from civilization
by fleeing to the mountains. "Civilization" cannot be escaped so easily,
however, and his mountain refuge is threatened by the construction of a
missile base.) Film-Makers' Cooperative Catalogue No.7, pp 286-287.)
"Giant of Metropolis"; 1962. Dir: Emimmo Salvi. (Italian, Seven Arts, 92
min.. "Metropolis" is Atlantis, and it is destroyed in a nuclear blast.)
"Glen and Randa"; 1971. Dir: Jim McBride (After World War III, two young
people set out to find "Metropolis", a place they learned about from a
comic book.)
"Godzilla, King of the Monsters"; 1956. Dir: Terry Morse, Inoshiro Honda
(Godzilla is the most famous mutant spawned by the atomic bomb. He seems
to be thethe bomb itself, as he endlessly devastates Japanese cities.
The Japanese military is as defenseless against Godzilla as it had been
against the great B-29, the bomber that torched and then atomized Japan
in World War II.)
"Gojira"; Toho, 1954 (In English with additions, 1955)
"Gold"; 1934. Dir: Karl Hartl (A German futuristic classic. Scientists
use atom smashers in an attempt to create gold in the laboratory. An
early example of the alchemist as the mythic forerunner of the
scientist, and of nuclear energy as the modern equivalent of the
philosopher's stone, the source of unlimited power and of the deepest
insight into nature. The nuclear reactor sets were re-used in the
"Magnetic Monster", 1953.)
"Goldfinger"; 1964. Dir: Guy Hamilton (Auric Goldfinger plans to use a
portable nuke to irradiate the gold in Fort Knox. James Bond defuses the
bomb just as the timer reads OO7 seconds to detonation time.)
"Green Slime"; 1968. Dir: Kinji Fukasaku (An example of a blob-monster
of a totally malignant, unfeeling kind. The theme of melting, oozing
slime in popular mythology perhaps has its origins in the numerous
accounts of melting people from Hirohima.)
"H Man (The)"; 1958. Dir: Inoshiro Honda (Another example of the
creation of a melting blob of a mutant by the explosion of an atomic
bomb.)
"Hand of Death"; 1961. Dir: Gene Nelson (John Agar wants to create a gas
that will prevent nuclear war, but the gas turns him into a monster.
Again, a scientist pays the price for tampering with nature's secrets.)
"Hardware"; 1990?? Dir: Richard Stanley (Example of the post-nuclear
holocaust genre.)
"Hellfire: A Journey From Hiroshima"; 1986. Dir: John Junkerman, John
Downer. (A documentary about two painters, Iri and Toshi Maruki, who saw
Hiroshima soon afer the dropping of the bomb. The Marukis painted 15
murals that reflected their experience.)
"Hideous Sun Demon (The); 1959. Dir: Robert Clarke (An irradiated
scientist turns into a scaly monster when the sun strikes him.)
"Hills Have Eyes (The)"; 1977. Dir: Wes Craven (A nuclear family, led by
"Jupiter", a mutant victim of atomic testing, feasts upon an equally
repellent "normal" family from Cleveland.)
"Hiroshima" (An episode from the "World at War", a documentary series
for television.)
"Hiroshima"; 1953; Dir: Hideo Sekigawa (Made in response to Shindo's
"Children of Hiroshima". The latter had not seemed to support the
Japanese idea that passive sorrow and displacement of blame to the
Americans was the only honorable course after Hiroshima. Some scenes
from Sekigawa's film were reused in Resnais' "Hiroshima, mon amour",
another film that seems to revel in passive suffering. See "The Japanese
Movie", pp. 101-102.)
"Hiroshima, Mon Amour"; 1960. Dir: Alain Resnais (French. A French woman
and a Japanese man become lovers. The story suggests a parallel between
French "suffering" brought about by the shame of defeat and
collaboration, and Japanese suffering brought about by defeat and the
Atomic bomb.)
"Hiroshima/Nagasaki 1945." (Released ca. 1970, but constructed from
suppressed footage that had been made in 1945 by Japanese cameramen.)
"Horror of the Blood Monsters"; 1970. dir: Al Adamson (Radiation alters
the perception of colors on a planet of monsters.)
"Hunt for Red October (The)"; 1990. (Based on Tom Clancey's novel of the
same name. The theme is a Russian equivalent of "Dr. Strangelove",
except that the rouge Russian naval officer is not insane like General
Jack Ripper. Rather than trying to initiate global thermonuclear war,
Sean Connery's character tries to prevent it by defecting to the
Americans, along with his missile submarine.)
"Incredible Hulk (The)"; 1977. Dir: Kenneth Johnson (TV Movie. Also, a
TV series. Bill Bixley is exposed to radiation when an experiment
backfires. Once gain, radiation creates a mutant: The Incredible Hulk.)
"Incredible Invasion (The)"; 1969-70. Dir: Dave Gregory. (Includes
flying saucers which destroy a city. Canyon Cinema Catalog 6, p 97.)
"Incredible Shrinking Man (The)"; 1957. Dir: Jack Arnold (After passing
through a radioactive cloud at sea, Grant Williams begins to shrink at
an alarming rate and is soon small enough to be menaced by such common
things as a house cat and a spider.)
"Independence Day", 1996 (Combines the mythologies of electricity, the
bomb and the computer. The world is saved by a laptop.) "Invaders from
Mars"; 1986. Dir: William Cameron Menzies (Another classic from the
1950's. The nuclear theme is understated in the film, but it provides
the cause for the alien invasion: the little boy's father is a scientist
who is working on an "atomic missile".)
("Invasion U.S.A."; 1952. Dir: Alfred E. Green An unnamed foreign power
nukes the U.S.A., launches an invasion and finally captures Washington,
D.C.. It turns out that the entire invasion was a kind of mass
hallucination, a warning of things that could come to pass if the
American public did not take a more active role in political affairs.
The film makes use of documentary footage of atomic explosions, in the
manner of an even earlier film, "Shadow of Terror". A later non-nuclear
film called "Invasion, U.S.A." was made by Chuck Norris in 1985.)
"Invisible Ray (The)"; 1936. Dir; Lambert Hillyer (With Boris Karloff
and Bela Lugosi. Karloff discovers "Radium X" in a meteor. After
touching the radium, he becomes radioactive, glows in the dark and
becomes a mad killer.)
"It Came from Beneath the Sea"; 1955. Dir: Robert Gordon (The first
nuclear submarine encounters a giant radioactive octopus. H-bomb tests
had contaminated the Mindanao Deep, supposedly the area from which the
monster came. The monster isn't a mutant, but its radioactivity scares
away its normal prey.)
"It"; 1967. Dir: Herbert J. Leder (Roddy McDowall brings the ancient
Jewish statue of the Golem to life, and then uses it to commit crimes on
his behalf. An atomic bomb kills McDowell.)
"Journey (The)"; 1984-85, EF. Dir: Peter Watkins (This film is probably
longer than a real nuclear war: 14.5 hours. It is a multi-part
documentary and commentary filmed in various countries. It includes live
interviews and documentary footage of nuclear weapons and their effects
to give a kind of "stat e of the world" message. See "Canyon Cinema
Catalog 6", pp237-240 for descriptions of the many segments of the
film.)
"Journey Beneath the Desert"; 1961. Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer (French/Italian
TV movie. The lost city of Atlantis is destroyed by an atomic bomb.)
"Killers From Space"; 1954. Dir: W. Lee Wilder (Aliens resurrect Peter
Graves, a nuclear scientist.)
"King Dinosaur"; 1955. Dir: Bert I. Gordon (An atomic bomb ends the
problems caused by a giant Gila Monster and a giant Armadillo on the
planet Nova.)
"Kiss Me Deadly"; 1955. Dir: Robert Aldrich (Other films of the 50's
fused the sci-fi and horror genres, but Aldrich managed to combine
nuclear mythology with the detective story. In Mickey Spillane's novel,
Hammer tracks down a mysterious box that contains drugs; a very racy and
challenging theme for an American novel of the 1950's! In the film
version, the box is a mysterious radioactive weapon that puts an ironic
end to Mike Hammer. For Aldrich, Hammer was an ugly, authoritarian
symbol of the McCarthy era and deserved atmomization. The ploy is t he
familiar one of amending a non-nuclear story by adding a nuclear theme,
thus enhancing the effect of evil and malignancy.)
"Kronos"; 1957. Dir: Kurt Newman (As in "War of the Worlds", the
earthling's nuclear weapons are unable to protect them from attack. This
time, the "enemy" is Kronos, a giant computer-robot that is absorbing
the earth's energy, including nuclear power.)
"Kurosawa's Dreams"; 1990. Dir: Akira Kurosawa (The theme is the
dreadful consequences that follow if man fails to respect the natural
order of things. In one segment, the traditional Japanese landscape is
filled with mushroom clouds. The clouds do not signify nuclear war, but
the destruction wrought by nuclear powerplants.)
"Last Days of Planet Earth"; 1964. Dir: Shiro Moritani (Japanese. Atomic
Bombs are among the calamities that usher in the last days of planet
earth.)
"Last War (The)"; 1961. Dir: Shue Matsubayashi (Japanese TV movie.
Nuclear missiles are accidentally fired, thus setting off global
thermonuclear war.)
"Last Woman on Earth (The)"; 1961. Dir: Roger Corman (Two men and one
woman survive nuclear war.)
"Lord of the Flies"; 1963. Dir: Peter Brook (British schoolboys are
marooned on an island as they flee the nuclear holocaust. There is an
American version made in 1990 that omits the reference to nuclear war.)
"Lost Continent (The)"; 1951. Dir: Sam Newfield (An expedition sets out
to recover an "atomic rocket" that has landed on a remote plateau.)
"Lost Missile (The)"; 1958. Dir: Lester William Berke.
(Canadian/American. An unidentified country launches a missile toward
New York.)
"Lost Planet (The)"; 1953. Dir: Spencer G. Bennet (A serial in 15
chapters. Chapter five is "The Atomic Plane".)
"Mad Max"; 1979. Dir: George Miller (The outback of post-apocalypse
Australia is the setting for this drama. An understaffed police force
against gangs of bikers which plunder the wastelands. The director has
denied that he thought of the Mad Max films as distinctly post-nuclear
in setting , but they are inevitably interpreted as such by most
viewers.)
"Mad Max 2"; 1981. Dir: George Miller (Australian, retitled "The Road
Warrior" for American circulation. Max agrees to lead a breakout from an
oil refinery surrounded by bikers and their mutant leader ]"Humongous".
"Mad Max 2" is the most potent and m ythic of the post-nuclear holocaust
films.)
"Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome"; 1985. Dir: George Miller (Max visits
Bartertown, a small city run by assorted misfits and mutants from World
War III. In the end Max leads a group of children into the ruins of
Sydney to start a new civilization.)
"Madam Curie"; 1943. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy ( Greer Garson stars as Madam
Curie.)
"Magnetic Monster (The)"; 1953. Dir: Curt Siodmak (A magnetic,
radioactive isotope is stolen and causes problems.)
"Martian Chronicles (The)"; 1980. Dir: Michael Anderson (TV miniseries.
Col. Rock Hudson muddles through global thermonuclear war. Perhaps the
dullest film ever made about the end of the human race.)
"Massive Retaliation"; 1982. Dir: Thomas A. Cohen (Several couples try
to find a place to hide during World War III. The title is taken from
one of the most famous American aphorisms of the Cold War: "Our ability
to retaliate is massive.")
"Meteor"; 1979. Dir: Ronald Neame ( Nuclear missiles fail to stop a
giant meteor. Preparations for the meteor's arrival are akin to
preparations for nuclear war.)
"Mothra"; 1962. Dir: Inoshiro Honda American A-bomb testing in the
Pacific results in the creation of a giant moth and a pair of telepathic
twin girls who are only ten inches tall and who act as Mothra's
guardians.)
"Mysterians (The)"; 1959. Dir: Inoshiro Honda (After the destruction of
the planet Mysteroid, the survivors travel to Earth in order to obtain
Japanese women for repopulating their decimated race. A giant robot and
various space vehicles are employed in their futile attack.)
"Next Voice You Hear (The)"; 1950. William Wellman (The voice of God is
heard on the radio, warning human beings to mend their ways.)
"Night the World Exploded (The)"; 1957. Dir: Fred F. Sears (Atomic
explosions release an unknown element that,in turn, explodes when it
contacts air.)
"Mysterious Island"; 1961. Dir: Cy Endfield (Captain Nemo's island
spawns giant mutant creatures.)
"Nine Days in One Year"; 1961. Dir: Mikail Romm (Russian. A scientist is
exposed to radiation, but decides to continue with his research)
"Nothing Sacred"; 1937. Dir: William Wellman (Carole Lombard believes
that she has contracted radiation poisoning from radium. Frederick
March, who is looking for a story that will redeem his reputation as a
reporter, takes her to New York and turns her into a celebrity. At one
point March exclaims about that radium is "eating away at her bones".
Complications develop when it becomes apparent that Lombard is not
suffering from radiation sickness.)
"Octaman"; 1971. Dir: Harry Essex (Features a walking octopusman.
Advertized as "horror from the nuclear trash".)
"Octopussy"; 1983. Dir: John Glen (A maverick Russian general plans to
set off a nuclear bomb at an American base in England, but he is
thwarted by James Bond.)
"Omega Man (The)"; 1971. Dir: Boris Sagal (Redoing of "I am Legend" by
Richard Matheson. Charlton Heston fights mutant Zombies after World War
III.)
"On the Beach"; 1960. Dir: Stanley Cramer (Based on the novel by Nevil
Shute. Another film that plays down the horrors of nuclear war in order
to emphasize the psychological problems that will arise in personal
relationships. Follows the convention of featuring a nuclear submarine,
in this case, commanded by Gregory Peck.)
"Our Friend the Atom"; 1956. Dir: Walt Disney (Disney domesticates the
atom. Famous for showing radiation as sparkle dust.)
"Panic in the City"; 1968. Dir: Eddie Davis (Communists threaten to blow
up Los Angeles with an Atomic bomb.)
"Panic in the Year Zero"; 1962. Dir: Ray Milland (Still another example
of the post-nuclear-holocaust-family-genre. Ray Milland tries to protect
his family in the anarchist world that follows the war.)
"Pattern for Survival"; 1950. (This is a classic propaganda film: one of
the earliest attempts to "instruct" Americans about how to prepare for
nuclear war, mainly by setting up fallout shelters and storing food. The
script for this film is reproduced in "Film and Propaganda in Americ
a",v.4; edited by Lawrence H. Suid and David Culbert, New York:
Greenwood Press, 1991.)
"Peggy and Fred in Hell (Prologue)"; 1988, EF. Dir: Leslie Thornton (Two
children wander though a post-apocalyptic landscape. Film-Makers'
Cooperative Catalogue No.7, p469.)
'"Phantom Empire (The)"; 1935. Dir: Otto Brewer, B. Reeves Eason. (Gene
Autry cliffhanger series in 12 chapters. Cowboy Autry fights to protect
his Radio Ranch from radium hungry scientists and robot cowboys from the
underground atomic city of Murania. The Muranians live in a classic
example of what Spencer Wearth calls the "White City of the Scientists".
Muranian technology includes radium-tipped anti-aircraft missiles and a
radium machine that can bring the dead to life. Of course, the entire
city runs on radium energy. Note by David Nickels.)
"Plan 9 From Outer Space"; 1959. Dir: Edward D. Wood, Jr. (Plan 9 has
often been misleadingly ridiculed as the worst film of all time. But it
is bad in ways that make it charismatic. It can best be described as a
demented remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The aliens are
determined to stop earthlings f rom destroying the universe with nuclear
weapons. Accordingly, they devise Plan 9 in order to demonstrate their
power. The dead, including Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson, are resurrected
and sent on a futile mission to frighten the human race into submissio
n.)
"Ploutonium Incident (The)"; 1980. Dir: Richard Michaels (The story of a
woman who protests dangerous incidents in a nuclear power plant.)
"Queen of Sheeba Meets the Atom Man (The)"; 1963-1982, (EF. Dir: Begun
by Ron Rice in the 1960's and then completed by Howard Everngam.
(Film-Makers' Cooperative Catalogue No. 7, p407)
˜"Quiet Earth (The)"; 1985. Dir: Geoff Murphy (New Zealand. An
experiment with an Anti-missile "grid" misfires and leaves only three
survivors on earth.)
"Radar Men from the Moon"; 1951. Dir: Fred C. Brannon (Also named "Retic
the Moon Menace". Commander Cody, the prototype of the recent
"Rocketeer", stops the moon men from using an atomic gun against earth.)
"Radio Bikini"; 1988. Dir: Robert Stone (The first part of the film uses
documentary footage of the atomic tests at Bikini Atoll, much in the
manner of "The Atomic Cafe". The second half focuses upon the medical
plight of a sailor who was exposed to radiation during the tests.)
"Radioactive Dreams"; 1986. Dir: Albert Pyun (About life in a fallout
shelter)
"Radium City"; 1987. Dir: Carol Langer (About women who paint radium
numbers on clocks)
"Raise the Titanic!"; 1980. Dir: Jerry Jameson (The Titanic is linked
anachronistically to the Cold War. The ship supposedly contains a rare
mineral called "byzantium" that will make it possible to build an
anti-missile shield.)
"Ravagers (The)"; 1979. Dir: Richard Compton (Post-nuclear holocaust
tale set in 1991.)
"Record of a Living Being"; 1955 Dir: Akira Kurosawa (Japanese. A man is
obsessed with a fear of nuclear bombs.)
"Repo Man"; 1984. Dir: Alex Cox (Radioactivity is taken for granted as
part of the natural order of things. A radioactive scientist glows in
the dark but passes as a normal American. Thanks to Pat Davidson for
this note.)
"Robot Monster"; 1953. Dir: Phil Tucker (The Robot Monster tries to
destroy the human race with a deadly ray. Believing that the ray is a
nuclear attack from earth, the human beings wage atomic war among
themselves. Ranks with "Plan 9 From Outer Space" as a camp classic.)
"Rocket Attack U.S.A."; 1959. Dir: Barry Mahon (The Russians nuke New
York City in response to American spying.)
"Rocketship X M"; 1950, Dir: Kurt Neumann (Astronauts land on mars only
to discover that the planet has been ravaged by nuclear war. Only
radioactive mutants survive.)
"Run for the Hills"; 1953. Dir: Lew Landers (Sonny Tufts turns a cave
into a fallout shelter for his family.)
"Seven Days in May"; 1964. Dir: John Frankenheimer (Burt Lancaster,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, plots to overthrow the government
after the President concludes a nuclear arms treaty with the Russians.)
"Seven Days to Noon"; 1950. Dir: John Boulting (English. A guilt-ridden
scientist threatens to destroy London if the atomic bomb isn't banned.)
"Seventh Seal (The)"; 1956. Dir: Ingmar Bergman. (Although Bergman's
film is set in the middle ages, it is intended as a filmic premonition
of nuclear war. When Bergman was asked if the film was indeed about
nuclear war he replied "That's why I made it." See Weart's "Nuclear
Fear", p 413.)
"Shadow of Terror"; 1945. Dir: Lew Landers. (Spies attempt to steal the
plans for a secret bomb, which is obviously atomic but which is unnamed
in the film. The movie was finished before the atomic bombs were dropped
on Japan in 1945, and stock footage of nuclear explosions was added
later. This is probably the earliest theatrical film featuring the
atomic bomb and actual footage of the explosion.)
"Silkwood"; 1983. Dir: Mike Nichols (A docu-drama about a woman who
works in a nuclear factory. )
"Simpsons (The)"; animated TV series on the Fox Network (Based on
characters created by cartoonist Matt Groening. Homer Simpson, Bart's
father, is an inept worker in a nuclear power plant. In the opening
sequence of each episode, Homer leaves the plant with a radioactive
particle stuck in his clothes and carel essly tosses it out the car
window. Homer, who used to work in a miniature golf course and in fast
foods, got a job at the nuclear plant by promising the boss that he
would be an uncomplaining lickspittle. Bart's favorite comic book is
"Radioactive Man".)
"633 Squadron"; 1964. Dir: Walter Grauman (British. A squadron of
Mosquito bombers try to knock out a German heavy water laboratory in
Norway.)
"Slithis"; 1978. Dir: Stephen Traxler (Slithis is a monster generated by
nuclear pollution.)
"Space Children (The)"; 1958. Dir: Jack Arnold (An alien, who happens to
be a brain, tries to stop the launch of a nuclear missile.)
"Spacecruiser Yamato" ( A Japanese animated TV series. Shown in the U.S.
as "Starblazers". Also available in comic books. After radiation from an
interplanetary war forces civilization underground, the Japanese rebuild
the remains of their World War II battleship, the Yamato, as a space
craft . Spacecruiser Yamato tries to find a cure to the radiation
contamination. Thanks to David Nickels for this note.)
"Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone"; 1983. Dir: Lamont
Johnson (Canadian. Three women are rescued from a mutant named
"Overdog".)
"Speak Up, Uncle Sam is Hard of Hearing"; 1984, EF. Dir: Karl Cohen
(Short films that are intended as anti-nuclear "public service"
messages. Their intent is to help galvanize viewers and to enlist them
in the anti-nuclear movement. Includes a "Newsbreak" that announces the
coming of UFO's to warn us about the perils of n uclear armaments.
Canyon Cinema Catalog 6, p 52-53)
"Split Second"; 1953. Dir: Dick Powell (Kidnappers take refuge in a
nevada town that is a site for nuclear tests.)
"Spontaneous Combustion"; 1989. Dir: Tobe Hooper (A man has unusual
powers because his parents were exposed to radiation during the 1950's.)
"State of Things (The)"; 1982. Dir: Wim Wenders (A film within a film.
In the beginning, a director is making a film about live in the
post-nuclear world.)
"Stranger from Venus"; 1954. Dir: Burt Balaban (A remake of "The Day The
Earth Stood Still". The alien comes from Venus.)
"Strategic Air Command"; 1955. Dir: Anthony Mann (Another peacetime SAC
film. This time the grim business of SAC is domesticated by Jimmy
Stewart and June Allyson. Stewart is recalled to active duty because SAC
is expanding and undergoing intensive training. Frank Lovejoy plays the
role of an officer wh o is obviously patterned after General Curtis E.
LeMay. The theme seems to be that without a tough, ruthless commander
like Lovejoy/LeMay, officers like Stewart would swiftly become unmanned
by peacetime marriages.)
"Suicide Mission to Chernobyl"; a NOVA documentary. (A Nova film crew
revisits Chernobyl and the result is the most bizarre and chilling of
all nuclear documentaries. The most sobering scenes are those of Russian
scientists working with crude tools inside the "Mausoleum", the
primitive covering over the da maged nuclear plant. In many respects the
story of Chernobyl resembles a bad post-holocaust movie. For example,
since robots could not work inside the damaged plant, ordinary Russian
soldiers were simply nicknamed "Bio-Robots and sent inside. One message
is clear: Chernobyl is forever.)
"Superman IV: The Quest for Peace"; 1987. Dir: Sidney J. (Superman goes
on a disarmament campaign: he collects Nuclear weapons and sends them to
outer space. When the comic first appeared in the 1930's, radium was
long established as a mystery substance with a great potential for good
and evil. Accordingly, Superman owes his great strength to the fact that
he came from a Krypton/radium planet, but on earth, Kryptonite affects
superman much as radium affects human beings. He is progressively
weakened and will eventually die if he is over-expose d to Kryptonite.)
"Tarantula"; 1955. Dir: Jack Arnold (Based on a TV program "No Room for
Thought", on Ziv's Science Fiction Theatre. Professor Gerald Deemer is
another well-intentioned scientist who thinks that radiation will
enhance the world's food supply. His "atomically stable nutritional
formula" accid entally leads to the creation of a giant, mutated
tarantula and then to his own demise.)
"Teenage Caveman"; 1959. Dir: Roger Corman (The atomic mutant of the
future is a caveteen played by Robert Vaughn.)
"Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles II"; 1991 (They Came From Radioactive
Yellow Ooze.)
"Terminator (The)"; 1984. Dir: James Cameron (A robot "terminator" from
the future is sent to earth to kill the unborn leader of a future
rebellion. Nuclear war occurs in the near future, and the terminator is
a creature of the post-nuclear-holocaust era.)
"Terminator II"; 1991. (The opening sequence shows a playground at the
moment when Nuclear war begins. A good "terminator" from the future
tries to prevent a scientist from creating the possibility of a nuclear
war.)
"Testament"; 1983. Dir: Lynne Littmann (A family tries to carry on after
the nuclear holocaust. The movie is based on a story by Carol Amen.)
"Them"; 1954. Dir: Gordon Douglas (Radioactive testing in the American
South West creates a nest of giant radioactive ants. The queen ant,
which is able to fly, escapes from the desert and starts a new colony in
the sewers of Los Angeles. Edmund Gwenn plays the role of the wise
professorr. He immediately realizes that the giant ants were "a
fantastic mutation probably caused by a lingering radiation from the
first A-Bomb." Thanks to David Nickels for this note.)
"These are the Damned"; 1961. Dir: Joseph Losey (At a secret base in
England, radioactive children are given lessons in how to survive
nuclear war.)
"Thing [From Another World] (The)"; 1951. Dir: Christian Nyby. (The
"Thing" is one of the most frightening of all alien invaders in science
fiction. It is appropriate that a creature so malignant is also
radioactive; a sure sign of the fact that he can never be reasoned with,
despite his superior intellect.)
"This is Not a Test"; 1962. Dir: F. Gadette (Travelers in a van survive
the outbreak of nuclear war.)
"This Island Earth"; 1954. Dir: Joseph Newman. (Based on a novel by
Raymond F. Jones. (Earth scientists, including a woman, are kidnapped by
Aliens and taken to the planet Metaluna. The rulers of Metaluna want the
earth scientists to design a nuclear shield for the besieged planet.)
"Threads"; 1984. Dir: Mick Jackson (British TV Movie. A study of the
aftermath of nuclear war in Sheffield, England.)
"Thunderball"; 1965. Dir: Terence Young. (SPECTRE steals two atomic
bombs from a British Vulcan bomber. A cold-war iconographic note is that
SPECTRE served as a kind of "standin" for the Russians, who are usually
not the primary bad guys in the James Bond movies.
"Time Machine (The)"; 1960: Dir: George Pal. (Based on H.G. Well's
novel. Rod Taylor, the time traveler, encounters still another breed of
mutants in a post-nuclear world of the future.)
"Time Travelers (The)"; 1964. Dir: Ib Melchior (A time portal allows
scientists to travel 107 years into the future. As is customary, the
time travelers find that a nuclear war has occurred.)
"20,000 Leagues under the Sea"; 1954. Dir: Richard Fleischer
"Twilight's Last Gleaming"; 1977. Dir: Robert Aldrich. (Based on "Viper
Three", a novel by Walter Wager. Interesting iconographically because it
combines two dominant themes: nuclear war and Vietnam. A demented,
former officer risks starting World War III to force the government to
reveal its "secrets" about the war in Southeast Asia.)
"U-238 and the Witch Doctor"; 1953. (Clayton Moore searches for Uranium
despite the threat of Voodoo.)
"Ultimate Warrior (The)"; 1975 (Another example of the post-nuclear
holocaust genre, set in the year 2012. Survivors in Manhattan try to get
uncontaminated seeds to an island off North Carolina.)
"Unknown World"; 1950; Dir: Terrell Morse (An expedition tunnels to the
center of the earth in order to survive a nuclear war.)
'"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"; 1961. Dir: Irwin Allen (Also a TV
series. A panicky and mutinous crew almost prevents Admiral Nelson from
saving the world with the Seaview, his nuclear sub, and a nuclear
missile. It is ironic that in this early "disaster" movie, Admiral
Nelson uses his nuclear missile to destroy the radioactive Van Allen
Belt which, in turn, is threatening to destroy Earth. Admiral Nelson
seems to be a maritime version of General LeMay, with a little of
Admiral Rickover thown in. The main point seems to be that only strong
military leaders have the energy, will and knowledge to use nuclear
weapons systems to best advantage.)
"War Game (The)"; 1965. Peter Watkins (Originally done as a documentary
of the effects of nuclear war for British television.)
"War Games"; 1983. Dir; John Badham (A child hacker breaks into the
NORAD early warning system and nearly causes the computer to start World
War III.)
"War of the Worlds", 1953. Dir: Byron Haskin (The earthling's high-tech
weapons, including a flying wing and an atomic bomb, fail to stop the
Martians. Interestingly, the movie substitutes religion for biological
evolution as the cause of the Martian defeat...At the end of the movie,
the survivors g ive thanks to God for the sudden death of the Martians.
The moral, which probably would have shocked H.G. Wells, is that our
reason and science do not bring "security" or redemption, our salvation
rests solely in the hands of God. In Well's story, the hum an race is
saved because it had paid a steep price during centuries of biological
evolution, and not because of divine providence. Because the Martians
have evolved on an alien planet, they are not immune to earthly germs
and diseases.)
"Warriors of the Wasteland"; 1983. Dir: Enzo G. Castellari (An Italian
variation on the Mad Max theme.)
"We Will Never Forget That Night"; 1962. Dir: Kozaburo Yoshimura
(Japanese. Story of a yong woman who survives Hiroshima and becomes a
bar hostess.)
"World War III"; 1982. Dir: Robert L. Hudson (TV movie. When the
Russians invade Alaska, it is up to David Soul to prevent the outbreak
of global thermonuclear war.)
"World Without End"; 1955. Dir: Richard Hermance (Astronauts fly through
the usual time warp and, as usual, land on a future earth that has been
ravaged by nuclear war.)
"World, The Flesh and the Devil (The)"; 1959. Dir: Ranald McDougall
(Harry Belafonte survives global thermonuclear war. The only other
surviving male is a racist. There is a PC ending, with peace, harmony.
etc...
"Wrong is Wright"; 1982. Dir: Richard Brooks (An Arab Terrorist tries to
buy atomic bombs from an arms dealer. To prevent a terrorist strike, the
Americans launch a pre-emptive attack against the Arab's native country)
"X From Outer Space (The)"; 1967. (Japanese. Features a nuclear powered
space ship)
"X The Unknown"; 1956. Dir: Leslie Norman (British. Radioactive mud
comes from the earth's core.)
"You Only Live Twice"; 1967. Dir: Lewis Gilbert (SPECTRE steals American
and Russian space satellites. The idea is to trick the U.S.A. and the
U.S.S.R. to declare war on each other.)
Allen W. McDonnell
A clasic 1950's b&w film showing the trials and tribulations of a suburban
family caught up in survival when nuclear war breaks out during there
vacation.
Wish I could find a copy of this movie its my all time favorite nuclear war
feature.
Jordan S. Bassior
"Panic in the Year Zero".
Really good flick.
Sincerely Yours,
Jordan
"All the Universe or Nothingness ... that is the question. Which shall it be?"
(H. G. Wells)