Threads (1984) (TV)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Mick Jackson

Writer:

Barry Hines (writer)

Release Date:

23 September 1984 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | War

Plot:

Documentary style account of a nuclear holocaust and its effect on the working class city of Sheffield, England; and the eventual long run affects of nuclear war on civilization.

Plot Keywords:

Nuclear | Nuclear War | Nuclear Holocaust | Birth | Armageddon

Awards:

4 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Karen Meagher	...	Ruth Beckett
Reece Dinsdale	...	Jimmy Kemp
David Brierly	...	Mr. Kemp (as David Brierley)
Rita May	...	Mrs. Kemp
Nicholas Lane	...	Michael Kemp
Jane Hazlegrove	...	Alison Kemp
Henry Moxon	...	Mr. Beckett
June Broughton	...	Mrs. Beckett
Sylvia Stoker	...	Granny Beckett
Harry Beety	...	Clive Sutton
Ruth Holden	...	Marjorie Sutton
Ashley Barker	...	Bob
Michael O'Hagan	...	Chief Supt. Hirst
Phil Rose	...	Medical Officer
Steve Halliwell	...	Information Officer

Runtime:

Brazil:110 min

Country:

UK | Australia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (video rating) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

According to the films end credits, Carl Sagan was one of the consultants used during production.

Goofs:

Continuity: The title of the first scene says the date is March 5. Later in that same scene, the radio announces the date is March 20.

Quotes:

Public Information Film Announcer: If you leave your home, your local authority may take it over for homeless families. And, if you move, the authorities in the new place will not help you with food, accomodation or other essentials. You are better off in your own home. Stay there.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Time Shift: Apocalypse Now... and Then (#3.5)" (2003)

Never far from my thoughts...

The first and only time I saw Threads was when it aired on PBS in 1985 or 1986, at 15 or 16 years old. It came near the end of my childhood obsession with world war III, in which I terrified myself to sleep many nights worrying about it.

Like no other movie Threads has, in the last 20 years, popped back in my thoughts on occasion. I remember many scenes vividly, and through the magic of IMDb, I've learned that some things that I thought I saw, but couldn't believe, actually did occur in the film. (I'm referring specifically to the "ET" scene that was mentioned in the message boards.) Having grown up in the strategic target city of Chicago, I thought: Okay, this is what I could expect if it does happen. I kept me awake into my 20's, when the cold war ended, and the threat was minimized.

There truly is no more frightening a movie ever made.