On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World)

Living in the UK, I had not heard that people in Hawaii were erroneously sent a text message in 2018 warning of an imminent nuclear attack. This could have made a fascinating documentary - how did people act in what they believed to be the last hours of their lives? We hear little of the emotional impact; instead, we have the predictable opinions of anti-nuclear activists, one of whom opines that nuclear weapons are used every day, even when they are not used. Er... no; in fact, the theory of deterrence is that the threat of annihilation prevents war; thus, its advocates claim, widespread nuclear capability ensures peace. Furthermore, it is implied, this unfortunate false alarm would never have happened in the nuclear-free world that would exist if only authority did not rest in the hands of white, heterosexual men. This is nonsense on stilts. I'm a pacifist myself, but it's ludicrous to suppose that the proponents of nuclear deterrence have a death wish.

The animations that accompany the eyewitness accounts are necessary given there is no video of the events, but they add little: this would have been better as a radio programme. 'Si vis pacem, para bellum' is a disputable statement, but this feeble effort does not even begin to offer an alternative.

This documentary was done extremely well. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun with this VR experience on the Oculus Quest. You feel like you are there live, you can feel the vibrations of the smartphones and the fear of the people.