Nuclear war is a pretty morbid topic that most people don’t really like to think about because the prospect of it is just so scary to imagine. Granted, the chances of it happening now are quite a bit lower than they were from 1947-1991, when the Cold War was in effect. During this nuclear arms race, the United States and the Soviet Union began stockpiling nuclear arms, with many believing that doom was only seconds away at any given moment and their fate hinged on the push of a button.
Fortunately, nuclear war never happened, but it has remained an area of fascination for many. During the Cold War, many films came out exploring possible scenarios for how a nuclear war would unfold, all shot with various different styles. These are the best movies about nuclear war, which are thought-provoking, often harrowing, and always enjoyable to watch, no matter how grim their storylines are.
10 ‘By Dawn’s Early Light’ (1990)
Directed by Jack Sholder
Image via HBO By Dawn’s Early Light is an HBO original movie that is kind of outdated. The plot follows a nuclear missile launched from Turkey at the Soviet Union. Even though it isn’t a NATO country, the USSR sees it as being a NATO strike and begins to employ a retaliatory strike. In the modern day, though, this plot doesn’t exactly work now that Turkey is a NATO country, but it wasn’t at the time of the movie’s release.
The film’s focal point is on the fictional US president and the crew of an American bomber plane, who all sit on the edges of their seats as the US desperately tries to defuse the situation and avoid mutually assured destruction. There are some major flaws in the movie, but it’s still good, if not anything amazing. Plus, who doesn’t love a movie featuring James Earl Jones? It’s still a movie that is worth watching if you’re interested in a hypothetical nuclear war scenario, no matter how fictitious it is now that geopolitics have changed.
Release Date May 19, 1990
Runtime 100 minutes
Writers William Prochnau , Bruce Gilbert
9 ‘Testament’ (1983)
Directed by Lynne Littman
Image via Paramount Pictures Testament takes place in the San Francisco bay area, where an average, suburban family is casually going about their day. However, things take a turn for the worse when a Third World War breaks out, and a barrage of nuclear missiles strikes the Eastern Seaboard. The rest of the country goes into a panic, anticipating when and where the next missiles will hit, but as the madness ensues, it is already too late. Mere hours later, missiles strike the West Coast, flattening the family’s neighborhood and turning their lives completely upside-down.
The movie is truly anxiety-inducing, portraying the effects of nuclear conflict on Joe and Jane Average, tearing apart families and their very way of life. The most fretful part of it is knowing that the father isn’t actually home with his wife and children when the blast occurs, and his fate is largely left uncertain for a large part of the film. Overall, Testament was just one of many ’80s movies that showed exactly what a nuclear war would entail, which greatly disturbed the public for its brutal realism.
Testament
Release Date November 4, 1983
Runtime 90 minutes
Writers John Sacret Young
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8 ‘The Day After’ (1983)
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
The Day After is a TV movie produced by ABC about a rural town in the Midwest that is selected as one of the targets for an escalating nuclear conflict due to its close proximity to one of America’s missile silos. Told through the lens of a large cast of civilians, soldiers, and government staff, each of these individuals has a pivotal role to play in the coming conflict, which erupts early on. Missiles are exchanged between the US and the Soviet Union, with the small town falling under the shadow of hundreds of missiles flying overhead.
As expected, the town is completely decimated by nuclear blasts, causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure and an unspeakable number of deaths. But through it all, The Day After remains strangely optimistic, ending with the idea that hope may still be possible and there is potential to rebuild. While it’s not the best movie about nuclear warfare, The Day After is definitely one of the more realistic ones and is one of the most classic examples of a nuclear war film.
7 ‘When the Wind Blows’ (1986)
Directed by Jimmy Murakami
Image via Kings Road Entertainment When the Wind Blows is an animated war movie about an aging British couple living in the English countryside. They listen to the news on the radio every day and begin to hear news about impending nuclear war. They make preparations for the conflict, but to tell the truth, nothing could have prepared them for the blast that nearly flattens their home. In a time when they are most vulnerable and need assistance more than ever, nobody else is left alive to give it to them.
The two are tragically left on their own as they wonder what to do next, unsure of how to survive in this new, terrifying world. The ending is pretty obvious, given that there’s only one realistic way it could end. Still, the long, slow burn to get there takes a heavy emotional toll on the viewer, depicting the plight of the innocents during the most destructive kind of war imaginable. When the Wind Blows is truly harrowing, showing the sad reality of nuclear winter for a demographic that is already in a tough position.
Release Date February 6, 1987
Cast Peggy Ashcroft , John Mills , Robin Houston , James Russell , David Dundas , Matt Irving
Runtime 84 Minutes
Writers Raymond Briggs
6 ‘WarGames’ (1983)
Directed by John Badham
Image via MGM WarGames stars a young Matthew Broderick as David, a mischievous teenage hacker who is poking around one day in blocks of code that he shouldn’t be poking around in. In doing so, he finds a back door into a military computer that has a war strategy simulation encoded into it. As he meddles with this further, the military AI is no longer able to distinguish reality from simulation and believes the US to be under a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, beginning a retaliatory strike.
The military recruits David to try and undo the results of his little experiment and prevent the AI from launching a nuclear attack on Soviet soil, which would certainly result in total nuclear annihilation for both countries. This classic political thriller is not just about the dangers of nuclear warfare but also about the dangers of AI and the risks associated with an overreliance on technology to do seemingly menial tasks. It’s pretty cheesy, like a typical ’80s movie, but there are some pretty poignant metaphors there that still ring true today. Moreover, WarGames is tense and endlessly exciting, depicting the panic and chaos ensuing behind the scenes as nuclear war brews.
Wargames
Release Date June 3, 1983
Runtime 1hr 54min
5 ‘Fail Safe’ (1964)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Image via Columbia Pictures Fail Safe is based on a novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, which came out two years prior. In this tense flick, the US Air Force’s early warning radar picks up an unidentified aircraft passing into their airspace. Though the aircraft is later revealed to be a civilian passenger jet, it is already too late, as a computer glitch sends orders to a squadron of nuclear-equipped bombers, giving them the green light to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union.
As US military officials scramble to undo the damage before it can be done, the bombers fly over the Arctic towards Moscow. Every attempt to call off the attack falls flat, so US fighter jets are sent to shoot the bombers down. However, these jets run out of fuel before they can catch up to the bombers. It is one bad thing after another in this movie, with each bump in the road certain to spell disaster. Tense and thrilling, Fail Safe is a brilliant aerial warfare movie about a potential close call to nuclear annihilation.
Release Date October 7, 1964
Cast Henry Fonda , Walter Matthau , Fritz Weaver , Larry Hagman , Frank Overton , Edward Binns , Dan O’Herlihy , William Hansen
Runtime 112 Minutes
Writers Eugene Burdick , Harvey Wheeler , Walter Bernstein
4 ‘The War Game’ (1966)
Directed by Peter Watkins
Image via British Film Institute The War Game is a BBC original pseudo-documentary about the Cold War breaking out into full-blown nuclear warfare. As the Vietnam War rages on, China invades to help assist in the fight against the Americans, which prompts the Americans to ask for approval to use nuclear arms in the Southeast Asian country. In response, the USSR threatens to breach the Berlin Wall and invade West Germany. Set in the United Kingdom, Britain’s politicians begin to panic as they are caught in the middle of this deadly game of chicken, but it’s only a matter of time before one side gives in and nuclear warheads are actually exchanged.
The movie earned an Oscar for Best Documentary in 1967, a worthy win due to its overarching pessimism and criticisms of the world’s superpowers, emphasizing Britain’s relative powerlessness to stop their American allies if they were to ever engage in such a rash decision. The War Game is not only disturbing but very intelligent, intentionally made to provoke angry or disgusted responses in the viewer so as to wake them up to the tensions of the time period.
3 ‘The Atomic Cafe’ (1982)
Directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, & Pierce Rafferty
Image via Libra Films The Atomic Cafe is probably one of the most cruelly ironic documentaries ever produced. Much of it is an accumulation of PSAs, speeches, advertisements, or other bits of footage from the ’40s and ’50s, assuring the American public that the newly invented atomic bomb was nothing to be concerned about. Oh, how wrong they were. The documentary then delves into the sense of heightened paranoia and fear surrounding the early days of the Cold War.
None of the film is made using actual new footage–all of it is recycled, albeit in a brilliant way that displays an air of cynicism in regard to world politics. Though nuclear war does not actually break out during the film, it is a looming presence and terrifying possibility throughout, threatening to engulf the landscape at any second. Even though it never actually did, The Atomic Cafe perfectly represents the heightened tensions of the era and is a film that is definitely a must-see to understand the overall mood of the Cold War.
The Atomic Cafe
Release Date March 17, 1982
Cast Harry S. Truman , Lyndon B. Johnson , Nikita Khrushchev , Lewis Strauss , Julius Rosenberg , Ethel Rosenberg , Paul Tibbets
Runtime 86 minutes
2 ‘Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Image via Columbia Pictures Dr. Strangelove is a dark comedy flick by one of the most famous film directors of all time, Stanley Kubrick. In this grim but slightly goofy movie, an unhinged United States general makes the rash decision to declare nuclear war on the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, a panel full of other military and government officials deliberates on how to stop the general and reverse this decision, fearing their eventual destruction in the event of nuclear retaliation.
The movie is unapologetically dark, especially in its ending, but its gallows humor about a sensitive topic for its time landed it a legendary place in Kubrick’s impressive repertoire. It is perhaps most famous for the death of one of its characters: Major Kong (Slim Pickens), who, in an iconic scene, hollers and yee-haws his way to his death as he rides a falling atomic bomb. It’s funny but also grim, considering the topic it’s addressing, but this is what makes the movie so unique and memorable.
Release Date January 29, 1964
Runtime 95 minutes
Writers Terry Southern , Stanley Kubrick , Peter George
1 ‘Threads’ (1984)
Directed by Mick Jackson
Image via BBC Threads is a TV movie produced by BBC that is nothing short of scarring. Even with a relatively meager budget, the movie is one of the most frightening and traumatizing the world has ever known. It occurs in Sheffield, England, following a conflict in Iran between NATO and the Soviet Union. Nuclear escalations follow, plunging the world into a nuclear winter. Sheffield is only a small part of the devastation, but even this small part results in a hellish nightmare, destroying the landscape and setting humanity back to hundreds of years.
Nothing is off-limits when it comes to visuals in Threads, resulting in some of the most visibly distressing imagery that anyone will ever see. For this reason, it is also widely considered a horror movie as well as a war movie. And yet, it is an absolutely necessary watch. This movie is not overexaggerated or overdramatic–it’s nothing but the honest truth, coming as a much-needed wake-up call to the world’s superpowers, showing the harsh reality that nuclear war likely means human extinction. As scary as it is, Threads is very important to watch, an expertly crafted film on the subject of nuclear war.
Release Date September 23, 1984
Director Mick Jackson
Cast Karen Meagher , Reece Dinsdale , David Brierly , Rita May , Nicholas Lane , Jane Hazlegrove , Henry Moxon , June Broughton
Runtime 112 Minutes