Nuclear War Movies: Dr. Strangelove and Threads

Many movies have been made that depict the what-ifs of a nuclear war. The two I am going to be discussing are Dr. Strangelove and Threads. Dr. Strangelove is about a paranoid Air Force base commander, orders a squadron of B-52 bombers into the Soviet Union to drop hydrogen bombs on military targets. He is the only one who knows the recall code that could be transmitted to abort the mission. At the pentagon, the U.S. President speaks with the Joint Chiefs in the war room to address the problem. General Turgidson sees this as an opportunity to completely destroy the “Commies” and prevent their inevitable retaliation. The president is a pacifist, and he invites the Russian Ambassador into the war room. Together, they call the Russian Premiere to warn of the attack and explain that it was unintentional. Over the telephone, the Premiere discloses the existence of their “doomsday device,” a large cache of atomic bombs that would automatically be detonated in the event of a nuclear strike, destroying all plant and animal life on the earth. This ultimate form of deterrence, while already on line and impossible to shut off, had not yet been announced to the world. At the Air Force Base, an Army unit infiltrates with heavy fighting to get the recall code from Ripper, but he kills himself to avoid torture. His senior officers are able to extrapolate the code “OPE” from Ripper’s scribbling on a pad of paper. The bombers respond to the code and return to base, except one whos radio receiver has been damaged. At the war room, Dr. Strangelove, a disfigured ex-Nazi scientist, suggests a plan to save a few thousand Americans by hiding them in a mine shaft for one hundred years until the radiation returns to a safe leave. Finally, the lone bomber s...

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...when a code is needed for a false alarm it could take days.

Some things that were shown in these films that weren’t discussed in class were in Threads where the government takes control and tries shutting everything down. It also showed people surviving years later where they were able to grow crops. The speaking language starts to dwindle away and health issues not only effect that generation but their children. In Dr. Strangelove when the end was coming and Dr. Strangelove wanted to take everyone in a bunker; he was already thinking of ways to reproduce to keep the population going; ten females to every male.

These movies have things that can be considered accurate due to the data we have from the 1950s while others a far stretch for entertainment. I enjoyed both movies and can see how each could instill panic in people during the time and even to this day.