The fear of a nuclear war may have been pushed off the front pages by more current horrors, but the threat has hardly subsided. And historically, the “unthinkable” nature of such a devastating conflict has nonetheless spurred plenty of thinking in the Hollywood community about ways to synthesize this horror into films and television. I would hardly be surprised if the current fright doesn’t ultimately produce another wave of such fear-driven storytelling.
The world has lived with the continuing threat of human self-destruction since the advent of the nuclear age during World War II, but Hollywood’s focus has come in two prior waves, driven by a combination of technological advancement and tension-fraught politics. And today’s concurrence of proliferating cyber terror and combustible political leadership in both North Korea and the U.S. is all too familiar from cycles of prior nuclear-inspired works.
Wave 1 (late 1950s-early 1960s): The “duck and cover” phase
What I would call the first wave of Hollywood’s fascination with nuclear horror took place not so much in the immediate aftermath of World War II, but beginning late in the 1950s. The circumstances fueling this wave included the Soviet Union’s launching of Sputnik in 1957 (which meant nuclear missiles could be delivered from the sky in minutes as opposed to hours-long delivery via bombers) and the introduction of local civil defense and training of school children to “duck and cover” under their desk in the event of a nuclear attack. John F. Kennedy’s presidency brought about tensions with the Soviets over the Bay of Pigs, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world most likely faced the greatest threat to its continued existence. Three films stand out most as reflections on the collective psyche of the times:
On the Beach (1959 Stanley Kramer Productions) – This film focused on the devastating consequences of nuclear war. The legendary Stanley Kramer directed it, and it starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Anthony Perkins. Without too much of a spoiler alert, let’s just say this – it’s Australia, and nuclear fall-out’s final impact is weeks away. The ending (it isn’t a happy one, and it rarely is in any of these treatments) is unforgettable.
Fail Safe (1964 Columbia Pictures) – Talk about Hollywood royalty. Fail Safe was directed by Sidney Lumet, starred Henry Fonda (as the President), and its cast included Walter Matthau and Larry Hagman. The film’s focus on the consequences of a technological glitch provoking a nuclear confrontation is another common approach. In this case, a lone U.S. bomber has gone past the “fail safe” point and with scrambled communications is unaware that its order to destroy Moscow was a mistake.
Dr. Strangelove (1964 Columbia) – This film views the possibility of nuclear war as so beyond our comprehension as to be worthy of farce. Another legend, Stanley Kubrick, directed it, and the cast included Peter Sellers (as three characters including the mad title character), George C. Scott, and Slim Pickens. Sterling Hayden, as an insane U.S. Army general who orders a first strike on the Soviet Union, utters the immortal words about our enemies: “They are stealing our precious bodily fluids!”
Wave 2 (1980s): The last spasm of the U.S.-Soviet Union cold war
The 1980s saw the twin technological terrors of computers having greater influence in our everyday lives and the “innovation” in weaponry of the U.S. and the Soviets equipping a single missile with multiple nuclear warheads that could simultaneously target multiple targets. Politically, Ronald Reagan entered office as a fierce anti-Communist who referred to the Soviets as the Star Wars-inspired “evil empire” and who once joked when he thought a microphone was off that “we begin the bombing in five minutes.” The response to this was the nuclear freeze movement and ultimately a reverse tack of the Reagan Administration towards arms control. Again, three works were most reflective of the time:
WarGames (1983 MGM) – This film was the ultimate out-of-control technology story as a computer nerd played by Matthew Broderick (joined by fellow 1980s stalwarts Ally Sheedy and Dabney Coleman) accidentally hacks into the government’s strategic missile computer systems and potentially starts World War III.
The Day After (1983 ABC) – Perhaps the most prominent of the post-nuclear war films of this era was made for television, with stars Jason Robards and John Lithgow and direction by Nicholas Meyer (director of the beloved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). It wasn’t brilliant film-making, but its locale in the heart of the Midwest, Lawrence, Kansas, helped accentuate the grim impact of nuclear conflict for everyday Americans.
Testament (1983 Paramount Pictures) – Another in the flood of 1983 releases, this film starred Jane Alexander and William Devane and depicted a nuclear aftermath in an otherwise unremarkable suburban landscape.
Wave 3? What might we expect?
The motion picture and television business looks nothing like the 1980s, and visions of a fictional apocalyptic future already proliferate in many a superhero universe. Yet the elements of great drama are inherent in our daily news today: expanding cyber terrorism (particularly from our longtime adversary Russia), increasing tensions in the Korean peninsula, and the emerging drumbeat of “what do we do about the President.” I don’t know where our creative community takes this, but history provides a reasonably clear roadmap of what may the response may look like.
