Dystopiarama! - Weekend triple feature!1!!!!!

Ah well, now that the £5 cheapo video games have all been completed (deffo £5 worth..nothing more), its time to get back to watching fillums of varying qualities.....

This time round I dredged up an old, but favourite, film topic..Dystopian futures!.

Saturn 3 (1980)

Eeh by gum!, this films as old as I am!.
So, plot wise this film is a sci-fi thriller, set in some unspecified future time when Earth has become ridiculously over populated and its inhabitants somewhat sociopathic, almost the entire film, save for the open sequence and a teeny bit at the end, takes place on an isolated botanical research station located on Saturns 3rd moon (which by astronomical standards would be Tethys, although which one it actually is is never stated, but this would make sense being as about 90% of Tethys' surface consists of ice, you know which is good for turning into water to grow plants with an shit, yo..anyway..).The moon is inhabited by Adam and Alex, a couple who are both there to research more efficient ways of growing plants to assist with Earths chronic food shortages. Adam and Alex (Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett respectively) live a very comfortable life free form interference by the domineering Earth authorities, however one day their bliss is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel, although his voice was over dubbed by Roy Dotrice) , who brings with him a robot (arguably a cyborg) called "Hector".
Problem is, Benson wasn't supposed to be the one to deliver, and more importantly, train, via the use of direct mind impulse transference, the robot being as his mind was too disordered and prone to outbursts of extreme emotion and violence.
In the end, these violent, jealous and lustful thoughts (once he has got an eyefull of Farrah that is) end up being transferred to the robot, who, without any kind of moral guidelines, goes on a murderous rampage etc etc etc.

The film itself isn't a bad one, its not a good one either. For a start, Kirk Douglas was 64 at the time of filming, and even though he was in fairly good physical shape, theres something decidedly creepy about seeing a man who could be your grandfather engaging in simulated sex, nude scenes and sexual dialogue with a woman who was 32 years his junior.
The story is a tad predictable from the word go, and the special effects look extremely bargain basement, because the filming was fraught with problems, mainly stemming from the fact that ITC films had pissed a shit load of money up the wall on the film "Raise the Titanic!" which ended up being a massive box office flop, therefore the budget for this film ended up being stripped to the bare minimum required in order to get it finished.
The screen play was written by the semi famous writer Martin Amis, who later went on to write a thinly disguised book about the production, chronicling his own observations. He makes mention of an aging film star who is obsessed with his sexual virility (*coughkirkdouglascough*) as well as the numerous cost cutting measures and script changes required on short notice in order to accommodate them.

Entertaining?, not really, more, interesting than anything else.
Overall - 4/10

Omega Doom (1996)

Director Albert Pyun carved himself a nice little niche in the mid ninties through to the mid noughties, a niche which earned him the moniker "the Ed Wood of modern films" for a while.

Omega Doom is similar to Pyuns 1989 film "Cyborg", insofar as it concerns robots/cyborgs getting up to shennanigans in a dystiopian and post apocalyptic future.

Omega Doom (Rutger Hauer) is an android soldier who fought in world war 3, however on the last day of the war, a gun shot wound to the head erased his programming, making him forget his primary directive to KILL ALL HUMANS!!1!11!11one!1!.
Some time later, OD wanders into an abandoned French town (the original script called for the film to be set entirely within the boundaries of a post apocalyptic EuroDisney) to find that two factions are battling for control over the ruined buildings. One one side are the "Droids", a motley group of old robots, some of them ex-military, some of them servitor robots, and on the other side are the "ROMs", a trio of identical female robots who are much more advanced than the others, but are too few in number to take over completely.
The two factions share an uneasy peace, however secretly both sides are eager to find a rumoured cache of firearms that they believe to be hidden somewhere in the area.

This film is unashamedly a pastiche of  "Wandering Samurai" type films mixed in with "Mysterious stranger western" type films, hell, theres even a "saloon" in the town where a timid governess robot serves water to both sides to use as fuel.
OD appoints himself to be the local "lawman" and put an end to the feud, mainly via killing the leaders of the opposing factions who are constantly stirring up trouble and picking on the drifters that occasionally ride through the town.

The action scenes are silly in the extreme, with "gunfights" being replaced by quickdraw type duels in which both participants are armed with some sort of laser edged throwing knives.

Even though the film is very slowly paced, and the story isn't terribly demanding, "Omega Doom" still makes for a good viewing.

Overall - 7/10

Battle Truck (1982)

(This film was also released under the title "Warlords of the 21st Century")

Mad Max and its sequel, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, set a standard in the film industry and created a new type of post apocalypse film which featured people using vehicles and scrapping it out over fuel reserves after some off screen war had pretty much fucked the world up.
"Battle Truck" came out 1 year after Mad Max 2, and features, you guessed it, a Truck that is used for battle, manly battle involving a gang of ruffians picking on people in order to steal their supplies of fuel, food and pretty much anything else that takes their fancy, and thus far they have done quite well out of this wrongdoing being as no one can stand up to their massive armoured behemoth.

A small village called Clearwater becomes the next target for these ne'er do wells, who are pretty easy pickings being as they generally live a peaceful existence similar to the Quaker lifestyle, however this time round the bad guys get some trouble in the form of a mysterious motorcyclist named "Hunter" (Michael Beck - in one of his many B movie roles since his A list career ended when he decided to sign on to star in the awful "Xanadu" ).
As it turns out, a young woman who Hunter brought to live in Clearwater after he rescued her from being attacked by the baddies is the reason they have come, because she is the Big boss baddies daughter!.

Yeeaaaahhhhhhhh....This is a shite film, even the titular "Battle Truck" looks rubbish, and Michael Becks acting in the role of Hunter is really poor, you can tell hes only doing it for the pay day and not out of any particular interest in starring in this piece of dodgy sci-fi shit.

Overall - 3/10

Apocalypse How? - Meteor (1979)

Oooooh, its been a while since I thought about extinction level events, but while furtling around youtube tonight I found this forgotten gem.

Meteor is a 1979 disaster film released by American International Pictures.

Sean Connery stars as Dr. Paul Bradley, a former scientific advisor to the U.S government who had a "falling out" with them after they co-opted his design for a space based anti meteor defence weapon to serve as a strategic nuclear missile platform to threaten the Russians with.

The film itself takes place over the course of a week.
On the first day (Sunday, December 1st) "Challenger 2", the U.S mission to put man on Mars, arrives at the asteroid belt after ground control receives telemetry suggesting a comet will pass through this belt, and they would like the ship to gather as much data as possible.
Unfortunately though, the comet strikes an asteroid, which explodes and sends a 5 mile wide chunk of rock hurtling towards Earth, as well as destroying the space ship.

The next day (Monday) Dr. Bradley finds himself being pulled back to the department of defence, who inform him of the incoming meteor, and require his expertise in using the orbital weapons platform, named "Hercules", so they can destroy the meteor ("Orpheus") .
At first Bradley is somewhat bitter at the request that has been made of him, being as the military thought that his notion that the Earth could ever be threatened by a meteor was ridiculous and stole his idea to use as a weapon, but when he is confronted with the cold facts by his friend Harry Sherwood, he decides to help as best he can.

By this time, the Soviets have also detected the approaching meteor, but, in the USSR just the same as the USA, politics begins to gum up the works of actually being able to effectively defend the Earth from total annihilation.
By day 4 (Wednesday) Bradley has calculated that even with the 12 missiles available to him from Hercules, there wont be enough power to deflect or destroy the meteor, however, as both he and the military have long suspected, the Soviets also have a similar space based weapon equipped with missiles, the main problem lies in getting them to admit it.
The Soviets send Bradleys opposite number, Dr. Dubov to speak with him, and Dubov eventually provides the information that, theoretically, if the USSR had such a weapon, which may or may not be called "Peter the Great", it would, in theory have roughly the same number of missiles with the equivalent explosive payload.
The military presence in the control centre (which is hidden in a disused subway station beneath the AT&T building in New York), represented by General Adlon (Martin Landau ) takes an intense dislike to handing over the matter to scientists as it is, but has an especially distasteful attitude towards allowing communists to participate, even though as Bradley tries to explain, if they are going to stand any chance of pulling the mission off successfully, they need the Soviet Unions help, after a loud argument in the control room, Dr. Dubov telephones the Soviet Embassy and orders them to allow him to use "Peter the Great" to back "Hercules" up and ensure success.


On days 5 and 6, smaller splinters from Orpheus begin impacting on Earth, most of them burning up harmlessly, but others manage to hit and cause massive disasters, including tidal waves, avalanches and earthquakes.
The two weapons are repositioned, and a final plan is formed, "Peter the Great" will fire first, then 2 hours later, "Hercules" will launch, both sets of missiles will rendezvous in space and travel to a set point in the meteors path, where they will explode in 3 waves. The shockwaves from these blasts will either deflect or destroy the meteor before it impacts, however, as Harry points out to the President, no one has ever attempted anything like this before, and, given the massive variables inherent to an operation like this, the odds of success are anyones guess, but, if it fails, 2 hours after detonation, the meteor will destroy the Earth.

On the final day (Saturday, December 7th) the Soviet satellite fires its missiles without any problems, however, with less than 2 minutes to go before Hercules is due to fire, Bradley receives a message from the Joderell Bank observatory that a fragment of the meteor will impact New York just before they are due to order the launch of the American missiles.
Bradley orders everyone to wait, and just after Hercules launches, the fragment hits, destroying most of the business district and burying the command centre under tons of rubble.

In space, the missiles link up and begin their attack run, although along the way some missiles malfunction and careen off into space.

Back on Earth, the command centre personnel are recovering from the meteor strike, some of them, General Adlon included, were killed. Bradley finds an escape route which will lead them out through the subway tunnels, however just as they appear to be making good their escape, the walls of the tunnel begin to collapse and water from the Hudson river begins pouring in.



In space, the missiles impact the meteor, successfully destroying it.

On Earth, just after the meteor is destroyed, the command centre survivors manage to get themselves to another subway station, and with the assistance of other survivors from the station, they mange to dig themselves an escape tunnel back to the surface, where they learn that the missiles were successful.

In a ceremony of grand pomp and circumstance, Dr Dubov and his translator wave goodbye and depart for the Soviet Union, while a narrator states that the film was inspired by the real life findings of Project Icarus.




When first released, this film as panned by critics, mostly citing bad acting, poor scripting, cold war cliches and ridiculous special effects.

I can agree with the poor special effects, as some of them are proper cheapo-nasty, and the script isn't particularly anything worth shouting about, but, despite the distinct "TV movie" feel to this film, it isn't all THAT bad, and is quite entertaining to watch so long as you don't place too much by way of expectation on its shoulders.
Its certainly much better than "Deep Impact" or "Armageddon" because it doesn't rely on cheesy sentimentalism to carry it, instead, it shows that against something as awesomely powerful as a meteor, all mankind can really do is cross their collective fingers and hope that everything goes ok.

Apocalypse How? - Battle beneath the Earth (1967)

My latest visit to the world of impending doom is this piece of classic cheese, courtesy of MGM.

"Battle beneath the Earth" was released in 1967 and, as the time it was released was during one of the most unstable periods of the Cold War, its chock full of bizarre paranoia about impending invasion by those DIRTY COMMUNISTS!111!1!1!one!1!!11111!!!, except this time round, instead of being of the Russian variety, instead it offers up a dose of Chinese commie related laughs.

Starring no one I've ever heard of, apart from Ed Bishop, this sci-fi film really takes the plot line to the edge of believability:-

The US Navy has been tinkering with some seismic devices in an effort to detect underground nuclear tests from within the communist bloc, however their experiments cant seem to make a device capable of accurately differentiating between the sound of a nuclear explosion and the sound of mining operations.
All this is rendered moot when a man is picked up by the police in Las Vegas  after raving in the street about sounds he can hear when he puts his ear to the ground, however his insane/drunken ravings are soon proved to be rather worrying when coal miners discover a series of tunnels by accident after a mineshaft collapse.
The marines go in and find that deep underground, some rogue Chinese agents have spent a lot of time digging tunnels which lead all the way from China to the US, and have begin planting nuclear bombs under most of Americas major cities.
The marines manage to safely defuse the first lot they find, however those slippery commies have more nasty tricks up their sleeves, tricks which, they hope, will lead to the complete downfall of the free world and the global domination of the Chinese empire.

Yeah, they don't make sci-fi silliness like this no more, which is a shame. Nontheless though, this film is a classic bit of cheese which will require you to leave your sense of logic at the door when watching, but trust me, if you do this, you will find this film a fairly entertaining way to kill 90 minutes.

Apocalypse How? - Annihilation Earth (2009)

So, the prologue...

In 1964, a clever chap by the name of Peter Higgs had this idea that there must be some way to explain why some elementary particles had mass and some didn't, and after a lot of very difficult maths had been done, the idea of the "Higgs Boson" was bandied about. Unfortuneately for Mr Higgs though, the technology of the time wasnt able to validate his theory, so he went on to do some more very difficult sums and discovered some other stuff which got scientists all in a kerfuffle.

In 2008, construction on a very big piece of equipment called the "Large Hadron Collider" was completed, and the boffins collectively spunked in their trousers because now they had the equipment they needed in order to find out if Mr. Higgs was either a genius, or was simply talking out of his arse.

5 years after that, it turns out he is in fact, a genius, and he was awarded a nobel prize for his ability to do incredibly hard maths.


The film...

Annihilation Earth is a 2009 SyFy original movie, starring Luke Goss, Marina Sirtis (who for some reason seems to be under the impression she can do a convincing "southern drawl" accent) and Colin Salmon, as well as some other people who Ive never heard of.

Set in the year 2020, the film establishes that after the Higgs Boson was proved to exist, a related technology, called EVE (an acronym for "Electromagnetic Vacuum Energy") now provides cheap and limitless power to most of western Europe via a series of three linked super colliders.

The lead scientist in the EVE organisation (Goss), is worried that the EVE technology can easily be weaponised and turned into a "Total conversion" weapon (basically, a weapon that converts all matter into energy with near 100% efficiency). This paranoia isn't helped when his ambitious and politically savvy boss (Sirtis) , announces her intention to use the promise of foreign nations being allowed access to EVE in exchange for money and political favours, and it is compounded when his best mate, (Salmon) and fellow scientist seemingly becomes involved to Arab terrorists, shortly after giving him a chilling warning about how terrorists are known to be planning some sort of shennanigans with one of the three colliders in Europe.
These paranoid thoughts are soon confirmed when the collider facility in Orleans has a meltdown, seemingly caused by sabotage.

As the story rolls on, there's a lot of scientific talk about Higgs fields and "doomsday equations", a lot of posturing about the peaceful use of nuclear energy etc, and some healthy doses of paranoia, but, as it turns out, the network of colliders turns out to be a fantastically effective doomsday weapon...so it does.

So yeah, this film isn't too bad, although it does take some liberties with the science fact so as to make it more palatable to science fiction, and the film does take itself very, very seriously at times, but it is nonetheless a half decent bit of B-list sci-fi storytelling.

I give it 7 debasements of science out of 10.

Apocalypse How? - Stonehenge Apocalypse (2010)

So, yeah, I said i was gonna write about something less depressing, so the first thing I chose was...an apocalypse film......


*ahem*

So, the silly sounding title aside, "Stonehenge Apocalypse" is a made for TV Sci-fi disaster movie which fist aired on the Syfy channel in 2010.
Starring no one of any note or importance, this low/mid budget piece of sci-fi B-list material manages to make use of both pseudo-science, pseudo-archeology AND an "end of days" storyline to produce something which although full of poor acting, cheap CGI effects, plot holes and some inexcusable technical gaffes, is actually highly entertaining.

yes, it is...really.


The plot goes like this:-

An archeological dig in Maine unearths an egyptian tomb, which then causes the stones at Stonehenge to begin moving about and releasing wave after wave of deadly electromagnetic radiation.
A disgraced astrophysics professor, who now presents an internet radio show from his basement hears of this event and travels to Stonehenge to unravel the mystery of the moving stones and in the end manages to validate several of his crackpot theories regarding ancient astronauts, out of place artifacts and several apocalyptic prophecies as foretold by "the ancient writings" (whatever they are, because they are never explicitly referenced).
Cue a rip roaring adventure which sees a group of hippies try to become the only survivors of the end of the world and some military gung ho explosions and machine gun shooting, with a bit of a plot twist which I never saw coming about two thirds of the way through.

Yeah, I liked this film, even though the story is ridiculous and the acting is terrible, but, if you ignore all this and just sit and watch it, this film is entertaining, which is what a film is supposed to be.

I give it 7 crystal skulls out of 10

Dystopiarama:- Life After People (TV series 2009-2010)

"Life After People" is a History Channel documentary series produced between 2009 and 2010, and thus far has had two complete series plus its initial 90 minute "special" episode.

The series postulates what would happen to the Earth should mankind suddenly vanish, and also explores what would mankinds legacy to the universe be should this happen.

The series' tagline is "Welcome to Earth, population: Zero".

The initial 90 minute episode takes a look at various subjects, mostly concentrating on the subjects of how animals would cope without humans, and also the matter of urban decay.
The series version, which runs at approx 50 minutes per episode, expands on these concepts, with each episode having a particular theme, such as the fate of various building types, the long term effects of human mechanisation and technology, and the effect that pollution would have after we have gone and are not around to stop it.

The series makes no attempt to explain why humans have gone, they just have, and all the episodes show time from "today" (i.e, early 21st century) and extends forward, up to 1 million years into the future in the case of one episode.

The series can make for rather depressing viewing at times, for example, all those fluffy little pet animals would not fare so well without their owners to look after them, and many farm animals such as dairy cows would die from starvation, whereas other creatures, such as house cats, horses, raccoons and rats would do very well freed from the constraints of human intervention. A special mention also goes to head lice, who would become extinct within two weeks due to the complete loss of their only available food source.
One episode concentrates on the legacy of pollution left behind, showing how nuclear waste and hazardous chemicals would cause horrendous environmental damage after their containment systems begin to break down within the first 50 years or so, and the incredible amount of time it would take for nature to recover from the mass chemical or radioactive poisoning that would result.
Another bizarre twist is an episode which looks at what would happen to buried or preserved human corpses in the years that followed, where, due to lack of maintenance, human corpses would not only provide a feast for the animals that remain, but would also end up becoming something akin to the crude oil that we use by the gallon now.

On a plus note, the series takes a fairly in depth look at the way nature would quickly reassert its dominance over the Earth one we have gone, with cities quickly giving way to the regrowth of plants and trees and natural water flows sweeping away concrete dams.
Glimpses into the far future show cities such as London, Washington D.C and Seattle becoming marshlands or even being completely covered by water, and even show that in the far, far future, bacteria from Earth my spread life from Earth to other planets both in and outside of Earths solar system due to them stowing away on the various space probes launched during mans time on Earth.

The series itself is quite enjoyable, albeit very dry in some places, and should you wish to view it, you can do so, click HERE

Aint War Hell? - The Day After (ABC 1983)

The Day After is a 1983 American TV movie starring Steve Guttenberg, John Lithgow, Bibi Besch and a whole list of others Ive never heard of.

Again this film depicts the events leading up to, during, and after a global nuclear war circa the early 1980s, concentrating on the lives of a small group of people who live in and around the area of Kansas City.

Like both "The War Game" and "Threads", the build up to the war itself takes place off screen, this time round, the war is caused by a Soviet build up of troops in East Berlin, which quickly degenerates into a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, leading to open conflict  worldwide, and eventually the launch of ICBMs.

The characters followed throughout the main plot are as follows:-

Dr Oakes - a fairly affluent doctor at one of Kansas Citys main hospitals. At the time that the first Soviet missiles destroy the main bulk of the city, he is on his way to give a lecture at the university of Missouri but gets stuck on the road after the EMP effects of the first missiles knock his car out of commission. He returns to the hospital and spends several weeks struggling to treat survivors, before finally succumbing to the effects of radiation sickness. A poignant scene is where at the end of the film, he manages to return home to find his house has become a smoking crater, and the only remains of his family is his wife's smashed wristwatch.

The Dahlberg family - Farmers from rural Kansas. The Dahlbergs farm is surrounded by missile silos, and on the day of the war they are preparing for their eldest daughters wedding. When the war breaks out, they take shelter in their cellar, and are eventually joined by Stephen Klein.

Stephen Klein - A medical student on his way home when the war started. Stephen finds himself caught in the open as the bombs start falling and takes cover inside which saves his life. He makes his way on foot back to the city but stumbles across the Dahlberg house on his way there, where he becomes like a surrogate son to them. At the end of the film, Stephen is suffering from the early stages of radiation sickness but has formed a relationship of sorts with the Dahlbergs eldest daughter.

Professor Huxley - A teacher at the university of Missouri. Professor Huxley provides most of the films "science bits", as well as several healthy doses of cynicism throughout, especially over mankinds chances of long term survival.


The film is marked by several very harrowing scenes, including people being vaporised by the initial nuclear blast, piles of dead human and animal corpses, people descending into savagery and all the usual stuff youd expect form this type of film.
One bit that jumps out for me though, it one scene where, shortly after the war has ended, people gather in the ruins of a church near the Dahlbergs home to listen to a sermon given by a scarred and burned priest, who cannot even bring himself to complete it due to the absolute obvious fact that its words, in which he attempts to extoll gods glory by stating that the faithful will be protected, whilst standing in the burnt out rubble of his church surrounded by wounded and dying parishioners in a country which is now lying in ruins and packed stalked by death.

A caption at the end of the film states that the film is a work of fiction, but is based on fact, and that the film makers intentionally toned down the effects of a nuclear conflict in order to make the story more beleviable, and that they hoped it would give those in positions of power something to think about.

Oddly enough, it did, as President Reagan was said to have viewed the film and bore it in mind when he pursued nuclear disarmament talks in the late 1980s.


As for my opinion on this film, id have to say that its a pretty good one, although it sacrifices the harsh realities of "Threads" in order to make the film more viewable to family audiences.

If you want to watch this movie, click HERE

Aint War Hell? - Threads (BBC 1984)

So, my next stop on my journey into nucelar holocaust drama is 1984s "Threads".
Like "The War Game" before it (which had yet to be shown on television, despite being made nearly 20 years previously) Threads is a Drama-Documentary, however unlike The War Game, Threads has a series of characters which it follows  over the course of about 25 years.

Threads was, and still is, considered somewhat harrowing viewing, as like its 60s predecessor, it pulls no punches in showing the horrible effects of a nuclear war on British society.
Set in "modern day", i.e, the early 1980s, Threads follows the fortunes of 3 groups of people, The Beckett Family, the Kemp family, and Sheffields emergency planning committee.

The narration of the story comes in the form of on screen "teletype" style captions, giving information relevant to on screen events and marking the passage of time.

The story begins with Ruth and Jimmy, a young couple who decide to marry after Ruth falls pregnant. While both families go about their daily lives, news reports heard playing in the background on radios and TV sets state that the USSR has invaded Iran, in response, NATO forces mobilise and the USSR is issued with a warning to withdraw otherwise the NATO countries would step in to protect western economic interests in the region (in other words..oil..oh look, how familiar is that eh?).
As relations between NATO and the USSR begin to fizzle away, the home office instructs Sheffield city council to form an emergency planning committee, to be based in the cellar of the city hall. Local councillors and civil servants are chosen to sit on the committee and begin setting up their "command centre" of sorts, not really expecting anything to happen.
As the preparations are made, numerous protests occur, firstly from anti nuclear campaigners, and then later by trade unionists, calling for a general strike in protest at the prospect of war.
The on screen captions state that the police are given emergency powers to arrest and detain both known and suspected subversives in order to maintain calm.
Despite all these preapartions however, on one May morning, whilst it is still night time in the US, "Attack warning red" is broadcast, meaning that world war 3 has begun.
(it is left deliberately ambiguous as to who fired first, although one news report states that US forces in west Germany detonated a tactical nuclear weapon over advancing Soviet troops in order to prevent the invasion of western Europe).

Within minutes, a soviet missile airburst over the north sea knocks out all electrical systems in northern England, and soon after, missiles begin impacting on major targets such as RAF Finningley, the Sheffield steelworks and mining areas.
As is the norm for nuclear warfare, anyone or anything caught in a primary blast zone is immediately vapourised, anything in the secondary blast zones either bursts into flames from the intense heat, or is pulverised by the blast wave.

Jimmys family, the Kemps, rush to complete their fallout shelter in their home, but are unable to fully complete it when the first missile strike hits. Jimmys younger brother is killed as he hides in Jimmys aviary, and Jimmys parents are injured as their house begins to collapse around them.
Jimmy himself, who is at work at the time of the attack, sets off running to try and get to Ruth, he is never seen again.
Ruths family, including her grandmother, who was sent home from the hospital she was in in order to make room for the expected wounded and injured, fare slightly better than the Kemps, due to them all taking shelter in their cellar, however, even with this makeshift shelter, radiation sickness begins to take its toll. An on screen caption points out that in its early stages, the symptoms of radiation sickness are indistinguishable from panic.

In total, 3000 megatons are exchanged worldwide, with approximately 150 megatons falling in the UK.
The emergency planning committee, or, at least those who bothered to turn up for work that morning, are trapped in their underground shelter, imprisoned by the rubble of the destroyed town hall. One of their number is killed by falling masonary, however their radio still functions, and after several attempts, they are able to make contact with remnants of the civil defence volunteers in nearby Stocksbridge, who tell them that due to raging fires and heavy radioactive fallout, it will be some time before a rescue attempt can be made.

A week passes, and many of those injured in the attack are already dead, and the streets are littered with rotting corpses and vermin. Without social infrastructure, the few functioning hospitals in the area quickly run out of essential medical supplies, even sundries such as wound dressings, disinfectants and even sharp knives are quickly used up, and doctors are forced to improvise, one scene shows nurses ripping up blankets to use in place of bandages, ans salt being mixed with hot water to be used in place of disinfectant.

Ruths grandma dies from the initial onset of radiation sickness, and, while her father drags the body upstairs, Ruth escapes and goes in search of Jimmy, however when she arrives at the Kemp family home, she finds Jimmys mothers rotting corpse abandoned in their half finished shelter. Jimmys father is later seen swapping a packet of cigarettes for a bottle of whisky with another survivor, but he soon succumbs to radiation and dies.

In the 2 weeks Ruth takes to return home from trying to find Jimmy, The Becketts house is invaded by looters and both her parents are killed.

Civil order breaks down rapidly, and in one of this films most iconic scenes, a traffic warden is shown wielding an assault rifle and being assigned to guard prisoners captured while looting or rioting, however before long, civil defence forces simply shoot looters on sight, as dead people don't need to be fed.

The emergency planning committee struggles to come up with any effective means of keeping up a steady supply of food and materials for the survivors above ground, and take to arguing amongst themselves ineffectively.

Within 2 months, radiation sickness, starvation, dehydration and infection have killed roughly 40 million people worldwide, with their corpses lying unburied due to lack of fuel to cremate them and a waste of energy feeding people to dig graves, this leads to outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and dysentery, which leads to even more deaths due to the lack of the most basic medicines or even clean drinking water.
At this time, rescuers finally manage to unearth the emergency planning committees bunker, only to find all its occupants have died from suffocation.


6 months down the line and winter sets in , which is not helped by the presence of a "nuclear winter" beforehand, which has pretty much killed off all the plants and crops, leading to less food available than ever.
By now, Ruth is heavilly pregnant and having ignored "official" advice, such as it is, to remain in her home town, she has walked 20 miles to Buxton, where the remaining local authority billets her to stay in a house occupied by an old man, who promptly throws her and other refugees out into the street once the police have left as he refuses to share his meagre food supplies with strangers.




Ruth carries on wandering and eventually gives birth to a baby girl in an abandoned barn (the end credits name this child as "Jane")
A year after the war, and a caption states that the population of the UK is now estimated to be less than 3 million people, and although in some areas manual coal mining has resumed, as well as the use of steam powered traction engines for farming, the lack of agrochemicals, pesticides and fertilizers means that crop harvests are poor.
Ruth is shown attempting to barter with a street peddler, however he isn't interested in any of the scrap items she is carrying, and instead in exchange for 3 dead rats, he demands sexual services.
Ruth is then shown running from civil defence personnel after stealing a bag of grain, which she then crushes on the floor of a house she is hiding in by using a rusted metal bucket in order to get something edible for her child.

10 years later, Ruth is shown working in the rudimentary fields tilling soil, however the caption states that due to damage to the ozone layer, the light is heavy with ultraviolet radiation, leading to cataracts becoming widespread and increased risk of cancer. during her work period, Ruth collapses, and is shown to have cataracts and to look much older than her years due to radiation exposure.
Ruth and Jane live in a makeshift home, Jane attempts to wake Ruth up for work, however Ruth dies silently, Jane, who has grown up in a world without education or any kind of social interaction, stares emotionlessly at her mothers body, before taking Ruths scarf and hairbrush before leaving.

3 more years pass and Jane appears to have picked up two male companions. None of the three "post war" children can speak proper English, instead communicating by a series of grunts, broken sentences and slang. Jane is then shown running from civil defence personnel, however her companion "Gaz" is shot. Jane and her companion "Spike" escape with some stolen food but as they inspect their booty, Spike rapes Jane.

several months later, Jane is shown wandering through the rubble of a destroyed town, very obviously pregnant. She happens across a makeshift hospital where she pleads with a woman for help as "babbie coming", initially her pleas go unanswered until she gives birth to a stillborn and deformed child, which is handed to her wrapped in a dirty and bloodstained sheet.
The film ends just as Jane screams.

Like "The War Game", this film holds nothing back, and many of the scenes are extremely disturbing to watch, but they are nevertheless a true representation of what the expected effects of a global nuclear conflict would be, in fact, in some ways the scenes are actually rather optimistic.

This is a very good film, well made and very evocative and is recommended highly.
If you would like to watch this film, click HERE

Aint War Hell? - The War Game (BBC 1965)

"The War Game" is a 1965 docu-drama-film about the effects of a global nuclear war, set in contemporary times (ie, the late '60s).

Originally planned to be shown as part of the BBCs "The Wednesday Play" series (which ran in a weekly prime time slot from 1964 until 1970) the play/film was a groundbreaking and exceptionally honest portrayal of the state of affairs in Britain at the time and showed the total and complete lack of understanding about just what would happen should world war 3 actually occur.
As such, when viewed by the BBC governors and government officials prior to its broadcast, the program was immediately pulled from the broadcast schedules, and wasnt shown in full on television until 1985.
This was due to the fact that the brutally honest style of filming, using actual quotes and recreations of government procedures, as well as interviews with real people in the street regarding the various topics related to nuclear war would have heavilly damaged the carefully crafted government image that nuclear war wasnt really all that different from the use of conventional bombs, and that the government could be trusted to get things up and running again following a nuclear exchange.


Plot wise, the film doesnt particularly follow any particular person, or group of people, but instead recreates a snapshot of life in and around a typical english town in Kent.
The build up to "the war" happens completely off camera, and centres around a Chinese invasion of  south Vietnam (which incidentally was a very real portent of things to come in the Vietnam war which was kicking off at the time this film was made) in response ot this, the NATO powers begin mobilising against China, but, to show solidarity with their communist friends, the USSR mobilises its forces in east Germany, eventually invading west Berlin.
In response to this, the US president (Ed Bishop) issues an ultimatum to the USSR, leave West Germany or else!.
Open warfare soon breaks out between the NATO and warsaw pact countries in Germany, and talk soon comes round to the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

In Britain, which the narrator points out has more targets for nuclear missiles than the entire continental United States due to its high concentrations of military staging areas, missile launching facilities and industrial and manufacturing facilities, the populations of large cities are graded with a rating of 1 to 5, and then evacuated to towns in the country or in remote areas like Wales or the Lake district.
The vast majority of these evacuees are young women and children, any men over the age of 18 are to remain behind in the cities, either to continue working or to fight should there be an invasion.

Preparations for war are shown, firstly in the form of civil defence volunteers going door to door handing out booklets , which it is remarked have been available for some time, but did not sell well due to their asking price of 9d, so no one has really read their content, much less have had time to build fallout shelters as described in the book.
Profiteering soon becomes rife, with people selling sandbags, wood and sand for ridiculous prices, and shop owners begin selling tinned food and supplies for vastly inflated markups, all the while, evacuees are forced to live with complete strangers under threat of imprisonment under the emergency powers act.

Interviews with people in the street show the level of ignorance the general public had about a nuclear war, with one woman referring to Strontium-90 as "some sort of gunpowder" and people not knowing what effects radioactive fallout would have on them other than it being "some sort of dust that makes you ill if you swallow it".
The narrator points out at this point that the amount of warning time available for an ICBM strike could be as little as 30 seconds, depending where the missiles were launched from, and at what time of day the launch occurs, and that the standard "3 minute warning" benchmark was more optimistic than realistic.

Eventually, the war begins proper, after the US president orders a pre-emptive tactical nuclear strike against Russian forces who are still holding West Berlin, pretty soon, the ICBMs start flying.
The village , although not a target, is hit by a stray missile which was headed for Gatwick airport but failed en route and exploded prematurely, this is shown on screen as a massive white flash in the sky, which immediately vapourises anyone caught out in the open, blinds those who were outside of the blast radius by melting their eyeballs due to the intense light, then the ensuing firestorm and blast wave set fire to anything flammable within its maximum blast radius, and destroy or severely damage any building not strong enough to withstand it.

The following day, radioactive fallout begins slowly killing off those who haven't found shelter, which is just about everyone.
The local authorities struggle to cope with the sudden influx of wounded and dying, and soon rioting and looting becomes commonplace, which increasingly draconian measures fail to curb (the narrator points out that following the firebombing of Dresden during World War 2, it was found that respectable middle class citizens had no qualms whatsoever about resorting to violent looting and theft, while those of the lower classes, from whom this type of behaviour would normally be expected, were less likely to exhibit this behaviour)
Within a month, all civil order has broken down, with policemen and civil defence volunteers being openly beaten, shot and murdered in the streets by looters and thieves, civil food banks find themselves over run and civilisation as it was known vanishes into history as the instinct for survival takes precedence over everything else.

Interviews with people in the street after the war show that following the harrowing events, people enter a state of incurable depression, simply interested in nothing more than finding food, one man states that he was offered £1 (a lot of money for the average person in 1965) for a loaf of bread, but refused it as "you cant eat a pound note".

The film ends by showing a home for war orphans in Dover, where scarred, malnourished and deformed children are brought up by a local priest. None of the children show any interest in life when asked about what their hopes are for the future.


Probably the most disturbing thing about this film is the quotes used which were supplied by various sources at the time.
One actor, dressed as an Anglican priest, reads a statement by another priest who he quotes as saying that he was in favour of there being a nuclear war, simply because God protects the just and would help the righteous smite their enemies.
Another quote, this time from a government official at the time stated that they didn't believe that a global nuclear war would be any worse than the blitz, and that Britain would easily be able to cope with any aftereffects of a war and would be back on its fee tin no time etc etc.

The film is a very well made and very though provoking piece of film, and is highly recommended.
If you wish to view this film, you can do so by clicking HERE