From Threads to Threats: A Film and a Warning
Threads Movie Cover (1984)
Opinion Editorial by Moritz Reinthaler
Threads is a 1984 BBC film that sparked controversy and remains relevant, albeit relatively unknown. Threads is a horror film, but not in the traditional sense. Our characters are at first haunted by the uncertainty of tomorrow. Then, when the final dawn comes, it brings with it decay and death. Those who have been denied the mercy of death live on in the winter that follows.
But what is Threads? Threads is a depiction of the last blinding sunset and the dawn of terror that follows. By now some of you may already be able to guess; the subject is nuclear war, or rather its aftermath.
It is unlike any other horror film because it is true horror; it leaves you with existential dread. Threads crushes the seed of hope before it can even take root. Although it is fiction, it is impossible for the viewer to distance themselves from the film, for the danger is as real as ever, as close as never, as the Doomsday Clock inches ever closer to midnight with each passing year.
We begin the story of threads with a spider weaving its web and the sentence: “In an urban society everything connects. Each person’s needs are satisfied by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society stronger also make it vulnerable.”
This beginning is an ominous foreshadowing of what we will come to see, the collapse of the fragile threads that hold everything together. We see needs that cannot be met, people being starved of everything they took for granted. In this new world, the word democracy is but a faint memory of a different past, a past centuries ahead compared to the mediaeval circumstances that have returned to this fictional world. The society that has emerged from the ashes of yesterday is unable to bear the heavy costs of democracy and has therefore fallen into tyranny. In the immediate aftermath of this bomb to the past, we see the ugliness of survival and the cruelty of having to experience this future.
Now, what is nuclear winter?
Nuclear winter occurs when multiple nuclear explosions around the world trigger firestorms that become uncontrollable as countermeasures are overwhelmed. In addition, nuclear weapons dropped on cities carry particles and dust into the atmosphere. A recent study analysed the theoretical environmental consequences of a small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, with each side launching 50 Hiroshima-sized bombs. The impact would be catastrophic: 5 million tonnes of soot would be released into the atmosphere, partially blocking sunlight and causing global temperatures to drop by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius for at least five years. Production of the four major food crops—rice, wheat, soy, and maize—would be reduced by 11 percent in that period, only slowly recovering in the following decade. This would result in the greatest famine in recorded history, a global catastrophe. This is not a full-blown nuclear winter, just a relatively tame nuclear autumn.
Societal Collapse as depicted in Threads
This fictional nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would amount to 1.6 megatons. However, in today’s world there exist weapons, namely the Trident II D5 missiles, that are able to deliver up to 1.9 megatons on their own. They serve as a good benchmark, as these would be the weapons most likely used in a nuclear exchange involving the UK or U.S. today. There are currently 14 Ohio-class submarines in service, each capable of carrying 20 Trident II D5 missiles. Current estimates suggest that 300 of these weapons are operational, with potentially more undergoing maintenance. Bear in mind that this also is only a small part of one nuclear arsenal. In 2011, the U.S. decommissioned the B53, a 9-megaton nuclear gravity bomb, designed for the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Since President Trump withdrew from the INF Treaty, which limited the U.S. and Russian missile deployments, the numbers of such weapons are expected to increase.
As you can see, the small nuclear exchange is chicken feed compared to the hell the U.S., Russia, or China could unleash. Even relatively small stockpiles, such as those of France, could cause far worse catastrophes if ever used. The study that we talked about at the beginning only accounted for a nuclear exchange of 1.6 megatons, which is less than the yield of a single fully armed Trident II D5 missile.
Back to the film Threads, what does it depict?
A world where the very light of the sun not only blinds you but also burns you.
The aftermath of a nuclear war is not just destruction and radiation. When Threads was published, nuclear winters were still a relatively new theory.
It refers to a condition in which the nuclear war thrust dust and debris into the sky, darkening the northern hemisphere for years to come, causing crops to fail and millions to starve. In the scenario that Threads depicts estimates for the UK suggesting a maximum possible population of 10 million—medieval levels. To the children of the future, those destined to rebuild the heaven, humanity seems frail—an angel torn from its garden of Eden by its own hubris.
The radiation has caused many of these descendants to develop disabilities, both mental and physical. Our new world makes survival impossible for the physically disadvantaged. Information and knowledge are lost, and the government's focus is less on education and more on how to feed the starving masses. And when, in Threads, the protagonist finally sees the generation born after the cataclysm, the children of the apocalypse, she can only scream. Scream in agony and pain, in despair amidst the death of hope.
No one who has seen Threads has forgotten it.
The political climate of 1984
The film was released in 1984 when nuclear stockpiles were at an all-time high and the UK was about to buy 65 Trident II D5 missiles from the US. The film premiered during the reign of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, who was fiercely supportive of the U.S. in its Cold War doctrine and had already waged war in the Falklands. In 1983, NATO conducted the Able Archer 83 exercise, designed to simulate NATO’s response to nuclear war, a DEFCON 1 situation. The Soviets were unaware of this and readied for a war; armed nuclear warheads were loaded onto aircraft, and many in the Politburo believed the US was preparing for a first strike and urged to strike first. Declassified reports from the 1990s suggest that this was the closest the two powers had come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The aftermath
The publication of Threads sparked immediate debate. Later analysis suggested that the UK was woefully unprepared for a nuclear winter as depicted in Threads. It put Thatcher’s government under scrutiny and rallied and still rallies anti-nuke movements. In an interview, the director of Threads said that he knew from confidential sources that even Ronald Reagan had seen the film.
All in all, Threads is a must-see for everyone, especially those involved in political decision-making.
Reactions from the media regarding both the time of its release and and the movie itself:
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian
"It wasn’t until I saw Threads that I found that something on screen could make me break out in a cold, shivering sweat and keep me in that condition for 20 minutes, followed by weeks of depression and anxiety."
Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail
“The British crew here, headed by writer Barry Hines and producer/director Mick Jackson, accomplish what would seem to be an impossible task: depicting the carnage without distancing the viewer, without once letting him retreat behind the safe wall of fictitious play. Formidable and foreboding, Threads leaves nothing to our imagination, and Nothingness to our conscience.”
John J. O'Connor of The New York Times
"Clearly, ''Threads'' is not a balanced discussion about the pros and cons of nuclear armaments. It is a candidly biased warning. And it is, as calculated, unsettlingly powerful.”
Stephen Brotherstone, co-author of Scarred for Life
"It wasn't a question of if they pressed the button, but when are they going to press the button,"
