How the BBC's Threads Outfroze Most Anything Else In Film Forever

It came to my attention a couple weeks ago that Threads, the 1984 BBC docu-drama about the aftermath of a nuclear war, is now available for free viewing on Google Video (and, thus, here). There exist many dark, soul-freezing, plain old fucked up movies in this great world — Salo, I Spit On Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust — but I’m not entirely sure anything else cuts to the bleak heart of what people are capable of than Threads. Which was a television movie — and based on science (mostly), real-life estimates, current politics, and is more or less a faithful, realistic view of what life would likely be like in the event of a nuclear war. This, friends, is the bleakest thing imaginable, that we (or “they,” if you prefer) were prepared to do this to each other. Enjoy.

• Duck And Cover: The U.S. Just Promised Another Nuclear Decade
• This Is How the World Ends…In Film: An Interview With the Doomsday Film Festival’s Director, Andrew Miller
• Guess What the Secret Password Was to America’s Cold War Nuclear Missile System

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.