Threads

 Threads.  Probably the grimmest movie I've seen (although Requiem for a Dream is right up there).

Threads is a movie about the consequences of a nuclear war.  Made in 1984 during the cold war, Treads is set in the English city of Sheffield.  Everyone is going about their northern working class lives whilst an international situation is kicking off in Iran.  While we follow Jimmy and Ruth, two young people in love and just getting by in the 80s, the tension between the USA and Soviet Union is rising.  It's mostly in the background with nobody really taking any notice but throughout the first half of the movie it starts to become more significant to the viewer and the characters. But look, our Ruth is pregnant and our Jimmy is going to marry her and the soon to be three will struggle to get by but they’ll be together, look they've even bought a flat to fix up and live in.

However the movie cuts between our average joe characters and some local government officials.  They seem to be preparing for something, assembling key personnel  and making arrangements for the possibility of a war.  But that’ll hardly happen, the guys down the pub don’t think so.  

Here's the thing… it does.  A nuclear bomb is dropped over the North Sea.  We read a text dump of information on screen like a computer printer out (an 80s computer print out too).  This is one of the best things about this movie, it lacks any razzle dazzle.  The matter of factness of text dumps on screen is chilling.  The scenes of the aftermath are truly grim.  So, yeah the bomb gets dropped and we see the panic of people fleeing the streets, diving under cars, doing anything to stay protected from the blast.  Some people stare in disbelief, others race to see their loved ones, others panic and cry.  The fact that these are all, average everyday people makes it more intense.  Shortly after we get more information in on screen text.  NATOs defenses are destroyed… 3000 megatons are dropped on the UK.  This goes from crazy to total carnage in a matter of seconds.  This sequence is outstanding.  We see people freaking out, scream and the image flashes into a negative with short sharp shots of destruction; buildings collapsing, cars crashing and people burning.  

Our Jimmy doesn't make another appearance in the movie, probably a casualty of the nuclear war.  We just never find out his fate.  So we follow Ruth, now struggling with her family she leaves the family home and enters the destruction.  Text dump.  Nuclear fallout can cause serious issues for unborn children.  She’s pregnant… This is grim.  So she walks out and we get shots of burning buildings, charred remains of her neighbors (lovely) and, what is truly the most intense scene of the movie, a woman.  She looks old, covered in soot, ash and allsorts of dirt.  She is holding a burnt dead baby, man this movie is truly grim, and she is looking straight down the camera lens.  The whites of her eyes are piercing through the grime and dirt of the rest of her.  This shot, guys, this freaking shot.

So the movie progresses by doing time jumps.  We see a hospital open and floods of people pouring in to get medical help.  It’s gross.  Green and black sludge drip down the steps as blood and pus ooze out of the sick and injured. 

This movie is not pleasant. 

But we follow Ruth who gives birth to a child, on her own in a barn.  Thankfully the baby is okay.  This may be the only bit of levity in this part of the movie.  We get another time jump ten or thirteen years later.  We see gray people on gray ground with a gray sky working the land and Ruth collapses and dies.  She looks about 50 but in reality she is probably 30ish.  But her daughter doesn’t react how a child normally would in this situation.  The impact of nuclear war has had more impact than just the physical damage.

And the movie ends.

A horrific tale told well.  How the BBC released this I have no idea.