helterskelter.ca

The Day After.
way more Helter Skelter.

November 20, 1983 - 2023: 40 years of: The Day After.

The hallmark for the apocalypse.

In the heat of the Cold War, during the 80s entertainment-cornucopia, the two hour made-for-TV-movie, not only brought horror to TV-dinner broadcasting, but also changed the modus-operandi for apocalyptic movie-making.

Always sleeping with one eye open, the U.S.A -vs- U.S.S.R. conflict builds-up from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis ...and comes to blow.

DEFCON-1 ACTIVATED
...tension goes beyond the recall-point, the Minutemans are airborne as the end is just 30 minutes away, both ways. The obvious Mutually Assured Destruction is here, as the mushroom-cloud turns the sky to red and the Earth to grey. From instant blindness to charred skin, cities burn and life as we know it instantly comes to an abrupt end. The story-line follows the few souls that have survived the nuclear-blasts ...but at what cost ?

Viewed by more than 100 million people, the movie sent shockwaves inside households and inside The White House. So close to a possible reality, it is said that the movie is one of the reasons US President Ronald Reagan pushed to reduce the Arms Race of the mid 80s ...and eventual peace treaty to stop the madness and protect humankind.

In real life 1990, the U.S.S.R. crumbled within and closed the lid on 43 years of a silent East / West global terror.

The Day After ...the movie that actually saved us all ?

RIP Bibi Besch AKA Eve (1942-1996)
RIP George Petrie AKA Dr. Landowska (1912-1997)
RIP Jason Robards AKA Dr. Russell (1922-2000)
RIP Lin McCarthy AKA Dr. Austin (1918-2002)
RIP Dennis Lipscomb AKA Reverend Walker (1942-2014)
RIP Rosanna Huffman AKA Dr. Wallenberg (1938-2016)
RIP Stephen Furst AKA Aldo (1954-2017)
RIP Georgann Johnson AKA Helen (1926-2018)

*
The Day After = movie-trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOFsOA9VsBk
The attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8l5xznESLc
ABC's discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcCLZwU2t34
People's reaction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG-e52yAxfs