The Day After (1983)

If you were alive in 1983, you’ve probably heard of The Day After, the television movie released on Sunday, November 20, 1983, on the ABC television network.

The film postulates a fictional war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several family farms situated next to nuclear missile silos.

The cast includes JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum, Jason Robards, and John Lithgow. The film was written by Edward Hume, produced by Robert Papazian, and it was directed by Nicholas Meyer.

I remember watching the movie, and how it affected everyone that watched it. I know it scared the heck out of me!

For a long while after, people were very, very frightened that the plot of the movie would happen? This was a huge television event, really HUGE. It affected many who watched it right down to the President of the United States at that time, Ronald Reagan, who wrote in his diary that the film was “very effective and left me greatly depressed,” and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a “nuclear war.”

So, as you can imagine, this was big time stuff! The plot, special effects, and characters get the job done well enough. Please don’t expect a huge budget production; this was a TV movie in the mid 80s for crying out loud!

So here we go! Relive the end of 1983, not to mention the end of the world with…The Day After.