Threads (1984) (DVD)

When combined with the prompt destruction from nuclear blast, fires, and fallout and the later enhancement of solar ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion, long-term exposure to cold, dark, and radioactivity could pose a serious threat to human survivors and to other species. - Carl Sagan et al, 1983

A brutal, morbid film, Threads made a big impact here in Britain when the BBC aired it on a Sunday evening, 1984. You can hear lots of samples from the film in Conflict's Ungovernable Force. It showed the results of mutually assured destruction, considered a real possibility by many, in grim clarity and our actions feel really fucking futile...

Originally broadcast at the height of the nuclear paranoia of the '80s, Threads sent shock waves throughout the country. This landmark drama remains the most powerful anti-nuclear message ever presented on film, and is every bit as shocking today.
The threads that hold civilisation together are blasted away in this critically acclaimed, no-holdsbarred docudrama about a nuclear attack on a British city during the 1980s.
Ruth (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy (Reece Dinsdale) live in Sheffield, and are preparing to get married. Tension is rising between the Western powers and Russia, but the couple are blissfully unconcerned with world events as they carry on with their wedding plans.
When Russia invades Iran, events take a dramatic turn. With no prior warning Russia fires two nuclear warheads over Sheffield, obliterating the city and creating a radioactive wasteland. The few survivors are reduced to living in medieval conditions, scavenging for survival as they combat starvation, disease, mental trauma and nuclear winter.