Cold War Nuclear Angst
by J_Frank_Parnell | created - 10 Oct 2022 | updated - 6 days ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Day After (1983 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 127 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
The effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of eastern Kansas.
Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum
Votes: 18,185
2. On the Beach (1959)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
Votes: 14,429 | Gross: $11.00M
3. When the Wind Blows (1986)
16+ | 84 min | Animation, Drama, War
A naive elderly British rural couple survive the initial onslaught of a nuclear war.
Director: Jimmy T. Murakami | Stars: Peggy Ashcroft, John Mills, Robin Houston, James Russell
Votes: 12,659 | Gross: $0.01M
4. Threads (1984 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 112 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working class city of Sheffield, England and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierly, Rita May
Votes: 20,155
5. Ladybug Ladybug (1963)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama
Staff and students at a rural school react to a warning of an imminent nuclear attack, not knowing whether it is real or a mistake.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Jane Connell, William Daniels, James Frawley, Richard Hamilton
Votes: 966
6. Mad Max (1979)
R | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley
Votes: 222,694 | Gross: $8.75M
7. Future War 198X (1982)
125 min | Animation, Drama, Romance
An American scientist constructs a laser satellite with hopes of preventing any nuclear conflicts from occurring. However, after a fatal error from both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. ... See full summary »
Directors: Tomoharu Katsumata, Toshio Masuda | Stars: Kin'ya Kitaôji, Masako Natsume, Yoshio Kaneuchi, Tadashi Nakamura
Votes: 163
8. The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
Unrated | 99 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
When the U.S. and Russia unwittingly test atomic bombs at the same time, it alters the nutation (axis of rotation) of the Earth.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Michael Goodliffe
Votes: 6,208
9. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.
Directors: Ubaldo Ragona, Sidney Salkow | Stars: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Votes: 21,515
10. Miracle Mile (1988)
R | 87 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A young man hears a chance phone call telling him that a nuclear war has started and missiles will hit his city in 70 minutes.
Director: Steve De Jarnatt | Stars: Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham, John Agar, Lou Hancock
Votes: 12,383 | Gross: $1.15M
11. Night of the Comet (1984)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.
Director: Thom Eberhardt | Stars: Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran, Sharon Farrell
Votes: 24,170 | Gross: $14.42M
12. Duck and Cover (1952)
Not Rated | 9 min | Animation, Short, Family
Instructional short aimed at school-aged children of the early 1950s that combines animation and live-action footage with voice-over narration to explain what to do to increase their chances of surviving the blast from an atomic bomb.
Director: Anthony Rizzo | Stars: George Winslow, Leo M. Langlois III, Ray J. Mauer, Robert Middleton
Votes: 1,101
13. Godzilla (1954)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
American nuclear weapons testing results in the creation of a seemingly unstoppable dinosaur-like beast.
Director: Ishirô Honda | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi
Votes: 39,780 | Gross: $2.42M
14. Akira (1988)
R | 124 min | Animation, Action, Drama
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo | Stars: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tesshô Genda
Votes: 205,460 | Gross: $0.55M
15. Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
R | 146 min | Drama, Thriller
An imprisoned rogue USAF general with a secret personal agenda, escapes the brig and takes over an ICBM silo, threatening to start WW3.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Roscoe Lee Browne, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 3,729
16. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 518,599 | Gross: $0.28M
17. Empire of the Sun (1987)
PG | 153 min | Drama, War
A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers
Votes: 134,383 | Gross: $22.24M
18. The Day After Trinity (1981)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Biography
Scientists and witnesses involved in the creation and testing of the first ever atomic bomb reflect on the Manhattan project and its fascinating leader, J. Robert Oppenheimer, who upon ... See full summary »
Director: Jon Else | Stars: Hans Bethe, Holm Bursom, Haakon Chevalier, Stirling Colgate
Votes: 1,235
19. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Not Rated | 89 min | Animation, Drama, War
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
Director: Isao Takahata | Stars: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Akemi Yamaguchi, Yoshiko Shinohara
Votes: 310,838
20. This Is Not a Test (1962)
Not Rated | 73 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A deputy sheriff stops motorists on a mountain road after police dispatch reports of a possible nuclear attack.
Director: Fredric Gadette | Stars: Seamon Glass, Thayer Roberts, Aubrey Martin, Mary Morlas
Votes: 893
21. A Boy and His Dog (1975)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
A young man and his telepathic dog wander a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Director: L.Q. Jones | Stars: Don Johnson, Jason Robards, Susanne Benton, Tim McIntire
Votes: 19,252 | Gross: $6.90M
22. Planet of the Apes (1968)
G | 112 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet where highly intelligent non-human ape species are dominant and humans are enslaved.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans
Votes: 193,678 | Gross: $33.40M
23. The Terminator (1984)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield
Votes: 924,940 | Gross: $38.40M
24. The War Game (1966)
48 min | Drama, War
A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain.
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Michael Aspel, Peter Graham, Dave Baldwin, Kathy Staff
Votes: 7,317
25. WarGames (1983)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 110,858 | Gross: $79.57M
26. Red Dawn (1984)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
It is the dawn of World War III. In the west mountains of America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces.
Director: John Milius | Stars: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen
Votes: 63,147 | Gross: $38.38M
27. The Omega Man (1971)
PG | 98 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Dr Robert Neville has developed an experimental vaccine which makes him the only immune survivor of a biological catastrophe. A gang of homicidal mutants blame science for their condition and attempt to kill him.
Director: Boris Sagal | Stars: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo
Votes: 34,089 | Gross: $8.72M
28.
The Magical World of Disney (1954–1997)
Episode:
Our Friend the Atom
(1957)
Unrated | 60 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
Dr. Heinz Haber looks at the atom as a potential power source, stressing that strict controls are necessary. He traces the history of the atom through the days of the ancient Greek philosophers to the discoveries of modern scientists.
Director: Hamilton Luske | Stars: Heinz Haber, Walt Disney, Paul Frees
Votes: 128
29.
The Twilight Zone (1959–1964)
Episode:
Time Enough at Last
(1959)
TV-PG | 25 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear war.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Burgess Meredith, Vaughn Taylor, Jacqueline deWit, Lela Bliss
Votes: 7,796
30. The Andromeda Strain (1971)
G | 131 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what killed the citizens of a small town and how the deadly contagion can be stopped.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: James Olson, Arthur Hill, David Wayne, Kate Reid
Votes: 40,466 | Gross: $3.42M
31. The War of the Worlds (1953)
G | 85 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A small town in California is attacked by Martians, beginning a worldwide invasion.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 38,571 | Gross: $4.36M
32. Lord of the Flies (1963)
Not Rated | 92 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Schoolboys marooned on a Pacific island create their own savage civilization.
Director: Peter Brook | Stars: James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin
Votes: 20,426
33. La Jetée (1962)
Not Rated | 28 min | Short, Drama, Romance
The story of a man forced to explore his memories in the wake of World War III's devastation, told through still images.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich
Votes: 37,079
34. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Votes: 1,175,044 | Gross: $204.84M
35. The Time Machine (1960)
G | 103 min | Adventure, Romance, Sci-Fi
A man's vision for a utopian society is disillusioned when travelling forward into time reveals a dark and dangerous society.
Director: George Pal | Stars: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot
Votes: 44,876
36. Broken Arrow (1996)
R | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Terrorists steal nuclear warheads from the U.S. military but don't count on a pilot and park ranger spoiling their plans.
Director: John Woo | Stars: John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo
Votes: 105,291 | Gross: $70.77M
37. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, John Steadman, Janus Blythe
Votes: 39,259 | Gross: $25.00M
38. Silent Running (1972)
G | 89 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.
Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint
Votes: 31,486 | Gross: $0.69M
39. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
G | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission searches for the only survivor of the previous expedition. He discovers a planet ruled by apes and an underground city run by telepathic humans.
Director: Ted Post | Stars: James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison
Votes: 51,561 | Gross: $19.00M
40. Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
PG-13 | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History
This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret WWII project, and the first atomic bombs designed, built, and tested in Los Alamos.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack
Votes: 9,135 | Gross: $3.56M
41. Barefoot Gen (1983)
TV-PG | 83 min | Animation, Biography, Drama
A powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a disturbing story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
Director: Mori Masaki | Stars: Issei Miyazaki, Catherine Battistone, Yoshie Shimamura, Iona Morris
Votes: 9,217
42. The Chain Reaction (1980)
92 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A holidaying couple is pursued by the thugs of a nearby nuclear storage facility's boss, who is intent on covering up an accidental leak.
Director: Ian Barry | Stars: Steve Bisley, Arna-Maria Winchester, Ross Thompson, Ralph Cotterill
Votes: 1,178
43. The Quiet Earth (1985)
R | 91 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A scientist awakens to find himself alone in the world. In a desperate attempt to search for others, he finds only two who have their own agenda.
Director: Geoff Murphy | Stars: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith, Anzac Wallace
Votes: 27,647 | Gross: $2.12M
44. Fail Safe (1964)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Dan O'Herlihy
Votes: 24,428
45. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 85,807
46. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure
Indiana Jones becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen
Votes: 491,643 | Gross: $317.10M
47. Testament (1983)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
The life of a suburban American family is scarred after a nuclear attack.
Director: Lynne Littman | Stars: Jane Alexander, William Devane, Rossie Harris, Roxana Zal
Votes: 7,226 | Gross: $2.04M
48. First Strike (1979 TV Movie)
40 min | Documentary
An interesting Cold War film that starts with showing a hypothetical Soviet nuclear first strike scenario leading to a U.S. surrender, followed by a United States Air Force "sales pitch" for more defense spending.
Director: Fleming E. Fuller | Stars: Richard H. Ellis, William R. Graham, Francis P. Hoeber, Edward N. Luttwak
Votes: 44
49. Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
Passed | 93 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A family leaves Los Angeles for a camping trip just before hydrogen bombs destroy the city. In the midst of the chaos, the father must fight to keep his family alive along the highway.
Director: Ray Milland | Stars: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel
Votes: 4,841
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