Ray Milland directs and stars in 'Panic in Year Zero!,' a vision of an ordinary family doing what it takes to survive after nuclear missiles destroy Los Angeles.
They filmed THE DAY AFTER 20 minutes from my Kansas hometown, and we actually had to watch it IN SCHOOL. In fifth grade! Truly harrowing and unjustifiable!
I've never seen *this* movie but it's now at the top of my list. God, I love society-immediately-collapses stories, like TRIGGER EFFECT or Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS or that one SNL sketch where the morning show hosts lose their teleprompter.
I remember not caring about basically the first half, but the bombs dropping is still horrifying (the skeletons!) and everything afterwards held my interest as I recall.
And library request in! I thought this was the film you'd covered on NPS way back at the start of the pandemic, but that was a different Panic in a different area.
Adding this to my list, for sure. This brings THE DAY AFTER immediately to mind, which aired when I was a senior in high school and freaking TERRIFIED me. I had read plenty of apocalyptic science fiction, even including Nevil Shute's "On the Beach," but nothing that made the fragility of civilization so immediately apparent.
Oh! And this also makes me want to rewatch one of my favorite '80s movies, the underrated MIRACLE MILE with Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham. Another tight-focus tour of civiliation's collapse, mostly in real time.
They filmed THE DAY AFTER 20 minutes from my Kansas hometown, and we actually had to watch it IN SCHOOL. In fifth grade! Truly harrowing and unjustifiable!
I've never seen *this* movie but it's now at the top of my list. God, I love society-immediately-collapses stories, like TRIGGER EFFECT or Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS or that one SNL sketch where the morning show hosts lose their teleprompter.
They were supposed to film The Day After in my North Dakota hometown, and we had to watch it in school as well!
Amazing how ABC convinced America this was "educational"!
I remember not caring about basically the first half, but the bombs dropping is still horrifying (the skeletons!) and everything afterwards held my interest as I recall.
It certainly educated Reagan!
And library request in! I thought this was the film you'd covered on NPS way back at the start of the pandemic, but that was a different Panic in a different area.
Adding this to my list, for sure. This brings THE DAY AFTER immediately to mind, which aired when I was a senior in high school and freaking TERRIFIED me. I had read plenty of apocalyptic science fiction, even including Nevil Shute's "On the Beach," but nothing that made the fragility of civilization so immediately apparent.
Oh! And this also makes me want to rewatch one of my favorite '80s movies, the underrated MIRACLE MILE with Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham. Another tight-focus tour of civiliation's collapse, mostly in real time.