The Day After

1983 "They told us it would be impossible to make this movie. They told us it would be impossible for you to watch it. We hope nothing is impossible."
7| 2h7m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 20 November 1983 Released
Producted By: ABC Circle Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

In the mid-1980s, the U.S. is poised on the brink of nuclear war. This shadow looms over the residents of a small town in Kansas as they continue their daily lives. Dr. Russell Oakes maintains his busy schedule at the hospital, Denise Dahlberg prepares for her upcoming wedding, and Stephen Klein is deep in his graduate studies. When the unthinkable happens and the bombs come down, the town's residents are thrust into the horrors of nuclear winter.

Watch Online

The Day After (1983) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Nicholas Meyer

Production Companies

ABC Circle Films

The Day After Videos and Images
View All
  • Top Credited Cast
  • |
  • Crew

The Day After Audience Reviews

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
hellholehorror When I say that this is unbelievable I mean that it is beyond belief how amazingly shocking this realistic and humane portrayal of the end of the earth is. This has to be one of the most powerful films ever made. Incredible emotional depiction of what could be. The only downside is that it is in America and only shows that side, it's overly patriotic and portrays America as the good guys. They were in the wrong just like everyone else. This amazing and powerful film is the most dramatic film that I have seen to date. Well worth watching but not for those looking for brain fodder. This is emotional and this is real. You will be thinking about your life and yourself when this film ends. I just hope that I never have to experience this for real.
Hitchcoc This was so hyped in its day (1983, 34 years ago). We're still under the threat of a nuclear holocaust with more fingers on the trigger. Unfortunately a couple of those are relatively unstable figures. I remember the lead up to this film and all the talk that went on. When it ended, we were told to look around at the beauty of the world and life itself and to be grateful for this to not have actually happened. The missile silos in Kansas (and obviously other parts of America) are opened and weapons launched. Someone, probably the Soviets and employed first strike. That leads to speculation as to what would happen in the aftermath. I remember the scene in the grocery store where the teenage checkout guy is moving at triple time. The falling ash and the dropping temperatures of a nuclear winter. People trying to help the survivors when food and water are contaminated. It barely addresses the horrors of radiation sickness and dismemberment. This had quite an impact on America for a while. But we've gone back to thinking that if it's dropped on someone else, it will be OK.
BA_Harrison With the Doomsday Clock currently set at two and a half minutes to midnight, and with China recently relocating ICBMs closer to the U.S., what better time to re-watch The Day After, a supposedly realistic portrayal of what America might have in store if WWIII ever kicked off?Set in and around Kansas City, this 1983 made-for-TV movie sees political temperatures rising between the East and West, before all hell breaks loose with the launching of nuclear missiles on both sides. Those unlucky enough to survive the initial blasts are left to wander a desolate fallout-smothered landscape, their skin blistering and hair falling out before an inevitable agonising death (except for those caught for looting, rape or murder, who face a firing squad).I'm a huge fan of the horror genre, but movies that depict the nightmare of a nuclear holocaust in unflinching detail tend to scare me far more than any monster or machete wielding maniac. Sadly, The Day After allows a serious case of soap opera melodramatics to get in the way of the awful truth, with not nearly enough gritty realism to genuinely shock the viewer (for example, the camera shies away from showing looters actually being shot).If you're serious about scaring yourself silly with apocalyptic drama, try watching the 1984 UK movie Threads: we Brits do bleak realism so much better than the Americans. Alternatively, take a look at end of the world romance Miracle Mile, which delivers a far bigger punch to the gut than The Day After.
Tony Bunch .......I was a full time college student and working full time at a close-to-home service station. Because of the ample TV previews acting as constant reminders of this upcoming TV movie promising to be, "a television event like never before", I brought a small television to work. IIRC, it was a Monday night and the movie started at 8:00 pm. I did NOT want to miss this movie. I had spent many years hearing Air Raid sirens blaring at exactly noon on the first Monday of each month. Any time I saw a movie or documentary dealing with the possibility of nuclear war, I remember also doing, "duck and cover", drills at the public school I attended back in the 60's.I will tell you what I remember most about the night this movie first aired. That night the movie was first shown, we did not sell a single gallon of gas while the movie played. I remember commenting to one of my co-workers, " I would just bet you that this movie would give the Superbowl a run for its' money!"This movie dared to be explicit and it dared to provide as much in the way of historic accuracy predicting the post attack specific, minute details regarding the devastation at ground zero. Even the prediction of resultant property damage x-number of miles from ground zero was shown to be lesser when compared to the damage at ground zero. In other words, I think the makers of this movie did their homework. I would guess that they looked for and acquired ample special topic technical advisor's. Many years later when I was day-dreaming at work taking a moment to have a 1980's flashback, I recall having this movie come to mind. Right there and then, I wrote a note to myself on a carbon-type credit card imprinter paper, "find DVD entitled, "The Day After." Right after that moment, on the same piece of paper I also reminded myself to get the movies, "Dr. Strangelove, and how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb", "Dawn's early light" and, "Failsafe". Faithfully submitted, A man in his 50's !