List of films about nuclear issues

A nuclear fireball lights up the night in a United States nuclear test.

This is a list of films about nuclear issues:

Documentary films

• Ashes to Honey
• The Atom Strikes!
• The Atomic Cafe
• Atomic Ed and the Black Hole
• Atomic Power
• The Atomic States of America
• The Battle of Chernobyl
• Chernobyl Heart
• Countdown to Zero
• Dark Circle
• The Day After Trinity
• Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment
• Duck and Cover
• Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl
• First Strike
• A Guide to Armageddon (Q.E.D. episode)
• Hiroshima
• If You Love This Planet
• Into Eternity
• Journey to the Safest Place on Earth
• Last Best Chance
• The Mushroom Club
• Nuclear Tipping Point
• Our Friend the Atom
• Pandora's Promise
• Protect and Survive
• Race for the Bomb
• Radio Bikini
• The Rainbow Warrior
• The Return of Navajo Boy
• Rokkasho Rhapsody
• Silent Storm
• Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie
• White Horse
• White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Windscale: Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Disaster

Dramatic films

• Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987) - A 12-year-old boy becomes anxious after seeing a Minuteman missile on a school field trip. He protests the existence of nuclear weapons by refusing to play baseball.
• The Atomic Cafe (1982) - disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety
• The Atomic Kid (1954) - A man (played by Mickey Rooney) is in a house within the danger area of a nuclear bomb test area when the bomb is activated.
• Atomic Twister (ABC, made-for-TV) - a film about a modern automated power plant in the path of a tornado which threatens the plant
• Barefoot Gen - an anime film based on a manga series which depicts the terror of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II from the perspective of a child. Although in slow motion, the film is notable for featuring an accurate representation of the bomb's explosion and the effects it had on Hiroshima's people.
• Battle Beneath the Earth (1967) - A discovery that Communist China, using innovative tunneling vehicles, is tunneling under the U.S. to place nuclear bombs in strategic locations, results in a U.S. effort to foil the plan and defeat them.
• The Beginning or the End (1947) - a fictionalized docudrama about the Manhattan Project and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.
• Broken Arrow (1996) - a film about two friends in the United States Air Force, who become bitter enemies after one of them steals two nuclear weapons and gives the U.S. government an ultimatum: either pay a huge ransom, or he will destroy a major U.S. city.
• By Dawn's Early Light (HBO, 1990) - about rogue Soviet military officials framing NATO for a nuclear attack in order to spark a full-blown nuclear war
• A Carol for Another Christmas (1964) - The Ghost of Christmas Future gives a tour across a desolate landscape of the ruins of a once-great civilization (Hiroshima).
• The Children's Story (1982) - This short film, which originally aired on TV's Mobil Showcase, depicts the first day of indoctrination of an elementary school classroom by a new teacher, representing a totalitarian government that has taken over the United States. It is based on the 1960 short story of the same name by James Clavell.
• The China Syndrome - This has been described as a "gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power", which had an extra impact when the real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant occurred several weeks after the film opened. Jane Fonda plays a TV reporter who witnesses fears over risk of a meltdown (the "China syndrome" of the title) at a local nuclear plant, which was averted by a quick-thinking engineer, played by Jack Lemmon. The plot suggests that corporate greed and cost-cutting "have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction".^[1]
• Countdown to Looking Glass (HBO, 1984) - a film that presents a simulated news broadcast about a nuclear war
• Crimson Tide (1995) - a suspenseful drama about a nuclear submarine, and the mutiny of its Executive Officer, regarding decisions on whether to launch a nuclear missile
• Damnation Alley (20th Century Fox, 1977) - a surprise attack launched on the United States, and the subsequent efforts of a small band of survivors in California to reach another group of survivors in Albany, New York
• The Day After (1983) - This made-for-television-movie by ABC depicts the consequences of a nuclear war in Lawrence, Kansas and the surrounding area.
• The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) - a drama about nuclear tests that throw the Earth off its course around the Sun, dooming it unless scientists can find a way to reverse the change, and a news team that covers the affair
• Day One (CBS, 1989) - made-for-TV docudrama about the Manhattan Project
• Dirty War (BBC/HBO, 2004) - follows the journey of a radioactive isotope into England, where it is ultimately turned into multiple dirty bombs and detonated in central London. Meanwhile, the city of London conducts preparedness drills for a possible terrorist attack
• The Divide (2011) - Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic.
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - a black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War and the threat of nuclear warfare
• Der Dritte Weltkrieg ("World War III") (1998) - a German/American TV mockumentary of an alternate history in which Soviet hard-liners oust Mikhail Gorbachev with the Iron Curtain intact, soon initiating a conventional war which accidentally triggers a full nuclear exchange; the film then rewinds to the point of divergence and ends with jubilant scenes from the "different path" of our history.
• Fail-Safe (1964) - a film based on the novel of the same name about an American bomber crew and nuclear tensions
• Fail-Safe (CBS, 2000) - a remake of the 1964 film, broadcast live and in black-and-white
• Fat Man and Little Boy a.k.a. Shadow Makers (1989) - film that reenacts the Manhattan Project
• Five (1951) - Four men and a woman together are apparent sole survivors of a global nuclear holocaust.
• A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - A Strategic Air Command B-52 wing commander must shape up his unit to pass a tough inspection, sacrificing friendships and happiness at home to ensure the wing can accomplish its mission.
• Godzilla (1954) - Atomic tests in the South Pacific awaken a giant, prehistoric monster that threatens to destroy Japan.
• Goldeneye (1995) - tells the story of a Russian terrorist group trying to settle a score in England by capturing two secret Soviet nuclear EMP weapon and detonating them across the globe
• Goldfinger (1964) - A businessman plans to irradiate America's gold supply with a dirty bomb.
• Grave of the Fireflies (1988) - written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story "Grave of the Fireflies" by Akiyuki Nosaka.
• Iranium - a movie about the nuclear weapons program of Iran
• K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) - covers the Soviet submarine K-19 nuclear accident
• Ladybug, Ladybug (1963) - During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, teachers at a secluded countryside elementary school are asked to walk their pupils home after a nuclear bomb warning alarm sounds.
• Lucky Dragon No. 5
• The Manhattan Project (1986) - Though not about a nuclear war, this was seen as a cautionary tale.
• Miracle Mile (1988) - a film about two lovers in Los Angeles leading up to a nuclear war
• Nightbreaker (1989)
• On the Beach (1959) - film depicting a gradually dying, post-apocalyptic world in Australia that remained after a nuclear Third World War
• On the Beach (Showcase, 2000) - a remake of the 1959 film.
• Panic in Year Zero (1961) - A man (played by Ray Milland) on a camping trip with his family takes actions to protect them from looters and cutthroats, in a no-law, no-authorities public panic situation caused by a nuclear bomb attack nearby, but a safe distance from him and his family.
• The Peacemaker (1997) - A US Army colonel and a civilian nuclear expert supervising him must track down a stolen Russian nuclear weapon before it is used by terrorists.
• Planet of the Apes (1968) - This, and two of its sequels, depict Earth after being destroyed in a nuclear war, while two middle sequels depict Earth before such a war.
• The Sacrifice (Sweden, 1986) - a philosophical drama about nuclear war
• Silkwood (1983) - inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked^[2]
• Space Cowboys (2000) - a space drama film; four older "ex-test pilots" are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite, unaware that it is armed with nuclear missiles.
• Special Bulletin (1983) - a gripping NBC drama about some anti-nuke activists who ironically threaten to detonate a nuclear device in Charleston, South Carolina
• Split Second (1953) - An escaped killer and his two partners hold a few people hostage in a ghost town that is scheduled to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb.
• The Sum of All Fears (2002) - a tale of terrorists' attempts to cause a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia
• Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) - Superman rounds up the world's nuclear weapons and hurls them into the Sun, resulting in unintended consequences.
• Testament (PBS, 1983) - depicts the after-effects of a nuclear war in a town near San Francisco, California
• Thirteen Days (2000) - tells the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962
• Threads (BBC, 1984) - This film, set in the British city of Sheffield, shows the long-term results of a nuclear war on the surrounding area.
• True Lies (1994)
• Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) - tells the story of Lawrence Dell, a renegade USAF general, who escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana, threatening to launch the missiles and start World War III unless the President reveals a top secret document to the American people about the Vietnam War
• Under Siege (1992) - movie about arms dealers who take over a U.S. Navy battleship, and attempt to sell the ship's nuclear-tipped Tomahawk Cruise Missiles on the black market
• The War Game (BBC, 1965) - an early mockumentary that depicts the effects of a nuclear war in Britain following a conventional war that escalates to nuclear war
• WarGames (1983) - about a young computer hacker who accidentally hacks into a defense computer and risks starting a nuclear war
• What If?...Armageddon 1962 (2013) - mockumentary; John F. Kennedy is assassinated as President-elect (by a real would-be assassin who lost his nerve after realizing his attack would also kill Kennedy's wife and children), and under Lyndon B. Johnson, the Cubam Missile Crisis leads to a nuclear exchange.
• When the Wind Blows (1986) - an animated film about an elderly British couple in a post-nuclear war world
• The World Is Not Enough (1999) - tells the story of a terrorist stealing a nuclear bomb in order to create and accident with a stolen nuclear submarine

See also

• Environmental issues in film and television
• International Uranium Film Festival
• List of books about nuclear issues
• List of films about renewable energy
• List of nuclear holocaust fiction
• List of songs about nuclear war and weapons
• Nuclear weapons in popular culture
• Strahlendes Klima

References

1. The China Syndrome (1979) The New York Times.
2. Robert Benford. The Anti-nuclear Movement (book review) American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 89, No. 6, (May 1984), pp. 1456-1458.

External links

• Video of British nuclear tests
• Annotated bibliography for nuclear film from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Bibliography: The Atomic Bomb