Ever since the advent of the A-bomb, the threat of nuclear confrontation has remained a terrifying reality. And for just as long, that fear has been a potent point of fear and paranoia to build a movie around.
With the upcoming release of Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated drama Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as the father of the atomic bomb, it feels appropriate to look back and revisit some films that deal with a parallel theme. Here are fifteen movies about the threat of nuclear war.
15 Battle Beneath the Earth
Battlefield Beneath the Earth is a laughably-bad B-movie from the 60s with an incredibly ridiculous plot (even by 1960s sci-fi standards).
The film revolves around scientist Arnold Kramer, who believes a rogue Chinese general is using advanced burrowing machines to tunnel through the earth and plant atomic bombs under major U.S. cities. His mad ravings eventually land him in a literal mental asylum. But Navy Commander Jonathon Shaw thinks Kramer is onto something and has him released. Together the two men produce enough evidence to suggest the Chinese army is currently burrowing under Hawaii, leading to a battle….beneath the earth.
14 Deterrence
Critic-turned-filmmaker Rod Lurie made his directorial debut with the 1999 political thriller Deterrence, starring Kevin Pollack, Sean Astin, and Timothy Hutton. It’s a low-budget, single-setting thriller that’s equally thought-provoking and engaging.
Set in the “near future” of 2008, the film centers around President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollack), who is on a campaign trail in Colorado when news breaks that Iraq has invaded Kuwait. Iraq’s leader, Uday Hussain, claims to have nuclear weapons, and is threatening to attack the U.S. if they don’t withdraw forces. With a snowstorm raging, President Emerson and his team are forced to take shelter in a small diner, which becomes an impromptu situation room where they navigate the incredibly delicate situation.
13 Twilight’s Last Gleaming
Robert Aldrich’s forgotten 1977 political thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming stars Burt Lancaster as General Lawrence Dell, a rogue Air Force general who escapes a military prison and takes over a nuclear missile silo in Montana, threatening to start World War III unless the President (Charles Durning) goes on national television and reveals the contents of a damning piece of top-secret intelligence. President Stevens must grapple with the consequences of both outcomes: nuclear war, or a potential domestic uprising.
While Twilight's Last Gleaming didn't achieve significant commercial success upon its release, it has gained a cult following over the years for its thought-provoking story and powerful performances, especially from Burt Lancaster.
12 The Bedford Incident
In 1964, James B. Harris was best known for producing three well-received Stanley Kubrick films: The Killing, Paths of Glory, and Lolita. With the Cold War ongoing at the time, both he and Kubrick wanted to make surrounding the fear of nuclear war. Kubrick purchased the rights to Peter George's novel Red Alert, which the auteur would go on to adapt into Dr. Strangelove.
Harris was originally on board as a produce on Strangelove, but he and Kubrick disagreed over the film’s tone; Kubrick envisioned it as a pitch-black political satire, but Harris wanted to make a serious-minded drama more in line with the source material.
Due to creative differences, Harris parted ways with the project. But he maintained a desire to make his own nuclear-confrontation movie. Two years later, The Bedford Incident - Harris’ answer to Dr. Strangelove - was released into theaters.
The movie takes place almost entirely on the USS Bedford, a Navy destroyer tasked with monitoring the North Atlantic Ocean for USSR activity. When the ship detects a Soviet submarine, Capt. Finlander (Richard Widmark) becomes obsessed with provoking the opposing commander, Alexi Vostrikov (Eric Portman) into a confrontation. Sidney Poitier stars as Ben Munceford, a photojournalist aboard the ship who inadvertently finds himself in the center of a conflict that could turn nuclear at any second.
Although Dr. Strangelove is the better-known film, The Bedford Incident is nevertheless worth seeking out. It’s claustrophobic and engaging, and continues to hold up to this day.
11 By Dawn’s Early Light
Jack Sholder’s By Dawn’s Early Light is a political thriller that imagines a world on the brink of World War III. The HBO original features a notable ensemble cast that features Powers Boothe, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Rebecca De Mornay, and Martin Landau.
After rogue Soviet militants overtake a nuclear missile silo in Turkey and launch an attack on the USSR, the Soviet automated defense systems - believing that a NATO nation is responsible - launches a retaliatory missile at the United States. If the U.S. responds in kind, it could lead to all-out nuclear war, where there are no victors - only death.
The movie is fast-moving and nail-biting, and features some incredible performances all around; James Earl Jones was even nominated for an Emmy.
10 The Dead Zone
Paramount Pictures
The Dead Zone, David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi novel of the same name, stars Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith, a schoolteacher who emerges from a five-year coma with psychic abilities known as "the dead zone,” which gives him the powers to foresee someone’s past, present, or future just by touching them.
After shaking hands with charismatic politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) at a campaign rally, Johnny has a vision of the future where Stillson, acting as the U.S. President, launches a preemptive nuclear strike against the USSR, triggering a world-ending war. Given what he now knows, Smith must figure out a way to prevent the future he witnessed from ever happening.
9 WarGames
John Badham’s '80s sci-fi classic WarGames stars Matthew Broderick as David Lightman, a young hacker who, while looking for some computer games to pass the time, unwittingly accesses a U.S. military supercomputer programmed to play out nuclear war simulations, codenamed WOPR (War Operation Plan Response). Unbeknownst to Lightman, WOPR is cannot differentiate reality from simulation, and is transmitting their interactions as legitimate Soviet maneuvers, indirectly bringing the U.S. closer and closer to WWIII.
WarGames is a lot of fun, even if its depiction of a nuclear confrontation is broadly absurd. (Then again, what else would you expect from a family-oriented sci-fi action movie from the '80s?) But when it comes to the often dour and bleak “nuclear war” film subgenre, it’s an oasis of light-hearted fun.
8 Crimson Tide
Tony Scott’s submarine thriller Crimson Tide was loosely inspired by actual events that unfolded during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The plot revolves around the crew of the USS Alabama, a nuclear submarine equipped with ballistic missiles. Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) leads the small crew of men - including second-in-command Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington) - on a mission to post-Soviet Russia after Radchenko, an ultra-nationalist rebel, secures access to the country’s nuclear munitions.
Tensions rise between Ramsey and Hunter after they receive orders to launch missiles against the Russian base where Radchenko is holed up. As Ramsey prepares for the launch, they receive a second emergency communication, but in the process are attacked by enemy combatants. Their comms are destroyed as a result, leaving the second message incomplete. Ramsey wants to proceed with the mission, which would almost certainly ensure nuclear war. Hunter, on the other hand, thinks otherwise.
Crimson Tide’s claustrophobic setting really ratchets up the intensity of an already-nail-biting scenario. It’s whip-fast, edge-of-your-seat filmmaking that makes you feel like the fate of the world is really on the line.
7 K-19: Widowmaker
Constantin Film
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, K-19: The Widowmaker is a historical drama starring Harrison Ford as Captain Alexei Vostrikov, captain of the K-19, the Soviet Union’s first-ever ballistic missile nuclear submarine. After the sub’s reactor suffers a malfunction during its maiden voyage, Vostrikov and his crew must race against time to prevent a Chernobyl-level disaster - one that has the potential to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Despite some shaky Russian accents and the occasional departure for historical truth (the submarine, for example, was actually nicknamed “Hiroshima” following the nuclear malfunction - not Widowmaker), K-19 is nevertheless an enjoyably tense film, featuring some standout performances from Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, and Peter Sarsgaard.
6 The Sum of All Fears
Phil Alden Robinson’s spy thriller The Sum of All Fears, an adaptation of Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name, sees Ben Affleck taking on the role of Jack Ryan, a part previously inhabited by was Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford. The film follows a younger Ryan as he attempts to stop Austrian neo-nazi Richard Dressler (Alan Bates) from detonating a nuclear bomb that would trigger a war between Russia and the U.S., leaving a united fascist Europe to rule the world.
Although the film makes some significant changes from the novel (the terrorists were originally conceived as Arab, not right-wing extremists) and features some pretty glaring factual inaccuracies (as pointed out by Clancy himself on the film’s commentary track), The Sun of All Fears is still a worthy addition to the ever-growing Jack Ryan cannon.
5 Fail Safe
Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau give incredible performances in Sindey Lumet’s 1964 Cold War thriller Fail Safe. After a group of U.S. bombers mistakenly receive an order to drop a nuclear payload on the city of Moscow, the American President (Fonda) and his advisors must work urgently to mitigate the consequences of the erroneous command and prevent a full-scale nuclear war.
Fail Safe does not rely on action sequences or explosions; rather, it emphasizes the psychological and moral dilemmas faced by the characters who - by all accounts - literally hold the fate of the world in their hands. It's dialogue-heavy and unfolds like a stage play, but Lumet's sharp direction keeps things engaging and intense from start to finish.
4 Watchmen
Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel was long-considered unfilmable; ever since its publication in 1987, Watchmen had been stuck in production hell. Terry Gilliam, David Hayter, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Greengrass were all attached at some point to direct, but never got an adaptation off the ground. It wasn’t until Zack Snyder, fresh off the smashing success of 300, used his new-found pull to get his stylish interpretation off the ground.
Watchmen is set in a fictional alternate history whereby superheroes exist, and they aided the U.S. government in winning the war in Vietnam. Now in 1985, the United States is inching closer and closer to nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and costumed vigilantism is outlawed. Meanwhile, the previous generation of government-sponsored superheroes are start showing up dead. A small group of retired superheroes coming out of forced retirement to investigate the recent murders, unraveling a far-reaching and globe-spanning conspiracy.
In the graphic novel, the superhero Ozymandias - a Superman-esque character - deploys a monstrous squid to destroy New York City. It results in the deaths of thousands of people, and billions in destruction, but the (perceived) threat of alien life unifies the world’s superpowers against a common enemy, thus preventing a nuclear onslaught. Zack Snyder’s interpretation of the material differs from the novel, but for the most part remains true to the tone and message of the source material.
3 Thirteen Days
Roger Donaldson’s Thirteen Days is a historical political thriller that dramatizes the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, as seen from the perspective of the US political leadership in charge of defusing the situation. Kevin Costner leads the cast as top White House assistant Kenneth P. O’Donnell, with Bruce Greenwood starring as President John F. Kennedy.
Despite sharing a title with Robert F. Kennedy’s book detailing the crisis, the movie is actually based on the 1997's The Kennedy Tapes, which featured previously-classified information that was withheld from Kennedy’s book.
However, despite the inclusion of some new information, Thirteen Days takes some pretty significant dramatic liberties, like making Costner's character of O’Donnell the President's chief motivator, a decision that drew some criticism from Robert McNamera and members of the Kennedy Family. But controversial character choices aside, the film has been praised as an honest and accurate portrayal of a very delicate crisis.
2 The Hunt for Red October
John McTiernan’s submarine thriller The Hunt for Red October, adapted from Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name, stars Sean Connery as Marko Ramius, the Soviet Union’s most decorated submarine captain, and commander of Red October, a technologically-superior sub that is invisible to sonar. In a shocking turn of events, Ramius violates direct orders and defects to the United States with the intention of surrendering the sub to the Navy. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) is brought in to sniff out Ramius’s true motives - are his intentions honest, or is this an insidious ploy to launch a nuclear strike?
To really emphasize the film’s realism, McTiernan and the studio approached the U.S. Navy for their support. Surprisingly, they viewed Red October as the Navy’s answer to Top Gun, and thus allowed production to use real submarines during filming, and gave set designers unprecedented access to a number of subs for accurate recreation on screen. The result: a claustrophobic, stunningly-realized thriller.
1 Dr. Strangelove
No other movie could top this list; Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Stranglove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is the de facto film about nuclear war. The movie stars Peter Sellers in three separate roles (including the iconic titular Dr. Strangelove) and takes place after an unhinged U.S. Air Force general, Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), orders a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. The film revolves around the U.S. President, his advisors, and the Joint Chief of staff, and as they attempt to prevent the start of a nuclear war.
What more could possibly be said about Dr. Strangelove? Not only has it been regarded as one of the best comedies of all time, it’s considered by many to be one of the greatest movies of all time. It remains a timeless and incisive condemnation of nuclear war, and necessary viewing for anyone who considers them a fan of film.