20 Of The Best Nuclear War Films
by will-finney | created - 10 May 2011 | updated - 19 May 2011 | PublicFilms that show the build up and/or detonation and/or aftermath of nuclear war or nuclear bomb attack
Films in no particular order.
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1. 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: 20,139
2. By Dawn's Early Light (1990 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 100 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A non-NATO nuclear missile is fired from Turkey at USSR, where it detonates. Soviet response is automatic as it's seen as a NATO missile. Can continued escalation be avoided? We follow the US president and a bomber crew.
Director: Jack Sholder | Stars: Powers Boothe, Rebecca De Mornay, James Earl Jones, Martin Landau
Votes: 4,099
3. 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: 18,175
4. 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: 19,244 | Gross: $6.90M
5. 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: 14,425 | Gross: $11.00M
6. 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: 193,549 | Gross: $33.40M
7. 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: 518,533 | Gross: $0.28M
8. 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: 24,419
9. 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: 7,316
10. Right at Your Door (2006)
R | 96 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A dirty bomb goes off in Los Angeles, jamming freeways and spreading a toxic cloud.
Director: Chris Gorak | Stars: Mary McCormack, Rory Cochrane, Tony Perez, Scotty Noyd Jr.
Votes: 14,387 | Gross: $0.06M
11. 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: 7,223 | Gross: $2.04M
12. 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: 12,373 | Gross: $1.15M
13. 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: 1,174,835 | Gross: $204.84M
14. 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: 12,654 | Gross: $0.01M
15. Crimson Tide (1995)
R | 116 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
On a U.S. nuclear missile sub, a young First Officer stages a mutiny to prevent his trigger happy Captain from launching his missiles before confirming his orders to do so.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Matt Craven, George Dzundza
Votes: 123,401 | Gross: $91.40M
16. Unthinkable (2010)
R | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Follows a black-ops interrogator and an F.B.I. agent who try to press a suspect terrorist into divulging the location of three nuclear weapons set to detonate in the U.S.
Director: Gregor Jordan | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Michael Sheen, Stephen Root
Votes: 94,207
17. World War Three (1998 TV Movie)
94 min | Drama, War
This mock documentary uses archival footage, interviews and reports taken out of context and staged interviews to highlight a possible escalation into a nuclear war. In this feature, ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Stone | Stars: Boris Sichkin, Christoph Gutknecht, Boris Lyoskin, Hans Sievers
Votes: 294
18. The Sum of All Fears (2002)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
CIA analyst Jack Ryan must stop the plans of a Neo-Nazi faction that threatens to induce a catastrophic conflict between the United States and Russia's President by detonating a nuclear weapon at a football game in Baltimore, Maryland.
Director: Phil Alden Robinson | Stars: Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ian Mongrain, Russell Bobbitt
Votes: 124,466 | Gross: $118.91M
19. The Fourth Protocol (1987)
R | 119 min | Thriller
John Preston is a British Agent with the task of preventing the Russians detonating a nuclear explosion next to an American base in the UK. The Russians are hoping this will shatter the "special relationship" between the two countries.
Director: John Mackenzie | Stars: Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Ned Beatty, Joanna Cassidy
Votes: 10,998 | Gross: $12.42M
20. Fail Safe (2000 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Thriller
Cold War tensions climb to a fever pitch when a U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered to drop a nuclear warhead on Moscow.
Directors: Stephen Frears, Martin Pasetta | Stars: Walter Cronkite, Richard Dreyfuss, Noah Wyle, Brian Dennehy
Votes: 6,580
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