As the world unravels…

A few words about Threads (1984) by Mick Jackson (The Bodyguard (1992), Volcano (1997), QED: A Guide To Armageddon (1982)) – a film that demands to be seen and appreciated, even if ‘enjoyed’ is not the most appropriate term to describe what your reaction to this post-nuclear holocaust nightmare is likely to be…

Written by A Kestrel for Knave (the ‘grim up North’ novel that became Ken Loach’s Kes (1969)) author Barry Hines, Threads was unleashed on an unsuspecting British public at a time when the Cold War was still threatening to get hot, and when most people’s education concerning what to do in the event of a nuclear strike came from (also quite terrifying in their own way) public information films such as Duck and Cover (US) and Protect and Survive (UK).

Cinema and TV’s relationship with Armageddon was also somewhat vexed – while Peter Watkins’ excellent faux-documentary perspective The War Game (1965) was Threads‘ obvious ancestor, it was banned on British television for more than 20 years, with the official reason being given that it was simply too disturbing, but conspiratorial twitters leaning towards the fact that it did not support the government’s official line on the urban response to a nuclear war.

Nicholas Meyer’s The Day After (1983), a Hollywood take on the same premise, preceeded Threads by a year, but it wasn’t actually much good. Despite a big-name cast (including Jason Robards and John Lithgow) and impressive S/FX, it was obviously decided that offering some hope was an appropriate denouement. Some hope.

As the narrator informs us at the outset of Threads: “In an urban society, everything connects. Each person’s needs are fed by the skills of many others. Our lives are woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society strong, also make it vulnerable.”

We are taken into the heart of suburban life in Sheffield, a northern UK manufacturing/industry city. Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher) and Jimmy Kemp (Reece Dinsdale) are in love, but they have a problem – Ruth’s pregnant, and they decide that getting married is the best way to go. While their respective mums and dads (David Brierley and Rita May playing the Kemps, Henry Moxon and June Broughton as the Beckett’s) twitter somewhat with social indignation, they agree to support their son’s and daughter’s decision. Meanwhile, conflict is brewing in Iran – a TV backdrop to everyday life that appears to be growing louder and louder. Of course, the superpowers stumble into a nuclear exchange, and all Hell breaks loose…

The film’s heart-stopping horror comes from its credibility, the absolutely straight-faced, non-hysterical performances from all concerned, and Jackson’s decision to reveal, by slow degrees, just how bad things would get if society’s ‘threads’ were to be cut. Utterly unflinching, with an ending that is guaranteed to leave you silent and shaken, there is simply no film about the end of the world to compare with this.

There’s no point giving much more away – you have to see it for yourself. If you can’t get to the OFFSCREEN showing (8 March 2009. 22h), but you still feel you’re up to it and up for it, you can watch Threads here. Should it ever happen, at least you won’t die ignorant of what to expect…

108 mins.