THE DAY AFTER

'''The Day After''' is an American television movie which aired on November 20 1983 on the ABC Television Network. The film portrays a fictional nuclear war between the United States/NATO and the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact and its effects on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri, and several family farms situated next to nearby nuclear-missile silos. The film was written by Edward Hume and directed by Nicholas Meyer. The film was released on DVD on May 18 2004.

Contents

Events leading to war

Plot

Characters

'The Day Before'

'The Day After'

Production

Shooting

Music

Deleted/Alternate scenes

Reaction

Cast

Awards

See also

Notes

Sources and references

External links

Events leading to war

The chronology of the events leading up to the war is shown entirely through a series of news announcements on television and radio. The Soviet Union has commenced a military buildup in East Germany, with the goal of intimidating the United States into abandoning its forces and support of West Berlin. The U.S. does not back down. Soviet tank divisions are sent to the West-East German border.
During the late hours of Friday, September 15, news broadcasts report of "wide-spread rebellion among several divisions of the East German Army"; as a result the Soviets blockade West Berlin. As tensions mount, the United States issues an ultimatum that the Soviets stand down from the blockade by 6:00 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time the next day, or it will be interpreted as an act of war. The Soviets eventually refuse. The President of the United States puts all U.S. military personnel around the world on Stage-2 alert.
On Saturday, September 16, NATO forces in West Germany invade East Germany through the Helmstedt checkpoint to free Berlin. The Soviets hold the Marienborn corridor and inflict heavy casualties on NATO troops. Two Soviet-built MIG 25s fly over West German airspace and bomb a NATO munitions storage facility, but also accidentally hit a school and a hospital, which the West considers to be deliberate. The Soviet capital, Moscow, is then evacuated. People in major U.S. cities begin evacuating too. Soviet forces counter by invading West Germany through the Fulda Gap. NATO counterattacks and comes to the assistance of West Germany. There follow unconfirmed reports that nuclear weapons are used in Wiesbaden and in the outskirts of Frankfurt.
The Soviet Army eventually reaches the Rhine; the U.S. not wanting Soviet forces to invade France and the rest of Western Europe, halt the Soviet advance by airbursting three low-yield nuclear bombs over advancing Soviet troops. (This triggers the activation of the Emergency Broadcast System in the United States which is how viewers of this film learn about this event.) Soviet forces counter by launching a nuclear attack on NATO's European headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In response, the United States Strategic Air Command begins scrambling some of its B-52 bombers.
After the initial nuclear exchange in Europe, the United States enacts its "launch on warning" policy: it will launch a full-scale nuclear attack on the Soviet Union if the U.S. receives indication that the Soviet Union is preparing to do the same against the United States. Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf, naval warfare erupts, as radio reports tell of ship sinkings on both sides.
The Soviet Air Force then destroys an Airborne Early Warning station in England (likely a reference to the BMEWS station RAF Fylingdales) and another at Beale Air Force Base in Marysville, California. Meanwhile, onboard the Strategic Air Command Airborne Command Center, the order comes in from the President of the United States for a full nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Almost simultaneously, we see an American in uniform receiving a report that a massive Soviet nuclear assault against the United States has been launched: "32 targets in track, with 10 impacting points." He asks, "Is this an exercise?" and is told it is not. Following that we see another soldier receiving a report that over 300 ICBMs are inbound. The nuclear missile launch code sent to the Minuteman silos was given in the film as "Alpha-7-8-November-Foxtrot-1-5-2-2" with an authentication of "Delta X-ray".
It is deliberately unclear in the film whether the Soviet Union or the United States launches the main nuclear attack first, but the film does state that many American missile silos were obliterated during the exchange.
The attack occurs at 3:38 pm, Central Daylight Time. As a result of the attack, America's major cities are destroyed, and the military is decimated; the aftermath depicts the United States as a fallout wasteland of burned-out cities filled with radiation/burn victims. The Soviets' situation is reportedly comparable. Eventually, the American President gives a radio address, in which he declares that a ceasefire has been signed between the United States and the Soviet Union.
All of this, though, is background. The key theme is the effects of nuclear war on families and individuals. The film did emphasize that "the day after" a nuclear attack ''could'', in fact, exist, countering the idea popular since the early 1950s that a nuclear war would result in a simple and instant end of the world. ''The Day After'' continues a tradition dating from the anti-nuclear movement of the 1950s which emphasized the grisly details of radiation poisoning, the vast numbers of casualties overwhelming hospitals, and the hopelessness of post-war governance, farming, medical aid, food supplies, etc.

Plot

While the movie contains significant exposition via television and radio broadcasts explaining the onset of the war, the plot lies in the human struggles of the characters. The film follows several characters of various professions and ages through a nuclear attack on the United States, focusing on the areas surrounding Kansas City, Missouri, and Lawrence, Kansas. We are introduced to many characters, not all of whom survive the attack.

Characters

Dr. Russell Oakes (Jason Robards) lives in Kansas City with his wife (Georgann Johnson) and works at Memorial General Hospital in downtown Kansas City. His daughter Marilyn (Kyle Aletter) is leaving the home city for a new job in Boston shortly much to her father's chagrin. One of Oakes' patients, Allison Ransom (Amy Madigan) is pregnant and is expecting literally any day now following a troublesome pregnancy. Oakes is assisted by Dr. Sam Hachiya (Calvin Jung), Nurse Nancy Bauer (JoBeth Williams), and the hospital staff, including hospital administrator Julian French (Jonathan Estrin) and Dr. Austin (Lin McCarthy). Dr. Oakes and his staff provide the viewpoint of the emergency and medical professionals and the trials they face in the aftermath of a nuclear exchange against civilian targets, while his patients provide that of those injured by the attack.
Jim Dahlberg (John Cullum) and his family — wife Eve (Bibi Besch), eldest daughter Denise (Lori Lethin), teenage Joleen (Ellen Anthony), and son Danny (Doug Scott) — on the Dahlberg family farm outside Harrisonville, Missouri, far from Kansas City limits, but very close to a field of missile silos. Despite the knowledge that if a nuclear war were to occur, they would be just as much in danger as a major city or military installation due to their proximity to the silos, the Dahlbergs go about with their lives, especially the pending wedding of Denise to Bruce Gallatin (Jeff East). As a result of their location, the Dalhbergs are among the first to witness the initial launches signaling the start of a full-scale nuclear war, and provide the viewpoint of the standard American "nuclear" family during the crisis.
Dennis Hendry (Clayton Day), his wife, Ellen (Antonie Becker), and their two children are another farming family, living just outside the fictional town of Sweetsage, Missouri ("20 miles southeast of Kansas City"). While not anywhere near the Dahlberg farm, they are also right next door to a missile silo.
Stephen Klein (Steve Guttenberg), a college student from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Klein, along with Bruce Gallatin, provides the viewpoint of the young college student of the 1980's.
Prof. Joe Huxley (John Lithgow), a professor of natural science at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He and some of his students, including Aldo (Stephen Furst) and Cynthia (Alston Ahern), provide viewpoints of the college student from the viewpoint of an advisor and his peers and their interactions in a crisis situation.
Airman 1/C Billy McCoy USAF (William Allen Young), stationed at one of the missile silos near fictional Sweetsage. McCoy is from Sedalia, Missouri, and has a wife and child living there at the time of the attack. While trained for a nuclear war and prepared for the fact that his death will no doubt be a certainty despite promises from his commanders for a quick extraction before Soviet retaliation can succeed, he and his fellow soldiers have some ideas about alternative survival plans in case the situation escalates. McCoy represents the enlisted serviceman's viewpoint of the crisis, especially those who would be considered the type of "cannon fodder" no soldier wishes to be, the one that's quickly discarded and stripped of all support once a nuclear war begins and they've done their part to get the weapons deployed. McCoy will later provide a different, far more tragic perspective of the survivor of a nuclear war.

'The Day Before'

For the first half of the film, the storylines switch between those involving each of the primary characters, with brief background references from newscasts of the growing geopolitical crisis. As the missiles begin flight, most of the characters see them.
The Dahlbergs hastily improvise a fallout shelter in the basement under their home. Eve is in denial regarding the pending disaster, refuses to leave her household work and has a fit of hysteria when Jim bodily carries her down. His daughter, Denise, is in a state of near catatonia over the fact that she has no idea of the whereabouts of her fiancé, Bruce Gallatin.
After witnessing the ICBMs rising while at a football game, Prof. Huxley quickly calculates that they have about thirty minutes before the Soviet missiles arrive, and begins organizing his students to move to the shelter of the campus classrooms and lecture halls.
Airman McCoy abandons his plan to seek shelter in a storage closet deep in the missile silo, and goes AWOL from his guard duty when he and his fellow support crewmen realize that, even though the missiles have been fired and their job is now over, the promised extraction is not going to happen, and they're now sitting ducks as Soviet missiles are on their way to neutralize their facility. McCoy instead decides to at least attempt to escape to Sedalia and rescue his family if possible.
Dennis and Ellen Hendry are unaware of the pending attack, as they are upstairs making love while their children are watching cartoons on the TV. When the Emergency Broadcast System message breaks into normal programming, the kids turn off the TV and go outside to play.
Dr. Oakes, aware of the worldwide conflicts as he has been listening to his car radio but apparently not expecting an actual attack, is on Interstate 70 en route to Lawrence from Kansas City to teach a medical class at the University of Kansas when the Emergency Broadcast System warning cuts in on regular radio news programming. After a futile attempt of contacting his wife from a phone booth (probably on the outskirts of Lawrence), Oakes turns around and heads back down I-70 for Kansas City, in an attempt to rescue his family, much like McCoy. His is the only automobile on the freeway to Kansas City, while the direction to Lawrence is completely clogged. Meanwhile, Klein and Gallatin have separately departed the campus to return to their respective homes before the bombs start to fall.
At the onset of the attack, the Soviets detonate a high-altitude airburst over the Kansas City metropolitan area, which disables most everything relying on electricity through the electromagnetic pulse. Those driving vehicles find themselves stranded, and McCoy, realizing what has happened by virtue of his service training, immediately abandons his vehicle and seeks shelter. Gallatin, however, is stuck in the middle of a back road when his motorcycle dies, while Klein is, as we are left to interpret, still on foot attempting to hitchhike his way home. The Hendrys, after overcoming the immediate shock of having an ICBM blast off from underneath the ground within a hundred yards of their house, attempt to gather their belongings and seek shelter elsewhere. Some people locate nearby fallout shelters for refuge, while others secure what survival goods they can buy — or later, outright take as looting begins — before attempting to evacuate the city. As the missiles approach, chaos and panic ensues, and scenes of panic in the streets are shown.
The EMP effect initially saves the life of Dr. Oakes, as his vehicle becomes inoperable and he thus does not arrive in time for a pair of deadly ground bursts in and around Kansas City. Additional detonations are shown, including some of the resulting effects. Marilyn Oakes is shown being vaporized by one of the Kansas City blasts, and dozens of people are shown dying as they try to escape an underground fallout shelter that has begun to collapse. The Dahlbergs are in the process of securing the farm and are about to enter their shelter shortly after the first detonations occur, and Danny is blinded due to having looked at the initial flash of yet another detonation. The Hendrys are shown being incinerated by a fireball of the Soviet nuke assigned on the silo next to their house — implied by sequence of events as the same blast that blinded Danny Dalhberg. Klein manages to seek shelter inside an abandoned Mexican restaurant in downtown Harrisonville just as the blast wave from Kansas City reaches Harrisonville, but Gallatin, being closer to Kansas City, is killed by the heat flash. The film reaches its halfway point after showing clips of actual nuclear tests mixed with news footage from actual disasters, including industrial accidents, which are meant to show that a firestorm has resulted from the nuclear blasts.

'The Day After'

The second half of the film opens with scenes of burned-out devastation, mostly in and around Lawrence. Fallout has begun to fall on the area, and the skies are darkly overcast.
Dr. Oakes manages to make his way through the survivors evacuating from the Kansas City blast regions, and reaches the campus hospital at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. In the middle of the chaos of an underpowered hospital — the EMP has damaged the facility's emergency generators — Oakes briefly reveals what little he's seen. He then takes charge of the hospital, and orders a triage in effect, and has the staff move patients further inside the hospital and away from windows to reduce fallout effects. In the middle of the chaos and the attempts to restore order, Oakes manages to check in on Allison Ransom, who still has not had her baby and is now extremely worried due to the severity of their current condition.
Airman McCoy crawls out from a rented moving van that has been blown over onto its side, and after looting the ruins of a convenience store for Baby Ruth candy bars, joins in with survivors fleeing the blast zones. He learns along the way that Sedalia also was hit, and by implication his wife and child are dead. Along the way to a refugee camp, he befriends Cody (Bob Meister), who is suffering from some mental condition that has rendered him incommunicable and unstable, and is being denied water and food by other survivors; it is never explained whether Cody's condition was pre-existing or from trauma resulting from the attack. McCoy takes him under his wing and sees himself to escorting him to shelter and assistance at the refugee camp. The two continue on with the rest of the refugees, while the fallout descends upon them.
Klein manages to make his way out of Lawrence, and through happenstance winds up on the Dahlberg farm. While searching for supplies, he stumbles across the family's fallout shelter basement, where Jim meets him with his shotgun. After some hasty reasoning and negotiation, Klein is reluctantly taken in by the Dalhbergs, despite their own concerns regarding supplies, and after his being caught without shelter when the initial fallout from Kansas City arrives. Klein repays the kindness by not only sharing what goods he's managed to collect during his flight, but especially when he retrieves Denise Dahlberg after she, in a fit of post-traumatic hysteria, bolts from the shelter far while the fallout is still at dangerous levels. The effects of this excursion will have more tragic effects towards the end of the film.
Prof. Huxley, Aldo and Cynthia begin converting one of the campus classroom labs into a communications bunker. Using a series of confiscated car batteries and a couple of ham radios, the students manage to establish communications between several areas of the campus, including the hospital, in order to coordinate relief and survival efforts. The first attempts to communicate with the outside world are made, but are unsuccessful due to ionization of the atmosphere due to the effects of the nuclear blasts. However, a Civil Defense broadcast from the President of the United States manages to pierce the interference, giving a brief update on the status of the war. A cease-fire is in effect on both sides, which have suffered catastrophic losses. While the President urges Americans everywhere to obey and assist Civil Defense authorities in their area, he gives almost no information as to who fired first, and whether or not U.S. forces won the war. This greatly concerns Aldo, but Cynthia questions whether they would actually say if the U.S. indeed fired first, or if at this point it even matters. Prof. Huxley quotes Albert Einstein in response to Aldo's exasperation over the lack of this information: ''I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.''
After two weeks, the fallout has ceased, and radiation decreased to somewhat safe levels. The survivors begin to emerge to see what's left of their world. Civil Defense authorities have arrived in Lawrence, and the refugee camp is established and expanded. The Dahlbergs begin cleaning up their farm, and Dr. Oakes begins opening up the hospital to air it out as best as possible after two weeks of stale air. During the first church services possible after the attack — in the ruins of the local church, with a makeshift cross made from scrap metal — Denise collapses and begins to menstruate uncontrollably. Klein is also starting to show some signs of sickness, but volunteers to take both Denise and the blinded Danny to the campus hospital for medical treatment so that Jim can stay and protect the rest of the family and work on trying to get the farm running again. As gas is rationed and very rare, and all vehicles are now inoperable due to the EMP effect on their electronics, Klein takes the injured Dahlbergs to the hospital in a horse and buggy.
Unlike the Dahlbergs, who at least had a shelter, a vast majority of others were not so lucky with regards to the fallout, and have made their way to the hospital on campus as well. It turns out the hospital is the only functioning medical facility in a hundred miles, and as a result the refugee camp that McCoy and Cody are relocating to has been established nearby. In short time the hospital's resources are not only overwhelmed, but are almost exhausted, as are its staff. Danny manages to get a bed and treatment from Dr. Hachiya, but Denise is diagnosed as dying of radiation poisoning, and as we later find out is assigned to the local high school gymnasium, which has been converted into a triage ward for terminal cases. Meanwhile, Klein begins assisting with some of the recovery efforts, including burial detail and guard duty, and witnesses the first food riot amongst the survivors after the supply of government-supplied emergency rations fails to meet the demand.
As the resources of the hospital reach the breaking point, so does Dr. Oakes, who collapses from exhaustion. When he wakes, he learns that his collapse was not just due to his having worked for days without sleep since the attack, but that he too is suffering from acute radiation sickness. Although not specifically stated, the implication is that his condition is terminal, and his death is imminent. Nurse Bauer, he learns from Dr. Hachiya, has died from meningitis. Oakes decides that he will return to whatever's left of Kansas City before he dies, and invites Hachiya to come with him. Hachiya declines, not wanting to think about his former home again. The two wish each other well, Oakes departs, and Hachiya checks on Danny Dahlberg's condition. It becomes clear that Danny's vision is still significantly impaired, as he cannot stand bright light and prefers the bandages on. During the final scene for these two characters, Hachiya tearfully acknowledges that he was, in fact, from Kansas City.
During this period, we see the first sign of the final fate of Airman McCoy, who is now bedridden and totally mentally incapacitated from his own radiation sickness. His death is not shown, but there is a scene of Cody standing depressed and uneasy next to a burial trench into which a body wrapped in a blanket McCoy has carried with him through the whole second half of the film is lowered.
In one of the most memorable scenes in the film, Klein manages to locate Denise Dahlberg in the triage gym amidst the hundreds of radiation victims awaiting death. Both are now visibly scarred and suffering from terminal radiation sickness, but Klein is strong enough to take Denise and Danny home so that he and Denise can expire in a more comfortable place. However, while they are on the way, Jim Dahlberg is killed by tresspassers on the Dalhberg farm foraging for food, themselves obviously dying from radiation sickness. The final fate of the rest of the Dahlberg family is never revealed.
Dr. Oakes has managed to hitch a ride on an Army National Guard transport to the ruins of Kansas City, which is completely flattened to piles of rubble. He witnesses two soldiers being executed, presumably for looting, and another soldier attempting to loot a dead body of its jewelry. As he searches through the ruins, he manages to locate the approximate area where his home stood, and determines the exact location when he finds the charred but recognizable remains of his wife's watch. His reminiscing of his wife is disturbed by the realization that a small family of survivors has set up a makeshift tent in the rubble. Oakes orders the squatters off his property, but the eldest survivor instead offers Oakes an onion from their meager rations. Finally distraught to the limit, Oakes collapses on his knees into tears when he realizes the absurdity of his demands under the current circumstances. The eldest survivor then goes to Oakes and attempts to comfort him with a brotherly embrace.
As the scene fades to black, we hear Prof. Huxley, on the Ham Radio, attempting to contact the outside world: ''This is Lawrence. This is Lawrence, Kansas. Is there anybody there? Anybody at all?''

Production

''The Day After'' was the idea of ABC Motion Picture Division president Brandon Stoddard, who, after watching ''The China Syndrome'', was so impressed that he envisioned creating a film exploring the effects of nuclear war on the United States further. Stoddard commissioned veteran television writer Edward Hume to write the script in 1981. The American Broadcasting Company, who financed the production, was concerned about the graphic nature of the film, and how to appropriately portray the subject on a family-oriented television channel. Hume undertook a massive amount of research on nuclear war, and went through several drafts until finally ABC deemed the plot and characters acceptable. When Stoddard first announced to the Hollywood press the plan for the TV movie, to be titled either ''The Day After'' or ''Silence in Heaven,'' calling it the most important project ABC had ever undertaken, it met with a controversial reception.
Originally, the film was based more around and in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City was not bombed in the original script, although Whiteman Air Force Base was, making Kansas City suffer shock waves and the horde of survivors staggering into town. There was no Lawrence, Kansas in the story, although there was a small Kansas town called "Hampton." While Hume was writing the script, he and producer Robert Papazian, who had great experience in on-location shooting, took several trips to Kansas City to scout locations, and met with officials from the Kansas film commission and from the Kansas tourist offices to search for a suitable location for "Hampton." It came down to a choice of either Warrensburg, Missouri, and Lawrence, Kansas, both college towns — Warrensburg was home of Central Missouri State University and was near Whiteman Air Force Base, and Lawrence was home of the University of Kansas and was near Kansas City. Hume and Papazian ended up selecting Lawrence, due to the access to a number of good locations: a university, a hospital, football and basketball venues, farms, beautiful countryside. The Lawrence people were urging ABC to change the name "Hampton" to "Lawrence" in the script.
Back in Los Angeles, the idea of making a TV movie showing the true effects of nuclear war on average American citizens was still stirring up controversy. ABC, Hume, and Papazian realized that for the scene depicting the nuclear blast, they would have to use state-of-the-art special effects, and they took the first step by hiring some of the best special effects people in the business to draw up some storyboards for the complicated blast scene. Then, ABC hired Robert Butler to direct the project. For several months, this group worked on drawing up storyboards and revising the script again and again; then, in the spring of 1982, Butler was forced to leave ''The Day After'' because of other contractual commitments. ABC then offered the project to two other directors, who both turned it down. Finally, in May, ABC hired feature film director Nicholas Meyer, who had just completed the blockbuster ''. Meyer was apprehensive at first and doubted ABC would get away with making a television film on nuclear war without the censors diminishing its effect. However, after reading the script, Meyer agreed to direct ''The Day After.''
However, Meyer wanted to make sure he would film the script he was offered. He didn't want the censors to chop up the film, nor did he want the film to be a regular Hollywood disaster movie from the start. Meyer figured the more ''The Day After'' resembled such a film, the less effective it would be. Meyer just wanted to dump the facts on nuclear war in people's laps. So first of all he made it clear to ABC that no TV or film stars should be in ''The Day After.'' ABC agreed, although they wanted to have one star to help attract European audiences to the film when it would be shown theatrically there. Later, while flying to visit his parents in New York City, Meyer happened to be on the same plane with Jason Robards, and asked the star to join the cast.
Originally, ABC intended ''The Day After'' to be four hours instead of two, to be broadcast over two nights, instead of one. Meyer felt that version was too padded, and urged ABC to change ''The Day After'' into just two and half hours. He reasoned that no one would sit through two nights of Armageddon; ABC would be lucky if the audience lasted through ''one''. ABC recognized this, but refused to change the film's length. Meanwhile, Meyer plunged into several months of nuclear research, which made him quite pessimistic about the future. Every day, Meyer would come home feeling ill. He soon realized that what he was learning was making him sick. Meyer and Papazian also made trips to the ABC censors, and to the United States Department of Defense during this time. There were conflicts with both. Meyer had many heated arguments over elements in the script, both little and big, that the network censors wanted cut out of the film. The Department of Defense said they would cooperate with ABC if it was made clear in the script that the Soviet Union launched their missiles first, something Meyer and Papazian were at pains not to do.
In any case, Meyer, Papazian, Hume, and several casting directors spent most of July 1982 taking numerous trips to Kansas City. In between casting in Los Angeles, where they stuck mostly to unknowns, they would fly to the Kansas City area to interview local actors and scenery. They were hoping to find some real Midwesterners for smaller roles. Hollywood casting directors strolled through shopping malls in Kansas City looking for local people to fill small roles, while the daily newspaper in Lawrence ran an advertisement calling for local residents of all ages to sign up for jobs as a large number of extras in the film, and a professor of theater and film at the University of Kansas was hired to head up the local casting of the movie. Out of the eighty or so speaking parts, only fifteen were cast in Los Angeles. The remaining roles were filled in Kansas City and Lawrence. While in Kansas City, Meyer and Papazian toured the Federal Emergency Management Agency offices in Kansas City. When asked what their plans for surviving nuclear war were, a FEMA official replied that they were experimenting with putting evacuation instructions in telephone books in New England. "In about six years, everyone should have them." This meeting led Meyer to later refer to FEMA as "a complete joke." It was during this time that the decision was made to change "Hampton" in the script to "Lawrence." Meyer and Hume figured since Lawrence was a real town, that it would be more believable, and besides, Lawrence was a perfect choice to be a representative of Middle America. The town boasted a "socio-cultural mix", sat near the exact geographic center of the continental U.S., and Hume and Meyer's research told them that Lawrence was a prime missile target because 150 Minuteman missile silos stood nearby. Lawrence had some great locations, and the people there were more supportive of the project. Suddenly, less emphasis was put on Kansas City, the decision was made to have the city completely annihilated in the script, and Lawrence was made the primary location in the film.

Shooting

Production began on Monday, August 16, 1982, on location at a farm just west of Lawrence. The ABC crew had needed sunshine, and it turned out to be a dreadfully overcast day. The set required a floodlight for shooting. That day, the crew set fire to the farm's big red barn for one scene during the blast sequence (it was eventually cut). The owner of the farm was not paid by ABC for the use of his property, but ABC did compensate by building him an all-new barn in place of the one they exploded. The crew spent most of the next week and a half filming on various farm sets near Lawrence. One set in rural Lawrence, depicting a schoolhouse after a nuclear blast, was made in six days from fiberglass "skins." On Monday, August 30, 1982, ABC shut down Rusty's IGA supermarket in Lawrence's Hillcrest Shopping Center from 7 A.M. until 2 P.M. to shoot a scene representing the rush to grocery stores for provisions when a nuclear attack appears likely. While the crew was shooting, a local man and his infant son walked up to the supermarket. Apparently, they had not gotten the word that ABC was filming a movie there. The man saw the complete chaos inside his neighborhood grocery, over 100 extras rushing about, pushing and shoving and hoarding food, and ran back into his car in fear.
Local actors and extras, including local film director Herk Harvey and University of Kansas professor Charles Oldfather, were paid US$75 to shave their heads bald, have latex scar tissue and burn-marks pasted on their faces, be plastered with coats of artificial mud, and be dressed in ragged and tattered clothes for various scenes of mass despair and radiation sickness after the nuclear blast. In a small park in downtown Lawrence on the bank of the Kansas River, ABC set up a grimy shantytown to serve as the home for survivors of the nuclear attack in the film. It was known as "Tent City." From the afternoon of Friday, September 3, 1982, well into the evening, the cameras rolled, recording the chaos and mass despair, using many University of Kansas students as actors and extras. The next day, Saturday, September 4, 1982, lead actor Jason Robards, the only well-known "star" in the film, had arrived in Lawrence and production moved to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where scenes of hundreds of radiation sickness victims crowding into a besieged hospital were filmed. Nicholas Meyer and the ABC crew were amazed by the amount of cooperation they received from the citizens of Lawrence. Many local individuals and businesses participating in the filming and the city profited of the use of local actors and extras. It was estimated in contemporaneous newspaper accounts that ABC spent $1 million in Lawrence, not all on the production. It was also during this time that Nicholas Meyer revealed his ambitions and goals for ''The Day After'': The director wanted the film not to take political stands, but rather just spread the message and inform people that "nuclear war is a bad thing." He thought of the TV film not as a movie, but as a gigantic public service announcement. His main goal was to reach an audience of at least 20 million people through the TV showing, which would spread his message across to a larger and wider audience. This was eventually achieved.
On Monday, September 6, 1982, in a block of businesses in downtown Lawrence, the filmmakers repainted the signs for several businesses, changing the names of the stores; the facades were stained with dark smudges of soot. The large windows were shattered into sharp teeth; bricks were scattered across the sidewalk amidst scraps of lumber, and several junked cars were painted with clouds of black spray. Two industrial-sized yellow fans bolted to a flatbed trailer blew clouds of white flakes into the air. This fallout-matter was actually cornflakes painted white. Several quick scenes of devastation were shot, and the next day, Tuesday, September 7, 1982, thousands of local extras, most of them University of Kansas students, poured into Allen Fieldhouse, a basketball court at the university, which, in the story, was the only place left on campus big enough to accommodate so many wounded. A scene representing class registration was filmed in an upstairs hallway before noon, but the large crowd scene on the basketball court, with thousands of radiation victims stretched out on cots and mattresses on the court floor, did not get under way until after 2 P.M. The extras were asked not to bathe for several days to make the scenes more realistic. The next day, on Wednesday, September 8, 1982, a four-mile stretch on Kansas Highway 10 between the Edgerton Road exit and the DeSoto interchange at Old K-285 (now Lexington Avenue) was closed for shooting highway scenes representing a mass exodus from the Kansas City area on Interstate 70. Over the next few days, the filmmakers shot mostly pre-blast scenes in Kansas City, and on Friday, September 10, 1982, they filmed a scene where Jason Robards returns to what is left of Kansas City to find his home. ABC used the demolition site of an old hospital in an inner-city neighborhood in Kansas City as the set. They had found this location a few months before, and paid the city to halt demolition for a month so the crew could film scenes of destruction there. However, when the crew arrived, more demolition had apparently taken place. Director Meyer was angry beyond belief, but then realized he could populate the area with fake corpses and junked cars, "and then I got real happy." Robards, however, never became happy. He had had to get to makeup at 6 A.M. that morning so he could be made out to look like a radiation poisoning victim. The makeup took three hours to apply. Finally, around 9:30 A.M., shooting began. Traffic on the nearby avenue slowed and passer-bys strained for a closer look as Robards lifted the arm of a body stuck under fallen debris — just the arm, severed at the shoulder. It was at this site that the moving final scene, where an affected family taking up residence as squatters in Robards' home, has a confrontation with Robards, and the father of the family, played by a Kansas City actor, crawls out to hug Robards, was filmed.

There were more problems in Kansas City the next day, Saturday, September 11, 1982. Nicholas Meyer had scouted and desperately wanted the Liberty Memorial, a tall war memorial in Penn Valley Park overlooking downtown Kansas City, for two scenes: postcard-perfect shots of Kansas City near the beginning, and a scene of Robards stumbling through the ruins of the Memorial at the end. The Memorial was to function as a symbol for some of the messages in the film. However, one of the directors of the local parks department did not want the crew to film there for a number of reasons. He was trying to avoid letting city parks be used for commercial purposes, and he was concerned that ABC would somehow damage the Memorial. Also, the director was caught off guard when ABC asked for permission to use the site one day before they planned to shoot there. But in any case, movie officials met with city officials, there was much flattery and cajoling, and that next day ABC had the Liberty Memorial. By using fiberglass, they were able to make it look as if the Liberty Memorial had been reduced to rubble (they would use special effects later to make it look even more realistic; the ruins below stretching to the distance were composited from an actual photo of Hiroshima taken by U. S. occupation troops after the Japanese surrender. Robards stumbled through debris once again, and then they shot the post-card scenes. That evening, the cast and crew flew back home to Los Angeles. It had been quite a circus for the city of Lawrence, a memorable and entertaining one, but the citizens of the town would miss the California filmmakers whom they had grown to know and like so well.
The filmmakers returned to Los Angeles to shoot interior hospital scenes with Robards and co-star JoBeth Williams and complete post-production work. While shooting in Los Angeles, Meyer noted that extras there weren't as helpful and cooperative as those in Lawrence. "You tell them you want them to grunt and they say, 'Hey, that's a word. That's money,'" Meyer complained. Many scientific advisors from various fields were on set to ensure the accuracy of the explosion, its effects, and its victims. The government, nervous of how it would be portrayed, didn't allow the production to use stock footage of nuclear explosions in the film, so ABC hired some of the best special effects creators to work on the film. The result was a frighteningly real explosion and iconic "mushroom cloud" created by injecting oil-based paints and inks downward into a water tank with a piston, filmed at high speed with the camera mounted upside down. The image was then optically color- and contrast-inverted. The water tank used for the "mushroom clouds" was the same water tank used to create the "Mutara Nebula" special effect in ''The Wrath of Khan''.
''The Day After'' also relied heavily on footage borrowed from both other movies and declassified government films. During the attack, extensive use of stock footage was interspersed with special effects of the mushroom clouds. While the majority of the missile launches came from United States Department of Defense footage of ICBM missile tests (mainly Minuteman IIIs from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California). All of the stock footage of missile launches were acquired from declassified DoD film libraries, and showed missiles that by 1982 had been decommissioned and out of service for up to twenty years. The scenes of Air Force personnel aboard the Airborne Command Post, in the command center receiving news of the incoming attack, and in the silo launching their missiles, are footage of actual military personnel during a drill, and had been aired several years earlier in a CBS documentary series, "The Defense of the United States". In the original footage, the silo is "destroyed" by an incoming "attack" just moments before launching its missiles, which is why the final seconds of the launch countdown are not seen in this movie.
Further stock footage was taken from news events (fires and explosions), and the 1979 theatrical film ''Meteor'' (such as a bridge collapsing and the destruction of a tall office building originally used to depict the destruction of the World Trade Center in ''Meteor''. Brief scenes of stampeding crowds were also borrowed from the disaster film Two-Minute Warning (1976). Other footage had been previously used in theatrical films such as ''Superman'' and ''Damnation Alley''.
The editing of ''The Day After'' was one of the most nerve-wracking processes ABC had ever gone through in post-production of any of their films. There were many meetings with the censors, and Nicholas Meyer was enraged and confused because the network actually cut out many scenes due to pace and cutting, not because they were too controversial or too graphic. It quickly became ridiculous. In April 1983, Meyer wrote a letter to Brandon Stoddard stating that he was resigning from ''The Day After'' and that he would petition the Directors Guild of America to have his name removed from the credits. Apparently, Meyer changed his mind and the letter was never sent. It was originally planned ''The Day After'' would be aired in May, but it was pushed back to November to allow for more post-production work. At Meyer's urging, the film was cut down to just two and a half hours, to be shown over one night instead of two. The first major cut was made to the film that could be called "censorship": censors forced ABC to cut an entire scene of a child having a nightmare about nuclear holocaust and then sitting up, screaming. A psychiatrist told ABC that this would disturb children. "This strikes me as ludicrous," Meyer wrote in ''TV Guide'' at the time. "Not only in relation to the rest of the film, but also when contrasted with the huge doses of violence to be found on any average evening of TV viewing." In any case, a few more cuts were made, including to a scene where Denise is shown to possess a diaphragm, and another scene where a hospital patient abruptly sits up screaming (this was excised from the original television broadcast, but then restored for home video releases). Meyer persuaded ABC to dedicate the film to the citizens of Lawrence, and also to put a disclaimer at the end of the film, following the credits, letting the viewer know that ''The Day After'' downplayed the true effects of nuclear war so they would be able to have a story. The disclaimer also included a list of books the viewer can read to find out more on the subject. When the film was finished, Meyer vowed never to work in television again.
''The Day After'' received one of the largest promotional campaigns prior to its broadcast. Commercials aired several months in advance, ABC distributed half a million "viewer's guides," which discussed the dangers of nuclear war and prepared the viewer for the graphic scenes of mushroom clouds and radiation burn victims. Discussion groups were also formed nationwide. Schools required their students to watch it as a homework assignment and discuss it the next morning in class.

Music

Composer David Raksin wrote original music and adapted music from ''The River'' (a documentary film score by concert composer Virgil Thomson). Although he recorded just under 30 minutes of music, much of it was edited out of the final cut.

Deleted/Alternate scenes

Due to the film being shortened from the original four hours to 2½, several planned special-effects scenes were scrapped, although storyboards were made in anticipation of a possible "expanded" version. These scenes included a "bird's eye" view shot of Kansas City at the moment of two nuclear detonations as seen from a 737 on approach, as well as simulated newsreel footage of the tactical nuclear exchanges in Germany between NATO and Warsaw Pact troops.
ABC censors severely toned down numerous graphic scenes in order to reduce the body count of corpses and severe burn victims. Director Meyer refused to remove some key scenes (such as the "lady in the bathtub" near the film's end), but there are reportedly some 8½ minutes of excised footage which still exist, significantly more graphic in their depiction of the effects of a nuclear attack. Some of this edited footage was later reinstated for the film's release on home video.
JoBeth Williams' character of Nurse Bower was originally scripted to have a death scene where she asks whether the living do in fact envy the dead in a nuclear war's aftermath. This scene was cut when the film was reduced to 2½ hours. In the released version, Nurse Bower's death occurs off-camera, and is mentioned by Dr. Hachiya as having been due to meningitis; the dialogue was so garbled, however, that most viewers failed to hear the cause of death on the first viewing.
One cut scene shows a battle between groups of surviving students at the University of Kansas over the remaining food stocks. The two sides were to be the school's athletes versus the science students under the guidance of Professor Huxley. Another brief scene filmed but later cut relates to the firing squad near the end, where two U. S. soldiers are blindfolded and executed. The cut scene has an officer reading the charges, verdict, and sentence, as a bandaged chaplain reads the Last Rites. The soldiers were guilty of looting. A very similar sequence occurs in the 1965 UK-produced faux documentary, ''The War Game''.
In the original broadcast, when the President addressed the nation, the voice was an imitation of then-President Ronald Reagan. However, in subsequent broadcasts that voice was overdubbed using a stock actor.

Reaction

On the night of its television broadcast (Sunday, November 20, 1983), ABC and many of its local TV stations opened several 1-800 hotlines with counselors standing by to calm jittery viewers. During the original broadcast, there were no commercial breaks after the nuclear attack. ABC also aired a live and very heated debate, hosted by Nightline's Ted Koppel, featuring scientist Carl Sagan and conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr.. Sagan argued against nuclear proliferation, while Buckley promoted the concept of nuclear deterrence. During the debate, Sagan discussed the concept of nuclear winter and made his famous analogy, equating the arms race to "two sworn enemies standing waist-deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five."
The film's effect was also felt in Kansas City and Lawrence. One psychotherapist counseled a group that watched at Shawnee Mission East High School in the Kansas City suburbs, and 1,000 others held candles at a peace vigil in Penn Valley Park in downtown Kansas City. In Lawrence, a discussion group called ''Let Lawrence Live'' was formed by the English department at the university, and several dozen more people from the Humanities department gathered on the University of Kansas campus in front of the university's Memorial Campanile and lit candles in a peace vigil.
The film provoked much political debate in the United States. Some argued that the film underscored the true personal horror of nuclear conflict, and that the United States should therefore renounce the 'first use' of nuclear weapons, a policy which had been a cornerstone of NATO defense planning in Europe. Those arguing for a nuclear freeze also relied on the sheer horror depicted in the film for support.
''The Day After'' garnered both praise and criticism upon its release. Critics tended to claim the film was either sensationalizing nuclear war or that it was too tame regarding the subject. However, the film was praised for its technical use of special effects and realistic portrayal of nuclear war and its victims. The film received twelve Emmy nominations and won two Emmy awards.
At a Creation convention in St. Louis, Missouri in 1984, Bibi Besch stated that if she had filmed ''The Wrath of Khan'' 'after' filming ''The Day After'' rather than before, her portrayal of Carol Marcus and of Dr. Marcus' attitude toward the Genesis Device would have been very different, due to what she learned about the effects of nuclear weapons while filming ''The Day After''.
Nearly 100 million Americans watched ''The Day After'' on its first broadcast, a record audience for a made-for-TV movie. Producers Sales Organization picked up international distribution rights to the film for the sum of $1,500, and released the film theatrically around the world to great success in the Eastern Bloc, China, North Korea, and Cuba (this international version contained six minutes of footage not in the telecast edition). Since commercials are not sold in these markets, Producers Sales Organization lost an undisclosed sum of money. Years later this international version was released to tape by Embassy Home Entertainment (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now holds the video rights in the US).
Some critics argued that the film's message was misplaced. Commentator Ben Stein, who was critical of the movie's message (i.e. that the strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction would lead to a war), wrote an article in the Los Angeles ''Herald-Examiner'' asking what life might be like in an America under Soviet occupation. This article provided the inspiration for the TV miniseries ''Amerika'', about life in America ten years after its conquest and occupation by the USSR.
Reagan wrote in his diary that the film "left me greatly depressed." ^[1] In 1987 during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika reforms, the film was shown on Soviet television. Upon signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty at Reykjavik with Gorbachev, Meyer received a telegram from his administration that said, 'Don't think your movie didn't have any part of this, because it did.' Fallout from 'The Day After', Lawrence.com November 19 2003

Cast

Striving for a more documentary style, casting director Hank McMann cast mostly newcomers and relatively obscure actors. At the time, Jason Robards was the only well-known actor in the production, being a veteran of stage and screen. Bibi Besch was a relative unknown, only recently thrust into the spotlight after portraying Dr. Carol Marcus in '', and was hired by Meyer after having worked with him on that film. Steve Guttenberg, who would go on to become a successful comedian and actor later in the decade, was only known for the Barry Levinson comedy ''Diner'', released in 1982. Prior to ''The Day After'', Stephen Furst had been despite an active career known only for one role, Flounder in ''National Lampoon's Animal House''. George Petrie, best known as a stock player on several incarnations of Jackie Gleason's television series, had a small role as a doctor at the hospital where Robards' character worked. While many of the principal cast would go on to have successful careers and star in notable films (''i.e.'', John Lithgow, JoBeth Williams and Amy Madigan), at the time they were relatively unknown.
;'The Oakes'':

★ Jason Robards as Dr. Russell Oakes

★ Georgann Johnson as Helen Oakes

★ Kyle Aletter as Marilyn Oakes
;'The Dahlbergs':

★ John Cullum ''as'' Jim Dahlberg

★ Bibi Besch ''as'' Eve Dahlberg

★ Lori Lethin ''as'' Denise Dahlberg

★ Doug Scott ''as'' Danny Dahlberg

★ Ellen Anthony ''as'' Joleen Dahlberg
;'Hospital staff':

★ JoBeth Williams ''as'' Nurse Nancy Bauer

★ Calvin Jung ''as'' Dr. Sam Hachiya

★ Lin McCarthy ''as'' Dr. Austin

★ Rosanna Huffman ''as'' Dr. Wallenberg

★ George Petrie ''as'' Dr. Landowska

★ Jonathan Estrin ''as'' Julian French
;'Others':

★ Steve Guttenberg ''as'' Stephen Klein

★ John Lithgow ''as'' Joe Huxley

★ Amy Madigan ''as'' Alison Ransom

★ William Allen Young ''as'' Airman Billy McCoy

★ Jeff East ''as'' Bruce Gallatin

★ Dennis Lipscomb ''as'' Reverend Walker

★ Clayton Day ''as'' Dennis Hendry

★ Antonie Becker ''as'' Ellen Hendry

★ Stephen Furst ''as'' Aldo

★ Arliss Howard ''as'' Tom Cooper

★ Stan Wilson ''as'' Vinnie Conrad

Awards

Emmy Awards won:

★ Outstanding Film Sound Editing for a Limited Series or a Special

★ Outstanding Individual Achievement - Special Visual Effects
Emmy Award nominations:

★ Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling

★ Outstanding Achievement in Makeup

★ Outstanding Art Direction for a Limited Series or a Special

★ Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or a Special (Gayne Rescher)

★ Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special (Nicholas Meyer)

★ Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special (Robert Papazian)

★ Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special (William Dornisch and Robert Florio)

★ Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or a Special

★ Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special (John Lithgow)

★ Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special (Edward Hume)

See also

★ Able Archer 83

★ List of nuclear holocaust fiction

★ Nuclear weapons in popular culture

★ ''Threads''

Notes

1. Reagan, ''An American Life'', 585

Sources and references

★ Cheers, Michael, "Search for TV Stars Not Yielding Right Types," The Kansas City Times, July 19, 1982.

★ Twardy, Chuck, "Moviemakers Cast About for Local Crowds," The Lawrence Journal-World, August 16, 1982.

★ Twardy, Chuck, "Fake Farmstead Goes Up in Flames for Film," The Lawrence Journal-World, August 17, 1982.

★ Laird, Linda, "The Days Before 'The Day After'," Midway, the Sunday Magazine Section of the Topeka Capital-Journal, August 22, 1982.

★ Twardy, Chuck, "Shooting on Schedule 'Day After' Movie," The Lawrence Journal-World, August 23, 1982.

★ Lazzarino, Evie, "From Production Crew to Extras, a Day in the Life of 'Day After'," The Lawrence Journal-World, August 29, 1982.

★ Rosenberg, Howard, "'Humanizing' Nuclear Devastation in Kansas," The Los Angeles Times, September 1, 1982.

★ Schrenier, Bruce, "'The Day After' Filming Continues at KU," The University Daily Kansan, September 2, 1982.

★ Appelbaum, Sharon, "Lawrence Folks Are Dying for a Part in TV's Armageddon," The Kansas City Star, September 3, 1982.

★ Hitchcock, Doug, "Movie Makeup Manufactures Medical Mess," The Lawrence Journal-World, September 5, 1982.

★ Twardy, Chuck, "Nicholas Meyer Tackles Biggest Fantasy," The Lawrence Journal-World, September 5, 1982.

★ Twardy, Chuck, "How to Spend $1 Million in Lawrence," The Lawrence Journal-World, September 5, 1982.

★ Twardy, Chuck, "Students Assume War-Torn Look as Film Shooting Winds Down," The Lawrence Journal-World, September 8, 1982.

★ Goodman, Howard, "KC 'Holocaust' a Mix of Horror and Hollywood," The Kansas City Times, September 11, 1982.

★ Jordan, Gerald B., "Local Filming of Nuclear Disaster Almost Fizzles," The Kansas City Star, September 13, 1982.

★ Kindall, James, "Apocalypse Now," The Kansas City Star Weekly Magazine, October 17, 1982.

★ Loverock, Patricia, "ABC Films Nuclear Holocaust in Kansas," On Location Magazine, November 1983.

★ Bauman, Melissa, "ABC Official Denies Network Can't Find Sponsors for Show," The Lawrence Journal-World, November 13, 1983.

★ Meyer, Nicholas, "'The Day After': Bringing the Unwatchable to TV," TV Guide, November 19, 1983.

★ Torriero, E.A., "The Day Before 'The Day After'," The Kansas City Times, November 20, 1983.

★ Hoenk, Mary, "'Day After': Are Young Viewers Ready?," The Lawrence Journal-World, November 20, 1983.

★ Helliker, Kevin, "'Day After' Yields a Grim Evening," The Kansas City Times, November 21, 1983.

★ Trowbridge, Caroline and Hoenk, Mary, "Film's Fallout: A Solemn Plea for Peace," The Lawrence Journal-World, November 21, 1983.

★ Greenberger, Robert, "Nicholas Meyer: Witness at the End of the World," Starlog Magazine, January 1984.

★ Eisenberg, Adam, "Waging a Four-Minute War," Cinefex Magazine, January 1984.

★ The Day After: Representations of the Nuclear Holocaust, , Susan, Boyd-Bowman, Screen, 1984

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External links

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★ Footage from the attack scenes