Top Five: Nuclear War Movies
3) Countdown To Looking Glass (1984)
This is another obscure movie, a TV movie again. Come to think of it, all five of these movies are TV movies. I wonder why nothing hugely theatrical was ever released? Maybe pant-shitting fear was deemed less than profitable.
Anyway this originally broadcast in 1984 so I’m not even sure if it would be easy to find anymore. I downloaded it in the early 00’s (there were no versions for sale!) and it’s still on a hard drive of mine. I recommend this movie because it builds you up to the ‘money shot’ and does not chicken out, or have someone like Ben Affleck save the world over the phone.
It’s a docudrama, sort of, with news reports (which are part of the movie) delivering much of the narrative. Unlike many of these nuclear movies which do not bother with the causes, this one goes into it in detail, starting with a conventional confrontation between the USA and USSR in Saudi Arabia. This is real good war nerd stuff, even if it has a pissant budget.
The best part is the actual moment the button is pushed, which happens live on one of the news broadcasts. Countdown To Looking Glass is no classic film, but it’s damned underrated.
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