The Day After (1983) on Netflix
As reports of a Soviet buildup on the East German border spread, life continues in Kansas. Dr. Russell Oakes works at a Kansas City hospital, and Denise Dahlberg rehearses her wedding.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.0/1020,696 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the mid-1980s, television and radio reports reveal a Soviet buildup on the East German border. Airman Billy McCoy is stationed at a Minuteman silo in western Missouri, and the Hendrys tend their farm nearby. Dr. Russell Oakes works at a Kansas City hospital and spends time with his family before his daughter Marilyn moves away. Near Harrisonville, farmer Jim Dahlberg and his family rehearse the wedding of his eldest daughter, Denise. At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, pre-med student Stephen Klein studies. East Germany blockades West Berlin, and the United States issues an ultimatum.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Day After (1983)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In his memoirs, Ronald Reagan drew a direct line from The Day After to his 1987 signing with Mikhail Gorbachev of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned and reduced their nuclear arsenals. Director Nicholas Meyer said in 2010 that a reported Reagan telegram crediting the film was a myth.
- Anti-nuclear activists Josh Baran and Mark Graham were secretly given a bootleg copy of The Day After by director Nick Meyer before its ABC broadcast. They sent it to peace groups and held screenings in homes, bars and restaurants, followed by discussion groups and town hall meetings.
- Censors forced ABC to cut a scene of a child having a nightmare about nuclear holocaust and sitting up screaming, after a psychiatrist told the network it would disturb children. Meyer called the decision "ludicrous" in TV Guide, citing the huge doses of violence on an average evening of television.
- During their research, Nicholas Meyer had heated arguments with ABC censors over scenes they wanted cut. The U.S. Department of Defense offered to cooperate only if the script made clear the Soviets launched their missiles first, which Meyer and producer Robert Papazian took pains not to do.
- When ABC pressed for cuts to The Day After, editor Bill Dornisch balked and was fired, and Nicholas Meyer walked away from the project. The network, unhappy with the replacement editors it brought in, brought Meyer back for a compromise cut running 120 minutes.
- Nicholas Meyer insisted no big TV or film stars be cast in The Day After, though ABC wanted one name to help sell the film theatrically in Europe. Flying to visit his parents in New York, Meyer found himself on the same plane as Jason Robards and asked him to join the cast.
- An estimated 100 million people in 38.5 million American households watched The Day After on its first broadcast, a record audience for a made-for-TV movie.
- Composer David Raksin recorded just under 30 minutes of music for The Day After, adapting a documentary score by concert composer Virgil Thomson and the hymn "How Firm a Foundation". Much of his music was edited out of the final cut.
