Nuclear Nightmares

Nov 1, 1979

1h 29m

★ 10.0

Overview

Peter Ustinov hosts this haunting 1980 documentary exploring the world's nuclear weaponry and the fragile system that deters either side from initiating the first nuclear strike. Although the world's political climate has mellowed since the Cold War era, Nuclear Nightmares takes the viewer back in time to gain a perspective of what it was like to live under a very real nuclear threat.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

BBC

Palm Productions

Nuclear Nightmares Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Himself

Peter Ustinov

The Polygon shines a light on the village of Sarzhal in East Kazakhstan, situated only 18kms from the perimeter of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site, that was home to over 600 nuclear detonations. Between 1949 and 1991 the Soviet Union detonated 116 above ground bombs, whose massive radioactive mushroom clouds were witnessed by thousands of innocent and unsuspecting Kazakh villagers. They gazed openmouthed at the spectacle, completely unaware that nuclear fallout was raining down on them, their children, livestock and homes. 20 years after the closure of The Polygon they are still suffering high rates of cancer, cancer related diseases and mental illness. The Polygon takes us on a journey from the twisted Cold War experiments to those victims who remain today, still suffering despite the emergence of Kazakhstan as a major economic player on the global stage.

7.5

Camp Century: The Hidden City Beneath the Ice

Jan 8, 2020

How in 1959, during the heat of the Cold War, the government of the United States decided to create a secret military base located in the far north of Greenland: Camp Century, almost a real town with roads and houses, a nuclear plant to provide power and silos to house missiles aimed at the Soviet Union.

0.0

Atomic: History Of The A-Bomb

Jan 1, 2019

The smallest of sparks can lead to the largest of explosions. Such is the case of the Atomic Bomb and the minds who have conceived of the deadliest force the world has ever known. This new documentary Atomic: The History of the A-Bomb follows this weapon of mass destruction from inception to detonation.

5.7

1979: Big Bang of the Present

Dec 10, 2019

Deng Xiaoping's economic and political opening in China. Margaret Thatcher's extreme economic measures in the United Kingdom. Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution in Iran. Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland. Saddam Hussein's rise to power in Iraq. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The nuclear accident at the Harrisburg power plant and the birth of ecological activism. The year 1979, the beginning of the future.

6.4

Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1

Nov 16, 2011

A shocking political exposé, and an intimate ethnographic portrait of Pacific Islanders struggling for survival, dignity, and justice after decades of top-secret human radiation experiments conducted on them by the U.S. government.

6.7

The Most Dangerous Man in Europe: Otto Skorzeny's After War

Jan 29, 2020

Waffen-SS officer Otto Skorzeny (1908-75) became famous for his participation in daring military actions during World War II. In 1947 he was judged and imprisoned, but he escaped less than a year later and found a safe haven in Spain, ruled with an iron hand by General Francisco Franco. What did he do during the many years he spent there?

8.0

Last to Know

Feb 11, 2006

In the documentary Last To Know political prisoners, sent to jail for openly opposing the East German regime that existed until the German reunification in 1990, talk about their times of trial and their lives today. Neither they, nor their families have come to terms with what happened.

6.5

Mission to Mir

Oct 17, 1997

This film shows how far we have come since the cold-war days of the 50s and 60s. Back then the Russians were our "enemies". And to them the Americans were their "enemies" who couldn't be trusted. Somewhere in all this a young girl in Oklahoma named Shannon set her sights on becoming one of those space explorers, even though she was told "girls can't do that." But she did.

7.1

1989

Nov 5, 2014

Anders Østergaard’s film is an investigative look at the year the Berlin Wall fell, documenting the events that took place in Hungary as a prelude to the dramatic changes in November 1989. The director recreates the events and leads the audiences deep into the politicians’ secret meeting rooms by using a mix of interviews, archive material and reconstructed scenes and dialogues.

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5.0

Alert Today - Alive Tomorrow

Nov 7, 1956

This short shows how the city of Reading, Pennsylvania would implement civil defense procedures to help residents survive a nuclear attack. Through a network of volunteers, makeshift hospitals would be set up, auxiliary police officers would maintain order, and other elements of the civil defense program would be put in place.

6.8

The Crazy Che

Nov 19, 2015

The incredible story of Bill Gaede, an Argentinian engineer, programmer… and Cold War spy.

7.3

The Atomic Cafe

Mar 17, 1982

A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.

7.0

My Favorite War

Sep 25, 2020

Ilze Burkovska, a little girl who is obsessed with stories of World War II and will be a filmmaker in a distant future, lives in Latvia under the totalitarian boot of the Soviets and the ominous shadow of the many menaces and horrors of the Cold War.

0.0

Rockin' the Wall

Sep 8, 2014

Rock and roll's part in bringing down the Berlin Wall and smashing the Iron Curtain is told from the perspective of rockers who played at the time, on both sides of the Wall, and from survivors of the communist regimes who recall the lifeline that rock music provided them.

7.0

Naître Svetlana Staline

Mar 16, 2023

In 1967, in the middle of the Cold War, Joseph Stalin's only daughter goes to the American embassy in New Delhi and asks for asylum. Svetlana leaves behind her country and her two children. Hunted by the press, the KGB, and many admirers, the woman, nicknamed the Kremlin princess, will never cease to flee. From the summit of the Soviet empire to the solitude and poverty of her last years in a Wisconsin home, Gabriel Tejedor traces the destiny of a resolutely free woman, at the very heart of the century and its geopolitical challenges.

7.0

Television Event

Nov 11, 2020

An archive-based feature documentary viewing the dramatic climax of the Cold War through the lens of the ABC network, as it narrowly succeeds in producing the most watched, most controversial made-for-TV movie, THE DAY AFTER (1983). With irreverent humor and sobering apocalyptic vision, this film reveals how a commercial broadcaster seized a moment of unprecedented television viewership, made an emotional connection with an audience of over 100 million and forced an urgent conversation with the US President on how to collectively confront and resolve the most pressing issue of the time - nuclear proliferation.

6.0

Geheimes Russland: Moskaus Unterwelten

Jul 7, 2018

What lies hidden beneath Moscow? Subway palaces full of Soviet propaganda, Stalin's magnificent bunkers, centuries-old river systems. For decades, there have been repeated clues, cryptic statements and hints about Moscow's underground. The cinematic search for clues shows Stalin's command bunker and the government object GO-42, a headquarters of the Soviet military during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. A residential house with potted plants and curtains was built over GO-42 as camouflage. Until the end of the Cold War, specially trained soldiers took care of the bourgeois residential charm and turned on the lights in the evening while 2,000 people threatened the world around the clock with intercontinental missiles. The documentary also shows encounters with the illegal explorers of these complex transportation and housing systems, the Diggers.

8.0

Der Reichstag

Dec 19, 2017

Docudrama telling the story of a building with a breath taking career that began in the empire, flourished in the Weimar Republic, perished in the Nazi dictatorship, and was rebuilt after its partial destruction.

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5.0

Our Cities Must Fight

Jan 1, 1951

"Our Cities Must Fight" is a civil defense film that was produced for the U.S. government to illustrate the importance of not abandoning urban centers during an atomic bombing. The film cautions that doing so would make it easier for the invading "enemy."

Nuclear Nightmares

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Nuclear Nightmares Trailers