The Day After (1983) The Day After was an effective way to instill a sense of fear and respect for nuclear war in the minds of the American people. Depicting realistic apocalyptic scenarios that play out in the lives of relatable families in a small town no different than any other we would find in America, this film contextualizes the events before, during, and immediately after the nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia . was unleashed on our soil. Background Nuts and Bolts The Day After was a film originally conceived by Brandon Stoddard, president of the ABC Motion Picture Division, who wanted to explore the effects of a nuclear exchange on United States soil. The screenplay was written in 1981 by one Edward Hume, commissioned by Stoddard, focusing primarily on the worldwide consequences of the nuclear attack rather than the war itself, in an attempt to contextualize the story to the life of the average American. The original script invented by Hume did not involve the bombing of Kansas City. Instead, he chose only the local air base as the destination for the Russian bomb, with survivors staggering towards the city for help. Instead, ABC producers chose to include Kansas City as the bombing sites, and principal photography took place in Lawrence, Kansas. The US government wanted it to be absolutely clear in the film that the Soviets were the instigators of the nuclear exchanges, however the producers at ABC were determined to make the instigator unclear in the film so that audiences would not focus on taking sides one side over the other, but to focus on the repercussions of the explosion. Because of this disagreement, the government did not allow the producers to use stock footage... half of the document... session and possible use of nuclear weapons, Carl Sagan states in this debate: "Imagine a room flooded with gasoline, and in that room there are two implacable enemies. One of them has nine thousand matches, the other seven thousand matches. Each of them is worried about who is ahead, who is stronger." He indicates that no matter the quantity of nuclear warheads, a number often touted internationally when comparing each nation's relative strengths, simply possessing a nuclear warhead can have devastating effects. consequences for global stability. Several politicians who saw the film claimed that it was a massive anti-nuclear campaign. People accused the producers and cast of wanting to disarm the country and leave the United States vulnerable to attacks without retaliation. Despair – Analytical conclusion