History Film / Threads

* ArmiesAreEvil: A {{Downplayed}} example. The British Armed Forces quickly dominate what's left of the government; the country descending into a totalitarian police-state under their junta: perpetrating mass executions, labor camps, and draconic punishments that pretty much ''all'' end in death - but the [[ApocalypseHow circumstances]], the fact some infantryman are given humanizing scenes to show them as PunchClockVillains who are just as horrified as everyone else, and that ''people'' in general, soldier not not, have become ''highly'' conceited and ruthless, it's not that emphasized.

* AlternateHistory: While the exact year in which the film takes place is (deliberately) left ambiguous, the dates in the film are consistent with 1983, which is around the time the film would have been written, so could infer that the film is set in an alternate 1983 in which a nuclear war took place. [[spoiler:This would set the film's ending somewhere around 1996.]]

* EternalEnglish: {{Averted}}. Just 13 years after the attack, English is practically unrecognisable due to a severe lack of literacy and education. The form of English the children of the attack survivors speak has become very slurred and simplified, and Gaz and Spike, the boys who come for Ruth's daughter Jane can only really speak in a strange, heavily-accented Yorkshire dialect, with the most common phrases being "Gi'sit" (give us it) and "C'mon".

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: Ruth has a pet cat which is last seen writhing in agony after the attack and presumably dies in the firestorm. However, though the film contains no disclaimer that the cat playing the part of Ruth's cat was unharmed, it has been stated that the shot was achieved by filming the cat while it was high on catnip, then playing the footage in reverse so that it looked like the cat was in pain.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: An antique steam traction engine is seen being used for farming.

* EverybodysDeadDave: Not even ''remotely'' funny in its execution. In fact, those who were killed instantly during the first nuclear attack [[AFateWorseThanDeath got lucky]]. [[spoiler: Of the leads we meet in the beginning, only the town council, Mr. Kemp, Bob, and Ruth make it deeply into the second act. Mr. Kemp succumbs to radiation poisoning at the hour 27 mark. The town council is confirmed suffocated to death to begin the third act at an hour and 30 minutes in, and Bob shares a few scenes with Ruth before departing to parts unknown, leaving us with only Ruth until the narrative shifts to her daughter, after Ruth dies, to the end of the film.

** Very early in the film, Ruth discusses the possibility of moving out into the countryside, which Jimmy dismisses as "dead". In the weeks following the blast, Ruth is forced to leave Sheffield for the countryside, eventually becoming a farm-laborer [[spoiler: and eventually dying young due to a mixture of stress and UV overexposure.]]

* {{Irony}}: Despite the impracticality of mass burials and given the CrapsackWorld situation, it's a wonder that [[spoiler:Ruth]] not only passes away while aided by a family member in a house, but gets to die in her own bed while relatively warm and secure. To note, this is the ''only'' respectful and dignified death in the entire movie, as virtually ''everyone'' else is either shown slowly succumbing to radiation sickness or having their bodies left in otherwise-horrific circumstances.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Depends solely on the viewer's point of view. [[spoiler. If the viewer is upset at the way the town council (with a few exceptions, namely Roger Fisher) refuses to risk fire brigades in certain parts of the city or release food stores to people dying of radiation poisoning, then the fact that the council themselves dies while running out of supplies and then out of oxygen because the rescue crews didn't have the equipment to reach them in time could come off as this.]]

** We only see brief glimpses of what [[spoiler: Jane's baby looks like, but what we do see isn't pretty. From Jane's horrified screams]], our imagination can easily fill in the gaps.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Clive Sutton goes through this [[spoiler: after one of the advisors tells him that the radiation levels in the city he lived are lethal beyond measure and he realizes his wife, whom he left behind, is either already dead, or is dying alone, and he can't do anything about it. He's left staring at the city's dot on the large wall map in front of him, his lip quivering in sadness as he tries to hold it together.]]

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: As Jane rushes heads towards the makeshift hospital during the ending, she passes by a pair of shoeless (possibly naked) corpses hung in the foreground, implying that they were either DrivenToSuicide, [[MakeAnExampleOfThem publicly hanged]] or, worse yet, [[HumanResources being used as food by cannibals]].

* BigDamHeroes: Subverted. [[spoiler: After the bomb destroys the RAF airfield, Jimmy dashes through the streets of Sheffield to get to Ruth's side. He never makes it]]

A director-approved remastered edition of the film was released on DVD by Simply Media Entertainment in 2018.

* DangerousDrowsiness: In the days following the nuclear attack on Sheffield, Ruth's grandmother--already badly affected by shock--begins sleeping through mealtimes, and though Mr. and Mrs. Beckett believe that rest will do her some good, it's obvious that she's severely ill from radiation exposure. The very next scene with the Becketts features her body being hauled out of the fallout shelter by her grieving relatives.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Which is absolutely terrifying when you consider that’s compared to ''Film/TheDayAfter''!!!

* DepopulationBomb: People born before the attack don't last long in general. The first generation born after the attack appear healthy and show no obvious signs of physical deformity, though their language skills are degraded to the point where they can barely form coherent sentences. However, the film ends with Jane giving birth to one of the first second-generation post-war babies; the child is stillborn and is also severely deformed, implying that the human race is on the road to extinction.
* {{Determinator}}: Amid the remnants of the survivors 13 years after the attack, there appears to be ''one'' single teacher who is still trying to teach kids to learn grammar (albeit with dated "Words and Pictures" educational videos) and learn arts and crafts

* DyingRace: A large part of ''humanity'' after the bombs fall. Even though there are millions of survivors still left in Britain after the initial blast, famine, disease, and violence kill millions more. [[spoiler: The film's final scene, of Jane giving birth to a stillborn and mutated baby, implies that birth defects from the radiation will kill off a large part of the next generation, and cause an unprecedented bottleneck for the human race]].

** A short time later, as Ruth tells Jimmy that she's pregnant, she responds to his concern and confusion by saying that it's "not the end of the world." [[RuleOfSymbolism Thirteen years later]], that statement takes [[TragicStillbirth on a new meaning]] when their first grandchild is stillborn and is so badly deformed that the mother (Jimmy and Ruth's daughter, Jane) looks horrified at the sight of it. The film ends at this point, implying that the human race may never recover from the effects of the war.

** After the attack, Ruth breaks down in tears in the fallout shelter and cries that she doesn't care about her baby any more, convinced that all the radiation she's breathing in will severely harm the baby. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding Cut to the end of the film]], [[TragicStillbirth set thirteen years later]]...]]

* HopeSpot: Thirteen years after the nuclear exchange, sunlight has finally returned after the nuclear winter ended, and a limited form of agriculture has managed to start back up, suggesting that humanity may be starting to rebuild. [[spoiler:However, Ruth suddenly dies in her thirties from cancer as a result of the radiation and UV exposure, and Jane, her young daughter, is forced to fend for herself in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. After Jane becomes pregnant, she gives birth to a baby, but from what we see of it, it's severely deformed and [[TragicStillbirth not breathing]]. The film ends as Jane screams, implying that [[DownerEnding the residual radiation will prevent a true recovery for a very long time]]. Made all the worse by the fact that Ruth herself [[{{Foreshadowing}} predicted that this would happen thirteen years prior]] after breaking down in tears in her parents' fallout shelter.]]

* NoEnding: [[spoiler:The film ends abruptly with Jane being handed the deformed corpse of her stillborn baby, per the DownerEnding above. However, there's also no actual epilogue on what ultimately happens to the human race afterwards, and there's not really supposed to be.]]

** We only see brief glimpses of what [[spoiler: Jane's deformed, stillborn baby looks like, but what we do see isn't pretty. From Jane's horrified screams]], our imagination can easily fill in the gaps.

* ScreamingBirth: Horrifically subverted at the end with [[spoiler:Jane]]'s mutated and stillborn baby.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: The last scene is [[spoiler:the birth of a severely deformed and stillborn infant, and Jane's look of horror when she realizes it. That is the main hurdle delaying a recovery of civilization in Britain, and probably the world as well.]]

* SoundtrackDissonance: At the opening of the film we hear "Johnny B. Goode" by Music/ChuckBerry, and it reappears near the end (see BookEnds). Needless to say, while at the start of the film it accompanies the imminent creation of a life--it plays right before Jimmy and Ruth conceive their baby--by the end of the film it represents the destruction of much of human civilization, signified by [[spoiler:Ruth's daughter Jane giving birth to a deformed and stillborn baby]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Essentially, almost ''nothing'' goes right for the U.K. as a whole, if not the world, and all the attempts to prepare for a nuclear attack are woefully ineffective and done too little, too late. The educational videos played for students warning of what they should do in the event of a nuclear attack are completely at odds with the reality numerous families face when an actual attack does come. The attempts to build a makeshift above ground shelter with only a couple hours' notice do nothing to prevent nor protect against rolling firestorms, radiation sickness and eventual death. Even with a formal continuity of government in place, the Sheffield branch in particular fails to address any infrastructure, housing or food concerns, and the officials we do see who survived quickly fall to a combination of a failing bunker, lack of communication and infighting. What few people survived the attack in Sheffield are forced to flee the city ruins for the countryside, dodging pockets of radiation and having to jumpstart agriculture and a new economy with antiquated equipment and a shortage of supplies and knowledge. Thirteen years on, the situation hasn't improved much at all. Education is nearly nonexistent, theft and violent crime are rampant, the survivors of the attack are dealing with RapidAging, cancers, and stunted growth, and the daughter of the lead female character quickly discovers how dire humanity's prospects are [[spoiler:when she has a TragicStillbirth]].

* TragicStillbirth: [[spoiler:At the end, Jane gives birth to a severely mutated, stillborn baby. It's especially tragic given the implications that this exact scenario is happening all over Britain, and probably worldwide]].

** Jane herself can barely string two words together when she's attempting to speak to adults. Even with people her own age like Gaz and Spike, she has little actual conversational skills. The three youngsters do exchange words, but they mostly consist of the boys demanding a share of Jane's food, and one of them is implied to be the father of Jane's stillborn baby. Most of the post-war kids also often repeat the same word or phrase over and over, as if they don't know any other way of getting their point across. This is first seen when Jane tries to rouse the dying Ruth, shouting:

* {{Dystopia}}: The world after doomsday. Clearly, ''somebody'' is trying to enforce some semblance of order but due to the extreme nature of life on the planet, it proves difficult to do so without crossing over numerous moral boundaries, and most people are too concerned with their own safety to worry about the rest of the world anyway. Making matters worse is the mere fact the bomb destroyed most of the communications capabilities, as well as the infrastructure and fuel. [[spoiler: Major equipment is unavailable, directly resulting in the deaths of the trapped town council.]] Stockpiled food supplies initially are locked away, awaiting orders to be released from people who are long dead, and looting becomes rampant, to the point that the remaining police and military are basically given free reign to execute anyone that is caught looting or won't stand down when ordered to. As if the fear of radiation sickness isn't bad enough, the mere fact that the millions of decomposing corpses can't be buried leads to outbreaks of Cholera, Dysentery, and Typhoid. No matter how strong you are, you're not going to reach a ripe old age in this new world.

* EverybodysDeadDave: Not even ''remotely'' funny in its execution. In fact, those who were killed instantly during the first nuclear attack [[AFateWorseThanDeath got lucky]].

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Sort of. A family member trading cigarettes for alcohol in the aftermath of the bombing shows the first signs of the radiation sickness that will soon kill him.

* {{Irony}}: Despite the impracticality of mass burials and given the CrapsackWorld situation, it's a wonder that [[spoiler:Ruth]] not only passes away while aided by a family member in a house, but gets to die in her own bed while relatively warm and secure. To note, this is the ''only'' respectful and dignified death in the entire movie, as ''everyone'' else is either shown slowly succumbing to radiation sickness or having their bodies left in otherwise-horrific circumstances.

* NoHealthcareInTheApocalypse: The film points out that, even if Britain's National Health Service survived a nuclear attack, it would be unable to cope with the effects of even a single nuke on a single city. This is illustrated via a scene set in a hospital which has been overrun with bomb casualties, where operations (including amputations) are being carried out without anaesthetics, under conditions where even basic levels of hygiene are impossible to maintain. The accompanying narration states that doctors can now do virtually nothing for their patients and are "little better equipped than the nearest survivor."

* TooDumbToLive: The officials who keep on smoking ''while trapped underground''. This depletes their air supply even faster than it would otherwise have been depleted, and they die from suffocation before the rescue party can dig them out.

** Jimmy's handbook about birds, which Ruth finds near Mrs. Kemp's body and takes along with her. [[spoiler:When Ruth dies 13 years later, the book is shown briefly as one of the few items Ruth carried with her through the rest of her life as a memento]].
** Earlier in the film, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, the emergency council tries to make sense of the damage done and contact surviving emergency services. Clive goes over a map with another council member determining the extent of radiation exposure to survivors. Asking about the area around Baslow, the other council member informs him that if it's in direct line of the wind coming from Crewe anyone there's going to get 800 to 1000 rads--easily enough for [[CruelAndUnusualDeath acute radiation syndrome]]. Clive is left in stunned silence. We quickly find out why with a lingering shot [[PreciousPhoto of a portrait of his wife]], Marjorie, as he continues to stare at the map. [[spoiler:The portrait's still by his side after the Army finally reaches the emergency council ... after they've all died from lack of air.]]

* DownerEnding: At any given point after the attack, it's hard to imagine that things could get much worse. Until they do. So, just as humanity seems to have limped along into a second medieval age, narrowly avoiding the complete annihilation of their species, we are given a glimpse of [[spoiler: a significant part of the second generation of post-war babies]], which [[HopeSpot quells any lingering hope]] viewers may have been desperately clinging to of a rapid recovery.

** Both Bob and Ruth exemplify this trait when they run into each other a few weeks after the attack. They share a meal - a rotting dead sheep - but say little, and soon go their separate ways.

* {{Dystopia}}: The world after doomsday. Clearly, ''somebody'' is trying to enforce some semblance of order but due to the extreme nature of life on the planet, it proves difficult to do so without crossing over numerous moral boundaries, and most people are too concerned with their own safety to worry about the rest of the world anyway.
* EasyLogistics: Averted. The attempts by the emergency council to do... well, anything at all after the attacks happen are utterly inept. They have no communications, as an EMP blast from a nuke detonated over the North Sea wipes out most of their comms before the attacks even start properly, and nobody is in a situation to receive messages when there's no electricity. Not to mention that attempting to move food and supplies to vital areas when all transport infrastructure has been entirely demolished and fuel supplies are diminished within days is portrayed as about as impossible as it would be.

* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Sheffield emergency council falls to this after the bombs drop and their shelter is caved in by the City Hall collapsing on top of them. They spend far more time shouting and yelling at each other than they do at trying to actually restore a semblance of society.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The angry dog situated at the farm where Ruth gives birth to Jane is shown quietly freaking out at the screams and cries coming from the barnhouse, to the point that he stops barking entirely and merely stares in utter silence.

* MomentOfSilence: When text appears on the screen, it appears in a left-to-right typing formation with loud clicking noises, similar to a teleprinter. But after the attack, when that text appears, it's deathly silent, the same for the credits after the wind ambience stops.