The Day After, Today

In 1983, 100 million Americans watched an ABC made-for-tv movie called The Day After, which depicts the immediate fallout from a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union. Tensions between the two powers were high, with President Ronald Reagan calling the USSR an "evil empire" and building up the country's nuclear stockpile. Just weeks before The Day After, NATO war exercises were nearly mistaken by Soviets for a real attack.

The movie wasn't very good, but what it showed was so horrifying that it inspired a national conversation about US policy. Following the broadcast, Ted Koppel hosted a panel debate on deterrence and disarmament with prominent thinkers like Carl Sagan and Robert McNamara. Schools organized discussions for classes, ABC distributed a viewer's guide, and psychologists warned that children under 12 shouldn't even watch the movie. Marsha Gordon, professor of film studies at North Carolina State University, recently wrote about The Day After for the website The Conversation. She and Brooke talk about the public debate sparked by the movie, and what it might mean for a new generation to see a remake.