History YMMV / TheDayAfter

** After the announcement that the US armed forces were on DEF-CON 2, one character remarks that she would only be worried if this was over oil in the middle east. In 1991 the US actually did go to DEF-CON 2 over that very thing, only 2 years after this movie took place.

* HarsherInHindsight: Any announcement concerning countries continuing to seek out nuclear superiority long after the Cold War has ended or making threats toward each other, meaning that even now this film ''still has a possibility of happening for real''. Not to mention the threat of nuclear terrorism (which, while it wouldn't be as bad as what happened in the movie, could still easily claim millions of lives.)

* HilariousInHindsight: The President whose speech is broadcast near the end of the movie was originally intended to be UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush (to indicate UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan didn't make it to Mount Weather in time), but the producers cast a Reagan impersonator instead. The flak they received by this caused them to edit the film, replacing the Reagan soundalike with a "stereotypical Presidential voice" - a voice that sounds remarkably like that of Joe Biden, elected Vice-President 25 years later.

* RealityEnsues: See "Inferred Holocaust" above. A major point of the film was that a full scale nuclear war is ''unsurvivable'', even for those not immediately killed in the atomic blasts. Radioactive particles are ''everywhere'', pervasive throughout the environment, and it is impossible to simply clean them off. All farmland topsoil is irradiated and useless; removing it would be a Herculean task even if society wasn't crippled, and even if they could, they have nowhere to store all of it without rain just washing it back again; and even if they did all of that right, crops can't grow on the sand and rocks below topsoil. Moreover, the hospital staff point out that essentially ''all'' trees have absorbed radioactive particles to such an extent that burning ''any'' firewood will release lethal levels of radiation. They can limp along for a few weeks burning propane and gasoline, but with supply lines destroyed, those won't last long.

** The film's writers said that some points in the film are deliberate digs at FEMA: they did try to research what FEMA's disaster response plan to a nuclear attack was, and were horrified to find out that they didn't really have a coherent plan, just a handful of short-sighted suggestions that quickly fell apart under basic analysis. So consider the horrifying reality that the government pamphlet the farmer was reading off, which just bluntly said "scrape off the top six inches of all your topsoil"...was the ''actual'', sum-total of FEMA's planned ''real life'' response to nuclear war.

* HilariousInHindsight: The President whose speech is broadcast near the end of the movie was originally intended to be UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, but the producers cast a Reagan impersonator instead. The flak they received by this caused them to edit the film, replacing the Reagan soundalike with a "stereotypical Presidential voice" - a voice that sounds remarkably like that of Joe Biden, elected Vice-President 25 years later.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Even a "limited" nuclear war would cause untold devastation. Also, with nuclear weapons there are no "safe" places.

* TheWoobie: Really, practically ''every single character'' in the movie, other than perhaps those lucky enough to get vaporized immediately.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Averted. The nukes aren't presented as cool, and not enough of the war is seen to make the fighting look awesome. Most of the film just shows misery, destruction, people slowly dying one by one, and the probable end of civilization. Only an apocalyptic nutcase would want to see this movie's turn of events come true.

** Among those affected included US President Ronald Reagan, who said he had been profoundly shocked and deeply disturbed by the movie. By Reagan's own admission in his memoirs, the experience motivated him to pursue policies which more effectively limited the proliferation of nuclear weapons on the world stage, and stated that it was the reason why he signed the INF Treaty alongside Gorbachev four years later.

** Among those affected included President Ronald Reagan, who said he had been shocked and deeply disturbed by the movie. By Reagan's own admission in his memoirs, the experience motivated him to pursue policies which more effectively limited the proliferation of nuclear weapons on the world stage, and stated that it was the reason why he signed the INF Treaty alongside Gorbachev four years later.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Even a "limited" nuclear war would cause untold devastation. Also, with nuclear weapons there are no "safe" places.

* HarsherInHindsight: Any announcement concerning countries continuing to seek out nuclear superiority long after the Cold War has ended or making threats toward each other, meaning that even now this film ''still has a possibility of happening for real''.

* FridgeHorror: If that was a "limited" exchange, what would happen if the U.S. and U.S.S.R. lobbed all their warheads at each other?
** Of course that is what we are told we don't really know much about the rest of the world or even the US.

** Among those affected included President Ronald Reagan, who said he had been shocked and deeply disturbed by the movie.

* HilariousInHindsight: The President whose speech is broadcast near the end of the movie was originally intended to be George H.W. Bush, but the producers cast a Reagan impersonator instead. The flak they received by this caused them to edit the film, replacing the Reagan soundalike with a "stereotypical Presidential voice" - a voice that sounds remarkably like that of Joe Biden, elected Vice-President 25 years later.

* AmericansHateTingle: The film got a lot of flak when it was released theatrically in Europe for allegedly downplaying the danger of nuclear war, believe it or not. So much so that ''Film/{{Threads}}'' was made in response. They were apparently unaware that it was originally intended for television and all the {{Bowdlerization}} it had been through.

* AmericansHateTingle: The film got a lot of flak when it was released theatrically in Europe for allegedly downplaying the danger of nuclear war, believe it or not. So much so that ''Film/Threads'' was made in response. They were apparently unaware that it was originally intended for television and all the {{Bowdlerization}} it had been through.

* AmericansHateTingle: The film got a lot of flak when it was released theatrically in Europe for allegedly downplaying the danger of nuclear war, believe it or not. They were unaware that it was originally intended for television and all the {{Bowdlerization}} it had been through.

* HarsherInHindsight: Any announcement concerning countries continuing to seek out nuclear superiority long after the Cold War has ended, meaning that even now this film ''still has a possibility of happening for real''.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: There's absolutely no reason whatsoever to root for any of the characters since they're all doomed to die horribly.

** As mentioned elsewhere, this film and ''Threads'' are very realistic interpretations of nuclear devastation (and the most disturbing fact? ''Neither of them showcased '''everything''' that would really happen in a nuclear attack, such as nuclear winter''). Most horrifying of all, even now the world's governments still have some amount of nuclear weapons in their arsenal (although they had largely disarmed), or are still researching nuclear superiority. Even if the Cold War is over, even if something to the implied level of devastation this film shows probably won't happen... the possibility still exists that ''somewhere'', ''someone'' will end up suffering the horrors of this film '''for real'''.

** As mentioned elsewhere, this film and ''Threads'' are very realistic interpretations of nuclear devastation (and the most disturbing fact? ''Neither of them showcased '''everything''' that would really happen in a nuclear attack, such as nuclear winter''). Most horrifying of all, even now the world's governments still have some amount of nuclear weapons in their arsenal (although they had largely disarmed), or are still researching nuclear superiority. Even if the Cold War is over, even if something to the implied level of devastation this film shows probably won't happen... the possibility still exists that ''somewhere'', ''someone'' will end up suffering the horrors of this film '''for real'''.