Accidentally-Correct Writing: The nuclear war that contaminated the world took place in 1962. While the circumstances are quite different (Albania nuking Italy), the world skirted dangerously close thanks to the Cuban Missile Crisis. And this novel was written in 1957.
Science Marches On: The original book came out in 1957. Understanding of things like fallout, atmospheric effects, and so on have advanced since then. The concept of a radioactive cyclone slowly enveloping the Earth and moving south was more persuasive in 1957, not to mention that nuclear winter wasn't even proposed when the original book was written. Hypothetically speaking, even if all the bombs in a nuclear war were dropped in the north, the deadliest particles would be too heavy to be transported by air, and the fallout (radioactive particles) would be distributed unevenly based on factors like wind, precipitation and so on. Radiation would not therefore form the steadily advancing 'blanket' depicted in the novel: there would be serious hotspots and but also some relatively unaffected areas even in the north. Studies on nuclear winter suggest however that the short-term impacts of a nuclear war could be far more dramatic than depicted, if perhaps not as terminal, with dust clouds from burning cities blotting out the sun and causing the global temperature to plummet.
The 1959 film:
All-Star Cast: Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Ava Gardner and retroactively Anthony Perkins.
Box Office Bomb: According to studio records, it lost $700,000 at the Box Office.
Creator Backlash: Gregory Peck felt the film was a watered-down version of the novel.
37-year-old Ava Gardner played a character who was 20 years old in the novel.
60-year-old Fred Astaire played a character whom the novel implied to be around 30.
Disowned Adaptation: Nevil Shute hated the film, and distanced himself from it once he realised that Stanley Kramer wasn't following many of his ideas. Some even say that his hatred of it contributed to a fatal heart attack a month after its premiere.
Ava Gardner was finally free from her twenty year MGM contract, and free to choose her own roles. This was the first one she picked.
Stanley Kramer personally put a message out in the newspapers and radios begging the residents of the town to stay at home during the filming of the final scene - to allow the streets to be deserted (they had to put up with many watchers trying to get a glimpse of Ava Gardner during filming of other scenes).
God Never Said That: Ava Gardner found herself in trouble when a journalist quoted her as saying Melbourne was the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world. Only she never said that, and the journalist made it up.
Method Acting: Gregory Peck learned many details about submarines to better enhance his performance.
Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It's a rumor that the guards at either end of Golden Gate Bridge were paid $500 to stop traffic so the filmmakers could get a minute's footage showing the empty bridge.
Tom Hanks Syndrome: This film transitioned Fred Astaire into non-musical, dramatic roles.
Vacation, Dear Boy: Fred Astaire was said to have enjoyed filming in Australia very much - especially because the press were too busy fawning over Ava Gardner - allowing him to move about freely.
The 2000 film:
Creator Couple: Husband and wife Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown star together in their fourth collaboration.
Remake Cameo: Inverted. Bill Hunter plays the PM of Australia, having first appeared as an extra in the 1959 version.
