History ComicBook / WhenTheWindBlows

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Don't you dare start stimulating, James! I'm not in the mood!"

'''Jim:'''Oh, well, that's logical. He's bound to be a bit late, after the bomb.\\

--->'''Jim:''' The milkman's not been yet. He's late.\\
'''Hilda:''' Oh, well, that's logical. He's bound to be a bit late, after the bomb. [[HeavenAbove Perhaps he's been called up]] -- to fight, or something.

* StronglyWordedLetter: Jim (Hilda in the adaptation) devises one to whoever is currently leading the USSR. They eventually decide against it because the bombing might affect the post delivery.

--->'''Jim:''' The milkman's not been yet. He's late.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Jim, despite professing to be very well-read and keeping abreast of the current situation, is shown to understand the ''concept'' of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and that tensions are escalating, but very little beyond that. Most of the time when he's holding forth with grand-sounding speeches, it's clear that he's only working off third-hand information he partially remembers and drawing conclusions from that as if he's an expert, or unquestioningly repeating what he's been told by official pamphlets.

* StronglyWordedLetter: Hilda devises one to whoever is currently leading the USSR.

* WorldWarII: Heavily referenced and invoked to show the Bloggses' naivete. Having lived through the Blitz, Jim and Hilda see the situation through a romanticised, inaccurate vision of the War ([[StiffUpperLip keep calm and carry on]], [[BlackAndWhiteMorality "all that mob on the other side"]], etc.), so much that they not only can't grasp the reality of the hell they find themselves in (thinking someone will come by eventually like an air raid warden and signal the all-clear), but [[DiscoDan that this IS just like the War]] -- Jim believes "Ike and Monty" are still in charge, and, not knowing anything about the "Russkies" or why they fell out with "Joe Stalin", sometimes accidentally calls them "Jerries", even after correcting his own wife for doing it.

* CosyCatastrophe: Deconstructed. Jim and Hilda both lived through the Blitz when they were young and look back on life during World War II with rose-tinted nostalgia, so they adopt the same attitude towards nuclear war. That attitude turns out not to help them at all since their nostalgia has blinded them to the true horrors of war and the aftermath of nuclear war is ''much'' worse than the Blitz. It also doesn't help that the instructions the British government provides for dealing with the fallout are [[FalloutShelterFail completely useless]].

* {{Malaproper}}: Jim Bloggs does this a ''lot'' in regards to modern warfare and politics. For example, assuming that all the major decisions by the Powers That Be are handled by "commuters" (computers).

* TakeThat: The entire comic/film is one towards the British governments' ''Protect and Survive'' leaflets and short films. These were originally only to be handed out/broadcast if it seemed war between the NATO and Warsaw Pact was imminent (as any direct conflict would most likely escalate into nuclear war), but public demand saw the leaflets and films distributed during peacetime. ''When the Wind Blows'' was made in part to show how useless the survival instructions were, that anyone who followed them would die of radiation sickness.

* DerangedAnimation: The nuclear attack. In the comic, possibly even more terrifying, the two pages after the bomb are almost entirely white.

* SayYourPrayers: In a played for tragedy sense at the end where [[spoiler: Hilda suggests that she and Jim get into the paper bags and pray.]]

* CosyCatastrophe: Deconstructed. Jim and Hilda both lived through the Blitz when they were young and look back on life during World War II with rose-tinted nostalgia, so they adopt the same attitude towards nuclear war. That attitude turns out not to help them at all since their nostalgia has blinded them to the true horrors of war and the aftermath of nuclear war is ''much'' worse than the Blitz.

* BloodFromTheMouth: When Jim sings a song to keep Hilda's spirits up, he starts bleeding from the mouth hard enough to stain his shirt (which is a sign of [[spoiler: the radiation sickness consuming both him and Hilda]]).

Compare to ''Film/TheDayAfter'' and ''Film/{{Threads}}'', and the Japanese ''Manga/BarefootGen''.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Jim is a decent chap who wouldn't dream of being rude to his wife. When they hear the four-minute warning that the missiles have been launched, Hilda fails to grasp the seriousness of the situation, decides to get the washing in and dithers about the cakes in the oven, panicking Jim so much that he shouts "Come back, [[PrecisionFStrike you stupid bitch]], and get in the shelter!" Although this could be justified due to it being an emergency where Jim is rightfully panicking and trying to keep him and his wife safe.

* BreakTheCutie: The Bloggses are perfectly nice and harmless people, but Mutally Assured Destruction and radiation poisoning don't care about that. Eventually becomes a case of [[spoiler:KillTheCutie.]]

* CosyCatastrophe: Deconstructed. Jim and Hilda both lived through the Blitz when they were young and look back on life during World War II with rose-tinted nostalgia, so they adopt the same attitude towards nuclear war. That attitude turns out not to help them at all, since their nostalgia has blinded them to the true horrors of war and the aftermath of nuclear war is ''much'' worse than the Blitz.

* DumbassHasAPoint: Deliberately invoked. Jim's quintessentially British respect for authority means he tries to follow the government's advice regardless of how self-contradictory it is, exposing all its flaws. Hilda spots a few of the flaws as well (How are you supposed to close the doors to prevent fire spreading if you've used them to build your Inner Core Or Refuge? How are you supposed to get a whole family into a makeshift shelter that can barely hold two pensioners?), but they both just brush them off.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Being kindly English folk, the strongest language used in the comic is "Blimey!". In the film, on the other hand, James calls Hilda a "stupid bitch" to hurry her into the inner core or refuge once the nukes start coming down. This has the effect of slowing her down as she stops to demand an apology.

* TruthInTelevision: There actually were government leaflets on how to survive a nuclear attack. Everything they do (when following it, at least) is [[http://www.atomica.co.uk/culture.htm exactly what the leaflet said one should do]]. More importantly the symptoms the Bloggses suffer from are the actual symptoms of radiation sickness that align with real accounts.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Jim is a decent chap who who wouldn't dream of being rude to his wife. When they hear the four minute warning that the missiles have been launched, Hilda fails to grasp the seriousness of the situation, decides to get the washing in and dithers about the cakes in the oven, panicking Jim so much that he shouts "Come back, [[PrecisionFStrike you stupid bitch]], and get in the shelter!"

* SayYourPrayers: In a played for tragedy sense at the end where, [[spoiler: Hilda suggests that she and Jim get into the paper bags and pray.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Jim is a decent chap who who wouldn't dream of being rude to his wife. When they hear the four minute warning that the missiles have been launched, Hilda fails to grasp the seriousness of the situation, decides to get the washing in and dithers about the cakes in the oven, panicking Jim so much that he shouts "Come back, you stupid bitch, and get in the shelter!"

* DoomedProtagonist: In an anti-war comic/film like this, what would you expect?

* CosyCatastrophe: Deconstructed. Jim and Hilda have very rose-tinted memories of WWII, so they adopt the same attitude towards nuclear war. That attitude turns out not to help them at all, since the aftermath of nuclear war is ''much'' worse than the Blitz.

* [[spoiler:[[MutuallyAssuredDestruction -- .- -..]]: If you know morse, [[FridgeHorror you know what happened.]]]]

* CosyCatastrophe: Deconstructed. Jim and Hilda have very rose-tinted memories of WWII, so they adopt the same attitude towards nuclear war.

* TooDumbToLive: Though they are more naive than dumb, the Bloggses, especially Hilda, just have no grip whatsoever on the true implications of "the bomb" being dropped, likening it to the nightly bombings carried out by the Luftwaffe on the British mainland during World War II. [[spoiler: Yes, they do fail to survive.]]

* MoodWhiplash: The cheery approach the Bloggses take to the whole thing is made more heart wrenching as the story keeps cutting to the Soviets setting up for launch, letting the reader/watcher know that yes, there is indeed a nuke coming. Even after the nuke comes, the Bloggses cling to their CosyCatastrophe memories of surviving UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and try to remain optimistic about the whole thing.