History Film / Threads

* ApatheticCitizens: While the news broadcasts the deteriorating situation in Iran throughout the film, the events are only paid cursory interest by anyone who's not a government official (while there are protests, they're paid little attention to by the populace). Eventually gets deconstructed as the film goes on; the citizens become increasingly aware of how bad things are getting, but still (attempt to) ignore them either because they don't wish to confront the increasing likelihood that the world is about to end, or, perhaps more likely, because they know they're powerless to stop it in any case.

* ApatheticCitizens:
** While the news broadcasts the deteriorating situation in Iran throughout the film, the events are only paid cursory interest by anyone who's not a government official (while there are protests, they're paid little attention to by the populace). Eventually gets deconstructed as the film goes on; the citizens become increasingly aware of how bad things are getting, but still (attempt to) ignore them either because they don't wish to confront the increasing likelihood that the world is about to end, or, perhaps more likely, because they know they're powerless to stop it in any case.

** By contrast, the Becketts have a sturdy basement, and are lucky enough to own a house situated well outside the initial blast zone. Though they still experience a death in the family and Ruth runs away from home soon after, it appears as though her parents have all the supplies they need to survive the apocalypse and potentially start a new life for themselves. Unfortunately, the one thing they forgot about was securing and defending their home. [[spoiler: A time later, a gang of looters break in and murder Ruth's parents to steal their food. Ruth also remarks that they're STILL breathing in the radiation, as nuclear fallout can settle anywhere and gamma radiation can penetrate even through thick surfaces, and is ultimately inescapable. So, even if the house hadn't been raided, Ruth's parents would have likely fell severely ill and eventually perished anyway. Their true problems after the attack would just be BEGINNING]].

* SpotOfTea: Mugs of tea are frequently seen in the emergency council bunker. [[JustifiedTrope Entirely justified]] given that this is after all Britain and the characters are under great stress.

* 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.

* SpiritualSuccessor : To the very similar 1965 DocuDrama ''Film/TheWarGame'', though that movie wasn't shown on TV until a year after ''Threads'' was released, because the BBC outright refused to broadcast it out of fears of widespread panic back when it was made.

* AllUpToYou: A week after the nuclear exchange, the city's food stocks are running out and the food officer (Roger Fisher) warns of starving mobs in districts like Sharrow and Ecclesfield. Clive Sutton refuses to release buffer stocks without authorization from Zone and County authorities. The manpower officer, Susan Russell, angrily invokes this Trope in response:

* CrazySurvivalist: George Langley, the Buxton resident who's forced to house four temporary residents (Ruth among them) as per the emergency regulations after the nuclear exchange. He isn't having any of it, arguing with the officer, refusing to house strangers, and loudly fretting that his unwanted tenants might be contaminated with radiation or disease. After the officers leave, he throws Ruth and the others out at gunpoint.

--->'''Ruth:''' I think he wants ''something else'' seen to as well.

** During production, a smoke bomb was used to simulate the mushroom, ''actually'' (But accidentally) ''causing panic'' in the area near the set.

* 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.]]

-->'''Food Officer (Roger Fisher):''' Is it for real?

* CrazedSurvivalist: George Langley, the Buxton resident who's forced to house four temporary residents (Ruth among them) as per the emergency regulations after the nuclear exchange. He isn't having any of it, arguing with the officer, refusing to house strangers, and loudly fretting that his unwanted tenants might be contaminated with radiation or disease. After the officers leave, he throws Ruth and the others out at gunpoint.

-->'''Bob:''': Of course it bloody scares me, but there's naught we can do about it, is there? [[WhileRomeBurns Might as well enjoy ourselves as much as we can!]]

* SkywardScream: In one of the last scenes with the surviving council members, they discuss the dwindling food supplies and inability to get outside help. Dr. Talbot suggests cutting rations to a 1,000 calories a day for manual workers and 500 calories for the rest (over the protestations of Roger Fisher). When Clive Sutton asks Dr. Talbot what would constitute 500 calories a day, listing off examples sends him over the edge, and he can do nothing but scream [[DespairEventHorizon "'''BASTARDS!'''"]] at the ceiling in impotent rage.

--->Ruth? Ruth! Work. Work. Work. Up!

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: As the situation worsens and the chances of the Emergency Council surviving plunge, one particularly stressed member of the team asks for cigarettes; the bunker's resident doctor hands over a pack and snarkily remarks, "[[{{Irony}} bad for your health, y'know]]." Clive Sutton cracks a smile at this.

** The more likely latter attitude is summed up in a scene in the pub between Jimmy and Bob. Jimmy expresses his concerns about the situation in Iran, but Bob just brushes them off because he knows there's nothing they can do about it.

-->We'll be able to sleep in it. [[InnocentInaccurate It'll be like going camping.]]

** The film's narration makes it clear that the lack of drugs, bandages, clean water or electricity make it just about impossible for the doctors to help anyone in the aftermath of the nuclear attack. Consequently, the hospital focussed on sixteen days after the blast is a filthy, gloomy, hopelessly-overcrowded ruin where wounded citizens queue in crushing conditions and ill-equipped surgeons are forced to improvise what little treatment they can: bandages are made from torn sheets, glass is picked from open wounds with tweezers, table salt is used in place of antibiotics, and infected limbs are sawed off without anaesthetic.

* DeathTrap: As soon as things start looking hairy, the Sheffield emergency council meets in the converted basement of the town hall. It's stocked with food, water, comm equipment and an emergency generator - pity that A-bomb had to knock down the entire building on top of the exit. The ceiling[[note]]mostly[[/note]] holds and they can give[[note]]useless[[/note]] orders via phone and radio, but they're trapped with limited food, water and air. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding Four weeks later, a squad of soldiers finally dig their way to the bodies]]]].

* EmergencyBroadcast: The constant runnings of "Protect And Survive" are somewhat like this.
* {{EMP}}: A nuclear detonation over the North Sea knocks out all electricity in Britain before the country itself is hit.

** When Bill's neighbour decides to make a break for it.
--->'''Neighbour:''' Have you turned that gas off?

* SerialEscalation: The escalation scenario that leads to Armageddon in the first place. After a sudden pro-Western coup in Iran that overthrows Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Soviet Union quickly invades to usher in a socialist government and gain a foothold in the Middle East. The Americans quickly retaliate by sending in paratroopers and setting a deadline for withdrawal, and when the Soviet Union refuses to back down, they dispatch bombers at their main staging base in Iran. The Soviet Union destroys most of the aircraft with nuclear-tipped air defense missiles, making the Americans disintegrate the base with a single battlefield nuke. In return the Soviets nuke the aircraft carrier ''Kitty Hawk'', the Americans blockade and later invade Cuba, [[SicklyGreenGlow and after that the war escalates into a full-blown global nuclear exchange, with dire consequences for humanity.]]

* SkywardScream: In one of the last scenes with the surviving council members, they discuss cutting survivors' rations to 500 calories a day. The suggestion sends one of the men over the edge, and he can do nothing but scream [[DespairEventHorizon "BASTARDS!"]] at the ceiling in impotent rage.

* ThisIsNotADrill: The nuclear attack warning sirens sounding over the United Kingdom. The phrase itself comes from a boy rushing to tell his mother that they need to go home ''right freaking now''. A similar one happens when the Sheffield emergency council hears an alarm from the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HANDEL HANDEL Warning Console]].

** As the crisis deepens, the Kemps' next door neighbours (who consist of a couple, their young daughter and a small dog) try to flee to rural Lincolnshire, where the father's brother lives. Along the way, they become caught in a traffic jam which has been caused by a combination of people ignoring official advice to stay put and all major roads being closed to non-essential traffic. This is the last that is seen of them, so their fate is unknown. However, given the film's subject matter, it's not hard to guess.

See also ''Film/TheWarGame'', ''Literature/SometimeNeverAFableForSupermen'', ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows'', and ''Literature/TheRoad''.

* DyingRace: ''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]].

* 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 (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), and 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.

** The speech we hear from the post-war children is broken and simplified, as very little effort is spent on trying to educate the new generations due to a shortage of resources and knowledge. A few children ''are'' seen watching dodgy recordings of ''[[EducationalShort Words and Pictures]]'' educational videos, and others are getting some sort of vocational training in clothing repair, but that's about as far as it seems to go for the time being. This is a doubly tragic occurrence, as the lack of advanced education for at least the next few generations suggests that basic human civilization will not be able to recover for the next few decades if not centuries. Considering these kids have almost certainly suffered brain damage from early childhood malnutrition, the picture becomes even bleaker. Not to mention all of the kids, including Jane, have likely suffered additional brain damage because of radiation doses received ''in utero''.
** 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 no real 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:

* ApocalypseHow: The movie ends somewhere between Planetary Societal Disruption and Societal Collapse (though the film mainly concentrates on its effects on Great Britain). Although the human population of the UK is reduced to medieval levels and the nuclear winter, fallout, and loss of modern infrastructure and industry has made sustaining a viable population extremely difficult, they are able to maintain a handful of more primitive tools and devices. A montage of photos suggests that after about ten years post-war Britain is capable of generating some electricity, and is able to manufacture and maintain steam-era technology. It's hinted that conditions may worsen into a Class 4 (Total Extinction), due to the effects of nuclear winter.

* 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 ailing. The very next scene with the Becketts features her body being hauled out of the fallout shelter by her grieving relatives.

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: Ruth's parents are in an excellent position to survive the war. They take shelter in the basement of their sturdily built house, which is fairly far from the epicenter of the nearest blast, and they have ample provisions. But then a group of looters break into their house and murder them.]]

* 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 the species, we are given a glimpse of [[spoiler:the second generation of post-war babies]], which decidedly [[HopeSpot quells any lingering hope]] viewers may have been desperately clinging to.

* DyingRace: ''Humanity'' after the bombs fall. Even though there are millions of survivors still left, 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 the next generation and spell the end for the human race]].

* EternalEnglish: {{Averted}}. Just 13 years after the attack, English is practically unrecognisable due to the lack of literacy and education. The English the children of the attack survivors speak has become slurred and simplified. 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".

** Following government advice, the Kemps attempt to build an inner refuge out of doors and mattresses. This probably wouldn't have been much use even if they'd finished it in time, but thanks to sheer bad luck, their house is on the edge of a strike zone: the building is almost completely destroyed, rendering the inner core largely useless; [[spoiler: Michael is burned to death by the fireball and then crushed in the rubble, Rita suffers fatal burns, and Bill is left to slowly die of radiation sickness.]]
** By contrast, the Becketts have a basement and are lucky enough to own a house situated well outside the blast zone. Though they have to endure a death in the family and Ruth runs away from home soon after, it appears as though her parents have all the supplies they need to survive the apocalypse. Unfortunately, the one thing they skimped on was security: [[spoiler: a gang of looters break in and murder Ruth's parents for their food.]] And as Ruth remarks, [[ForeShadowing they're STILL breathing in the radiation, as fallout can settle anywhere and penetrate through thick surfaces, and is ultimately inescapable. So, even if the house hadn't been raided, Ruth's parents would've eventually perished anyway. Their true problems after the attack would just be BEGINNING]].
* AFateWorseThanDeath: So, you survived the initial bombing? Too bad for you.

* FromBadToWorse: It turns out that a quick death from the time of nuclear impact is probably the most ''humane'' way for someone to go, as the following days and weeks see people resorting to looting (and possibly murder) to survive, characters are shown stealing from government-operated foodstocks (some of which are shot down as they flee), residents of Sheffield fleeing the city in favor of unknown radiation hazards in the countryside and others being reduced to animals as they fight for what few supplies are left. [[TimeSkip Thirteen years later]], things may legitimately be worse, as education has been all but eliminated, the population is reduced to medieval levels, children can barely string two words together and it's ''heavily'' implied that the ozone layer is permanently impacted and humanity as a whole is doomed due to mutations and stillbirths.
* GetRichQuickScheme: Retailers treat the whole situation before the bombs fall as one, vastly inflating prices for basic goods that the government has told people to buy, implying this will help them survive. [[LaserGuidedKarma The bombs then do fall]], leaving them with [[WorthlessYellowRocks money they can't use]].
* HopeSpot: Thirteen years after the nuclear exchange, sunlight has returned and some form of agriculture has managed to start back up, suggesting that humanity may be starting to rebuild. Then...[[spoiler:Ruth dies in her thirties from cancer as a result of the radiation, and Jane, her mentally-disabled daughter, is forced to fend for herself. 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 be what finishes humanity off]]. Made all the worse by the fact that Ruth [[{{Foreshadowing}} predicts that this would happen thirteen years prior]] after breaking down in tears in her parents' fallout shelter.]]

* {{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 death in the movie -- ''everyone'' else is either shown slowly succumbing to radiation sickness or having their bodies left in otherwise-horrific circumstances.
* {{Jerkass}}: The horrible old man in Buxton who turfs Ruth out into the street, ignoring government orders to open his four spare rooms up to the visibly freezing and starving lodgers.

* LaserGuidedKarma: One of the looters responsible for [[spoiler:seemingly killing Ruth's parents and stealing their supplies]] (possibly the one who committed the act) is immediately shot and killed by a group of soldiers checking houses and arresting looters, just after he attempts to flee from them. The other two are rounded up and sent to the detention camp seen a few scenes later.

* MeatgrinderSurgery: With the hospitals being completely swamped by victims of the nuking and the destruction of the power grid meaning electricity is as nonexistent as the equipment, the doctors are as inept as any other bystander in treating wounds and burns and resort to [[NightmareFuel operating on still-conscious patients- including children.]]
* NoEnding: [[spoiler:The film ends abruptly with Jane being handed the deformed corpse of her stillborn baby; see DownerEnding above. However, there's also no real dénouement, and there's not really supposed to be.]]
* NothingIsScarier: We only see brief glimpses of what Jane's deformed, stillborn baby looks like, but what we do see isn't pretty. From Jane's horrified reaction, our imagination can fill in the gaps.
* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Sheffield emergency council falls to this after the bombs drop. They spend more time shouting and yelling at each other than they do trying to pick up the pieces.

* 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 it stops barking entirely and merely stares.

** Zigzagged with Jane, who is seen trying to rouse her dying mother. However, once Ruth has actually died, Jane, after shaking her one more time, quickly realises Ruth isn't going to get up and calmly walks away as though nothing has happened. It's unclear if Jane's apparent lack of grief is due to damage to the area of her brain which processes emotion, or the fact that she has seen death so often that it doesn't have any impact on her. Either way, the only belongings of Ruth's which Jane takes with her are things which have a practical use, a scarf and a hairbrush.

* PoliceBrutality: The police are shown violently breaking up an anti-war protest early in the film. After the attacks, British military police use tear gas to disperse survivors demanding food and shoot anyone who doesn't run away.

* PublicServiceAnnouncement: The film was made disturbingly realistic by using genuine [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_and_Survive public information films]]. During the 1970s, these films would have been publicly disseminated in anticipation of national emergency, concerning what measures to take in the event of nuclear war. ''Threads'' demonstrated in horrific detail how fatally ineffective they'd be.
* RapidAging: Ruth in her 30s looks like an old woman due to the ravages of radiation and UV light.

* ScavengerWorld: The world after the bombs. There appears to be some semblance of agriculture and education, but it's nowhere near enough to make serious progress towards rebuilding society.
* SceneryBasedSocietalBarometer: The Council Bunker often serves as a measure of the current state of society and the government. It seems fairly orderly at first - but it soon becomes clear that most of the committee have no idea what they're doing, much like the rest of the city. Then, once the bomb hits, [[FalloutShelterFail the town hall collapses on top of the bunker]], leaving the council trapped inside (killing one of them, mirroring the many casualties aboveground). As the weeks go by and the situation gets worse, the bunker becomes progressively messier: dirty plates pile up, [[CigaretteOfAnxiety empty packets of cigarettes cover the tables]], buckets are hastily set up under the leaking roof, and the clothes of the council members grow rumpled and dirty. More worryingly, with the vents blocked by several thousand tons of rubble, air quality drops lower and lower, leaving several council members collapsed against the wall. [[spoiler: By the time anyone arrives to rescue them, the council has long since suffocated to death; from here on, society has reached the point of no return and is controlled entirely by the decaying remains of the military.]]
* SceneryGorn: Much of the harrowing atmosphere of the film comes from the devastated urban landscapes and barren, frozen countryside.
* ScreamingBirth: Subverted horrifically at the end with [[spoiler:Jane]]'s stillborn, mutated child.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Once the grim reality of her situation becomes clear, Ruth flees from her parents' house as they move her (now-deceased) grandmother upstairs and drape a sheet over her. This turns out to be the right call, as [[spoiler:her parents perish soon after (implied to be due to looters stealing their supplies)]].
* SerialEscalation: The escalation scenario that leads to Armageddon in the first place. After a coup in Iran, the Soviet Union invades to gain a toehold in the Middle East. The Americans send in paratroopers and set a deadline for withdrawal, and when the Soviets don't back down they send bombers after their main staging base in Iran. The Soviets destroy most of the aircraft with a nuclear-tipped air defense missile. The Americans then destroy the base with a single battlefield nuke. In return the Soviets nuke the aircraft carrier ''Kitty Hawk'', the Americans blockade Cuba, [[SicklyGreenGlow and after that it gets kind of hazy...]]
* ShootTheShaggyDog: The last scene is [[spoiler:the birth of a severely deformed, stillborn infant, and Jane's look of horror when she realizes it. That is humanity's future in Britain, and probably the world as well.]]
* ShownTheirWork: Thanks to the army of scientific advisers (including Creator/CarlSagan) listed in the end credits. The only really dodgy bit of science is the implied permanent destruction of the ozone layer as a result of the nuclear exchange (it ''should'' regenerate itself over time in the absence of pollutants), but even this is something that scientists aren't 100% sure on.

* 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 imminent destruction of all life, signified by [[spoiler:Ruth's daughter Jane giving birth to a deformed, stillborn baby.]]
* SpiritualSuccessor : To the very similar 1965 DocuDrama ''Film/TheWarGame'' -- though that movie wasn't shown on TV until a year after ''Threads'' because the BBC refused to broadcast it back when it was made.
* SpotOfTea: Mugs of tea proliferate in the council bunker; [[JustifiedTrope entirely justified]] given that this is Britain and the characters are under great stress.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Essentially, ''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. 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 attack does come. The attempts to build a makeshift shelter with only a couple hours' notice do nothing to prevent rolling firestorms, radiation sickness and eventual death. Even with a continuity of government in place, it 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 arguments. What few people survived the attack in Sheffield are forced to flee the city for the countryside, dodging pockets of radiation and having to jumpstart agriculture with antiquated equipment. Thirteen years on, the situation hasn't improved in the slightest; education is near non-existent, theft is rampant, the survivors of the attack are dealing with RapidAging and cancers, and the daughter of the lead female character quickly discovers how dire humanity's chances are when she has a TragicStillbirth.
* TeenPregnancy: Jane gets pregnant at ''thirteen'' via an implied rape by a fellow looter following a squabble over food.
* TeensAreMonsters: Well, this ''is'' a British production after all; without the comforting kosh of civilisation, the kids become little more than animals, barely capable of speech.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: As Jane rushes heads towards the makeshift hospital during the ending, she passes a pair of shoeless (possibly naked) corpses hung in the foreground, implying that they were either DrivenToSuicide or, worse yet, [[HumanResources being used as food]].
* VomitIndiscretionShot: We see Jimmy's father puking into a rag, and Ruth's dad puking in a toilet. One of them is panicking, the other has radiation sickness: take a guess.
* WarComesHome: This story features a nuclear war spreading to the rest of the world, in this case the United Kingdom. Set in [[OopNorth Sheffield]] it follows two families as they have to deal with both the nuclear attack and the fallout as society crumbles around them.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Subverted; nearly two weeks after the nuclear attack, Ruth (despondent over the deteriorating conditions in Sheffield) makes it back to her parents' home... and is [[GoryDiscretionShot mortified]] when she sees their remains in the basement. This eventually leads her (and many other survivors) to flee the city entirely for the countryside. [[spoiler:When we last see her, she's taken up shelter in a house in the country, and passes away from cancer while her daughter watches.]]

** The speech we hear from the post-war children is broken and uneducated; very little effort is spent on trying to educate the new generations. (A few children ''are'' seen watching dodgy recordings of ''[[EducationalShort Words and Pictures]]'' educational videos, and others are getting some sort of vocational training in clothing repair, but that's about as far as it seems to go). This is a doubly tragic occurrence, as the lack of education for future generations suggests that Earth will ''never'' be able to recover on any level. Considering these kids have almost certainly suffered brain damage from early childhood malnutrition, the picture becomes even bleaker. Not to mention all of the kids (including Jane) who likely suffered brain damage because of radiation doses received ''in utero''.
** Jane 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 no real conversational skills; the three youngsters do exchange words, but they mostly consist of the boys demanding a share of Jane's food (and more besides, since one of them is implied to be the father of Jane's stillborn baby). Also, the post-war kids 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:

* YoungerThanTheyLook: After the ten year TimeSkip, Ruth (who by that point would barely be in her thirties) has aged about forty years. This is due to the years of radiation exposure and the amplified ultra violet rays from the sun causing her to go blind.

The film depicts the terrifying consequences of [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons nuclear warfare]] upon an unsuspecting world. Set mainly in [[OopNorth Sheffield]] during the height of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, ''Threads'' follows two families, the Becketts and the Kemps, amongst the other members of their town, as they deal with the absolute destruction of their society as a result of nuclear war with the Soviet Union (which at the time of release was [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar somewhat more likely]] than it is today). The findings of the 1955 ''Strath Report'' noted that the UK was singularly vulnerable to a nuclear exchange due to the country's location, small size, high urban population, and dependency upon food imports.[[note]] [Assuming the use of ten ten-megaton hydrogen bombs, the minimum number the report thought needed to render the UK militarily useless in a war] "'''Blast and heat''' would be the dominant hazard, accounting for more than '''9 million fatal casualties against less than 3 million fatal casualties from radiation''' [of a total UK population of 51 million]. [...] On the basis of an attack with ten bombs we also reckon that, in addition to casualties, a '''further 13 million people''' - many of them suffering from radiation sickness - would be '''pinned down in their houses or shelters for at least a week'''. Evacuation would increase this number. [...] It would be quite '''unrealistic to hope to maintain anything like normal medical standards''' [...] the '''chief difficulty would be to distinguish those who, in addition to having received burns or other injuries, had also been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and who would therefore ultimately die, and on whom it would be wasteful to expend scarce medical resources'''. [...] An attack upon the largest towns with ten hydrogen bombs would totally disrupt the industrial and commercial life of the country. Direct damage would be concentrated near the points of attack but these are likely to contain about one-third of the population and about half the industry. The normal communication and transport systems would come to a stop and the inability to move food, fuel, and material would also stop ordinary social and economic processes. The whole mechanism of money transactions would be disrupted. [...] Commercial '''stocks of food would suffer heavy loss'''. These losses would further deplete available supplies. In the period immediately after the attack the widespread contamination from fall-out would make internal '''distribution of whatever stocks were available virtually impossible''' in large parts of the country. People in areas of severe fall-out would, therefore, have to depend for a week or more on the food which they had stored in their shelters and homes at the time the bombs fell. [...] These considerations suggest that those who survive the attack would have to live for a '''considerable period under siege conditions''', and that the '''risk of starvation would be very real''' unless as substantial strategic reserve of food had been accumulated and distributed about the country in peace. It would, moreover, be essential that the '''Government should be in a position to take immediate and effective control over all food stocks and over their distribution'''. [...] The initial phase of attack would be succeeded by a critical period during which the surviving population would be struggling against disease, starvation, and the unimaginable psychological effects of nuclear bombardment. But provided what was left of the nation could get through that period and the survivors were able to devote their resources to the work of reorganising the country, they should eventually be able to produce a wide enough range of goods to meet ordinary civilian needs. The standard of living of the reduced population, althrough substantially lower than at present, would still be well above that of the greater part of the world. [...] there would be '''no hope of providing anything approaching peacetime standards of medical care''' [...] Research should be carried forward into methods of decontaminating water [even today there are no practical ones] [...] Plans should be made for the emergency distribution of limited supplies of drinking water pending the restoration of mains supplies [...] Plans should be prepared to enable the police and the courts to operate quickly and effectively under the conditions foreseen [...] In some parts of the country, particularly if several bombs fell in the same area, there '''might be complete chaos for a time and civil control would collapse'''. In such circumstances the '''local military commander would have to be prepared to take over''' from the civil authority responsibility for the maintenance of law and order and for the administration of Government. He would, if called upon, exercise his existing common-law powers to '''take whatever steps, however drastic, he considered necessary to restore order'''. [...] The '''ordinary machinery of the courts and prisons could not operate'''. Plans were made during the last war for '''"war zone courts" to function in areas which were involved in military operations'''. These plans should now be examined to see if a simple scheme could be worked out for the prompt dismissal of criminal cases." [[/note]] The film reflects this fairly accurate assessment of the UK's likely situation with what the uninformed might call a hopeless and pessimistic outset - ending with a medieval world where agriculture predominates, starvation is ever-present, modern medicine doesn't exist, martial law prevails, capital punishment is routine, children are undereducated savages, the ozone layer is gone, and Survival Of The Fittest is the only way to get by.

* AnliyoneCanDie: PlayedStraight; most do. [[spoiler: Though it's not always clear who dies, which probably is intentional. Jimmy's sister Allison ''may'' be the young blonde woman glimpsed at an internment camp for looting suspects several weeks later. Jimmy himself ''may'' be seen near the end of the movie with a scarred face. We just don't know.]]

* AnyoneCanDie: PlayedStraight; most do. [[spoiler: Though it's not always clear who dies, which probably is intentional. Jimmy's sister Allison ''may'' be the young blonde woman glimpsed at an internment camp for looting suspects several weeks later. Jimmy himself ''may'' be seen near the end of the movie with a scarred face. We just don't know.]]

** The makeshift hospital encountered thirteen years after the blast is, if anything, even worse. It looks like it's been assembled in what's left of a public toilet, the one attending nurse can barely bring herself to look after her patients, and the patients are given very little supervision. To note, the doctor nearly forces Ruth (who can barely speak any English) out before the later announces, "Coming... coming!" while reeling over a bed -- right beside a patient recovering.

* FromBadToWorse: Go to Website/YouTube and you'll probably find the movie in sections. Look down the related features stills on the right side of the screen, section by section. Hint: the images do not get cheerier as you go.

* WorthlessYellowRocks: After the attack, money becomes worthless. Survivors conscripted to help with reconstruction are "paid" in food, which is "given as a reward for work or [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment withheld as punishment]]." Some bartering is also seen, an example being when Mr. Kemp gives another man cigarettes in exchange for scotch.

* TragicKeepsake: Jimmy's handbook about birds, which Ruth finds near Mrs. Keats' 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]].

* ApatheticCitizens: While the news broadcasts the deteriorating situation in Iran throughout the film, the events are only paid cursory interest by anyone who's not a government official (while there are protests, they're paid little attention to by the populace). Eventually gets deconstructed as the film goes on; the citizens become increasingly aware of how bad things are getting, but still (attempt to) ignore them either because they don't wish to confront the increasing likelihood that the world is about to end, or, perhaps more likely, because they know they're powerless to stop it in any case.

** The makeshift hospital encountered thirteen years after the blast is, if anything, even worse. It looks like it's been assembled in what's left of a public toilet, the one attending nurse can barely bring herself to look after her patients, and the patients are given very little supervision

* 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 ailing. The very next scene with Becketts features her body being hauled out of the fallout shelter by her grieving relatives.

* DumbStruck: Most of the ''country'', and presumably the rest of the world, too. The traumatized survivors of the attacks in the aftermath of the Nuclear Winter are hardly ever seen to talk.

* LaserGuidedKarma: One of the looters responsible for [[spoiler:killing Ruth's parents and stealing their supplies]] (possibly the one who committed the act) is immediately shot and killed by a group of soldiers checking houses and arresting looters, just after he attempts to flee from them. The other two are rounded up and sent to the detention camp seen a few scenes later.

* 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.
* PleaseWakeUp: Zigzagged with Jane, who is seen trying to rouse her dying mother. However, once Ruth has actually died, Jane, after shaking her one more time, quickly realises Ruth isn't going to get up and calmly walks away as though nothing has happened. It's unclear if Jane's apparent lack of grief is due to damage to the area of her brain which processes emotion, or the fact that she has seen death so often that it doesn't have any impact on her. Either way, the only belongings of Ruth's which Jane takes with her are things which have a practical use, a scarf and a hairbrush.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: As the crisis deepens, the Kemps' next door neighbours (who consist of a couple, their young daughter and a small dog) try to flee to rural Lincolnshire, where the father's brother lives. Along the way, they become caught in a traffic jam which has been caused by a combination of people ignoring official advice to stay put and all major roads being closed to non-essential traffic. This is the last that is seen of them, so their fate is unknown. However, given the film's subject matter, it's not hard to guess.

* GoryDiscretionShot: We don't see what happens when [[spoiler:the looters shoot and kill Ruth's parents]]... '''but we can certainly hear the screaming and the shots''. When Ruth arrives a few days later, the film once again prevents the audience from seeing it, but does show Ruth's shocked reaction (and her reeling from the smell) before she leaves.

* FacelessGoons: Justified as soldiers are wearing gas masks against airbourne radioactive particles and diseases. A policeman (really just a deputized traffic warden, the British equivalent of a meter maid) at the detention centre has a [[FacialHorror burn mask covering his face]].
* FalloutShelterFail:

* IgnoredVitalNewsReports: In the opening scene Jimmy skips past a report of the Soviet invasion of Iran while trying to find a football match on the car radio.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: After the ten year timeskip, Ruth (who by that point would barely be in her thirties) has aged about forty years. This is due to the years of radiation exposure and the amplified ultra violet rays from the sun causing her to go blind.

The film depicts the terrifying consequences of [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons nuclear warfare]] upon an unsuspecting world. Set mainly in [[OopNorth Sheffield]] during the height of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, ''Threads'' follows two families, the Becketts and the Kemps, amongst the other members of their town, as they deal with the absolute destruction of their society as a result of nuclear war with the Soviet Union (which at the time of release was [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar somewhat more likely]] [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp than it is today]]). The findings of the 1955 ''Strath Report'' noted that the UK was singularly vulnerable to a nuclear exchange due to the country's location, small size, high urban population, and dependency upon food imports.[[note]] [Assuming the use of ten ten-megaton hydrogen bombs, the minimum number the report thought needed to render the UK militarily useless in a war] "'''Blast and heat''' would be the dominant hazard, accounting for more than '''9 million fatal casualties against less than 3 million fatal casualties from radiation''' [of a total UK population of 51 million]. [...] On the basis of an attack with ten bombs we also reckon that, in addition to casualties, a '''further 13 million people''' - many of them suffering from radiation sickness - would be '''pinned down in their houses or shelters for at least a week'''. Evacuation would increase this number. [...] It would be quite '''unrealistic to hope to maintain anything like normal medical standards''' [...] the '''chief difficulty would be to distinguish those who, in addition to having received burns or other injuries, had also been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and who would therefore ultimately die, and on whom it would be wasteful to expend scarce medical resources'''. [...] An attack upon the largest towns with ten hydrogen bombs would totally disrupt the industrial and commercial life of the country. Direct damage would be concentrated near the points of attack but these are likely to contain about one-third of the population and about half the industry. The normal communication and transport systems would come to a stop and the inability to move food, fuel, and material would also stop ordinary social and economic processes. The whole mechanism of money transactions would be disrupted. [...] Commercial '''stocks of food would suffer heavy loss'''. These losses would further deplete available supplies. In the period immediately after the attack the widespread contamination from fall-out would make internal '''distribution of whatever stocks were available virtually impossible''' in large parts of the country. People in areas of severe fall-out would, therefore, have to depend for a week or more on the food which they had stored in their shelters and homes at the time the bombs fell. [...] These considerations suggest that those who survive the attack would have to live for a '''considerable period under siege conditions''', and that the '''risk of starvation would be very real''' unless as substantial strategic reserve of food had been accumulated and distributed about the country in peace. It would, moreover, be essential that the '''Government should be in a position to take immediate and effective control over all food stocks and over their distribution'''. [...] The initial phase of attack would be succeeded by a critical period during which the surviving population would be struggling against disease, starvation, and the unimaginable psychological effects of nuclear bombardment. But provided what was left of the nation could get through that period and the survivors were able to devote their resources to the work of reorganising the country, they should eventually be able to produce a wide enough range of goods to meet ordinary civilian needs. The standard of living of the reduced population, althrough substantially lower than at present, would still be well above that of the greater part of the world. [...] there would be '''no hope of providing anything approaching peacetime standards of medical care''' [...] Research should be carried forward into methods of decontaminating water [even today there are no practical ones] [...] Plans should be made for the emergency distribution of limited supplies of drinking water pending the restoration of mains supplies [...] Plans should be prepared to enable the police and the courts to operate quickly and effectively under the conditions foreseen [...] In some parts of the country, particularly if several bombs fell in the same area, there '''might be complete chaos for a time and civil control would collapse'''. In such circumstances the '''local military commander would have to be prepared to take over''' from the civil authority responsibility for the maintenance of law and order and for the administration of Government. He would, if called upon, exercise his existing common-law powers to '''take whatever steps, however drastic, he considered necessary to restore order'''. [...] The '''ordinary machinery of the courts and prisons could not operate'''. Plans were made during the last war for '''"war zone courts" to function in areas which were involved in military operations'''. These plans should now be examined to see if a simple scheme could be worked out for the prompt dismissal of criminal cases." [[/note]] The film reflects this fairly accurate assessment of the UK's likely situation with what the uninformed might call a hopeless and pessimistic outset - ending with a medieval world where agriculture predominates, starvation is ever-present, modern medicine doesn't exist, martial law prevails, capital punishment is routine, children are undereducated savages, the ozone layer is gone, and Survival Of The Fittest is the only way to get by.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Intended for the 1980s, this particular scenario seemed very likely right up until the [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp ending of the Cold War]]. [[http://www.d155.org/clc/faculty/faculty_pages/smalley/documents/ANuclearWarBetweenIndiaandPakistanIsLikely.pdf This article]] by Colonel Sam Gardiner details how escalation and counter-escalation similar to what happened in ''Threads'' could result in an India-Pakistan nuclear war. Fortunately, after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001-2002_India-Pakistan_standoff crisis in 2002]] both sides seem to respect the gravity of the situation a bit more.

* EmpathyDollShot: Michael's handheld video game. [[spoiler: However, Michael's body ''is'' shown earlier in a DeadHandShot, and we see him burn to death in the destruction of Sheffield, when he is outdoors in line of sight to the fireball.]] Also, Jimmy's book of foreign birds.

* EmpathyDollShot: Michael's handheld video game. [[spoiler: However, Michael's body ''is'' shown earlier in a DeadHandShot, and we see him burn to death in the destruction of Sheffield, when he is outdoors in line of sight to the fireball.]]