Threads is a 1984 apocalyptic anti-war drama television film directed and produced by Mick Jackson and written by Barry Hines. A dramatic account of the potential medical, economic, social, and environmental consequences of a nuclear war in Britain, it follows two families in Sheffield as a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union erupts into war and a general nuclear exchange between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. An international co-production between the BBC, Nine Network, and Western-World Television Inc., the film was shot on a budget of £400,000 (equivalent to £1.34 million in 2024). It was the first of its kind to depict a nuclear winter and has been cited as the film "which comes closest to representing the full horror of nuclear war and its aftermath, as well as the catastrophic impact that the event would have on human culture". It has been compared to The War Game (1966) and The Day After (1983). It was nominated for seven BAFTA Awards in 1985 and won for Best Single Drama, Best Design, Best Film Cameraman, and Best Film Editor.
Plot In the English city of Sheffield, Ruth Beckett and Jimmy Kemp, who are young adults, plan to marry after learning of Ruth's unplanned pregnancy. Meanwhile, an international crisis develops after the Soviet Union invades northern Iran in response to a United States-backed coup in the country. Daily life in Sheffield continues while an American ultimatum demanding joint withdrawal from Iran expires. After a limited nuclear exchange in Mashhad, armed conflict breaks out between America and the Soviet Union. As Britain prepares for the possibility of nuclear war, society gradually destabilises over the course of two days and violent suppression of anti-war protests takes place across the country. Inhabitants of Sheffield are spurred into panic buying and looting. Sheffield City Council officials begin setting up emergency administrative operations in a makeshift basement bunker in case the region's centre of government should be destroyed. Ruth's family prepare to use their cellar as a shelter, while Jimmy's family construct a lean-to from mattresses and doors. Jimmy is arguing with panic-buyers at the joinery with his friend Bob when civil defence sirens sound. Taking cover under a lorry, they see a mushroom cloud in the distance; a tactical nuclear attack on a nearby airbase at Finningley causes much collateral damage to Sheffield, while attacks on other NATO targets across Britain kill and injure tens of millions of people. Jimmy attempts to reach Ruth, but is never seen again. Moments later, a 1-megaton weapon detonates over Sheffield. Jimmy's brother Michael is killed in the initial firestorm when their finch aviary collapses, while his mother suffers severe burns and his father falls ill from radiation poisoning in the following days. Ruth and her family fare better in their underground shelter, although Ruth's grandmother soon falls ill. As the Sheffield council's efforts to maintain order fail, they slowly suffocate in their bunker, which is buried under the rubble of Sheffield Town Hall. Meanwhile, Ruth flees her shelter after her grandmother dies, discovering that society has collapsed over the course of nine days. Because of dangers posed by fallout, rescue efforts and attempts to control fires are halted; local authority has broken down, martial law has been implemented and survivors are left to fend for themselves. Ruth visits Jimmy's house, finding his mother's corpse. She takes Jimmy's Handbook Of Foreign Birds as a keepsake, then visits the hospital, which is under-equipped and overwhelmed by hundreds of wounded civilians. By the time Ruth returns home, her parents have been killed by looters. With food becoming scarce as a result of looting and fires, Ruth travels west to the countryside near Buxton. Food soon becomes the only form of currency as nuclear winter causes a severely diminished harvest and mass starvation. Ruth briefly reunites with Bob as the two reach Buxton, where local authorities unsuccessfully attempt to convince the residents to house refugees. She later gives birth to her daughter alone in an abandoned barn while a chained dog snarls at her outside. One year later, sunlight levels have mostly returned to normal, though damage to the ozone layer means that higher UV levels have increased the risks of cataracts and skin cancer. A decade later, Britain's surviving population has dropped to an estimated 4 to 11 million – similar to that of the Middle Ages – and the country remains devastated. Ruth and her daughter Jane work in the fields with other survivors, cultivating crops by hand. Because of the elective mutism of many adult survivors, fetal radiation exposure, and the absence of organised schooling, many children born after the war, including Jane, speak non-standard English. Ruth dies in bed, prematurely aged and blinded by cataracts. Jane watches her mother die, responding with apathy and taking the last of Ruth's possessions, leaving behind Jimmy's bird book, which Ruth has kept. Three years later, industry resumes via limited steam power, although the population still lives in squalor. Jane and two young men are caught stealing food; one of the men is shot dead while the other flees with Jane. They start to fight over who gets to eat first before their struggle degenerates into sex. Jane later gives birth in a makeshift hospital, where the nurse wraps the silent baby in a bloody sheet and gives it to Jane, who looks at it in horror.
Cast
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