The Day After story
The film postulates a fictional war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact countries that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. The action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, and of several family farms near nuclear missile silos.
18 total · 5 major · 13 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| human familial relationship | major | We saw several families experience the lead up to and aftermath of a nuclear war. |
| nuclear holocaust | major | We saw the a chilling depiction of what the lead up to and aftermath of a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union might be like. |
| nuclear weapons | major | We saw the a chilling depiction of what the lead up to and aftermath of a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union might be like. |
| rebuilding society after war | major | People had to rebuilt the United States, and a rural area nearby Kansas City in particular, after a full-scale nuclear exchange with the Soviets. |
| the Cold War | major | The Cold War turned hot and very quickly went nuclear. |
| blindness | minor | Little Danny Dahlberg went blind from looking at a nuclear bomb go off. |
| boyfriend and girlfriend | minor | Denise Dahlberg planned to marry her sweetheart Bruce Gallatin against her father's wishes. |
| child leaving the nest | minor | Marylin reluctantly told her father that she was leaving the nest to move to Boston to be with her boyfriend. |
| coping with radiation sickness | minor | Billy McCoy was falling to pieces from radiation poisoning. Many others were also shown to suffer from this illness. |
| coping with the death of a lover | minor | After spending a number of days cooped up in a dank basement with her family, Denise Dahlberg freaked out over anxiety from the realization that boyfriend Bruce almost certainly died in the nuclear blast. |