The Shelter story
An alert is issued for an imminent nuclear attack, prompting neighbors to unite against the physician whose bomb shelter has room enough only for his family. Directed by: Lamont Johnson. Story by: Rod Serling.
13 total · 1 choice · 8 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| a person's true character is revealed in a time of crisis | choice | The Stockton family's once-friendly neighbors banged down their bomb shelter door in the lead up to a presumed nuclear attack. |
| desperation | major | The Stockton family's panicked neighbors came banging on their bomb shelter door in the lead up to a presumed nuclear attack. |
| friendship | major | A point of the story was, perhaps, that when push comes to shove, friends are cheap and unreliable - in this case even a liability. |
| husband and wife | major | Bill and Grace: Bill consoled Grace several times and at length. |
| mass hysteria | major | We saw the people in a suburban neighborhood act hysterically, and irrationally in the lead up to a presumed nuclear strike. |
| neighbor and neighbor | major | The Stockton family's panicked neighbors came banging on their bomb shelter door in the lead up to a presumed nuclear attack. |
| nuclear holocaust | major | We saw America just as it, and by implication the world, was about to be destroyed by nuclear missiles. |
| survivalism | major | We heard that Bill had perpetrated much nocturnal drilling in order to prepare his substantial bomb shelter. |
| the calculus of human life | major | The story hinged on Bill's decision to protect himself and his family by not letting others into their bomb shelter. Maybe Bill could have accommodated one additional person in his bomb shelter, but not the entire neighborhood. |
| father and son | minor | Bill hunkered down with his 12-year-old son Paul in the family bomb shelter. |