In " The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), a flying saucer lands on the Mall in Washington DC, where it is surrounded by troops and tanks. In the 1950s science fiction had two main themes: the invasion of the Earth (symbolising the US) by superior, aggressive, and frequently technologically advanced aliens and the dread of atomic weapons, which was typically portrayed as a revolt of nature, with irradiated monsters attacking and ravaging entire cities.
#World war iii imminent movie
Science fiction had previously not been popular with either critics or movie audiences, but it became a viable Hollywood genre during the Cold War. Īgainst this background of dread there was an outpouring of cinema with frightening themes, particularly in the science fiction genre. The Soviet Union retaliates by bombing New York, Washington, Philadelphia, and Detroit. In the magazine, war begins when the Red Army invades Yugoslavia and the United States responds by conducting a three month long bombing campaign of Soviet Union military and industrial targets. The issue was entitled "Preview of the War We Do Not Want". In 1951 an entire issue of " Collier's" magazine was devoted to a fictional account of World War III.
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Pundits named the era "the age of anxiety", after W. He worried that younger writers were too preoccupied with the question of "When will I be blown up?" Halliwell, Martin, 2007, "American Culture in the 1950s", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 5-6.]Īmerican fears of an impending apocalyptic World War III with the communist bloc were strengthened by the quick succession of the Soviet Union’s nuclear bomb test, the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. When William Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949, he spoke about Cold War themes in art. Fact|date=August 2007 The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 made stories of a future global nuclear war look less like fiction and more like prophecy. The Soviet Union then develops the same weapon independently, and war between it and the US follows. Heinlein's story "Solution Unsatisfactory" the US develops radioactive dust as the ultimate weapon of war and uses it to destroy Berlin in 1945 and end the war with Germany. During World War II, several nuclear war stories were published in science fiction magazines such as "Astounding". The most notable of these is " The World Set Free", written by H.
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Prescient stories about nuclear war were written before the invention of the atomic bomb. Martin, Andrew, and Petro, Patrice, 2006, "Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, and the "War on Terror" Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0-0.] The concept of mutually assured destruction was also the focus of numerous movies and films. The only places a global nuclear war have ever been fought are in expert scenarios, theoretical models, war games, and the art, film, and literature of the nuclear age. Angelo, Joseph A., 2004, "Nuclear Technology", Greenwood Press, ISBN 6-6.] Nevertheless, the possibility of such a war became the basis for speculative fiction, and its simulation in books, films and video games became a way to explore the issues of a war that has thus far not occurred in reality.
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Fact|date=August 2007 Strategic analysts assert that nuclear weapons prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from fighting World War III with conventional weapons. Lipschutz, Ronnie D., 2001, "Cold War Fantasies: Film, Fiction, and Foreign Policy", Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 2-2.] Various scientists and authors, such as Carl Sagan, predicted massive, possibly life ending destruction of the earth as the result of such a conflict. Weart called nuclear weapons a "symbol for the worst of modernity."ĭuring the Cold War, concepts such as mutual assured destruction (MAD) led lawmakers and government officials in both the United States and the Soviet Union to avoid entering a nuclear World War III that could have had catastrophic consequences on the entire world. Franklin, Jerome, 2002, "Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film", Routledge, ISBN 0-8.] The historian Spencer R. Worland, Rick, 2006, "The Horror Film: An Introduction", Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 2-1.] This theme in the arts was also a way of exploring a range of issues far beyond nuclear war. There was a pervasive dread of a nuclear World War III, and popular culture reveals the fears of the public at the time. Biggs, Lindy and Hansen, James (editors), 2004, "Readings in Technology and Civilisation", ISBN 9-8.] The presence of the Soviet Union as an international rival armed with nuclear weapons created a persistent fear in the United States. Since the 1940s, countless books, films, and television programmes have used the theme of nuclear weapons and a third global war. World War III is a common theme in popular culture.