MovieChat Forums > The Day After (1983) Discussion > Has anyone seen the uncut 4-hour version...

Has anyone seen the uncut 4-hour version?


Wondering if anyone seen it.

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There was no uncut 4 hour version. There were plans for it, but were scrapped.

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The shooting script somebody posted a link to in the message board is probably the closet you'll get to the actual proposed 3 hour version.

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Has anyone got a link to the screenplay ?

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http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Day_After.pdf

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About a year and a half later, but thank you for the link. 

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i guess they didnt get the memo that we are all to be at your beck and call 24 hours a day

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i guess they didnt get the memo that we are all to be at your beck and call 24 hours a day


I think you should start looking at timestamps.

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i guess they didnt get the memo that we are all to be at your beck and call 24 hours a day
You seem to have jumped to a few conclusions there. I was referring to my thanking the poster so late for the link.

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I heard somewhere that Nicholas Meyer shot the whole thing, but only half of it was aired. He thought it was way too padded. I'd really like to see any deleted scenes though, if they still exist.

But something interesting you may have not seen is this clip of some behind-the-scenes footage from a local newscast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujqRcpkIQDY

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I heard somewhere that Nicholas Meyer shot the whole thing, but only half of it was aired.


I also heard that Aliens visited the White House.


Nope. there is no 4 hour version, even of deleted scenes.


I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

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There's no need to be condescending and rude. Nicholas Meyer himself said in the November 19, 1983 edition of TV Guide that he relented and shot the whole padded version. A lot was eventually cut to produce the final version. In particular, a nightmare scene had to be cut because psychiatrists thought it would upset children, strange as that sounds given the movie's content.

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[deleted]

cgsailor, what is your reaction to this, shipmate?

Nicholas Meyer confirms that a four-hour version of the film was shot in his sidebar diary for the TV Guide cover story, “The Day After: Bringing the Unwatchable to TV,” November 19, 1983. On page 8 of the magazine he writes: “I urge ABC to make The Day After three hours instead of four, one night instead of two. No one is going to tune in for two nights of Armageddon, we’ll be lucky if they last through one. ABC acknowledges my logic but can’t do it. I am introduced to the Byzantine world of TV: while they don’t expect to make money on the film, there is a limit to how much they can afford to lose. They need an hour’s worth of advertising to cover themselves financially, hence four hours over two nights. Oh, I’ll right, I shoot the padded version.”


My source:

http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/08/nuclear-landscape-look-back-at-day.html

---
Brian, 37 male, Silicon Valley
I am neutrino78x elsewhere on the internet. :-)

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I am watching it right now. It is actually a 3 hour version, it was called 4 hours due to the adverts being in there, footage wise it is closer to 3. I am up to the part of the explosion so far. Lots of missing graphics in this version though, so the DVD version is still the best (or laserdisc) but this is good to see for little extra bits, thus far though the extra bits have not added to the story. It is amusing to see the actors looking at nothing when the missiles go off. During the bomb scene it is missing all the footage of them turning to skeletons, so you just see happy static shots of people standing or sitting.

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Interesting... can I ask where you got this version?

Do it Doug!!!!
http://movie-memorabilia-emporium.blogspot.com/

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I'd like to know that too. According to the Wikipedia, the director filmed three hours worth but then edited it to 120 mins before it was ever shown.

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I am watching it now for the first time since the initial airing in 1983 on TV. I haven't checked out any other posts or done any research yet, because I am interested to see if my memory is accurate. I think the movie was shown without any commercial interruptions. I also recall the TV network doing an aggressive buildup of the show for some time prior to airing the movie, although I can't say for how long. I am a bit apprehensive, due to the feelings of hopelessness, despair and sadness I recall experiencing.

Faced squarely by the fact that I had absolutely no control over the insanity, carelessness and potential manmade mistakes that could destroy the earth, I was truly shaken. This movie event was something we all discussed for days afterwards (ouch, no pun intended); and nothing has changed, except who has access to the weapons, the types, etc. But the truth of "The Day After" hasn't changed at all. I had forgotten the movie's impact. Then I read the 2013 NYT Best Selling Non-Fiction Book "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety" by Eric Schlosser, and my reality has been permanently changed.

"Wow. Our town has only had a Whole Foods for three weeks and we already have our first gay kids."

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MobwUGgdI3A&fbclid=IwAR2FX9_2rSBFRX4hJuF8eQT_kMFxg_qcdNqoBH9LesTwC0Nkr4e4zV-wjYs

Two fine posters on YT have uploaded the 3 hr version that looks to be from an editing screener. There's close to an hr of deleted scenes which explain things better. Characters have more time to develop (off the top of my head the doctor with the accent has another scene at the very start, Robards daughter has another scene too,) and things are explained more. The attack's scenes more graphic and I can see why they cut it. You see a person on fire running around for a solid 15 seconds or so. It's freaky.

It also shows what happened to Guttenburg and the kids.. it's the freakiest scene in the movie.

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youtube removed it. Please tell me what happened to Guttenberg's character and the kids.

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Guttenberg left with Danny and Denise, as you saw in the televised version. But what you didn't see in the televised version was that when they reached the farmhouse, the door was flapping in the wind, suggesting that Jolene and her mother were killed right after their husband was (or shortly thereafter). Then, it cuts to Jason Robards leaving the hospital, as you saw in the tv film. Nothing else was mentioned about Guttenberg or the other two but you can pretty much conclude that Denise was a goner because of her radiation sickness, and then Guttenberg's character because he was succumbing to radiation sickness. Danny would be left all alone after they died, and I would wager that he wouldn't last long after that, being blind.

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Thanks for the answer.

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Oof.
Blind kid in the apocalypse is a bad position to be in.

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Oh, I don' know. At least he didn't have to see the destruction.

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Since he is all alone the chances of him being abused are very high. The best case scenario is he is a farm slave for life and cannot even see the fruits of his labor(if there even are any).

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