MovieChat Forums > The Day After (1983) Discussion > The ignorance of the doctors

The ignorance of the doctors

posted 12 years ago by snafuone
13 replies | jump to latest

We've been hearing about all things nuclear since 1945, when the first A-Bomb test exploded in New Mexico. It's amazing that in this movie, the doctors don't know about EMP, which is Electro-Magnetic Pulse. It's what happens when a nuke explodes that causes all electronic equipment to be fried. Nothing electronic works. No phones, tv's, computers, radios, etc. Planes will crash, and life will be like living in the stone age. NO communications. I am surprised the doctors and others seemed totally ignorant of this fact. Also, when Dr. Oakes asks, "I wonder who was spared?" Then he wonders if Moscow was spared. DUH! Moscow is the capital of Russia. No doubt, that if a nuclear war ever broke out between the U.S. and Russia, both D.C. and Moscow would be nuked, because that's the capital, where the command and control center is. The Pentagon is in D.C. Military targets are going to be hit first. Maybe the writers of the movie put this ignorance in to show reality, that most people don't know what happens in a nuclear attack.

[–] robbytara 12 years ago

In the cold war a lot of people lived in denial & really paid no attention to the nuclear details. Doctors were probably mainly concerned in education in the medical industry and buying BMW's. Even today, the average American does not even know the capitol of "Africa"!!

[–] tgs333 12 years ago

No electricity, no running water and no sanitation. Drugs and medical supplies have long since run out. Crowds of people await treatment. Floors are covered with blood, pillowcases are being torn up into makeshift bandages and injured limbs are being amputated without anaesthetic. The narrator, of the movie Threads, points out that the entire peacetime resources of the National Health Service, had they survived, would be unable to cope with the casualties from just the one bomb that hit Sheffield. In the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear attack, "as a source of help or comfort he [a doctor] is little better equipped than the nearest survivor."

kinda errieee

"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep."

[–] robertjhj 10 years ago

Why would you be surprised that doctors wouldn't know about EMP? They are doctors not nuclear engineers.

And this was in the early 80's so there was no internet to go hunt down this stuff. You got your info from magazines and books and unless you were interested in the subject of nuclear weapons you would probably be clueless about EMP and the effects of nuclear weapons other then "Boom. You're Dead!"

Even today with internet most people are totally clueless when it comes to EMP.

As for Dr.Oakes. Well I'd say he was still in shock over the whole attack. He's looking around at the destruction and death around him and wondering who lucked out. It's not a big deal.

[–] novastar_6 10 years ago

Yeah really, it's all good and well now 30 years after the fact of this movie being made to say 'well they should've known this, should've done that', they're not in our times and we weren't in that here and now, as far as information goes, it's 2 different worlds.

[–] eddieinportland 10 years ago

For the doctors not knowing about the EMP, or burning contaminated wood would just put radiation back into the air was there for the audience. Who watching the show would know anything about EMP burst burning out the electric grid?

[–] novastar_6 10 years ago

Exactly. It's like in the movie the dad says 'I don't really know about radiation', how many people watching the movie already did going into it? If they knew, would this movie have been so shocking and traumatizing for them?

[–] eddieinportland 10 years ago

Before the bombs dropped The farmer and his son were at the church putting dirt on the windows. The son asked "What good will the dirt do." I always wondered about that. But in the Army I learned what the dirt can be used for.

You turn your basement into a bomb shelter. You have windows in your basement. By covering up the window with dirt. It protects the windows from the blast and shockwave that will be coming. The dirt with give the windows protection from being broken. The last thing you want in your make shift bomb shelter is for the windows to be broken and radiation and the fallout to leak into your shelter.

[–] CGSailor 10 years ago

It didn't take the Army for me to figure that out.
It's called "Logic" and "Common Sense".

But I guess that's why I joined the Navy instead of the Army....

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

[–] znapper 9 years ago

Actually, it's not just for the windows-sake.

By building up earth like that, you make a thicker shield against radiation from fallout.

The various types (alfa, gamma, beta) can penetrate cellars if they are not reinforced by dirt and/or materials.

[–] CGSailor 9 years ago

Tell me something I don't know.

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

[–] Dirty-Barry 9 years ago

The old Protect and Survive adverts from the U.K. inner refuge suggestion. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmuJqKopEm4

[–] raf-33 10 years ago

It's what happens when a nuke explodes that causes all electronic equipment to be fried

The radius of the EMP created by a nuke wasn't studied until atmospheric testing much later than 1945, as it is not "part and parcel" of a nuclear blast, it's a side-effect whose benefits would be exploited later. EMP doesn't travel much farther than the actual blast unless you detonate a nuke high up, so for your radio to be fried you would likely be fried or massively irradiated yourself.

The doctrine of high altitude blasts to blind your enemies' communications wasn't really public knowledge until after the Cuban missile crisis which is when your 'average Joe' would have learned a vocabulary about nukes and what they can do for the first time.

I can tell most of the movies watched by the OP are from the 90's or later, I hope he doesn't have another thread enquiring about the lack of Neutron bombs in the movie.

You don't know sh!t, Jon Snow!

[–] ughmoretodealwith 9 years ago

The EMP from the starfish test traveled over 900 miles. It fried a lot of stuff the scientists said couldn't be fried. Starfish wasn't also effective at generating emp.