The Day After Quotes

First Air Force Officer Confidence is high. I repeat, confidence is high. Roger, we've got 32 targets in track and 10 impacting points. I want it confirmed... is this an exercise? Roger, copy. This is not an exercise!

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) We live in a nuclear world by stressing that this is a plus sum game that we’re working on. There is a commonality of interests between the Soviets and the US to avoid the use of these weapons. That’s what that film shows. I totally disagree with those who say it’s a disservice to the nation to show the film. Not at all. It’s stimulating discussion on exactly the issue we ought to be discussing. There’s a million times the Hiroshima destruction power out there. We must ensure it not be used. It’s equally in the interest of the Soviet Union not to use it.

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) I think that this film presents a very simple-minded notion of the nuclear problem and it deals with the most obvious question that a general nuclear war aimed at cities is a disaster and a catastrophe. I wrote a book on the subject 30 years ago when the notion of general nuclear war first arose. The problem of our period, the problem we have to grapple with is how to avoid such a war, how to preserve freedom while seeking to avoid such a war, how to establish, how to create a military establishment that reduces the dangers of such a war, what arms control policies are compatible with this policy, how we handle crises. Those are serious questions. To engage in an orgy of demonstrating how terrible the casualties of a nuclear war are, and translating it into pictures from statistics that have been known for three decades, and then to have Mr. Sagan say it’s even worse than this... I would say: what are we to do about this? Are we supposed to make policy by scaring ourselves to death, or is somebody going to make some proposals about where we are supposed to go? And if people don’t make them, then I do not believe we are making any contribution. That’s my objection to this film. It took this most simple-minded problem that everybody will agree upon. There’s nobody in this room who disagrees with the fact that this must not happen. It’s how to avoid it that we should be discussing.

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) It seeks to debilitate the United States. This is terribly plain. The guy who wrote it says, “I would like to see people starting to question the value of defending this country with a nuclear arsenal.” That is his motive and people who have seen the film who have thought to debilitate American defenses have gathered around it. It’s become a cause militante. It has a totemic significance, and I’m delighted to hear the Secretary of State say such calm and lucid and cogent things, but that’s unrelated to the effort of this film.

Second Air Force Officer Roger, understand. Major Reinhardt, we have a massive attack against the U.S. at-at this time. ]...numerous ICBMs...Roger, understand. Over 300 missiles inbound now.

Cynthia What's going on?

Joe Huxley Those are ]!

Cynthia Like a test, sort of. Like a warning?

Joe Huxley They're on their way to ]. They take about 30 minutes to reach their targets.

Aldo So do theirs, right?

Dr. Sam Hachiya What did you see? You come from Kansas City. What did you see?

Dr. Russell Oakes I was on the ], about 30 miles away. I'm not sure...it was high in the air, directly above downtown. Like the ]...exploding.

Stephen Klein You can't see it... you can't feel it... and you can't taste it. But it's here, right now, all around us. It's goin through you like an ]. Right into your ]! What do you think killed all these ]!?

Joe Huxley You know what ] said about ]? He said he didn't know how they would fight World War III, but he knew how they would fight World War IV: with sticks and stones.

Julian French We tried hooking up an auxiliary pump up to a backup generator, and we're still only getting a trickle.

Dr. Sam Hachiya I don't understand. Did they burn out?

Dr. Austin They could have been subject to the ] effects.

Dr. Russell Oakes What's that?

Dr. Austin Electro-Magnetic Pulse." When a large nuclear device is airburst at high altitude, a lot of electrical disruption can be created, principally with ], communication systems, electrical wires, ], ], ]. Of course, it's all theoretical. It's never happened before. In short, very little ].

Dr. Sam Hachiya Forever?

Dr. Landowska There is a rumor that they are evacuating Moscow. There are people even leaving Kansas City because of the missile base. Now I ask you: To where does one go from Kansas City? The ]? ]? We are not talking about ] anymore. Hiroshima was... was peanuts!

Dr. Russell Oakes What's going on? Do you have any idea what's going on in this world?

Dr. Landowska Yeah. ]... has a habit of getting its way.

Dr. Russell Oakes I think you've got to be willing to let your baby come whether you like it or not. You're holding back hope.

Alison Ransom Hope for what? What do you think is going to happen out there? You think we're going to sweep up the dead and fill in a couple of holes and build some ]? You think all those people left alive out there are going to say, "Oh, I'm sorry. It wasn't my fault. Let's kiss and make up"? We knew the score. We knew all about bombs, we knew all about fallout. We knew this could happen for forty years. But nobody was interested.

Dr. Russell Oakes I can't argue with you.

Alison Ransom Argue with me. Please... give me a reason. Tell me about hope. Tell me why you work so hard in here.

Dr. Russell Oakes ...I don't know.

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) There is, and you probably need it about now, there is some good news. If you can, take a quick look out the window. It’s all still there. Your neighborhood is still there, so is ], and Lawrence, and ], and Moscow, and ] and ]. What we have all just seen–and this was my third viewing of the movie–what we’ve seen is sort of a nuclear version of ]’ ]. Remember ]’s nightmare journey into the ] with the ]? When they finally return to the relative comfort of Scrooge’s bedroom, the old man asks the spirit the very question that many of us may be asking ourselves right now: whether, in other words, the vision that we’ve just seen is the future as it will be or only as it may be. Is there still time?

Joe Huxley ] radio] This is Lawrence. This is Lawrence, Kansas. Is there anybody there? Anybody at all?

Disclaimer The catastrophic events you have just witnessed are, in all likelihood, less severe than the destruction that would actually occur in the event of a full nuclear strike against the United States…

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) I think in this country we’ve been sleepwalking during the last 38 years and passed this problem without really coming to grips with how dire and compelling it is, and I think ABC should be congratulated for spurring what I hope will be a year-long debate on this issue, but it’s my unhappy duty to point out that the reality is much worse than what has been portrayed in this movie, and this new emerging reality has significant policy implications. The ] that will follow even a small nuclear war, especially if cities are targeted, as they almost certainly would be, involves a pall of dust and smoke which would reduce the temperatures of not just in northern and mid latitudes, but pretty much globally to sub-freezing temperatures for months. In addition, it’s dark, the radiation is much more than we’ve been told before. ] will be wiped out, and it’s very clear that beyond the one or two billion people who would be killed directly in a major nuclear war–five to seven thousand megatons, something like that–that the overall consequences would be much more dire and the biologists who have been studying this think that there is a real possibility of the extinction of the human species from such a war.

Airman You know what that means, don't you? Either we fired first and they're going to try to hit what's left, or they fired first and we just got our missiles out of the ground in time. Either way, we're going to get hit.

Airman Billy McCoy So what are we still standing around here for?

Sergeant Where do you want to go?

Airman Billy McCoy Well, how about out of here for starters? I've got to get my wife and my kid!

Sergeant We're still on alert, Billy! No one leaves this facility. Not until the choppers get here to take us back to Whiteman and to the shelters...

Airman Billy McCoy Are you kidding me, man? The bombs will be here before the choppers will! Listen to me. Listen to me, man. The war is over! It's over. We've done our job. So what are you still guarding? Huh? Some cotton-pickin hole in the ground all dressed up and nowhere to go?

Airman He's right!

Airman Tommy What about Starr and Boyle?

Sergeant What about them?

Airman Tommy What are they doing?

Airman Billy McCoy Yeah, they're 60 feet down, sipping on some cold beer and whistling "Misty"!

Airman Tommy Well I'm going down there!

Sergeant You can't go down there! That elevator is secure!

Airman Billy McCoy Do you hear yourself talking, bozo? Cause I hear you saying that we've got direct orders to be sitting ducks!

Dr. Russell Oakes I wonder who was spared. I wonder if ], ], ]... are just like Kansas City now.

Helen Oakes My God. It's 1962 all over again. The ]. Do you remember ] on television, telling ] to turn his boats around?

Dr. Russell Oakes Full retaliatory response." He didn't bat an eye.

Helen Oakes We were in New York, in bed... just like this, remember? 118th street.

Dr. Russell Oakes Meatball sandwiches from Sharky's.

Helen Oakes Your last year's residency. I swear we made Marilyn that night.

Dr. Russell Oakes We got up, and went to the window to look for the bombs.

Helen Oakes It didn't happen. It's not going to happen now.

Dr. Russell Oakes Nah. People are crazy, but not that crazy.

Helen Oakes Well... do you want to know from crazy? The Donnelly's left today for ].

Dr. Russell Oakes Guadalajara?

Helen Oakes I swear it. I spoke to Herb as they were pulling out. He said they were dovetailing their vacation with the rising international tensions.

Dr. Russell Oakes Aw, cut it out!

Helen Oakes I'm not kidding. Well, they took their Vietnamese maid with them. And that rotten little barking dog with the pushed-in face.

Dr. Russell Oakes Oh, what about their little combination tractor/lawnmower/golfcart with the silver hubcaps?

Helen Oakes Probably... What if it does happen? What'll we do?

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) That is not the future at all. The film is a vivid and dramatic portrayal of the fact that nuclear war is simply not acceptable and that fact and the realization of it has been the basis for the policy of the United States for decades now, the successful policy of the United States, based on the idea that we simply do not accept nuclear war. And we’ve been successful in preventing it.

Denise Dahlberg You attend the ] in Lawrence? Do you know Bruce Gallatin? He's my fiancee. He's a senior over there.

Stephen Klein No.

Denise Dahlberg But you're from Lawrence, so that must mean that Bruce is all right.

Stephen Klein Well...I don't know what happened to Lawrence. I was pretty close to Harrisonville when it all started. There must have been five or six of those mushroom cloud explosions to the north in and around Kansas City, and... a whole string of them to the south.

Jim Dahlberg They must have hit every missile silo from Sedalia to Eldorado Springs.

Joe Huxley Hello? Hello, is anybody there? Is anybody there? This is Lawrence. This is Lawrence, Kansas, is anybody there? This is Joe Huxley, I'm broadcasting out of the science building at the University of Kansas, is anybody there? I...have an atmosphere report for whoever's listening. Dr. Oakes...do you read? Come in, Dr. Oakes, do you hear me?

Dr. Russell Oakes Yes, Joe.

Joe Huxley We're holding fast at just a hair under...uh...fifty rads per hour. I thought that it would have diminished by now. I...I guess that means we're picking up a lot of fallout from...Titan missile bases in Wichita and wherever else...out west...that's way the wind blows. Straight towards St. Louis.

Dr. Russell Oakes Uh-huh. When will it be safe to move people to other buildings?

Joe Huxley ...it'll never be safe.

Dr. Russell Oakes Come on, Joe.

Joe Huxley ...wait till it gets down to under two rads an hour...if and when. You picked up anybody else on uh...on your end...?

Dr. Russell Oakes Not a soul...

Joe Huxley This is Lawrence. This is Lawrence, Kansas, is anybody there? Anybody at all...?

Viewpoint Panel Following ABC Broadcast (November 20,1983) Not being a nuclear specialists in any way, I’m scared. I’m scared because I know that what is imaginable can happen. I know that the impossible is possible. I’ve seen the film and while I was watching it, I had a strange feeling that I had seen it before, except once upon a time it happened to my people, and now it happens to all people. And suddenly I said to myself maybe the whole world strangely has turned ]. Everybody lives now facing the unknown. We are all, in a way, helpless. We are talking about nuclear arms, about the bomb with a capital B, a kind of divinity in itself. Unless those who know militarily what it means, we readers, writers, people... we don’t know what it all means. When I hear about a thousand bombs, megatons... I don’t have that kind of imagination. To me it’s an abstraction, but to me, what all this means is that the human species may come to an end, that millions of children may die simply because one person somewhere... And I am not so much afraid of the big powers. I’m afraid of the small nations. If not now, maybe 10 years from now or 20 or 50, a ] will get hold of nuclear weapons. He won’t hesitate. He will not have a discussion such as the one that we have here.