Three Movies To Scare Kim Jong-un Out Of Starting A Nuclear War

Mostly, it’s The Scoop’s job to keep you  up with the coolest or most-important news coming out of Philadelphia. But damn if North Korea doesn’t keep doing stuff like this:

North Korea has escalated a near-daily barrage of threats, urging foreigners to flee South Korea to avoid a supposedly imminent “thermo-nuclear war”.

No! No! There’s nothing at all to like about thermonuclear war. Matthew Broderick taught us that YEARS ago. Surely Kim Jong-un’s notoriously Hollywood-loving father showed him that movie.Right? RIGHT?

Maybe that’s the problem. These days, all our movies about the apocalypse are about the dangers that can be caused to us by zombies and aliens. We don’t worry as much about how we humans might destroy ourselves with war. Back during the 1980s, and for much of the Cold War, movies used to scare Americans about a nuclear-induced end-of-the-world. Here are three that were really scary:

The Day After

Growing up in Kansas in the 1980s, this flick filmed in Lawrence was particularly resonant. We spent the rest of the year ducking and covering in our dreams.

The Twilight Zone: Shelter Skelter

Technically, this isn’t a movie, but it still made an impression. The 1980s remake of The Twilight Zone contemplated the horrifying possibility of actually surviving a nuclear attack. Only, of course, with a twist ending…..

Testament

Just … depressing and terrifying. The end of the world is no fun.

Anyway, somebody make North Korea’s dictator watch these movies and stop rattling his sabers. The apocalypse is nothing to play games with.