Nuclear Warfare is a 1985 Lovian war drama film, directed by Paul Hartman and starring Matt Wilson, Stacy Broderick, Alexander Smith, John Wilson and Sandra Morgan. It was produced by Transbaum Films and premiered on July 19, 1985.
Plot[]
In 1982, a tropical cyclone forms off the coast of California. Meanwhile, in Hawaii, a boat is sent from Honolulu to Lovia. The storm smashes the boat and its wreckage drifts into Lovia. The wreck then found by Lovian officials and is carried into a small cave in Kings' Peak. Originally, the ship was supposed to supply nuclear weapons to Lovia.
In 1985, Marc Richardson (Matt Wilson) is travelling to Kings Island for a holiday in the Abby Highlands. Once he gets to Kings Peak, he accidentally drives his car into the cave. His car smashes into the wreckage of the ship. As Richardson explores the rusty wreck, the Lovian army comes in and forces him to surrender. The capitain (Alexander Smith) explains to him that this is government property and is not to be touched. Richardson then comes out and a soldier shoots him in the arm with a tranquillizer.
A while later, he finds himself in a hospital. He wakes up and finds himself lying in front of a beautiful nurse (Stacy Broderick). Suddenly, as he tries to say "hi", he is then confronted by the capitain, whose name is revealed to be John Paul Andrews. The capitain speaks to him and says that he's lucky that he didn't get killed. Then, he is took by the capitain to Kings Peak, again. He forces Richardson to tell him what he found in the wreckage of the derelict ship. Richards tell him he doesn't know. The capitain then abruptly points his sniper at him. Richardson then discovers a rocket, with a radioactive sign on it. He shows it to the capitain, who quickly grabs him away from it.
Meanwhile, in Noble City, Marc's twin brother, Phil (John Wilson) and little sister, Sara (Sandra Morgan), phone him. Marc tells them that he can't come home as soon as possible because the army recruited him, due to his piloting skills. The bomb is then carried away by a truck. Marc asks the nurse (whose name is later revealed to be Marie) on a date. As Marc and Marie begin to spend more time together, Marc starts to forget what he's really meant to do. Suddenly, Marc is sent on a plane, and is expected to carry the bomb as far away from Lovia as possible. As he takes off, the nuke begins to rip the belts that tie it. In mid air, the bomb is already unstrapped (Marc can't see it) and begins to slide towards the hatch. The plane is 2 miles (3.2 km) away from Sofasi, Asian Island.
The hatch suddenly opens and the nuke drops out. Meanwhile in Sofasi, people are enjoying their weekends, when a newspaper reporter sees a bomb falling. The bomb steadily drops onto the city center. People panic and abandon their cars and belongings. 3 miles above, Marc sees the danger and rushes his plane toward the bomb, in order to divert it, or to actually stop it. He realizes that he could give his life away in the operation, so he opens the pilot hatch and parachutes out. The plane almost manages to divert the bomb, but crashes into the city center, causing major damage and killing quite a lot of people. The bomb is caught by helicopters just before it falls into Sofasi.
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, an army general sees the plane crash on a news report on TV. He realizes that the bomb never fell on Sofasi, and calls a full unit of soldiers in rage to attack Lovia. Back in Sofasi, Marc is expelled from the army by the capitain, and is comforted by Marie. He kisses her and promises to get his job back. Meanwhile in Honolulu, the general punches a sea capitain who refuses to give him his cargo ship.
A few days later, the ship moves into Lovia. Lovian people gather around the pier in Sofasi, with curiosity and excitement, since (in the movie) they never had tourists in 20 years. However, one of the soldiers grabs a gun and shoots a car, causing it to explode. Lovians run and scream for their lives. The ship docks at the pier and they move out into Lovia. Ten days later, all of Asian Island is under occupation from the soldiers. They are revealed to come from a nation called Senan Republic (fictious, located in the south Pacific). They reach Noble City. Everyone hides in their basements with their belongings. Back in the army base near Kings Peak, Marc confronts the capitain, who reluctantly gives him a last chance to take the bomb away from Lovia. He boards a plane, and Marie comes in. She kisses him goodbye, and walks off and away from the plane as it flies away.
After narrowly avoiding a thunderstorm and a mountain peak, the plane manages to drop the bomb in a volcanic lake, where it disintergrates and melts, sending radioactive energy all over it. The plane returns to Sofasi. Once the general discovers the bomb is not in Lovia, he is confronted by Marc, who tells him why did he do this. The general replies, because he hates Lovians, and he wants to get rid of them. We then cut back to the generals childhood. As a young boy, the general was a geek and was bullied by Lovian children, and he watched his parents getting murdered by a Lovian hitman. Marc, gives him a last chance to change his attitude to Lovians, by explaining to him, that not all Lovians are bad. However, the general refuses, which forces Marc into shooting him. The general dies, and the soldiers come in. Marc manages to kill most of them, but one shoots him in the arm and the legs.
They run away, but are shot by Lovian soldiers, before they can get to a plane. Marie rushes to Marc, and kisses him. The capitain proposes to take him to the hospital. As his bullet wounds are healed and bullets removed, Marc wakes up and sees everyone gathered around him. Marie replies, "you did it, you really did, Marc. ". Marc has a moment with the capitain, who apologizes to him for doubting him.
The film ends with a view of the volcanic lake (which is animated, not CGI), with the nuclear gases floating above the lava.
Reception[]
The film recieved generally positive reviews from Lovian movie critics. One critic said: "It has a flimsy cast, a good storyline, some freaky-looking bloody scenes and a touching ending." It positioned third on the 1985 box office.
However, many events in the film are not true. Sofasi's friendly, holiday atmosphere, attracts thousands of tourists from abroad, Hawaii does not produce nuclear weapons, and tropical cyclones do not form near land.
Production[]
The film's two major characters, were played by brothers Matt and John Wilson. Production started in 1982, and was meant to be finished by December 1983, but due to Lovia's economic decline, production was postponed and was finished in December 1984. The film premiered in Noble City on July 19, 1985 and the premiere was attended by over a thousand people, including six hundred actors and twelve movie producers.
During pre-production, writer Damian Ellis watched a real tropical storm wreck a ship, five hundred miles off the coast of Lovia. This gave him the idea to write the screenplay, beggining with the cyclone scene.
The film's major plane crash scene was mixing live action with animation. The whole scene was made in a massive outdoor studio, and to make the damage look realistic, they put dynamite behind the plane, which would explode on impact, minutes after Wilson parachutes out. The explosion itself was put into an animated frame, making it look like a real. The buildings were made from cardboard and paper, while the cars were plastic toys. The plane itself was made from cardboard, with a picture of a real plane on it.
Not all people liked the movie, 12% of movie critics who attended the premiere gave it a mixed review. One said: "This is so one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. The storyline is good, the characters are amazing, but the visual effects are worse than crap. I want something big, not something so old school like this. I mean, you could actually see that the plane was cardboard!"
Since good CGI didn't exist in the mid 1980's, the film producers commented, "We couldn't make a real scene, because real people would actually get killed. So, it was pretty pointless." The critic apologized for his comment.
In 1986, a video game was released on the Atari 7800, titled Nuclear Warfare.