I'm looking for movies about World War 3, not its aftermath

Hi, I'm looking for movies about World War 3.

The problem is, every "WW3 movie" I've come across is about the aftermath, not the war itself. I want to see a movie that's primarily about the war, such as which countries attacked which, what strategies and tactics were used, what was the shift in world power among the first, second, and third-world countries, etc.

Now I know that with nuclear weapons, WW3 is usually assumed to last less than a day. But I'm hoping some movie out there will make it so that a lot of countermeasures are used (anti-ballistic missiles), such that most or all nukes failed to do their job. A more conventional world war would then ensue, presumably with one bloc (or more) trying to take over the world.

Another option is that the world powers hold back their nuclear arsenal out of dread, at least until the very end. This would allow a movie about a more conventional WW3.

Another option is complete alternate history, like nukes were never invented and maybe WW2 went differently, spawning WW3 a few decades later.

What I'm not looking for:

• nuclear aftermath movies
• a spy adventure (James Bond, Tom Clancy, etc) where the hero or small team thwarts a sinister plot
• a tense "on the brink" movie like Fail Safe (1964) or Thirteen Days (2000)
• some kind of comedy or over-the-top satire

What I am looking for:

• actual war, strategy, battles
• political plotting
• alternate history or scifi is okay
• doesn't matter what year the movie was made

The sad thing is, I know of no movies that fit this criteria. I try to google for it, but like I said, I just keep getting movies about surviving the holocaust or some other aftermath drama.

I'm hoping someone out there knows of at least one movie like what I'm looking for, and will recommend it to me.

Red Dawn, This Is How I Live Now?

It is very difficult, I know what you mean. I can think of a few examples of films and TV series that depict the aftermath of a third World War but not the actual event. The closest film I can think of is Terminator 2: Judgment Day because it shows the disaster happening, but that's not a world war, despite Skynet using nuclear weapons against humans.

Good call thinking of those. Im amazed how there arent any World War III movies like youd think being how Hollywood churns stuff out.

If they ever did a movie of James Clancys Red Dawn Rising, thats exactly what youre looking for in a World War III movie Dr Z.

The closest thing I can think of is The Day After (1983).

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You could check out By Dawn's Early Light (1990). It might be the kind of movie you're looking for. I can't think of any other movies offhand, but I'm pretty sure there have been some good TV docu-dramas that might be worth looking at.
I believe the whole of the movie By Dawn's Early Light is available to watch on You-Tube.

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Thanks guys, I will check out This Is How I Live Now, Red Storm Rising, and By Dawn's Early Light. I remember watching Red Dawn, the 80's version, and not being very impressed. It seemed more about personal community struggle than WW3. I guess I'll check out the 2012 version tho.

I looked into this many times, and I'm afraid there isn't such a thing. Top gun, if it was a serious film, would be the first battle of WWIII. Same goes for The sum of all fears, Stripes, and actually half of the Mission Impossible episodes.
Read again the post, 'cause Red storm rising is a book, not a movie. If you want books on the subject, here are some:


Tom Clancy - Red storm rising
John L. Cook - Armor at Fulda Gap
John Hackett - The Third World War
John Hackett - The Third World War, the untold story
Ralph Peters - Red army
Steven Zaloga - Red thrust
Ian Slater - World War Three (series of 11 books)
Harold Coyle - Team Yankee
Sheldon Bidwell - World War Three
Kenneth Macksey - First clash, combat close-up in World War Three
Michael Palmer - The war that never was
P. W. Singer & August Cole - Ghost fleet (this one is about US vs China)
Andrew Murray - Flashpoint, World War Three (another scenario without USSR)

None of them is vaguely realistic, and most are total crap even for reading. Otherwise, there's a German mockumentary called Der Dritte Weltkrieg. By the way, I searched for This Is How I Live Now? and I didn't find anything.

I don't mind book recommendations, but after reading your last paragraph, I'm not sure they really are recommendations.

I saw The Day After several years ago and it wasn't what I'm looking for.

I watched Red Dawn (2012) and By Dawn's Early Light (1990). None of them were what I'm looking for. I haven't watched This is How I Live Now because I couldn't find it, but I did find How I Live Now (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Live_Now_(film)), which looks very much not what I'm looking for.

Would a movie like The War Game (1965) meet your criteria? I've only seen part of it (many years ago), but from what I remember + what I just read on its wikipedia page it might be what you're looking for.

Yeah, they are not "recommendations", they're rather warnings.
Hackett, Slater, Coyle and Singer's books would be consider crap even by people who liked Pearl Harbor or Save private Ryan, except that watching those kind of movies is incompatible with reading. Otherwise, if you want James Cameron's depth with the added labor of having to read, you can try Tom Clancy, Ralph Peters or Steven Zaloga.

Red Dawn. 1984 Red Dawn.

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I can only think of one movie that matches your requirements: Invasion U.S.A. (1952). Unfortunately, it's dreadful (but not as dreadful as the 1985 Chuck Norris movie of the same name).
The Bedford Incident (1965) isn't about a Third World War per se, but it does address how Cold War confrontations could go wrong.

Threads (1984), it's a British made for TV film about a nuclear war. The last two thirds of the film do largely focus on the aftermath but the first third is a good build up to the missile strikes and a sort of commentary on the political situation, which country attacks which and how the war is carried out etc. So may be worth a look. It's available on YouTube I believe, it's grim and harrowing and well worth a watch. The film reminds me of a feature length public safety ad like those that the British government ran on TV when I was growing up in the 80's.

Thank you. Invasion USA 1952 is by far the closest thing I'm looking for. I didn't even find it all that dreadful. It's an early fifties movie, so the stock footage and poor special effects are forgivable. From that time period, I would judge a movie on how flat or not it is (characters and plot).

I will say, however, that I was really disappointed in the "happy ending". At the end of the day, a happy ending just can't be a warning, so the film turned out to be not really about anything except I guess an attempted warning that was shot in the foot, and came off kinda cheap. It was also very weird that they never explicitly named the Soviet Union as the invading country. Really, who else could it be? In 1952, the only non-NATO country that could atomically bomb military bases was the USSR. This only further fuels my suspicions, but I can't say about what exactly. It was very obvious the lack of explicitly naming the aggressor. There must be a reason, I just have no idea what it is.

Anyway, thank you for that recommendation. Despite those flaws, I'd be happy if a very similar movie existed somewhere that I could watch.

Up until 1952, you could still fight a war, even if both sides had significant numbers of atom bombs. The level of devastation would equal what occurred in Germany, Poland, and the western Soviet Union during the Second World War, but over a far larger area, and would have occurred over a period of weeks, rather than years. But there still could be a victor and a vanquished (even if there were no "winners").

Everything changed with the invention of the hydrogen bomb. A Hiroshima-sized bomb dropped on Battery Park in New York City would not even break windows in Washington Heights, but a 10-megaton H-bomb airburst over Battery Park would incinerate all five boroughs. Once you start lobbing them around, it is not a war, it is mutual suicide.

I know this is old but here is a couple if you haven't watched these yet. World War 3 The Movie. Can be seen on you tube. Countdown to Looking Glass is another that can be seen on you tube. Hope this helps. I do believe this is what you are looking for that fits your criteria.