The Day After is a controversial made-for-television movie about the effects that a fictional full-scale nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union have on the small town residents of Lawrence, Kansas. It was written by Edward Hume and directed by Nicholas Meyer.

When the film was first aired, there was a great deal of stress put on educational materials to prepare audiences for the shocking imagery and the bleak story. However, critics complained that the film was not realistic enough, because it seemed to softpedal the true extent of the devastation of a nuclear war. An estimated 100 million people watched the movie when it first aired on November 20, 1983.

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