This sequence of events is ingeniously staged by having the three person crew of a secret orbiting weapons platform observe the exchange and agonize over how to react. Instant global apocalypse, and a demonstration of one of the prevailing nightmares of the Cold War. It doesn't detonate but manages to push east/west tensions to the breaking point, the Russians nuke America and the Americans retaliate. In actuality there are actually two B movies in one here: A pretty taught little SNEAKERS/WARGAMES ripoff about a nuclear war triggered by "accident" after Lybians hijack a shipment of cruise missiles and shoot one into Russia. It is about nuclear war and the resultant breakdown of our North American collective society, and like those prospects it isn't pretty, easy to stomach or even make sense of. Unlike the Mad Max films or even the Italian ripoffs of the genre Max created, DEF-CON 4 has no presumptions about being a parable, having any kind of a message or examining some sort of social phenomenon. For that reason alone it actually stood out from the pack by actually daring to present it's viewers with exactly that which it aspired to. Yes it's tacky, low budget and amoral - perhaps one of the most amoral movies of the Reagan years of home video rental.
Defcon 4 meaning movie#
I agree with another comment stating that this movie was unfairly dismissed at the time of original release. Let's get it out of the way first thing: The critics of the 80s like Leonard Maltin and Siskel/Ebert who sadistically maligned DEF-CON 4 as a wretched exercise in scum & sleaze were WRONG. Minimally junky and grim, if particularly plain post-nuke entertainment. The story is straight-forward, although the script is flimsy and too black and white to make it completely fulfilling.
Too bad it just too daft (simply lacking the colourful craziness) and at times incoherent. Anyhow during its grounded action, it does create some nasty touches, edgy activity and cement an ugly intensity. You could see where all the money went in to, but that could probably explain its weakly conceived abrupt ending. The opening first half-hour is very well pulled off with some striking visuals, solid set-designs and usefully gripping details. I found the support to be much better Kate Lynch, Lenore Zann (running around in a school uniform), Maury Chaykin and John Walsch. Just as poor was Tim Choate in the leading role. At times I was waiting for cued laughter from an audience whenever he was on screen, as he came off more so a brat.
The head honcho played by Kevin King seemed more suited in a "Save by the Bell" episode, than as a ruthlessly imposing leader. A friend of mine convinced me to watch it, after the first half-hour I could see why because the story does such a great job setting up the highly-charged, innovative predicament (three astronauts in space watch on as world war three erupts with nuclear attacks on Earth) to only lose its way when a couple months later they crash-land back on earth then it becomes a very vanilla-like post-apocalyptic Sci-fi wasteland survival outing (of the very cheap, rancid b-grade kind) with some very unbelievably trite villains that come off more as joke than anything truly threatening. This is one of those films that the cover artwork always made it look quite interesting, but the synopsis on the back had less of an affect. This low-cost Canadian produced presentation is reasonably ordinary, but for its type not as terrible as it's made out to be.
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