i first saw this movie on video around the time it be produce . i immediately like it even though it be a bit bleak . but the late 80 be full of apocalyptic nuclear holocaust movie and this be the only one that stay with me . now and year later and i have just rewatched it ( this time on dvd ) and i still think it a very good but not great movie . admittedly and there some over the top 80 haircut and costume and stuff that would be seriously retro nowadays . and the acting and particularly in the beginning and be obvious and a bit tire . but when the hero receive that fateful phone call and it all change . suddenly and it like watch a stage performance of a play and a pressure cooker where everyone suspect everyone else and no one know what really go on . in fact and one of the best part of the screenplay be that we and the audience and also do not really know what to believe ( until the very end ) . we watch the hero struggle with what to tell people who help he need represent if he tell them the awful truth and they may not believe or help him while if he tell them a more believable lie and be he deny them the chance to survive or at least to die with their loved one . either way and both he and the people he meet turn to progressively more and more extreme behavior people die . . . . and what if it all turn out to have be a hoax . in all and i think this movie rank a a great sci fi film and and in the true sense of the genre represent what if . it not about alien or galactic empire or anything else that more fantasy than reality . instead and it a situation that any of u could easily imagine and i think this be why it stay with me all these year and why it now form a part of the framework for my imagination whenever i find myself catastrophizing about terrorism or natural disaster and anything that could separate me from the one i love . what would i do .