Growing up during the tail end of the Cold War, almost all my favorite movies were related to the Cold War in some way shape or form. The Cold War ended in 1991 and there was no reason to make Cold War movies in the quantities that were being made before. With what I would argue is Cold War 2.0 here now between the U.S. and Russia, the movie I.S.S. reboots this genre of movie in a thrilling and terrifying way.

It’s a surprisingly trenchant story for what seems to be a slight genre thriller, but then again, genre thrillers can be the best vessels for these kinds of messages.

Katie Walsh – Top Critic – rottentomatoes.com

The Plot

The premise of the movie is that a all out nuclear war has broken out on Earth and the six astronauts on board the International Space Station have to decide where their loyalties lay with three astronauts from the U.S. on board and three cosmonauts for Russia on board. Nick Shafir, the writer of this film does an amazing job of telling a gripping, sobering story about our potential future. As the world literally burns below them, the astronauts must grapple with whether to act on their orders or not. I don’t want to spoil it, but it is pretty rough ride. If you are a fan of Cold War movies of old, science fiction, or thrillers in general, this is the movie for you.

My Recommendation

I would highly recommend this film if for no other reason then it is a good reminder why we need to elect competent leaders who will protect our country. The prospect of nuclear war has lost focus for many of us after the end of the Cold War, but the world has only grown more dangerous and divided. With nuclear weapons proliferating throughout the world over time, are we marching to this disastrous future, or will we find a way out of it? I certainly hope we find a better way forward, I.S.S. offers us a stark reminder of the realities we face as a species and a people.

Other Awesome Cold War Movies

The most chilling Cold War movie for me is the 1983 classic Wargames. This film features a teenage boy (Mathew Broderick), who accidently hacks into the space command’s mainframe supercomputer. As Broderick’s character looks play a simulated game that he thinks he is lacked called, “Global-Thermonuclear War” he begins a countdown for the Supercomputer that simulates an imminent attack on the U.S., but unbeknownst to the human operators of the computer, for a game with a sixteen year old kid. 

Why War Games Should Scare You Too

It really happened….twice actually. The Russian/American public had no idea that they were about to be thrown into nuclear armageddon in 1983 when the computer system at NORAD actually did indicate the Russians had launched nuclear weapons at the U.S. We can all thank the cooler heads who prevailed that day who insisted on having visual confirmation before launching an all out attack. Mathew Broderick was not involved, at least to my knowledge, but nonetheless we were at Defcon 2/5. Defcon 1/5 is launching nuclear missiles. 

Red Dawn – The First One – 1984

Imagine being nine years old and watching a movie with your dad, which you don’t even know for sure is not real, where Russian and South American soldiers parachute into a school, killing teachers and students alike. A small group of students escape the school and hide in the local mountains slowly turning into a renegade army. They adopt the callsign “Wolverines” and go on to liberate the P.O.W. camp their families are trapped in, with almost all the characters dying in the end.

This movie scared the hell out of me. Dad and I had a long discussion about this because during this time, it was commonly believed that an imminent final showdown with the Soviet Union was in the making. We had duck and cover drills for nuclear war in 6th grade and probably earlier. The Ukrainian army actually adopted the Wolverines call-sign and painted it on destroyed Russian equipment early in the war when the initial invasion faltered.

Rocky IV

If you are at all a fan of sports movies, I highly recommend this one. Rocky IV pits “Rocky” (Sylvester Stallone) against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungren). Apollo Creed Sr. dies in the ring in the beginning of the move fighting Drago. Rocky seeks to defeat Drago on his own ground traveling to Russia to train and fight Drago. 

This film re-creates the Cold War tension that existed between the U.S. and The Soviet Union during that time. Often times the Olympics and any major sporting events provoked intense feelings of nationalism during this time, with these events becoming their own mini-proxy wars. It is a little dates now, but still has the great ethos of Rocky movies that fans of the franchise have enjoyed for generations.

Wrapping It Up

There are certainly many more Cold War movies out there that are fantastic, these are just a few of my favorites. What are your favorite Cold War films? Do you still feel that nuclear war is a palpable threat? Thanks for reading The Life Long Learning and Education Blog! Check out some of my other posts if you have a moment!