The War Game

"BBC TV's film about a nuclear attack on Britain"

1966 0h 48m EN

🙌

7.7

BANGER

🔥

93%

CERTIFIED FRESH

⭐

7.9

IMDB

★7.7TMDB · 196🍅93%Rotten Tomatoes★7.9IMDB · 8,293

WarTV Movie

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A hypothetical Chinese invasion of South Vietnam triggers a new world war between East and West. In Rochester, Kent, the anticipation of a nuclear attack leads to mass evacuations. When a stray missile explodes, the ensuing firestorm blinds all those who see it. It's not long before the fabric of society is ripped apart from radiation poisoning, a lack of infrastructure and rioting for food and other necessities.

“BBC TV's film about a nuclear attack on Britain”

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Where to watch · US

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Michael Aspel
Commentator
Kathy Staff
Interviewee (uncredited)
Peter Watkins
Documentist (uncredited)
Peter Graham
Commentator
Dave Baldwin
Schoolmaster / Interviewer (uncredited)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Peter Watkins
Writers: Peter Watkins
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 48-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

60 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Peter Watkins, shot by Peter Bartlett. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Bradsell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michael Aspel and Kathy Staff and Peter Watkins carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "BBC TV's film about a nuclear attack on Britain".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0059894 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Peter Watkins directs. Peter Bartlett behind the camera. Michael Bradsell cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 48-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
260 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Peter Watkins, shot by Peter Bartlett. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Michael Bradsell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Michael Aspel and Kathy Staff and Peter Watkins carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "BBC TV's film about a nuclear attack on Britain".
8IMDB entry: tt0059894 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 43 themes, including "post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)", "nuclear war", "cold war", "nuclear radiation".

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Bartlett
Editing: Michael Bradsell
Production design: Tony Cornell
Costume design: Vanessa Clarke
Makeup / hair: Lilias Munro
Runtime: 48 min · 0h 48m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): 12
IMDB: The War Game (1966)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.9/10 · 8,293 votes

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 5 wins total

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Peter Watkins

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2020-04-05
★ 6/10
Great, genuinely hard to watch, eminently memorable and absolutely no fun at all. But that's really important I think, so much media really tries to sort of paint this candy-coated filter over subjects like war, when in reality, war, especially nuclear war, is pretty fucked. There's nothing wrong with making those other movies, the ones where the heroes win the day and good guys triumph, those will never go away, nor should they, but every now and then, some hard truths need to be confronted too, and The War Game is very confronting. Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.
CinemaSerf2025-08-02
★ 7/10
I couldn’t decide which was the scarier prospect from this docu-drama? Finding somewhere safe to shelter from the eye-watering megatonnage of uranium enriched warheads or to emerge afterwards to a society that is truly dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, with no power or food or water or just about anything else - except, perhaps, some semblance of a military dictatorship run by the few lucky enough to be fifty feet under the ground. This has all the trappings of a public information film. It advises us how best to seek refuge behind over-priced sand bags - even more expensive if you actually want the sand, too! The ridiculous ineffectiveness of these glorified balsa-wood barriers against a force that could level the whole house isn’t wasted on the viewer, nor is the stoicism of a society who have not, as yet, succumbed to more animalistic impulses. It uses faux vox-pops to question the public about whether or not we ought to retaliate and the levels of responses are frankly quite stupefying at times. On the stupefying front, there are also some statistics bandied about that are all fairly horrific and it isn’t hard to comprehend why, with war raging in the far East and with the Cold War at it’s height, the BBC decided that this “War of the Worlds” scenario wasn’t quite what the people needed to see. It’s easier to question that conclusion almost sixty years later, but back then when access to mass communications was limited and the broadcaster amongst the most trusted on Earth, it might well have caused some panic had it been seen in it’s gritty and authentic glory.