The "War" for 2024 and beyond

 (Scene begins with a black screen and the following text: "The following review will have the most controversial thoughts, and the content of the review may be considered disturbing. Viewer Discretion is HEAVILY advised!" The scene cuts to James Faraci, The Last Of The Americans in his office.)

TLOTA:
Ladies and Gentlemen, this review will likely be controversial and disturbing for many people. Very few jokes, if any, will be made in this review. This review is not for entertainment, as is the usual case in one of The Last Of The Americans reviews. There will be spoilers here because even with them, they're essential and might encourage people to watch this movie more. For all intents and purposes, this movie is necessary to all the subjects of today that are currently being talked about, no matter where you stand on them. (Cut to recent events as James does a voiceover.)

TLOTA (V.O.):
The last few years have been a nightmare for everyone; even I have seen my fair share of horrors that no one should see, and since the Pandemic hit, we have been at a tipping point, and it seems we are heading towards absolute chaos and anarchy. Witnessing the world's downfall has been hard, especially when the intelligence of the average human is becoming lower than their shoe size. They have been making decisions that affect others, and everything they've done has further eroded all hope in our elected leaders, defenders, and our belief that we will rise together for a brighter future. It was these events that inspired writer Alex Garland, who wrote the movies "28 Days Later,""Dredd," and "Ex-Machina," to write and direct a parable similar to something just as powerful forty years earlier. (Cut to footage of "The Day After" as James does a voiceover)

TLOTA (V.O.):
When Nicholas Meyer, the director of "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" signed on to work on a nuclear disaster made for tv movie called "The Day After," he knew that he had to be realistic about what would happen if the nuclear arms of the 1980s between the Soviet Union and the United States were launched and what would happen if we continued the course and the end would be nothing but social decimation and mutually assured destruction. While most of the lessons we learned from that have begun to be unlearned, the mere fact we have chosen not to use the nuclear arsenal today means that we are choosing not to be completely incompetent, so there is SOME hope that we are doing good enough for now. (Cut to James physically)

TLOTA:
However, it seems we're on a course of Self-destruction and social collapse, and today I am going to talk about possibly the most important movie of 2024 that everyone MUST see. (Cut to clips of "Civil War" as James does a voiceover)

TLOTA (V.O.):
"Civil War" is not an action-filled war movie about heroes fighting their fellow citizens to save the country's soul, seeing our soldiers at the front lines having to make the hard decision to kill people who could be their family members; instead, it is more than that. (Cut to James physically)

TLOTA: 
Let's not waste time and get right into "Civil War." (Cut to "Civil War" as James does a voiceover.)

TLOTA (V.O.):
The movie opens with us being introduced to the man who possibly started this war. Even though the movie doesn't tell us how and what started this conflict, we're led to believe he was the cause: The President Of The United States, played by Nick Offerman, as he prepares his jingoistic ramblings and rabble-rousing. We're then introduced to a photographer named Lee, played by Kirsten Dunst, who we see on her face. She has seen a lot, including a massacre on ANTIFA. After the President's Jingo, we find Lee in Manhattan, which has fallen due to a collapse in society and infrastructure. Lee and her reporter friend Joel, played by Wagner Moura, take photos and report how a few families are begging for just a few drops of water to get through the next few days. Lee and Joel are surprisingly joined by a junior reporter trying to emulate Lee, named Jessie, played by Cailee Spaeny. Lee notices her and tries to keep her out of harm's way when a suicide bombing happens, killing many of the people just trying to get some supplies to survive. And here is something interesting to note. Lee's photography is Digital, and in color, so we see the gore and destruction in its disgusting horror, while Jessie's is an old-school analog where we see, in black and white, the people being destroyed. Back in the hotel, Lee sends her photos to her publisher. We see Lee and Joel tell their associate Sammy, played by Stephen McKinley Henderson, about their plans to hit the highways and byways to get to the president about this war. What horrors have occurred, what he himself has done to cause it, and what he planned to repair the damage he had done and return those that seceded from states back into the fold. We then see Lee soak in a bathtub, remember what she had seen at the start of the war, feel she had seen so much, and wonder how she could make it through yet another day. Sure enough, Lee and Joel begin their journey with Sammy and Jessie in tow, Lee not happy with either being on the trip.  (Cut to James physically)

TLOTA:
I would simply state the following to Lee in that situation, "Shut the fuck up, put on your big girl panties, and accept the rest of the team being there." (Cut to "Civil War" as James does a voiceover.)

TLOTA (V.O.):
At one stop for gas, Jessie sees a man hanging two looters as they're being tortured. Lee steps in to save Jessie by taking the photo. Now shaken to her core, Jessie berates herself for not taking the photo herself and is given a chance to relax as Lee and Jessie take the picture of a downed helicopter. Jessie asks if she is going to die in this war. Would Lee take her final picture as she dies? Lee answers with a definitive "I might" answer. At an overnight stop, our gang decided to rest and relax further. Lee talks to Sammy, saying all the photos she posted were warnings that fell on blind eyes. The following day, Lee, Jessie, and Joel are thrown into the mix as they take photos. As Lee sees Jessie's potential by the end of the skirmish, Jessie takes pictures of the prisoners being summarily executed. Something else to notice is that at no point do the characters talk about their own political differences; instead, they talk about their personal lives and how they got to this point in their lives, mainly when Jessie develops her photographs the old-school way and Lee wonders how and why Jessie looks up to Lee and Jessie basically tells how she has been so resilient in the face of the nightmare that we have been in the fourteen months before the war we've been in. (Cut to James physically) 

TLOTA:
Something else to note: While we don't see Nick Offerman's President, we occasionally hear his jingo. From what I knew from watching this movie, this President disbanded the FBI and was somehow given a chance at a third term, and he was so power-hungry that he struck down innocent citizens of his country in an air raid. If that doesn't scare you, nothing will. (Cut to "Civil War" as James does a voiceover.)

TLOTA (V.O.):
The following day, our heroes come upon a small town that seems oblivious to the fact that their country has gone to hell and is getting worse with every passing second; I would put a South Park joke in here; however, I am keeping the jokes to the bare minimum. While there, Lee and Jessie spend more time getting to know each other, as we see in the background that there are probably snipers on every building top to enforce martial law. Back on the road, our heroes are caught in a sniper shootout at a Christmas fair, and it is here that we see Jessie become less sensitized to the violence as the sniper that's trying to keep them alive finishes the job as they kill the sniper that had pinned them down. Back on the road, we're introduced to two Hong Kong reporters joining their journey. Jessie joins Hong Kong driver Bohai, and Tony, played by Nelson Lee and Evan Lai, joins Lee and Joel. Trying to keep up with Bohai, they soon find the two captured by extremist racists in terms of their beliefs that if you don't look or speak like them, then you're not American. By the way, the leader of this group, who is wearing blood-colored glasses, is Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst's husband. And I don't know if they have kids because if they have them, it must've been a whopper discussion about what was happening while working on this movie. As Tony, Lee, and Joel try to rescue their companions from winding up in a mass grave covered in lye, Bohai and Tony are killed by the racists. With little to no time left before seeing Jessie, Joel, and Lee join Bohai and Tony, Sammy rams two of the three extremists with their ride. Jessie gets out of the mass grave, and our heroes escape; however, missing one of the extremists causes Sammy to be fatally wounded and leaves Jessie traumatized. That night, as they go through a burning forest, our heroes contemplate how they got to this point, and the following day, Sammy dies from his gunshot wounds as the team makes it to a Western Forces encampment to bury Sammy and Lee in a sense of decorum deletes the last known photo of her friend. Grieving over their losses, they soon hear from two other reporters that the Western Forces have caused loyalists to surrender and leave DC undefended. With this knowledge, our team joins the Western Forces to get what may be their last chance to get to the President Of The United States. And then... (Show the battle as Lee has a nervous break in the middle of the fight, then makes their way into the White House, the Western Forces shooting everyone and killing a negotiator. Jessie goes into the line of fire to get the pictures, only for Lee to be killed in cold blood and Jessie to take Lee's death picture. The sounds of The Western Forces saying they've got the President and Joel asking for one last quote. The President begs for them not to kill him.) And with that, the movie ends as The President takes two shots to the chest in center mass, killing him instantly; Jessie takes the pictures of that and a photo of the soldiers that killed The President propping the body in the same way a hunter props up their quarry being developed. (Cut to James physically)

TLOTA:
And that was "Civil War," the darkest movie of the year, the most violent movie of the year, the most important film of the year, and possibly one of the greatest movies you must see. (Cut to clips of "Civil War" as James does a voiceover)

TLOTA (V.O.):
To dismiss this as yet another war or anti-American movie is folly. If the Government has become so corrupt that you feel the only way to save the country is by seceding from its Government, then you have a right to do so. To me, this is the movie that, believe it or not, reestablished the Fourth Estate or rather how Journalists must be unbiased in their political leanings, just like it was back in the days of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennnings. The biggest negative complaint is that it is a political movie. However, this is not about politics. This is about our country torn apart by our own folly, how we had failed our forefathers, and how we must avoid this future. I, admittedly, a Conservative Republican, have seen this country come close to hitting the self-destruct button by people not only in my political party but also on the other side of the coin. The lack of information on how this event came to leave us to figure out how it happened, thus making us think and become journalists and research ourselves to see what we can do to stop the madness that seems right around the corner. Everyone acting in the movie does a great job, which is saying a lot, given the subject matter and how the movie's events came to be, which shows what we are like.  For me, War must become an obsolete idea before we become obsolete. Screw whatever we believe about people we think are our enemies; we must wake up and stop before it goes this far into the chaos. (Cut to James physically)

TLOTA:
My suggestion is to take the story of this movie, think about it, and put yourself in the same position as those who are either someone like Lee or one of the people who are fighting for their own survival in this war who is NOT a soldier holding a gun at you while trying to force you to pick a side and hope that god save us all, no matter what happens in the future. If "Civil War" is anything to talk about, we must consider how to avoid calling ourselves the title I call myself. I'm James Faraci, The Last Of The Americans. (James walks away as an empty chair is shown for two seconds before fading to black)

The broken "Threads" and "The Day After"

(Camera turns on and James grabs the title card and hums “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It & I Feel Fine” for five seconds as James shows his handmade title card of a Nuclear explosion and the words “The End Of The World” and James puts it on the desk.) 

TLOTA: 
I’m The Last Of The Americans and the views I’m about to express, whatever. So apparently, there are people who are out there. Maybe they’re on the same frequency, but they’ve got it worse in some places. Someone from what remains of the United Kingdom of England, and they also reminded me of their version of “The Day After,” and by sheer luck, there was a copy of it for us here in the States on Physical Media. (James sets up two portable Blu-Ray/DVD players as he gets to the main menu) “Threads” created by the BBC saw what we did with “The Day After,” and everyone there collectively said, “Hold our Pints!” However, after checking it out, I decided to compare both, it’s not one of those types of deals, but I will have to make this a quick one. We’ll go through a lot in one quick shot, especially since I had talked about it already. (James puts the camera on the screens. James hits the play buttons.) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
Now both take place in small towns. In “The Day After,” it’s Kansas City and in the heartland of the United States. In “Threads,” it’s Sheffield, England, and most of the where the United Kingdom lay. While both wind up as they are, nuclear waste sites and both beforehand are tossed into chaos. Where “The Day After” shows it as chaotically futile attempts to survive, “Threads” show the entire city screaming “STOP THE CHAOS” in organized protests. Now, as for the nuclear attacks, “The Day After” shows the destruction. “Threads” show the destruction but, for some odd reason, had moments in which there was humor. I mean, seriously? Is someone reacting to the bomb going off while on the toilet? Was that appropriate, BBC? But thankfully, “Threads” do more than show just a small amount of time passing after the nuclear bombs destroy the city. They show the time passing over fourteen years after the bombs wipe humanity off the map. Showing that the generation after the radiation effects slowly dissipate and that they’re stuck de-evolving as they continue existing. Meanwhile “The Day After” is just dead; that’s it. And as “Threads” ends the baby that was born by the third act, where the mother bites out the Umbilical Cord to save the baby, giving birth to a stillborn, “The Day Ends” just ends with no hope as it should. (James pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
But is one better than the other? Not really 

(James puts the camera back on the screens) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
Both handle the subject matter seriously enough for people to do something about it back in the day. It’s just a shame no one did anything to stop what happened recently. If we had seen them more often, I mean we should have shown this everywhere and kept showing it to everyone until they realize that we needed to fully disarm us and force us to look at each other when we go to war! Seeing a distant family member and wondering if we can pull the trigger. If we can’t, we should unite for peace; if we can, then we’re all dead. (The screens shut off as James pulls the camera off them and towards him)  

TLOTA: 

As if we’re not there anyway! (Power Flickers again) Looks like I really did a number on the power. See everyone soon. Last Of The Americans, signing off! (Camera shuts off) 

Weeks "After" The End

(Scene begins as flickers of light are seen as we see members of Team TLOTA in Nuclear decontamination suits as they scrub off a guy with his back to the camera. The guy goes to grab a shirt and jeans. We soon find the guy setting up a camera, and we discover the guy is, in fact, James Faraci, The Last Of The Americans, as we see from inside his room.) 

TLOTA: 
I’m James Faraci, The Last Of The Americans, and the views I’m about to express might be some of the last. So not long after the bombs hit certain states that were smart enough to see this coming hit a heal pulse to repair some of the bigger parts of the technological infrastructure. Wi-Fi and the internet have been spotty, and most sites have been decimated. I’m barely using enough for the day to…to… I honestly don’t know what it is I’m doing anymore! Maybe it's (Snaps fingers) Reviews! And it’s Armageddon! (James quickly draws a title card and hums, “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It & I Feel Fine” for five seconds as James shows his handmade title card of a Nuclear explosion and the words “The End Of The World” and James puts it on the desk.) So I guess we will go over some post-apocalyptic movies for the next few weeks or months or however long it takes. In case you weren’t as orientated, what must you do to survive now. But this is for those who may not have known when I was a kid, there was this event called “The Cold War” between the United States and the Soviet Union and a little event in which a television network called ABC decided to create a TV Movie that was supposed to warn us about our stupidity. It gave us forty years to hopefully avoid what happened; fat lot of good it did us! (James sets up a portable Blu-Ray/DVD player as he gets it to the main menu) “The Day After” was released just as someone named Stanislav Petrov was able to correctly guess that there were too few blips on his radar, and it was then that we would get a chance to see this. It had a message that resonated so much that people were trying to stop what eventually happened. But now as the end has happened, does this still have any impact? We’ll find out as we go over “The Day After” (James puts the camera on the screen. James hits the play button.) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
The movie opens at SAC Airborne Command in Omaha, Nebraska. From what I gathered, the footage of the B-52 and the crew that represents our armed forces came from a documentary called “First Strike” because some governmental jackass wanted it to make the soviets look like the bad guy. But director Nicholas Meyer, who had just come from “Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan” to direct this movie, said that the governments weren’t the bad guys; it was the nuclear weapons themselves. (James pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
Spoilers Nick, if you’re still here, they were as much the bad guy as the nuclear weapons were, asshole! (James puts the camera back on the screen) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
After a jaunty tune with our opening credits that are supposed to quell our fears about what we saw, the first bit of dialogue of what’s going on comes from inside a Kansas City trade building. It lets us know that things have severely deteriorated. Not long after that, we’re introduced to Dr. Oakes at Memorial General Hospital in Kansas City as he is giving a lecture and has some other issues. Then we are introduced to airman McCoy as he’s interested in what goes on as he prepares for a 30-day furlough with his family to New Orleans, The Dahlberg Farm, where Farmer Dahlberg and his family await a happy couple for their rehearsal wedding. (James pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
If they were to toss a football around in an alleyway in tuxedos, which by the way, neither exist now, then we’d be in for a fun wedding, which doesn’t exist either. (James puts the camera back on the screen) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
Airman McCoy reaches his destination, which is outside of the Hendry farm, where we see them trying to live a normal life, as normal as one can have to know they’re close to the people in charge of the weapons of the apocalypse. We soon cut to Oakes as he and his daughter have a heart-to-heart conversation and find themselves in a museum where Oakes’ daughter tries to help him understand perspective as she tells her father that she’s going to Boston. Oakes thinks she’s following her love interest which we never see in this film. We soon hear in TV and Radio transmissions that things are breaking down quickly.  As Oakes and his wife and everyone have more serious conversations about the possibilities of what will eventually happen while East and West Berlin borders shut down. The fears are so strong that Farmer Dahlberg can’t worry about the Premarital sex his daughter and her fiancée are having. Oakes’ wife compares it to the Cuban Missile Crisis. McCoy’s wife is super worried because, again, he’s the guy closest to the missiles! With everything going straight to the bottom of the barrel, students at the college, including Steven and others, hear about what’s happening, and people try to understand things. Steven hitchhikes to his home.  Meanwhile, Dahlberg’s Daughter’s Fiancée is at a barber shop where a professor tells us that there is nowhere as there are nuclear missiles all around Missouri the Hendrys use this to have sex. Farmer Dahlberg forcibly drags his wife, kicking and screaming to the basement. Suddenly the emergency broadcast systems start playing; everything breaks down as we finally see… (The Nuclear Missiles launch) and as that happens, everyone who sees this can see this is the end of it all! When that happens, McCoy decides to bolt from the base, and others continue to fear; the panic hits its hardest just perfectly as… (Air raids sirens blare, then everything with a power source is shut down, and nuclear bombs detonate. James pauses the movie and pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
So yeah, thanks for reminding me of what happened a few weeks ago. And when this aired on TV, from this moment forward in this movie’s timeline, there is no more commercial breaks, no shilling of Coca-Cola, Atari, or anything like that to take anyone out of what I’ve been seeing. (Power starts to flicker) Son of a… Yeah, even though there are no commercials for me to use because everyone has everything to survive for the next few decades, I must step away and hope I can get back on this frequency. (A blank screen stands for thirty seconds. James clicks the camera back on.) Okay, Power has been restored, I got back on this frequency, and let me reset where we were when the power started to flicker, and here we go! So yeah, everything that happened in that moment was stock footage from other disaster movies and test footage of ICBMs that helped destroy things to help the reality and intensity of the moment. (James puts the camera on the screen. James hits the play button.) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
As we come back, we see the destruction from the bombs as we find the Dahlbergs trying to survive, and Oakes makes his way back to the hospital to help where he can, and with no power, there’s not much they can do. At the university, Professor Huxley is trying to get a radio to find any news. His students are trying to measure the roentgen of radiation that is still out there because Power is kaput! Meanwhile, Airman McCoy found a metal box to hide in until the blasts were over and tried to make his way home. Oakes and the hospital staff try to do whatever it takes to restore power and water; however, the EMP has pretty much fried all their options. In one of the few moments where stories cross, Steven comes upon the Dahlbergs as he tells them that every place with a nuclear silo was hit. And Steven also tells Denise, the eldest daughter, that it’s likely her fiancée is a radioactive corpse. We soon hear discussions as to how bad things are going to get. Professor Huxley contacts the Hospital; he tells us that the rads have stabilized and aren’t going down and tells Oakes that if and when the rads go down to two rads, then it will be safe, which isn’t anytime soon. (James pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
And according to what I’ve read on the meters on my devices, it won’t go anywhere for (blows raspberry) Eff it, if I know! (James puts the camera back on the screen) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
We soon find ourselves back at the Dahlberg farm as the eldest daughter who had the fiancée who died, finally goes around the bend. Steven grabs her from the basement and tells her that the radiation is invading her body, and when they make it back, Steven knows it’s too late to help her out of the madness. Meanwhile, back with McCoy, he hears that the town he was living in outside of the base is now a nuclear dump site. Back in the hospital, the bodies keep rising, and the madness continues to grow as people die every second, every minute, and every hour. McCoy makes a friend on his travels, trying to make his way to Lawrence. We soon discover that people realize how bad everything has become. (The pregnant lady tells Doctor Oakes the score and how they could’ve handled it forty years ago and did nothing. James pulls the camera away to him) 

 

TLOTA: 
And adding on the forty years I’ve been around, that incompetence has become even worse. (James puts the camera back on the screen) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
With the situation officially as bad as it can get, Denise now goes after Steven thinking he’s her fiancée because, again, she’s nuts. As that happens, we see McCoy now suffering from radiation sickness. Meanwhile, the radiation levels have now become marginally safe. But it's too little too late; at a church service, Denise shows signs of radiation poisoning, meaning that the words of the bible are now worthless. Steven takes Farmer Dahlberg’s daughter and son to Lawrence to hopefully find help at the hospital. Back at the hospital, the situation has become impossible to handle. With roughly thirty minutes left in the run time, we finally hear from one of the four horsemen that brought this disaster. (The President Of The United States give his bullshit speech. James pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
And that was how the movie showed this president; our president said this as well, but his speech ended differently. His speech ended with, “I drew this picture of a blue sky and green grass! Everybody happy!” It’s the god damned mother fucking apocalypse; I don’t care if I insult him; the bastard brought about the world's end! Him, Kim Jong-Un, Putin, and the terrorists in the Middle East. (James puts the camera back on the screen) 

TLOTA (V.O.): 
With the bodies continuing to rise, Oakes finally collapses under the strain of everything. As he alluded to when he was talking to someone else when he fell asleep, he soon remembers his family and the bombs that took that from him. As we see the death count rise, which includes McCoy and Farmer Dahlberg, after rejecting the FEMA stand-in and their claims that they just scrape off the top layer of soil and start farming again and is shot on site by someone trying to survive on his land, and rioters are killed for trying to get more food for themselves. Oakes knows his death will be as painful as all fuck; he hitches a ride to his home in the very thin hope that someone from his family will be there to comfort him. As he leaves, the last scene in Lawrence is inside a famed college sports arena, now littered with those who are dying and dead, and it’s here we realize those who were vaporized at the midway point; they were the lucky ones. Oakes makes it back to Kansas City, and a memorial whose inscription now means nothing then comes to the crater that was his home and comes upon squatters. As Oakes dies, we hear a message from Huxley that he will never get a response and a message that the movie underplayed it! (James pulls the camera away to him)  

TLOTA: 
NO SHIT SHERLOCK! THANK YOU FOR THE OBVIOUS! (James starts to cry for five seconds) “The Day After” was the most important TV Movie ever made. This movie was dark and disturbing and had no happy ending. Because after everything we have been through, there shouldn’t be a happy ending. This depressed everyone, and it should depress you because we could’ve avoided this, but we chose to ignore the events that happened in this movie; we chose not to disarm ourselves of the nuclear nightmare, even though we had treaties made after this movie and all that, we ignored it and chose to become blissfully ignorant of everything that happened. If you haven’t seen it, it is better to watch it now or not at all because this nuclear nightmare could’ve been avoided if we had watched it more! And (Power Flickers again), Now I must go; it looks like I’m gonna be busy before I continue. See everyone soon. I’m James, Last Of The Americans, signing off! (Camera shuts off)