The Day After is a 1983 American television film that aired on November 20, 1983, on the ABC television network. It was seen by more than 100 million people during its initial broadcast. The film postulates a fictional war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several family farms situated next to nuclear missile silos. The cast includes JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum, Jason Robards and John Lithgow. The film was written by Edward Hume, produced by Robert Papazian and directed by Nicholas Meyer. It was released on DVD on May 18, 2004, by MGM. The chronology of the events leading up to the war is depicted entirely via television and radio news broadcasts. The Soviet Union is shown to have commenced a military buildup in East Germany with the goal of intimi...