A group of survivalists hole-up in a backwoods cabin, braced for an impending nuclear attack. Meanwhile, their children are trying desperately to join them, facing car troubles along the way.There are plenty of nuclear war films out there...put this one at the bottom of your "see list". This poorly written low-budget film strives for the same subdued bleakness that made TESTAMENT a powerful experience...the result is a dull soap opera of tawdry interpersonal dilemmas with a World War III back-story. With subject matter as serious as this, MASSIVE RETALIATION should be a rough punch in the gut...sadly, it just tickles your ass with a feather.3.5/10 - not recommended.

This is no better than Testament, The Day After, or Time of The Wolf. It's just too quiet, too detached from the horror that one might expect from a film revolving around the mass-detonation of atomic weaponry. The weight of the events is turned gooey, trivial, almost into a soap-opera style drama. Try as actors might, "imagining the unimaginable" (as it's often called) leaves the viewer uneasy at worst. The reporter that traveled to Hiroshima right after the a-bomb was dropped - he was not left uneasy. He was horrified, beside himself with grief and sorrow. Those are the emotions a film on this topic should attempt to evoke. Sadly, Massive Retaliation wimps out like many before and after it. One is invariably led to wonder the reasons this abnormal structure has proved the prevalent one. Why is it, that whenever anyone wants to make a nuclear war film, and get it taken seriously, it's turned into a character study? I can count on one hand the no-holds-barred, "thermonuclear war is not pretty" type of films that have been widely distributed across America. I guess when "The China Syndrome" predicted 3 Mile Island and changed millions of minds regarding nuclear power, the secret was out: to keep making missiles and subs and bombers, don't put the "real deal" in front of the people. Make them think that it will be a mild, slow, thoughtful and sad cancer-type death. Showing the real thing, the eyeball exploding, blood boiling out every hole, organs exploding, teeth melting, ocean boiling, mountain-leveling finality of all life on earth for thousands of years thing would just upset everyone too much. Afraid, but not rioting out of sheer panic - that's the optimum mood. Trauma is not conducive to apathetic behavior, and that's what the death-merchants need from the civilian sector. Hence, the oddly maudlin nature of our mainstream nuclear Armageddon movies. What a sorry excuse for consciousness-raising fare, this tripe known as Massive Retalitation.

*(SOME SPOILERS!)*This film is one of the slew of nuclear films which seemed to be regular staples at the video shop in the 80s. It's nowhere near as bad as drivel like Legend of the Rollerblade 7 or Hell Comes to Frogtown, but it's still doesn't come close to the quality of films like Miracle Mile or the very serious films Threads and The Day After.Avoiding the common 'fight for survival after the bomb' trap it starts in a reasonably promising fashion. A group of neighbours plan a weekend away at their rural retreat, but just before they're due to set off an international crisis sparks fears of a full scale nuclear war. Lucky for them they are survivalists and their holiday home contains enough supplies and firepower to get them through the crisis. For about 40 minutes the tension is built up reasonably well and all the hints about which characters are going to turn into cliched survivalist nuts are done pretty well. Then suddenly it all starts to descend into cliche and platitudes - the final scene is a terrible cliche and anti-climax: The war is averted, but the groups of armed nuts won't believe it and continue to fight - this is only halted by a group of children linking arms to surround one group of adults and bring the shooting to an end. It's a pretty awful ending after a vaguely promising start. That said, they are numerous worse nuclear films than this one. If you want to see this done better and much earlier, check out Ray Milland's 1962 film 'Panic in the Year Zero' which has an almost identical plot but is so so much better.

Massive Retaliation is your every day, average five-star movie. The beginning starts out great, but then quickly goes downhill. Massive Retaliation is about a group of survivalists that retreat to their camp after the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Gulf of Oman. Their children were supposed to come up earlier in the day, but when they find the bunk-houses empty panic starts to set in. As urban areas in the U.S. are evacuated tension increases. The movie was made in 1984, but the styles of clothes and music looked like they were left over from the late 70's. If you're really interested in the nuclear topic you should see Massive Retaliation. But, be forewarned, there is only one nuclear event reported on a TV news program. No big nuclear explosions in this one.