''Def-Con 4'' is a 1985

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

film, portraying three astronauts who survive

World War III World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...

aboard a space station and return to Earth to find greatly changed circumstances. The film's title refers to the Defense Readiness Condition ( DEFCON), the United States military's nuclear alert system.

Synopsis

Three astronauts in a secret spaceship lose all contact with the ground and observe what appears to be a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union on Earth. Two months later, the spacecraft's guidance system is mysteriously reprogrammed, forcing the crew's return to Earth. The spacecraft lands considerably off-course, on a beach in eastern

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

, Canada. Jordan (Kate Lynch) is knocked unconscious on impact. Walker (John Walsch) exits first and is quickly killed by "terminals" – humans crazed by disease. Several hours later, in the middle of the night, Howe (Tim Choate) ventures out in search of help and a way to escape. He soon encounters Vinny (Maury Chaykin), a survivalist who has fortified his house with barbed wire and booby-traps. Vinny effectively saves him from the "terminals," and makes him his prisoner. As the plot develops, Vinny, fellow survivor J.J. (Lenore Zann), and Howe are captured, and taken in chains to a makeshift fortress built out of junk. In order to survive, the crew must escape to the radiation-free zones while avoiding cannibal "terminals" and a sadistic military-school student-turned-despotic ruler, and escape before a malfunctioning nuclear warhead explodes in sixty hours.

Cast

Production

The film was primarily directed by Paul Donovan. Digby C. Cook directed the WWN news segment. Tony Randel directed part of the film but received no credit.

Reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program TV listings, listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Mag ...

gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, praising the war scenario, the darker approach to the apocalypse genre and the overall disturbing effect of the movie. In Creature Feature, the movie received 2.5 out of 5 stars, finding the space scenes of the movie good, but the land-based scenes commonplace.

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's '' Dracula'' ...

found the plot of a pre-apocalyptic person thrust into a post-apocalyptic world to be a cliché based on ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively fo ...

'' by H. G. Wells.Newman, K. (2000) Apocalypse Movies: End of the World Cinema

References

External links

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A summary review and synopsis of the movie
{{Tony Randel 1985 films 1980s disaster films 1980s science fiction films English-language Canadian films Canadian disaster films Canadian science fiction films Canadian post-apocalyptic films Films shot in Nova Scotia New World Pictures films Films directed by Tony Randel Films about World War III Films about astronauts Films about nuclear war and weapons Films scored by Christopher Young Films directed by Paul Donovan 1980s English-language films 1980s Canadian films