Post by lordroel on May 2, 2019 16:42:38 GMT
World War III (Der Dritte Weltkrieg) Movie
World War III (Der Dritte Weltkrieg) is a 1998 German television mockumentary, directed by Robert Stone and distributed by ZDF. An English version, in collaboration with The Learning Channel, was made as well. It depicts what might have transpired if, following the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet troops, under orders from a new hard-line regime, had opened fire on demonstrators in Berlin in the fall of 1989 and precipitated World War III. The film mixes real footage of world leaders and archive footage of (for example) combat exercises and news events, with newly shot footage of citizens, soldiers and political staff.
Plot taken from Wikipedia article about the movie
Wikipedia: World War III (1998 film)
Prologue
The movie opens with clips of the US military scrambling to respond to a Soviet nuclear attack. Daniel Schorr, reporting in front of the White House, is vaporized when a nuclear weapon detonates.
Berlin in Crisis
In the summer of 1989, East Germany is in turmoil. Many citizens are dissatisfied with their nation’s communist leadership and demand pro-Western reforms. They also seek unification with West Germany. On October 7, Mikhail Gorbachev, a supporter of those reforms, visits East Berlin. During his return flight, the hard-line communist leadership stages a coup that deposes Gorbachev and installs (fictional) General Vladimir Soshkin as the new Soviet leader; Gorbachev's eventual fate is "lost in the darkness of history".
Soshkin and the hard-liners fiercely resist the rise of glasnost and perestroika. They are determined to end the uprisings in East Germany and the rest of the Eastern Bloc (even Poland, where the Communists had peacefully ceded power by the time of the coup) with a swift Chinese-style military crackdown in late October. (In East Germany at least, the crackdown is not limited to demonstrators: numerous moderate Communists such as Egon Krenz and Günter Schabowski are "disappeared", never to be heard from again.) The crackdown inflames popular opposition to communism. In late November, a demonstration in Leipzig is brutally repressed by the Red Army at great loss of life. Two days later, a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate ends with East German soldiers killing many East Berlin residents trying to scale the Berlin Wall and a West German cameraman filming the events. Those soldiers also fire shots over the wall into West Berlin. Soon after, the East German government responds to the international condemnation of their conduct by ordering all foreign journalists out of the country.
The buildup to war
In mid-December, the Western Allies airlift military reinforcements to West Berlin. Soon after, US Secretary of State James Baker arrives in West Berlin to secretly meet with General Dmitry Leonov, the Soviet commander in East Germany, who strongly opposes Soshkin's crackdown. However, on the way to the meeting, Leonov is killed by a car bomb, for which a West German neo-Nazi group claims responsibility. After an interview with West German TV in which Soshkin implicitly threatens West Berlin, an American colonel orders that tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany be placed on high alert. Soshkin responds with new threats, a massive deployment of the Soviet submarine fleet, and incursions of Soviet Bear bombers into Alaskan airspace.
On January 25, 1990, Soshkin implements Operation Thunderbolt. Eastern troops cut off transportation and supply links between West Germany and West Berlin, and the Soviet Air Force mobilizes to close off East Germany's airspace. Soshkin hopes the plan will prevent the West from entering into the Eastern sphere of influence and cut Berlin off from the West. NATO forces start a full-scale deployment into West Germany, and many citizens in West Germany are preparing shelters should the worst come.
As the United States prepares their first military convoy across the North Atlantic, the Soviets announce their intention to blockade the US Navy transports. Soshkin desires to cut off Western Europe and weaken the NATO buildup. The UN and NATO condemn the blockade and declare it to be an act of hostility. On February 18, the United States Navy violates the blockade, and US ships are attacked by Soviet forces. Nearly a quarter of the convoy is lost in the ensuing battle before American and British forces clear the sea lanes. World War III has begun.
The United States dispatches Martin Jacobs to the Soviet Union for talks with Soshkin. Figuring that Soshkin knows that the Soviets were losing power in Eastern Europe, Jacobs offers Soshkin an extended timetable for the Soviet withdraw from Eastern Europe in exchange for a de-escalation of the military buildup. Soshkin refuses him utterly: "Nyet".
The battle for Germany
On March 12, Soshkin orders a full-scale amphibious landing near Kiel on the Baltic coast. The landings catch NATO off-guard, and they scramble forces northward to push back the beachhead. The next day, Warsaw Pact ground forces drive through the Fulda Gap, with orders to push to the Rhine to divide the stretched out NATO force. Meanwhile, the Soviet Air Force bombards Ramstein Air Base and other NATO bases in Germany. The goal is to cripple the NATO buildup with a swift strike and then press for a new round of diplomatic bargaining from a stronger strategic position. NATO forces, faced with superior numbers and surprise, are pushed back, though they are able to inflict significant losses on the Warsaw Pact forces. By March 17, Eastern forces have advanced 50 miles into West Germany.
While preparing to launch a tactical nuclear counter-assault, NATO authorizes a last-ditch conventional air campaign, Operation Bloody Nose, launched 24 hours before the nuclear strikes were to begin. It is an overwhelming success: the initial strikes cripple Warsaw Pact command and control posts, throwing their armies in the field into chaos, and in the ensuing air battle, NATO inflicts devastating losses on the Soviet Air Force (which had already lost 20% of the aircraft supporting the initial offensives), gaining unchallenged control of Eastern European airspace. Combined with assistance from the Polish underground that cuts off Soviet supply lines, the tide of the war turns. With their numerical superiority negated by the Western technological superiority, the East German and Soviet armies melt under NATO airfire, and Western forces enter East Germany on March 23.
Global thermonuclear war
NATO forces reach and liberate West Berlin on March 27. As the Soviets withdraw to Poland, Germans begin to hope that reunification is at hand. The US leadership tries to reassure Soshkin that NATO had no intention to press their advance beyond East Germany. However, unrest erupts across the Eastern Bloc as citizens of communist nations, and ethnic minorities within the Soviet Union, press for the overthrow of their leaders. Soshkin becomes paranoid that NATO will exploit the situation to fight all the way to Moscow or to launch a nuclear first strike against him.
As a show of force, on March 31 Soshkin orders a symbolic nuclear strike above the North Sea. The United States responds by going to full nuclear alert and preparing to execute the Single Integrated Operational Plan. On April 1, a Soviet radar post suffers an equipment malfunction. Falsely believing that the USSR is under nuclear attack, Soshkin orders an all-out nuclear strike against the West. NATO responds in kind. Thousands of nuclear devices are launched across the Northern Hemisphere. "There is no further historical record of what happens next".
Epilogue
The movie rewinds to Gorbachev’s visit to East Germany. We then see the real celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful reunification of Germany: "History...took a different course.".
Plot taken from World War III TV tropes page
Gorbachev is removed from power in a military coup. His exact fate is unknown but power over the Soviet leadership is transferred to General Vladimir Soshkin, a Communist hardliner who quickly undoes Gorbachev's reforms.
The USSR begins a massive crackdown across the Eastern Bloc in response to unrest. One of the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig results in scores of civilians gunned down by Red Army troops. This culminates in a massive protest at the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall, which features East German citizens attempting to scale the wall. East German soldiers shoot dozens of civilians, and even fire across the wall into West Berlin.
NATO begins a military buildup in West Berlin. The US Secretary of State secretly arranges to meet with the Soviet commander of the East German forces, but the commander is killed by a car bomb set off by West German Neo-Nazi's upon his arrival in West Berlin. Meanwhile in a televised interview Soshkin threatens to occupy West Berlin. Hours later NATO's tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany are placed on operational status. The Soviets respond by deploying their submarine fleet to the North Atlantic and flying Tu-95 Bombers into Alaskan airspace.
East German soldiers cut off the three main access routes to West Berlin, effectively holding the city hostage, while the Soviet Air Force closes off East Germany's airspace. Soshkin's plan is to cut off West Berlin from NATO and to keep them out of the USSR's sphere of influence. NATO responds with a full scale deployment to West Germany.
The US Navy sends a convoy across the Atlantic to support the NATO forces in West Germany. The Soviets blockade the entire North Atlantic in an attempt to cut off the US from Western Europe. US and British ships engage the blockage and an intense naval battle ensues. Despite losing nearly a quarter of their ships, the blockade is destroyed. Afterwards the US offers the Soviets a timetable to draw down their forces in East Germany, which Soshkin flatly refuses. World War III has begun.
Soviet forces make an amphibious assault near Kiel and catch NATO off guard, who has to scramble forces north to contain the invasion. However this was a decoy for the real assault: a massive Warsaw Pact ground invasion through the Fulda Gap. Meanwhile the Soviet Air Force bombs NATO air bases to deny them air superiority. NATO is sent reeling and the Warsaw Pact manages to advance 50 miles into West Germany. The USSR's plan is to cripple NATO before beginning negotiations to secure a strategic advantage in Western Europe.
NATO plans to respond with a nuclear counterattack. But 24 hours before the attack is to take place it attempts a last ditch aerial campaign. A massive air battle ensues between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, but NATO manages a decisive victory: establishing air superiority as well as crippling the Soviet command and control structure by striking key areas. With supply lines cut by the resistance in Poland, the Warsaw Pact begins a hasty retreat.
West Berlin is liberated and the East German government begins to collapse. German citizens are hopeful that reunification is at hand and NATO makes it clear they have no desire to send their forces past the East German border. Meanwhile violence erupts in other Eastern Bloc nations as citizens call for the overthrow of the Communist governments. Soshkin is convinced that NATO will use the opportunity to invade Russia if not destroy with with a nuclear attack. He detonates a single nuclear warhead above the North Sea as a show of force. The United States goes on full nuclear alert.
Soshkin fires Russia's nuclear arsenal at the West (it's implied a malfunctioning radar may have caused him to think the USSR was under attack) the silo's at Dombarovsky Air Base slide open their silo doors and soon it's ICBM's come roaring out, this is probably only one example of something that is occurring all over the USSR, a shot of the Nation's submarine missile's being fired is shown too. The US and NATO respond in kind by launching their missiles and flying their bombers towards the USSR.
World War III (Der Dritte Weltkrieg) is a 1998 German television mockumentary, directed by Robert Stone and distributed by ZDF. An English version, in collaboration with The Learning Channel, was made as well. It depicts what might have transpired if, following the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet troops, under orders from a new hard-line regime, had opened fire on demonstrators in Berlin in the fall of 1989 and precipitated World War III. The film mixes real footage of world leaders and archive footage of (for example) combat exercises and news events, with newly shot footage of citizens, soldiers and political staff.
Plot taken from Wikipedia article about the movie
Wikipedia: World War III (1998 film)
Prologue
The movie opens with clips of the US military scrambling to respond to a Soviet nuclear attack. Daniel Schorr, reporting in front of the White House, is vaporized when a nuclear weapon detonates.
Berlin in Crisis
In the summer of 1989, East Germany is in turmoil. Many citizens are dissatisfied with their nation’s communist leadership and demand pro-Western reforms. They also seek unification with West Germany. On October 7, Mikhail Gorbachev, a supporter of those reforms, visits East Berlin. During his return flight, the hard-line communist leadership stages a coup that deposes Gorbachev and installs (fictional) General Vladimir Soshkin as the new Soviet leader; Gorbachev's eventual fate is "lost in the darkness of history".
Soshkin and the hard-liners fiercely resist the rise of glasnost and perestroika. They are determined to end the uprisings in East Germany and the rest of the Eastern Bloc (even Poland, where the Communists had peacefully ceded power by the time of the coup) with a swift Chinese-style military crackdown in late October. (In East Germany at least, the crackdown is not limited to demonstrators: numerous moderate Communists such as Egon Krenz and Günter Schabowski are "disappeared", never to be heard from again.) The crackdown inflames popular opposition to communism. In late November, a demonstration in Leipzig is brutally repressed by the Red Army at great loss of life. Two days later, a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate ends with East German soldiers killing many East Berlin residents trying to scale the Berlin Wall and a West German cameraman filming the events. Those soldiers also fire shots over the wall into West Berlin. Soon after, the East German government responds to the international condemnation of their conduct by ordering all foreign journalists out of the country.
The buildup to war
In mid-December, the Western Allies airlift military reinforcements to West Berlin. Soon after, US Secretary of State James Baker arrives in West Berlin to secretly meet with General Dmitry Leonov, the Soviet commander in East Germany, who strongly opposes Soshkin's crackdown. However, on the way to the meeting, Leonov is killed by a car bomb, for which a West German neo-Nazi group claims responsibility. After an interview with West German TV in which Soshkin implicitly threatens West Berlin, an American colonel orders that tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany be placed on high alert. Soshkin responds with new threats, a massive deployment of the Soviet submarine fleet, and incursions of Soviet Bear bombers into Alaskan airspace.
On January 25, 1990, Soshkin implements Operation Thunderbolt. Eastern troops cut off transportation and supply links between West Germany and West Berlin, and the Soviet Air Force mobilizes to close off East Germany's airspace. Soshkin hopes the plan will prevent the West from entering into the Eastern sphere of influence and cut Berlin off from the West. NATO forces start a full-scale deployment into West Germany, and many citizens in West Germany are preparing shelters should the worst come.
As the United States prepares their first military convoy across the North Atlantic, the Soviets announce their intention to blockade the US Navy transports. Soshkin desires to cut off Western Europe and weaken the NATO buildup. The UN and NATO condemn the blockade and declare it to be an act of hostility. On February 18, the United States Navy violates the blockade, and US ships are attacked by Soviet forces. Nearly a quarter of the convoy is lost in the ensuing battle before American and British forces clear the sea lanes. World War III has begun.
The United States dispatches Martin Jacobs to the Soviet Union for talks with Soshkin. Figuring that Soshkin knows that the Soviets were losing power in Eastern Europe, Jacobs offers Soshkin an extended timetable for the Soviet withdraw from Eastern Europe in exchange for a de-escalation of the military buildup. Soshkin refuses him utterly: "Nyet".
The battle for Germany
On March 12, Soshkin orders a full-scale amphibious landing near Kiel on the Baltic coast. The landings catch NATO off-guard, and they scramble forces northward to push back the beachhead. The next day, Warsaw Pact ground forces drive through the Fulda Gap, with orders to push to the Rhine to divide the stretched out NATO force. Meanwhile, the Soviet Air Force bombards Ramstein Air Base and other NATO bases in Germany. The goal is to cripple the NATO buildup with a swift strike and then press for a new round of diplomatic bargaining from a stronger strategic position. NATO forces, faced with superior numbers and surprise, are pushed back, though they are able to inflict significant losses on the Warsaw Pact forces. By March 17, Eastern forces have advanced 50 miles into West Germany.
While preparing to launch a tactical nuclear counter-assault, NATO authorizes a last-ditch conventional air campaign, Operation Bloody Nose, launched 24 hours before the nuclear strikes were to begin. It is an overwhelming success: the initial strikes cripple Warsaw Pact command and control posts, throwing their armies in the field into chaos, and in the ensuing air battle, NATO inflicts devastating losses on the Soviet Air Force (which had already lost 20% of the aircraft supporting the initial offensives), gaining unchallenged control of Eastern European airspace. Combined with assistance from the Polish underground that cuts off Soviet supply lines, the tide of the war turns. With their numerical superiority negated by the Western technological superiority, the East German and Soviet armies melt under NATO airfire, and Western forces enter East Germany on March 23.
Global thermonuclear war
NATO forces reach and liberate West Berlin on March 27. As the Soviets withdraw to Poland, Germans begin to hope that reunification is at hand. The US leadership tries to reassure Soshkin that NATO had no intention to press their advance beyond East Germany. However, unrest erupts across the Eastern Bloc as citizens of communist nations, and ethnic minorities within the Soviet Union, press for the overthrow of their leaders. Soshkin becomes paranoid that NATO will exploit the situation to fight all the way to Moscow or to launch a nuclear first strike against him.
As a show of force, on March 31 Soshkin orders a symbolic nuclear strike above the North Sea. The United States responds by going to full nuclear alert and preparing to execute the Single Integrated Operational Plan. On April 1, a Soviet radar post suffers an equipment malfunction. Falsely believing that the USSR is under nuclear attack, Soshkin orders an all-out nuclear strike against the West. NATO responds in kind. Thousands of nuclear devices are launched across the Northern Hemisphere. "There is no further historical record of what happens next".
Epilogue
The movie rewinds to Gorbachev’s visit to East Germany. We then see the real celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful reunification of Germany: "History...took a different course.".
Plot taken from World War III TV tropes page
Gorbachev is removed from power in a military coup. His exact fate is unknown but power over the Soviet leadership is transferred to General Vladimir Soshkin, a Communist hardliner who quickly undoes Gorbachev's reforms.
The USSR begins a massive crackdown across the Eastern Bloc in response to unrest. One of the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig results in scores of civilians gunned down by Red Army troops. This culminates in a massive protest at the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall, which features East German citizens attempting to scale the wall. East German soldiers shoot dozens of civilians, and even fire across the wall into West Berlin.
NATO begins a military buildup in West Berlin. The US Secretary of State secretly arranges to meet with the Soviet commander of the East German forces, but the commander is killed by a car bomb set off by West German Neo-Nazi's upon his arrival in West Berlin. Meanwhile in a televised interview Soshkin threatens to occupy West Berlin. Hours later NATO's tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany are placed on operational status. The Soviets respond by deploying their submarine fleet to the North Atlantic and flying Tu-95 Bombers into Alaskan airspace.
East German soldiers cut off the three main access routes to West Berlin, effectively holding the city hostage, while the Soviet Air Force closes off East Germany's airspace. Soshkin's plan is to cut off West Berlin from NATO and to keep them out of the USSR's sphere of influence. NATO responds with a full scale deployment to West Germany.
The US Navy sends a convoy across the Atlantic to support the NATO forces in West Germany. The Soviets blockade the entire North Atlantic in an attempt to cut off the US from Western Europe. US and British ships engage the blockage and an intense naval battle ensues. Despite losing nearly a quarter of their ships, the blockade is destroyed. Afterwards the US offers the Soviets a timetable to draw down their forces in East Germany, which Soshkin flatly refuses. World War III has begun.
Soviet forces make an amphibious assault near Kiel and catch NATO off guard, who has to scramble forces north to contain the invasion. However this was a decoy for the real assault: a massive Warsaw Pact ground invasion through the Fulda Gap. Meanwhile the Soviet Air Force bombs NATO air bases to deny them air superiority. NATO is sent reeling and the Warsaw Pact manages to advance 50 miles into West Germany. The USSR's plan is to cripple NATO before beginning negotiations to secure a strategic advantage in Western Europe.
NATO plans to respond with a nuclear counterattack. But 24 hours before the attack is to take place it attempts a last ditch aerial campaign. A massive air battle ensues between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, but NATO manages a decisive victory: establishing air superiority as well as crippling the Soviet command and control structure by striking key areas. With supply lines cut by the resistance in Poland, the Warsaw Pact begins a hasty retreat.
West Berlin is liberated and the East German government begins to collapse. German citizens are hopeful that reunification is at hand and NATO makes it clear they have no desire to send their forces past the East German border. Meanwhile violence erupts in other Eastern Bloc nations as citizens call for the overthrow of the Communist governments. Soshkin is convinced that NATO will use the opportunity to invade Russia if not destroy with with a nuclear attack. He detonates a single nuclear warhead above the North Sea as a show of force. The United States goes on full nuclear alert.
Soshkin fires Russia's nuclear arsenal at the West (it's implied a malfunctioning radar may have caused him to think the USSR was under attack) the silo's at Dombarovsky Air Base slide open their silo doors and soon it's ICBM's come roaring out, this is probably only one example of something that is occurring all over the USSR, a shot of the Nation's submarine missile's being fired is shown too. The US and NATO respond in kind by launching their missiles and flying their bombers towards the USSR.
