World War III (2014 film)

***World War III*** is a 2014 British alternate history war television film directed by Martin Johnson and written by Johnson and Jack Morrison. The film depicts a world if World War III was initiated following the overthrow of Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev. This was Murro's second television film following the drama *Harvey* in 2011. It was also the most expensive film made for Murro with a budget of around £2 million.

The film first aired on Murro on the 16th of August 2014 with over 2.1 million viewers tuning in to watch it. Reviews were mixed, some praised the atmosphere, detailed plot, and acting, while others criticized its runtime and the film's "made-for-tv" looks.

## Plot

The film opens with the US Armed Forces scrambling to respond to a Soviet nuclear attack. Daniel Schorr, reporting in front of the White House, is vaporized when a nuclear weapon detonates.

In 1989, East Germany is in an economic turmoil. Many people are dissatisfied with the nation’s communist leadership and seek reunification with West Germany. A few months later, Mikhail Gorbachev, the then leader of the Soviet Union and supporter of those reforms, visits East Berlin. During his return flight, the hard-line communist leadership stages a coup that deposes Gorbachev and installs General Vladimir Petrov as the new Soviet leader. The Soviet government announces Gorbachev’s resignation and tells people that he quit for “health reasons”. However, Gorbachev is never heard from again, his true fate “lost in the dark corners of the history books”.

Petrov and the hard-line Soviets fiercely resist the rise of glasnost and perestroika. They are determined to make the East German and Eastern Bloc uprisings end with a swift Chinese-style military crackdown in late October. The crackdown inflames popular opposition to communism. In late November, a demonstration in Leipzig is brutally repressed by the East German Army at great loss of life. Two days later, a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate ends with East German soldiers killing man East Berlin residents trying to scale up the Berlin Wall and a West German cameraman filming the events. Those soldiers also fire shots 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.

In mid-December, NATO airlifts military reinforcements to West Berlin. Soon after, Secretary of State James Baker arrives in West Berlin to secretly meet with General Dmitry Ivanov, the Soviet commander in East Germany, who strongly opposes Petrov’s crackdown. However, on the way to the meeting, Ivanov 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 Petrov implicitly threatens West Berlin, an American colonel orders that tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany be placed on high alert. Petrov 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, several East German and Soviet tank divisions are mobilized to cut off transportation and supply links between West Germany and West Berlin, and the Soviet Air Force moves to close off East Germany’s airspace. Petrov hopes the plan will prevent the West from encroaching into the Soviet sphere of influence and isolate Berlin from the West. NATO responds by deploying thousands of additional troops into West Germany to strengthen their existing garrisons there.

As the United States prepares their first military convoy across the North Atlantic, the Soviets announce their intention to blockade the U.S. Navy transports. Petrov desires to cut off Western Europe and weaken the NATO build-up. America and Britain condemn the blockade and last-minute attempts at a compromise fall through. When the convoy crosses into the designated exclusion zone, Soviet forces are ordered to attack. Nearly a quarter of the convoy is sunk in the ensuing battle before the NATO fleet clears the air and sea lanes to Europe. Shortly afterward, the United Nations Security Council holds an emergency session in New York City in the hopes of diffusing the hostilities between the superpowers, but the United States and Soviet Union both refuse to back down until the other does so. World War III has effectively begun.

The world panics after the failed session and the United States dispatches National Security Advisor Mark Jacobs to the Soviet Union for last-ditch effort talks with Petrov. Figuring that Petrov knows that the Soviets are losing power in Eastern Europe, Jacobs offers Petrov an extended timetable for the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe in exchange for a de-escalation of the military build-up. Petrov refuses him utterly with one word: “Nyet” (no).