# The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

> A Fleet Street newsroom races to understand a planetary emergency born from Cold War nuclear hubris as London succumbs to unbearable heat.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/movie/17374

## Facts

- Runtime: 98 min
- Genres: Science Fiction, Drama
- Director: Val Guest
- Cast: Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Edward Judd, Michael Goodliffe, Bernard Braden, Reginald Beckwith, Gene Anderson, Renée Asherson
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054790/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Mood: foreboding, paranoid, fatalistic, classic science fiction night, cold war double feature

## Synopsis

A world on the brink of destruction faces its greatest challenge yet: the sun's wrath.

## Movies like The Day the Earth Caught Fire

- [The China Syndrome (1979)](https://ember.film/movie/819)
- [When the Wind Blows (1986)](https://ember.film/movie/5905)
- [On the Beach (1959)](https://ember.film/movie/21996)
- [Meteor (1979)](https://ember.film/movie/25504)
- [When Worlds Collide (1951)](https://ember.film/movie/9920)
- [The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)](https://ember.film/movie/14529)
- [The Day After (1983)](https://ember.film/movie/3728)
- [Children of the Damned (1964)](https://ember.film/movie/18727)
- [Threads (1984)](https://ember.film/movie/10724)
- [The War Game (1966)](https://ember.film/movie/15818)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt