# World War III (1982)

> A two-part 1982 NBC miniseries imagining how a Soviet grain crisis and a seized Alaskan pipeline could push the United States and the U.S.S.R. toward nuclear war.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/8460

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 120 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: war, drama
- Network: NBC
- Cast: David Soul, Rock Hudson, Jeroen Krabbé, Cathy Lee Crosby, Robert Prosky, James Hampton, Lee Wallace, Harry Basch
- TMDB rating: 6.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084919/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, sober, foreboding, claustrophobic

## Synopsis

World War III (1982) is a United States television war drama miniseries created for NBC, a two-part event production with episodes running around two hours each. Colonel Jake Caffey (David Soul) and President Thomas McKenna (Rock Hudson) sit at the center of an American response, while Colonel Alexander Vorashin (Jeroen Krabbé) and General Aleksey Rudenski (Robert Prosky) represent the Soviet side, and Major Kate Breckenridge (Cathy Lee Crosby) moves through the military chain of command. The engine of the story is a grain embargo that has left Moscow's streets in riot, prompting Soviet leaders to seize the Alaskan pipeline as leverage over Washington. Each installment is built from rapid cuts between government situation rooms, military commands and crowded city streets, so the drama accumulates through escalating decisions rather than action set pieces. The mood is tense and sober, a cold war nuclear dread in which every choice threatens to tip into catastrophe. Set in the early 1980s cold war, it sits alongside Threads, The Day After and Fail Safe for fans of grim, politically grounded apocalyptic television. Viewers wanting a historical snapshot of superpower brinkmanship will find it a focused, self-contained limited series.

## Shows like World War III

- [The Brink (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/14805)
- [George Washington (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/19685)
- [Edge of Darkness (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/12921)
- [The Final Cut (1995)](https://ember.film/tv/66668)
- [Pioneer One (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/30411)
- [Enemy's Enemy (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/46504)
- [The Winds of War (1983)](https://ember.film/tv/38612)
- [North and South (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/3107)
- [War and Remembrance (1988)](https://ember.film/tv/30072)
- [Last Resort (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/40568)

---

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