Story of movie World War Iii Film : World War III (Der Dritte Weltkrieg) is a 1998 German alternate history television pseudo-documentary, 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.
| World War III | |
|---|---|
Cover art | |
| Directed by | Robert Stone |
| Produced by | Ulrich Lenze |
| Written by | Ingo Helm Robert Stone |
| Starring | Boris Leskin, Klaus Schleif, Christopher Wynkoop |
| Narrated by | David McCallum |
| Music by | John Kusiak Caleb Sampson |
| Cinematography | Matthias Haedecke |
| Distributed by | ZDF |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German English Russian French |
Screenplay
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.
In the summer of 1989, East Germany is in turmoil. Many citizens are dissatisfied with their nation’s Communist leadership and seek reunification 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 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 East German 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.
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 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 it shows scenes of what appears to be a Pershing 1a or 2 being prepared. 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, East German 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 Soviet 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 U.S. Navy transports. Soshkin desires to cut off Western Europe and weaken the NATO buildup. The US and Britain 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 NATO forces clear the sea lanes. Shortly afterwards, the United Nations Security Council holds an emergency session in New York City in the hopes of diffusing the hostilities between the superpowers, but proves fruitless when neither side refuses to back down until other does so. War at this point seems inevitable.
The world panics after the failed session and the United States dispatches (fictional) National Security Advisor Martin Jacobs to the Soviet Union for last ditch effort 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 withdrawal from Eastern Europe in exchange for a de-escalation of the military buildup. Soshkin refuses him utterly, and thus, World War III begins.
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