In Kansas City, wailing sirens accompany panic in the streets as people seek shelter. In a series of quick jump cuts, three shots of the Kansas City skyline, each of which is taken from a greater distance, are followed by the first shot of a nuclear explosion over the city. The Day After is one of only a handful of films which depict a full-scale nuclear war and its aftermath. On The Beach is one of the first films to directly engage the idea of nuclear war and is one of the few ever to suggest the end of all human life on the planet. The story of the film begins in the period after the occurrence of a nuclear exchange which has presumably decimated the populations of the northern hemisphere. Television has created some of the most graphic and disturbing versions of nuclear apocalypse.