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Testament

 Testament
type
TVTItem
 Testament
label
Testament
 Testament
page
Testament
 Testament
comment
Testament is a 1983 drama film, directed by Lynne Littman and starring Jane Alexander and William Devane, about the effects of a nuclear exchange on a small California community.Unlike The Day After and Threads, which deal with the catastrophic effect of direct strikes, the town of Hamlin suffers no physical damage from the bombs. Instead the residents are forced to deal with the (literal) fallout, as well as gradual radiation poisoning and the drawn-out collapse of what's left of the world outside.Originally produced for PBS' American Playhouse before getting picked up for theatrical release. Jane Alexander earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her performance.
 Testament
fetched
2023-06-27T15:58:03Z
 Testament
parsed
2023-06-27T15:58:03Z
 Testament
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Testament / int_133cdcaa
type
Ominous Hair Loss
 Testament / int_133cdcaa
comment
Ominous Hair Loss: At one point late in the movie, Carol runs a hand through her hair and a large chunk falls out. Hair loss is a symptom of radiation poisoning.
 Testament / int_133cdcaa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_133cdcaa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_133cdcaa
 Testament / int_17501df2
type
Cool Old Guy
 Testament / int_17501df2
comment
Cool Old Guy: Henry Abhart. Brad spends a lot of time with him, even as the man gets sicker.
 Testament / int_17501df2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_17501df2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_17501df2
 Testament / int_19da8a03
type
Incurable Cough of Death
 Testament / int_19da8a03
comment
Incurable Cough of Death: A symptom of radiation poisoning, and a good sign that a character isn't going to live much longer.
 Testament / int_19da8a03
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_19da8a03
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_19da8a03
 Testament / int_1e584efa
type
Cruel and Unusual Death
 Testament / int_1e584efa
comment
Cruel and Unusual Death: Radiation poisoning definitely counts.
 Testament / int_1e584efa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_1e584efa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_1e584efa
 Testament / int_23473ae7
type
Adaptation Expansion
 Testament / int_23473ae7
comment
Adaptation Expansion: The film is based on the short story "The Last Testament" by Carol Amen.
 Testament / int_23473ae7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_23473ae7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_23473ae7
 Testament / int_269e82c1
type
Death of a Child
 Testament / int_269e82c1
comment
Death of a Child: Most of the children, and one actual infant, die of radiation poisoning.
 Testament / int_269e82c1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_269e82c1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_269e82c1
 Testament / int_28cd01ca
type
Disappeared Dad
 Testament / int_28cd01ca
comment
Disappeared Dad: Tom doesn't make it back from San Francisco. Not surprising, considering it was obliterated.
 Testament / int_28cd01ca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_28cd01ca
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_28cd01ca
 Testament / int_31a2a33c
type
Stuff Blowing Up
 Testament / int_31a2a33c
comment
Stuff Blowing Up: Averted. While there is a bright flash of light when San Francisco is hit, we never see anything blow up.
 Testament / int_31a2a33c
featureApplicability
-1.0
 Testament / int_31a2a33c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_31a2a33c
 Testament / int_334e48a1
type
After the End
 Testament / int_334e48a1
comment
After the End: The movie takes place in a world where humans are slowly dying out from radiation poisoning.
 Testament / int_334e48a1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_334e48a1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_334e48a1
 Testament / int_396e1c2a
type
Face Death with Dignity
 Testament / int_396e1c2a
comment
Face Death with Dignity: What Carol and her oldest son eventually decide to do.
 Testament / int_396e1c2a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_396e1c2a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_396e1c2a
 Testament / int_40cc0c7e
type
Bittersweet Ending
 Testament / int_40cc0c7e
comment
Bittersweet Ending: Most of the town, including two of Carol's children are dead, and she and her son are both dying from radiation poisoning, but she tells him they need to remember it all, "the good and the awful", for the sake of whoever might survive. Still, this is a more hopeful ending than the short story it was based on which ends on an unambiguous Downer Ending.
 Testament / int_40cc0c7e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_40cc0c7e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_40cc0c7e
 Testament / int_48e8fe57
type
Happily Adopted
 Testament / int_48e8fe57
comment
Happily Adopted: Hiroshi, the developmentally disabled son of the owner of the town gas station, is happy to go with Carol after his father dies. Larry, a neighboring child, is also adopted when his parents don't return from San Francisco, but he's hardly happy.
 Testament / int_48e8fe57
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_48e8fe57
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_48e8fe57
 Testament / int_4ab9720d
type
I'm Cold... So Cold...
 Testament / int_4ab9720d
comment
I'm Cold... So Cold...: Nobody actually says this, but a number of characters start wrapping themselves in blankets. Chills are a Real Life symptom of radiation sickness.
 Testament / int_4ab9720d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_4ab9720d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_4ab9720d
 Testament / int_62434fe2
type
Sanity Slippage
 Testament / int_62434fe2
comment
Sanity Slippage: Understandably, Carol has a little of this.
 Testament / int_62434fe2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_62434fe2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_62434fe2
 Testament / int_66cef86d
type
School Play
 Testament / int_66cef86d
comment
School Play: The children had been rehearsing The Pied Piper of Hamelin before the bombs fell, and put it on anyway. Most of the adult audience are in tears by the end.
 Testament / int_66cef86d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_66cef86d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_66cef86d
 Testament / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 Testament / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: Subverted. Carol decides it would be better to commit suicide rather than die slowly of radiation poisoning, but she can't go through with it.
 Testament / int_6d332aea
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Testament / int_6d332aea
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_6d332aea
 Testament / int_7cd98af5
type
Potty Failure
 Testament / int_7cd98af5
comment
Potty Failure: A tragic example, as it becomes a symptom of radiation sickness. Scottie succumbs to his before he dies.
 Testament / int_7cd98af5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_7cd98af5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_7cd98af5
 Testament / int_91e894b4
type
Apocalypse How
 Testament / int_91e894b4
comment
Apocalypse How: Class 1, possibly a Class 2.
 Testament / int_91e894b4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_91e894b4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_91e894b4
 Testament / int_95c2a9dd
type
Outliving One's Offspring
 Testament / int_95c2a9dd
comment
Outliving One's Offspring: The main character, Carol, is a mother of three children, two of whom die of radiation poisoning. The third is visibly sick by the end of the movie. Her husband, who was in San Francisco when the bombs were dropped, never comes home.
 Testament / int_95c2a9dd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_95c2a9dd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_95c2a9dd
 Testament / int_96a33f11
type
Riddle for the Ages
 Testament / int_96a33f11
comment
Riddle for the Ages: The characters never do learn who attacked, or why, and neither does the audience.
 Testament / int_96a33f11
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_96a33f11
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_96a33f11
 Testament / int_ad1db87c
type
Oh, Crap!
 Testament / int_ad1db87c
comment
Oh, Crap!: On several occasions. The most obvious is the Emergency Broadcast, but a subtler one comes from Henry Abhart, who tells Carol's son Brad that he can no longer raise a reply from Santa Rosa, implying everyone there has been killed by the radiation. After Henry dies, Brad fails to contact anyone.
 Testament / int_ad1db87c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_ad1db87c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_ad1db87c
 Testament / int_bc00493f
type
Precision F-Strike
 Testament / int_bc00493f
comment
Precision F-Strike: At one point, Carol voices her anger at whoever was responsible for the attack, saying, "Goddamn you!" Remember, this was meant to be a made-for-TV movie in 1983.
 Testament / int_bc00493f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_bc00493f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_bc00493f
 Testament / int_c4286511
type
For Doom the Bell Tolls
 Testament / int_c4286511
comment
For Doom the Bell Tolls: At several points, most notably at the end of the film.
 Testament / int_c4286511
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_c4286511
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_c4286511
 Testament / int_d5d265ec
type
Housewife
 Testament / int_d5d265ec
comment
Housewife: Carol was one.
 Testament / int_d5d265ec
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_d5d265ec
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_d5d265ec
 Testament / int_dda99fa8
type
Despair Event Horizon
 Testament / int_dda99fa8
comment
Despair Event Horizon: Most characters succumb to one eventually.
 Testament / int_dda99fa8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_dda99fa8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_dda99fa8
 Testament / int_e460b44e
type
The Radio Dies First
 Testament / int_e460b44e
comment
The Radio Dies First: That and the television. Henry has a ham radio that he uses to keep in touch with other communities, but no other technology works.
 Testament / int_e460b44e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_e460b44e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_e460b44e
 Testament / int_edaedf90
type
Vomit Discretion Shot
 Testament / int_edaedf90
comment
Vomit Discretion Shot: Carol is heard vomiting (another symptom of radiation poisoning), but it's only shown in silhouette.
 Testament / int_edaedf90
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_edaedf90
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_edaedf90
 Testament / int_f4c0f8d5
type
Emergency Broadcast
 Testament / int_f4c0f8d5
comment
Emergency Broadcast: Briefly, before San Francisco is nuked and the signal is lost.
 Testament / int_f4c0f8d5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_f4c0f8d5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_f4c0f8d5
 Testament / int_f8394279
type
Happier Home Movie
 Testament / int_f8394279
comment
Happier Home Movie: The film juxtaposes home-movie footage, used to show the happy times of the family members who are the main characters, with life in the small town after the bomb.
 Testament / int_f8394279
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_f8394279
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_f8394279
 Testament / int_fee034aa
type
Abandoned Playground
 Testament / int_fee034aa
comment
Abandoned Playground: A shot of one is juxtaposed with images of a mass graveyard.
 Testament / int_fee034aa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_fee034aa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
hasFeature
Testament / int_fee034aa
 Testament / int_name
type
ItemName
 Testament / int_name
comment
 Testament / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Testament / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Testament
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Testament / int_name
 Testament / int_name
itemName
Testament

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Testament
hasFeature
Artistic License – Nuclear Physics / int_1b1f31b3
 Testament
hasFeature
Disaster Movie / int_1b1f31b3
 Testament
hasFeature
Emergency Broadcast / int_1b1f31b3
 Testament
hasFeature
Happier Home Movie / int_1b1f31b3
 Testament
hasFeature
School Play / int_1b1f31b3
 Testament
seeAlso
Testament
 Testament
hasFeature
World War III / int_1b1f31b3