Countdown to Zero
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Countdown to Zero

2010, Environment  -   42 Comments
6.88
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Ratings: 6.88/10 from 8 users.

Countdown to ZeroCountdown to Zero is a documentary film released in 2010 which argues that the likelihood of the use of nuclear weapons has increased since the end of the Cold War due to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, theft of nuclear materials and weapons, and other factors.

The film features interviews with leading statesmen and experts, including Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Robert McNamara, Pervez Musharraf, and Valerie Plame Wilson.

The idea for the film first occurred to the producers when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore after the success of his documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.

Diane Weyermann of Participant Media asked Walker if she was interested in directing a film about nuclear weapons, and Walker said yes. More than 84 people were interviewed for the film. Global Zero, an international organization promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons, provided production assistance for the film.

A review in Daily Variety called the film highly creative documentary-making and concluded that the film makes a convincing argument that the human race is on borrowed time: Given the number of nuclear weapons in existence, the ease with which they can be made, the eagerness of terrorists to possess them and a worldwide cluelessness about nuclear security, it's only a matter of time before something terribly ugly happens.

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Rocky Racoon
Rocky Racoon
11 years ago

When Nuclear powers threaten non nuclear powers with a first strike you know it is only a matter of time-our lifetime to be exact before it happens.
RR

hddragracer
hddragracer
11 years ago

When Jewish-German-scientists "invented" Nuclear Weapons; they were then SOLD to "other countries" and "Nuclear-prolitheration" ensued. When JFK tried to stop it, that, amoung other "reasons" he was assassinated. (such-as ending the Federal Reserve, AND the war in Nam) While Oswald could very well have been the shooter that made the "neck-shot" Osawld was NOT in position to make that FRONTAL-HEAD-SHOT that unlimately KILLED a great man. Probably the first HONEST President since BEFORE FDR. FDR brought us WWII and the "Federal Reserve" AND the IRS, AND the CIA. AND the FBI, AND "social security" which was NOT "designed" to "take care of old people;" but rather "CONTROL" what we do. But KNOWING everything you do. When you do it. How long you do it. With WHOM you do it. How often you do it, etc, etc, etc....

Serhend Adil Sirkecioglu
Serhend Adil Sirkecioglu
13 years ago

i would be more convinced of nuclear disarmament if research into antimatter weapons was not being conducted.

Wayne
Wayne
13 years ago

There's noting like 90 minutes of paraoia to make you want to take a deep breath..................AND RUN SCREAMING THROUGH THE STREETS!

chrisinthecentreofcanada
chrisinthecentreofcanada
13 years ago

After all of that...don't imagine I will see either happen in my life time, it would be nice to buy the world a Coke though instead of spending it on another cell phone text.

I do see a rogue state or group popping the first nuclear cork, a small one and then maybe they may really start to bring the numbers down.

Thank you for your time, see you on the other side.

Darnell
Darnell
13 years ago

The only country, people or terrorists (pick your slogan) I am afraid of using WMD'S are the one's that have used it in the past. Americans really have a short history and short memory.

Reasons Voice
Reasons Voice
13 years ago

@Waldo; Definately get a doppler scan for DVT. Typically DVT comes from prolonged sitting with knees bent. If clots are present you may need to be on an anticoagulant for a time till all clear. If you throw a clot it can travel anywhere and lodge somewhere vital. I also knew you sounded familiar but not sure I like the new name as much :)

Waldo
Waldo
13 years ago

@ Abrahams Son

Beautiful post, you said what I was trying to say all along.

Kiteboarderjoe
Kiteboarderjoe
13 years ago

I love the comments! Time to go to bed. I get to go kiteboarding tomorrow!

Abrahams Son
Abrahams Son
13 years ago

Almost every topic that is discussed turns into a attack on some group, religion, public figure. At some point all these personal diatribes about who is wrong or right take us further away from any solutions to problems. If we can never get past the "I'm right and your wrong" base level of personal gratification then you are never really looking for "truth" or answers, just self validation. Just because you hate George Bush or Obama or Muslims or Bible Thumpers or Michael Moore or Bill O'Reilly or Nancy Pelosi or Christians or Jews or the USA or China or whatever trips your trigger does nothing to address the solutions. We will never find answers on this path if answers are even possible or desirable. Whatever you think any country, group or individual has done in the past is just that, the past. Sometimes I dont think humans will ever be able to move beyond our own self centeredness and might as well just jump on the back of a nuke missle and ride it to glory like Slim Pickens.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
Friedrich Nietzsche

Waldo
Waldo
13 years ago

@ Imightberiding

No worries, I got it. (LMAO)

Serhend Sirkecioglu
Serhend Sirkecioglu
13 years ago

you know i would be more moved if plans for anitmatter weapons were not being discussed by govs. but a good doc none the less

Koves
Koves
13 years ago

It summed it up for me at the start. We all stand under the Nuclear Sword of Damocles.

Imightberiding
Imightberiding
13 years ago

@Waldo
My goodness man! Where does it stop? First, rebuked & forcibly recused from your "ministry" & now you are tempting alienation from your fellow U.S. citizens with comments like the above. Aren't WMD's something that the "swarthy" people have? How dare you suggest there are such things in the U.S.A.? Have you adopted a "what the h3ll" policy or are you banking on history. Benny Hinn, Peter Popoff, Jimmy Swaggart & so many others bounced back after their falls from grace. (still waiting on Ted Haggert) You might just find yourself overwhelmed with grants & offers from a Theology professor who is also the pastor for some megalithic monstrosity who's followers are so many that services are sell out crowds at your nearest stadium. (your former baptist preacher will pale by comparison) I won't get too political here but just think, both Reagan & "W" Bush were two term presidents even after all the sh@t they did or didn't do in their first terms in office & were found out only to be re-elected. So perhaps after making such an inflammatory comment directed at your own country your friends & family will find it in their hearts to forgive or ignore what you have so belligerently claimed the U.S. has within it's borders.

You know, reading over this now it doesn't sound as funny as the whole thing did in my head. Just pretend it was full of biting sarcasm with a healthy dose of whit. It might be funnier if looked at in that light. This was not intended in a mean spirit, rather with a heavy lean towards irony. No religious leaders or politicians were harmed in the comprehension, realization, forming & execution of my comments. No offense was intended.

Waldo
Waldo
13 years ago

@ Achem and IMBR

Thanks for the advise guys, made an appointment for Friday. I am sure I'll be fine, I am pretty healthy otherwise- I think.

@ Everyone

I see alot of people on here saying how we are destined for wars and global conflict, which I don't doubt myself. But I can't understand then why you guys would not want all nuclear materials and weapons gone- doesn't it make sense that if war is eminate we scale down the WMD's around the world as much as possible? ( I know I stretch all credibility when I use the term WMD's, but just because Bush and his buddies used the term to insight panic and war doesn't mean they are not real. We have the majority of them right here in the US.) The globe is presently like a bunch of gansters standing in a room where a deal just went bad- guns pulled, cocked, aimed, and ready to fire. How can this be a good thing?

Artist
Artist
13 years ago

Oh my god. Are elites thinking about using a A-bomb?
See Al Gore is one of their pawns since he so succesfully promoted man made global warming (see right now I cant even believe people still believe that story :-D )
And now this with Blair at the end... I dont like this, I dont like where this is heading

Achems Razor
Achems Razor
13 years ago

@Waldo:

You probably know, am the other. Knew you were EZ from day one. But kept quite till now.

Glad to see you back in form.

Concerning your medical malaise, since you mentioned lethargic with your fluid retention, check for diabetes, or cardiac conditions, again stress you go and see a doctor pronto.

Imightberiding
Imightberiding
13 years ago

@Waldo
I realise this isn't on topic & we shouldn't be using this venue for personal chats. You are part of the TDF community & I am concerned about your health. I am struggling with a couple blood clots in my leg. (behind the knee) Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT. Can be very serious, even life threatening. I won't go into my own issues or why I'm suffering from this condition. I can only emphatically state Waldo, go DIRECTLY to your Dr. or nearest hospital & request an IMMEDIATE diagnostic ultra sound for the specific intent of discovering any blood clots. Do not take any brush offs or "it isn't necessary" from the medical community. I truly hope for your sake it is a negative. Your symptoms do not however sound good. (Do you sit or lie for long periods of time without moving your legs?) I have to stress, I am not a Dr. & only speak from personal experience. It certainly will not be a waste of time or resources. Hopefully the hospital's money. I know it can be expensive for health care in the states.

I'll leave it at that for now. I trust you will see this & act upon it in a timely fashion. Look after yourself, no one else will do it for you. All the best with it.

Zatarra
Zatarra
13 years ago

Great video the talking was clearly easly fixed with mute, which made about 35% of the rest of it really worth watching. I cant decide what was better the rocket tests that failed, succeded or just plain old crap getting nuked and blown to hell. At least we can take comfort knowing we will be getting rid of our nukes 1/1000000 of a second after we detonate them, there must be some comfort in that for everyone. Yes some may have a slightly warmer sense of that comfort than others, but hey whats a few million degrees. Cheers everyone have a great night and keep the coments coming waldo sound like your kidenys to me if u cant afford a doctor due to rising health costs waldo try exercise its free and cant hurt you.

Waldo
Waldo
13 years ago

@ Imightberiding

Ha, Ha! I knew it would happen sooner or later, actually someone else has already figured it out I think. Yes, Myself and Ez are one and the same. Vlatko said this would happen, you were right once again vlatko. I changed it because I started getting death threats about some anti-religion comments I made on site. Some local yahoo, I live in the bible belt, figured out that I was Ez and called it to the attention of some fellow redneck bible thumpers, and viola- I start getting death threats, I have to change my name on TDF, I lose my job (I worked as an assistant to a Theology professor at my college who was also a baptist preacher), and basically have to stay hidden around home for a month till it all dies down. Don't worry about it though, its all died down now anyway and I have nothing to lose by stating my beliefs any more so- no biggy.

Any way thanks for the compliment and yes I do feel some what better. I still haven't figure out what to change my major to, but I will. Now I have to figure out why my legs and ankles keep swelling up to the size of hams. Happens about every three or four weeks and lasts for a couple of days. Has anyone ever hear of anything like this? No pain really, just enormous swelling and a very lethargic feeling. Should I be alarmed?

Imightberiding
Imightberiding
13 years ago

@Waldo
Glad to see you're back. All rested up & sorted out now? Always enjoy reading your comments whether I agree with them or not. (mostly I do) Admittedly sometimes they are longer than the doc's themselves. Ha! Ha! Oh come on now, you know that was a friendly joke. Honestly, it is good to see you posting your comments again. Cheers mate!

Just one more thing. I can't help but notice some similarities with your comments & another fellow who used to post quite regularly. Did you used to go by the name of EZ2B12? Or just plain EZ? Just curious & I apologize in advance if I have tread on an area of privacy you were attempting to maintain. Haven't noticed his name in the comments for some time now. I assure you this is a compliment as I thoroughly enjoyed his comments as well.

juice
juice
13 years ago

haha tony blair is in this movie as an "expert"

what a joke.

wheres bush and Cheney ...... oh yeah and rumsfeld ....

They got yellow cake! and aluminum tubes!

Nigel from New Zealand
Nigel from New Zealand
13 years ago

@Cool E Beans....
you absolutely nailed it brother! (or sister, whichever the case may be)

Nigel from New Zealand
Nigel from New Zealand
13 years ago

@BobbyD.......
haha classic! very witty, and very good point made also

Cool E Beans
Cool E Beans
13 years ago

Do we not know that if a government lied about a huge incident that prcipitatd an invasion once, they will do it over and over again as long as we fall for it? Remember way back when those pesky Weapons of Mass Destruction that Sadam had in his back yard were found? What??? Not there? OK, the Bay of Tonkin incident where a North Vietnamese PT boat allegedly attacked a USA warship and was the excuse the government of USA used to go full throttle into Vietnam. That didn't happen either?

Or when the Taliban were exporting all that opium from Afghanistan and we had to stop it. Wait. They stopped it and now Afghanistan produces 90% of the worlds heroin...I'M SO CONFUSED...NOT!

CIA false flag operations, government collusion along with out and out lies to forward their agenda denial must stop here.

BobbyD
BobbyD
13 years ago

Well, I'm scared.

Who do we kill?

darnthisstuff
darnthisstuff
13 years ago

I've always said and still say it's ONLY a matter of time it'll be kind of like 9/11 no one will believe it we'll be glued to our tvs around the clock news coverage for a couple of months while some countries or politicians consider what the next move will be and there will be genuine talk of reducing the nukes in the world probably a sense of unity amongst most people in all countries all the while certain groups or people will be immediately figuring how to capitalize on this tragedy (disaster capitalism) the U.S. will definately expand its military presence pitifully since thats all it has left and enough time will go by where comedians can make jokes about it and it'll be kind of like seeing 9/11 footage now conspiracy theories, books and docs on how it could've been prevented and the reasons it wasn't stopped and on and on and on and there will be that first day where something in the news that seems a little trivial will bump it to the second thing talked about and eventually it'll be mentioned once a month if that. Poof...a memory

Nuke Dukem
Nuke Dukem
13 years ago

Finally a place where I can appropriately pitch my own nuclear service. Anyone interested (besides you North Korea-you're simply a haughty dick) feel free to give me a 'ring at 1-537-666-7666. Call anytime. Beatrice (Bee for short) my assistant will take down your name and your number--and email address if you're from the 21st century. Or you can find me on twitter and Taebo_Man_3rd_Degree_Burn_Belt.

Warning--Only genuine and serious enquirers! If you are just some flaky little boy-wannabe-bitter-and-vengeful-evil-genius, playing around with the fanciful idea of world-domination or apocalyptic vendetta, then don't waste my time! I'm trying to run some sort of a business here so I'm not going to be spotting anyone anything! Nuclear warheads are no joke! So get your act together folks!

Peace-out people, and I hope to hear from you all soon.

-Nuke Dukem

darnthisstuff
darnthisstuff
13 years ago

too many movies zoid

Waldo
Waldo
13 years ago

As far as I could see this was not about any one nation or people being good or bad, any certain religions wanting to take over the world or not, whether this or that nation should have nuclear weapons while others do not. I thought it was about getting rid of ALL highly enriched uranium and plutonium. Yes, they mentioned the specific threat of terrorism as it relates to this issue. I don't take issue with that, it is a realistic threat to everyone to have this stuff out there available to the highest bidder.

It may make sense to tackle the root cause of terrorism if we really want to live in a safer world and I am all for that, but in the mean time I say getting rid of this stuff makes perfect sense. We could at least reduce the ability of any one particular group, nation, or religion to do so much damage on a global scale. Whether they are Islamic, christian, or worship the great juju at the bottom of the sea really doesn't matter. After all, the bomb they may potentially manufacture will have no respect of person or religious affiliation when it is detonated.

Zoid
Zoid
13 years ago

Well, i loved it, great doc. I think zero is wrong though, what about the ones we need to shoot at incoming asteroids!

Nigel from New Zealand
Nigel from New Zealand
13 years ago

what a load of western propoganda rubbish, i should have known seeing war criminal Blair's name on the credits, that mass murderer has zero credibility, nil, none, nought, nothing! What a joke we are! within the first 5minutes valerie plame & graham allison do the old al-Qaeda slam dunk trick, those nasty muslims want to wipe westerners off the face of the earth! how about the thousands of muslims we've slaughtered & continue to slaughter? No! they don't want to kill us all! they just want our armies out of their countries! We are hypocrites! there is not one Muslim Army occupying any western nation (keep your "taking over society by stealth" racist bigotry to yourself) but name one muslim country that does not have a western military presence! There ain't that many of em! To be a westerner these days makes me feel a bit sick!

Dr. Sohini Shukla
Dr. Sohini Shukla
13 years ago

This is out of my Subject.....
I love to see good soothing and Spiritual ....
I need to see instruments of peace....
Sohiniben.

Reasons Voice
Reasons Voice
13 years ago

First off; thank you, to the gentleman who stated how easilly someone could get an atomic bomb into NYC in a container truck full of kitty litter. Nothing like being responsible in your statements.
Secondly; When did ol' Gorbies' borchd stain on his head start looking like the eastern seaboard of the US.
Finally; I think I cr*ped myself. Job well done documentarians.

1perspective
1perspective
13 years ago

half way through this and clearly it is no more than anti-peace propaganda.

just the fact that Tony Blair is in it should discredit the legitimacy of the information here.

Anthony
Anthony
13 years ago

So long as America maintains the largest most technologically advanced war machine the planet has ever seen, then nuclear disarmament is moot.

Any country that feels threatened by manipulated or restrained by American foreign policy will seek to gain nuclear arms.

Maybe if America (and its allies)decided to spread equality throughout the world rather than its ideas of freedom we might get somewhere.

But what are the chances of that? id say 1%

ash breaks stuff
ash breaks stuff
13 years ago

Too many what-ifs in this doc. Nuclear weapons are pretty much a catch-22. Screwed if you have them, screwed if you don't.

oink
oink
13 years ago

i hope this isn't one of those "they shouldn't have them but we should to make sure they don't" films but I will give it a watch and find out...

Anthony
Anthony
13 years ago

this should be retitled: "HOW TO BUY AND SMUGGLE NUCLEAR MATERIAL FOR DUMMIES"