World War III in Popular Culture - 2000s: Concern Over Terrorism

2000s: Concern Over Terrorism

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a scenario of World War III beginning as a result of a nuclear or other catastrophic terrorist attack became prominent. Terrorism in the form of nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks now occupy the place in popular culture once held by the vision of a nuclear World War III between world powers.

Paramount Pictures released a film adaptation of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears in 2002. The production of the film began before 9/11, and was originally intended as an escapist thriller where CIA analyst Jack Ryan fights Neo-Nazis who conspire to detonate a nuclear weapon at a football game to start a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. However, the film’s release just seven months after 9/11 made it very topical. Phil Alden Robinson, the film's director, commented that "a year ago, you'd have said, 'great popcorn film,'...Today you say, 'that's about the world I live in.'" There was an aggressive promotional campaign, with movie trailers and television commercials showing the nuclear destruction of a city and a special premiere for politicians in Washington, D.C.

Recently, World War III has also become the topic of several popular video games, reflecting the trend towards increased public consciousness of the possibility of a future global war. Games such as Tom Clancy's EndWar, Battlefield: Bad Company and Frontlines: Fuel of War, paint scenarios about a Third World War driven by the need for resources on the part of the various combatants. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are also recent examples; at the end of the latter's launch advertisement, the "W" in "WW3" flips itself to read "MW3." These games feature a global war between the United States and Russia after the United States is framed for a massacre at a Moscow airport and soon after, the Russians expand their war into Europe. Battlefield 3, on the other hand, follows The Sum of All Fears's example, portraying Iranian terrorists stealing portable atomic weapons from Russia for the purpose of provoking a war between them and the United States. Other games such as World In Conflict, and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty take place in alternate histories where global war is a reality, the former being a war between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the latter being a war between the United States and a much stronger Nazi Germany that won World War II, both games depicting an invasion of America. The Fallout series continued to portray the aftermath of nuclear war with its most recent entries, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Ace Combat Assault Horizon starts with a Russian Rebellion taking control of Russia and starting a war with the United States and NATO. The 2007 bestselling game DEFCON places players in charge of preparing to and then fighting a nuclear war with other human or computer-generated players attacking from and defending different sectors of planet Earth; its simple 1980s-style vector graphics are inspired by those seen in the 1983 hit movie WarGames. Wargame: European Escalation is a RTS game that simulates full scale conventional warfare between NATO and Warsaw Pact between 1975 and 1985.

In 2000 a made-for-television remake of Fail-Safe was produced; it remained set in the 1960's of the novel.