Kansas City to see the site of his home before he dies. He finds squatters there and attempts to drive them off, but he is instead offered food. Oakes collapses and weeps, and one of the squatters comforts him. The film ends with an overlying audio clip of Huxley's voice on the radio as the screen fades to black, asking if anybody can still hear him, only to be met with silence until the credits roll. Ending disclaimer Most versions of The Day After include an American-English textual ending disclaimer just before the end credits, stating that the film is fictional, and that the real-life outcome of a nuclear war would be much worse than the events portrayed onscreen. Cast The Oakeses Jason Robards as Dr. Russell Oakes Georgann Johnson as Helen Oakes Kyle Aletter as Marilyn Oakes The Dahlbergs John Cullum as Jim Dahlberg Bibi Besch as Eve Dahlberg Lori Lethin as Denise Dahlberg Doug Scott as Danny Dahlberg Ellen Anthony as Joleen Dahlberg Hospital staff JoBeth Williams as Nurse Nancy Bauer Calvin Jung as Dr. Sam Hachiya Lin McCarthy as Dr. Austin Rosanna Huffman as Dr. Wallenberg George Petrie as Dr. Landowska Jonathan Estrin as Julian French Wayne Knight as Man in Hospital Others Steve Guttenberg as Stephen Klein John Lithgow as Joe Huxley Amy Madigan as Alison Ransom William Allen Young as Airman First Class Billy McCoy Jeff East as Bruce Gallatin Dennis Lipscomb as Reverend Walker Clayton Day as Dennis Hendry Antonie Becker as Ellen Hendry Stephen Furst as Aldo Arliss Howard as Tom Cooper Stan Wilson as Vinnie Conrad Harry Bugin as Man at phone Production The Day After was the idea of ABC Motion Picture Division President Brandon Stoddard, who, after watching The China Syndrome, was so impressed that he envisioned creating a film exploring the effects of nuclear war on the United States. Stoddard asked his executive vice president of television movies and miniseries, Stu Samuels, to develop a script. Samuels created the title The Day After to emphasize that the story was about not a nuclear war itself but the aftermath. Samuels suggested several writers, and eventually, Stoddard commissioned the veteran television writer Edward Hume to write the script in 1981. ABC, which financed the production, was concerned about the graphic nature of the film and how to portray the subject appropriately on a family-oriented television channel. Hume undertook a massive amount