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A period of history · Age

Films & Shows Set during the Cold War

Runs from1946199145 years wide

Alternate boundariesThe dates above are the archive’s reading; this is another in use. Every count on this page uses the archive’s.

  • 19451991starts 1 year earlierDated from the end of World War II and the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, where many histories begin the split between East and West.

Shelfmark Liber LXVI

Contemporary Era

32
titles
28 films · 4 series (33 eps) · 12 through its sub-periods
3.9/5
average rating
across 32 rated titles
48%
of the span is tagged
20 of 42 titles set inside it

See the Cold War on the timelineEvery year from 1946 to 1991 the archive holds, and what is set in them

Compare the titles of the Cold War in the CanonsWhat every title on it shares, what two or three share, and what is proper to one

Inside this Archive

1913The AviatorFilm · 2004 · initially set in 1913 · depicts 1941 – 19453.8/51926OppenheimerFilm · 2023 · initially set in 19264.2/51926The DressmakerFilm · 2015 · initially set in 19263.4/51945Godzilla Minus OneFilm · 2023 · initially set in 19454.1/51947The CrownTV series · 2 episodes · initially set in 19474.1/51947The Right StuffFilm · 1983 · initially set in 19474.0/51950Devotionvia Korean WarFilm · 2022 · set in 19503.2/51952The Motorcycle DiariesFilm · 2004 · set in 19524.0/51953The Death of StalinFilm · 2017 · initially set in 19533.9/51954The Battle of Algiersvia Algerian WarFilm · 1966 · initially set in 19544.5/51954We Were Soldiersvia French Indochina WarFilm · 2002 · initially set in 19543.5/51955Back to the FutureFilm · 1985 · set in 19554.2/51956Nasser 56Film · 1996 · set in 19563.3/51960A Very Secret ServiceTV series · 7 episodes · set in 19603.5/51961First Manvia Space RaceFilm · 2018 · initially set in 19613.7/51961Hidden Figuresvia Space RaceFilm · 2016 · initially set in 1961 · depicts 1958 – 19623.8/51964The AmericansTV series · 19 episodes · initially set in 19643.9/51965Good Morning, Vietnamvia Vietnam WarFilm · 1987 · set in 19653.7/51966Rescue Dawnvia Vietnam WarFilm · 2007 · set in 19663.6/51967Full Metal Jacketvia Vietnam WarFilm · 1987 · initially set in 19674.2/51967Platoonvia Vietnam WarFilm · 1986 · set in 19674.0/51969Apocalypse Nowvia Vietnam WarFilm · 1979 · set in 19694.4/51969Once Upon a Time in HollywoodFilm · 2019 · set in 19693.8/51970Apollo 13via Space RaceFilm · 1995 · set in 19703.8/51970I'm Still HereFilm · 2024 · initially set in 19704.3/51972MunichFilm · 2005 · initially set in 19723.8/51973The Killing FieldsFilm · 1984 · initially set in 19734.0/51977The Secret AgentFilm · 2025 · set in 19773.8/51979ArgoFilm · 2012 · initially set in 19793.8/51979Persepolisvia Iran-Iraq WarFilm · 2007 · initially set in 19794.2/51979The Iron LadyFilm · 2011 · initially set in 19792.9/51986ChernobylTV series · 5 episodes · initially set in 19864.6/5

32 titles · in the order the archive depicts them. A series counts once, regardless of however many of its episodes carry the tag. 12 titles here come through the periods inside this one rather than its own tag, and are counted only because they are set inside these boundaries.

The Chronicle

The events and themes the archive follows through the Cold War, in the order they happened, each with the titles that depict it. Press a name to read about it in the threads below.

  1. 1877–1965
    Jim Crow LawsSocial
  2. 1942–1947
    Manhattan ProjectScience and Technology

    The secret World War II project to create the world's first nuclear weapons.

  3. 1950
    Battle of Chosin ReservoirMilitary
  4. 1953
    Death of StalinPolitical

    The death of the Soviet Union's longtime General Secretary and dictator, Joseph Stalin, represented a major power vacuum in Soviet politics that would cause more than a few…

  5. 1956
    Battle of AlgiersMilitary

    A name for the violent resistance campaign against French control of Algeria, centered in the city of Algiers in the 1950s in the midst of the Algerian War.

  6. 1956
    Suez CrisisMilitary
  7. 1958–1963
    Project MercuryExploration

    The first crewed spaceflight program of the United States.

  8. 1961–1966
    Project GeminiExploration
  9. 1965
    Battle of la DrangMilitary
  10. 1968
    Battle of HuếMilitary
  11. 1968
    Tet OffensiveMilitary

    A massive surprise attack from North Vietnamese forces (both army and Viet Cong) on the day of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year in 1968.

  12. 1961–1972
    Apollo ProgramExploration

    The successor to Projects Mercury and Gemini that began the United States' development of human spaceflight at the dawn of the Cold War, the Apollo Program represented a…

  13. 1969–1990
    ARPANETScience and Technology
  14. 1969
    Manson MurdersCrime and Terror

    The murders of several people, including actress, Sharon Tate, by members of a small California cult, at the behest of its leader, Charles Manson.

  15. 1970
    Cambodian IncursionMilitary

    The expansion of the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia following Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong usage of Cambodian territory as refuge from American counterattack and the Tet…

  16. 1972
    Munich MassacreCrime and Terror
  17. 1975–1979
    Cambodian GenocideAtrocity and Persecution
  18. 1975
    Fall of Phnom PenhMilitary

    The Khmer Rouge capture of the Cambodian capital in April 1975, concluding the Cambodian Civil War and resulting in a forced exodus of virtually its entire population.

  19. 1979
    Iran Hostage CrisisPolitical

    The seizure of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and the attempted rescue and negotiation operations conducted thereafter to recover…

  20. 1979
    Iranian RevolutionPolitical
  21. 1981
    Attempted Assassination of Ronald ReaganCrime and Terror
  22. 1982
    Falklands WarMilitary

    The 1982 conflict waged between Argentina and the United Kingdom over control of the South Atlantic Falkland islands.

  23. 1983–1993
    Strategic Defense InitiativeScience and Technology
  24. 1986
    Chernobyl DisasterDisaster

    The explosion of reactor 4 on April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, in what is now modern-day Ukraine, that resulted in a massive release of radioactive…

Sub-Periods

The periods the archive counts as part of the Cold War. Their titles are gathered on this page where they are set inside its boundaries. The number represents how many titles in these sub-periods are also directly attached to this period and how many are just inherited rather being directly tagged with the Cold War.

Cinematic Introduction

Every title set during the Cold War, by the decade it came out. A series is placed on the chart by its first season and counts as one title entity.

First on screen
The Battle of Algiers1966
Most recent
The Secret Agent2025

8 of these were made while the Cold War was still going on: The Right Stuff (1983), The Battle of Algiers (1966), Back to the Future (1985), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Platoon (1986), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Killing Fields (1984).

FilmsSeriesAt the archive’s paceeach bar is the titles released that decade

The median title about the Cold War came out in 2009; the median across the rest of the archive, in 2004, so this period’s titles run 5 years later. Most over-told: the 1980s, with 6 titles where about 2.0 would be expected. Most under-told: the 1960s, with 1 where about 4.3 would be expected.

The gold dashes are how many of this period’s 32 titles each decade would hold if they had been released at the same pace as the other 259 dated titles in the archive. That measures the archive’s own collecting, not the world’s film output, and at these sizes one title moves a bar by a whole step.

Cast of Characters

The historical people the archive’s titles put on screen in this period, grouped by what they are known for. The number is how many titles set here they appear in.

Political28

Science and Technology18

Exploration11

Military11

Arts8

Private individual3

Writing and Thought3

Athlete2

Economic2

Institution2

Crime and Terror1

Historical Threads

A thread follows one event or historical theme across the archive, wherever and whenever it appears. Pick a tab to read one; they are in the order they are filed on the timeline. Pulling a thread opens up a narrowed timeline view filtered to every year that thread touches.

Manhattan Projectpull it on the timeline

Project

The secret World War II project to create the world's first nuclear weapons. After years of development and billions of dollars spent, the project culminated in 1945 with the Trinity Test detonation conducted in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945 and the Atomic Bombings of Japan the following month.

filed under 1945

Also runs throughWorld War II

Death of Stalinpull it on the timeline

Event

The death of the Soviet Union's longtime General Secretary and dictator, Joseph Stalin, represented a major power vacuum in Soviet politics that would cause more than a few changes in the state's political scene, including, ultimately, a relative relaxation in political repression. With no clear heir or mechanism for selecting a successor, several parties vied for control, lead among them including Georgy Malenkov, Lavrentiy Beria, and Nikita Khrushchev.

filed under 1953

Battle of Algierspull it on the timeline

Event

A name for the violent resistance campaign against French control of Algeria, centered in the city of Algiers in the 1950s in the midst of the Algerian War. Though French forces would successfully suppress FLN activity in Algiers, the effort would be costly, and ultimately, France would relinquish its control over Algeria.

filed under 1956

Also runs throughAlgerian War

Project Mercurypull it on the timeline

Project

The first crewed spaceflight program of the United States. With the Soviet Union already ahead in the Space Race with the deployment of Sputnik 1 as the world's first artificial satellite, Project Mercury's goal was to successfully perform a crewed orbit of the Earth before the Soviets. However, this record would also go to the Soviets with the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

2 titles set here · filed under 1958

Also runs throughSpace Race2American Civil Rights Movement

Tet Offensivepull it on the timeline

Event

A massive surprise attack from North Vietnamese forces (both army and Viet Cong) on the day of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year in 1968. Though the campaign did not have the desired effect of sparking mass insurrection within South Vietnam, it did instigate massive dissent on the American homefront by very clearly demonstrating that the United States was not winning the war as decisively as it otherwise claimed.

filed under 1968

Its parts, pulled with it:

Also runs throughVietnam War

Apollo Programpull it on the timeline

Project

The successor to Projects Mercury and Gemini that began the United States' development of human spaceflight at the dawn of the Cold War, the Apollo Program represented a high-water mark of the Space Race with the first humans successfully setting foot on the Moon in 1969 as part of Apollo 11.

2 titles set here · filed under 1969

Also runs throughSpace Race2

Cambodian Incursionpull it on the timeline

Event

The expansion of the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia following Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong usage of Cambodian territory as refuge from American counterattack and the Tet Offensive in 1969. American President Nixon would then authorize a covert bombing campaign and later action by ground forces.

filed under 1970

Also runs throughVietnam War

Iran Hostage Crisispull it on the timeline

Event

The seizure of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and the attempted rescue and negotiation operations conducted thereafter to recover several dozen American hostages.

filed under 1979

Chernobyl Disasterpull it on the timeline

Event

The explosion of reactor 4 on April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, in what is now modern-day Ukraine, that resulted in a massive release of radioactive material and an intensive ensuing cleanup operation.

filed under 1986

Saltiness Across the Period

No title set here has been given a saltiness score yet. That is unrated, which is not the same as accurate.

Archive Density

48%20 of the 42 titles the archive sets between 1946 and 1991 carry the Cold War tag.

76%With its sub-periods: 32 of the same 42 titles carry Cold War or one of Abertura, Algerian War, French Indochina War and 5 others.

This measure can help illustrate cinematic hotspots within a time period by comparing which years of the overarching, actual historical time period are backed up by a cinematic release.

  1. 19462 of 3
  2. 19475 of 6
  3. 19481 of 3
  4. 19491 of 1
  5. 19501 of 2 · 2 with sub-periods
  6. 19512 of 3
  7. 19522 of 3
  8. 19532 of 2
  9. 19541 of 4 · 3 with sub-periods
  10. 19551 of 3 · 2 with sub-periods
  11. 19562 of 3 · 3 with sub-periods
  12. 19571 of 2 · 2 with sub-periods
  13. 1958nothing set here
  14. 19592 of 2
  15. 19602 of 2
  16. 19611 of 3 · 3 with sub-periods
  17. 19621 of 3 · 2 with sub-periods
  18. 19631 of 1
  19. 19641 of 1
  20. 19650 of 3 · 3 with sub-periods
  21. 19660 of 1 · 1 with sub-periods
  22. 19670 of 3 · 3 with sub-periods
  23. 19680 of 2 · 1 with sub-periods
  24. 19691 of 4 · 3 with sub-periods
  25. 19702 of 3 · 3 with sub-periods
Show all 44 yearsShow the first 25 only · 19 more years, from 1971 to 1991
  1. 19711 of 1
  2. 19721 of 1
  3. 19732 of 3
  4. 19740 of 1
  5. 19751 of 1
  6. 19761 of 2
  7. 19771 of 1
  8. 19793 of 4 · 4 with sub-periods
  9. 19801 of 2 · 2 with sub-periods
  10. 19812 of 2
  11. 19822 of 2
  12. 1983nothing set here
  13. 19841 of 2 · 2 with sub-periods
  14. 19851 of 1
  15. 19861 of 1
  16. 19871 of 1
  17. 19881 of 1
  18. 19901 of 3 · 2 with sub-periods
  19. 19910 of 1 · 1 with sub-periods

44 years on the timeline fall inside the boundaries, 2 of them with nothing set there yet. The dark part of each bar is the share carrying this period; the lighter part beside it, the share carrying one of its sub-periods instead.

Share of the 73 genre taggings across 32 titles set in this period. A title filed under three genres is in three of these slices, so this is a share of taggings rather than of titles.

Also on the Timeline

Part of and part of it are declared by the archive: one period counted as belonging to another, whatever their dates. Periods overlap freely so concurrent means the two spans share years, and the shared stretch is named. Bounded means it lies wholly inside this one, beginning and ending more than 10 years within its boundaries. Before and after are the nearest periods lying outside this one, with the gap in years shown instead. A shared thread is what the two have in common besides the calendar, and a period lying wholly outside this one can still share one.

RelationPeriodRunsShared yearsShared threadsTitles
Part of itFrench Indochina War1946–19541946–1954none shared2
Part of itKorean War1950–19531950–1953none shared1
Part of itAlgerian War1954–19621954–1962none shared2
Part of itSpace Race1955–19751955–1975Project Mercury4
Part of itVietnam War1955–19751955–1975none shared6
Part of itYears of Lead1968–19741968–1974none shared1
Part of itAbertura1974–19851974–1985none shared1
Part of itIran-Iraq War1980–19881980–1988Iranian Revolution1
BeforeEastern Front (World War II)1941–19451 year earliernone shared8
BeforePacific War1941–19451 year earliernone shared11
BeforeSecond Sino-Japanese War1937–19451 year earliernone shared2
BeforeWestern Front (World War II)1939–19451 year earliernone shared12
BeforeWorld War II1937–19451 year earlierManhattan Project47
ConcurrentCentury of Humiliation1839–19491946–1949none shared1
ConcurrentIndian Independence1885–19481946–1948none shared1
ConcurrentInformation Age1947–present1947–1991none shared1
ConcurrentApartheid1948–19941948–1991none shared1
ConcurrentAmerican Civil Rights Movement1954–19681954–1968Project Mercury3
ConcurrentColombian Drug War1970–19931970–1991none shared1
AfterPost-Cold War Era1991–present1991Iranian Revolution15
AfterSierra Leone Civil War1991–20021991none shared1