Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.
At 8:00am on a Saturday in January of 2018, everyone on the Hawaiian islands received a statewide alert warning of an immanent nuclear missile. With President Trump and Kim Jong-un in the middle of a dangerous escalation, many people prepared for their homes and families to be destroyed in a nuclear apocalypse.
…38 minutes later, everyone received a second alert that it was an error.
Growing beyond this terrifying moment.
False Alarm follows the stories of seven different individuals’ diverse reactions and reflections on those 38 minutes. 38 minutes which open a window into the hope of resistance and tragedy of acceptance of militarism, colonialism, and nuclear weapons.
Were you in Hawaii the morning of the alert?
False Alarm captures the distinct terror of facing the possibility of death in a tweet-launched war, and then goes a step beyond, placing the Hawaii alert alongside the US’s long history of building nuclear nightmares.
Kelsey D. Atherton, military technology writer
The talking heads articulate the visceral terror of the moment as well as the deep-dish existential questions about instant annihilation, botched leadership (great men!) and permanent war they didn’t anticipate would hijack their plans for the weekend and beyond.
Michael Fox, KQED
False Alarm build on the knowledge and resources of numerous sources, including experts in the dangers of nuclear weapons, American militarism, and Hawaiian occupation.
You can find a selection of reading and watching material to dive deeper into these subjects here!