In films like ' Children of Hiroshima ' and ' On the Beach ' the horror of atomic warfare were made in the hope that such warfare would never be unleashed on the world again, and even in ' Dr. Strangelove ' it was used as a warning against the death-wish of governments. Here in this repulsively ugly film it is used as a horrific gimmick using real footage of an atomic test in the USA and giving an audience the ' thrill ' of seeing people dying. No spoilers to describe how all this happened, except to say it involves criminals on the run, and for a great deal of its playing time concentrates on them. There is a lot of violence, but the greater violence is upon the psyche of those who would be affected by seeing it and dreading the ( real ) possibility that it could happen to them. The Netherlands was cautious and did not allow children to see it, raising the age to 18. Sweden banned it. In the UK it was simply given an ' A ' certificate where children would have gone with an adult and may have been traumatised for life.
Review of Split Second
