I have that movie. I think it is a pretty accurate portrayal of what a nuclear exchange would have been like between the Soviets and Americans. It was made in the early 80's and as such is colored by the politics of the time.

Fallout shelters ceased to be a viable option sometime during the 1960's, when the American and Soviet arsenals got so large that any nuclear exchange between the two would make large-scale survival impossible. I believe the same would be the case today. The Americans and Russians still maintain large enough stockpiles to obliterate most decent sized population centers. The last I had heard, the Chinese maintain somewhere between 30-50 functioning nukes. Whether or not they are sophisticated enough to be effectively delivered here is another matter. Either way, I think the possibility of any sort of nuclear exchange between the three countries is remote in the extreme, for obvious reasons. And I don't think any of the so-called "rogue states" (Iran, North Korea, etc.) would risk the catastrophic nuclear response that a similar attack upon us would prompt. That leaves us to deal with terrorists and their more limited capabilities.

Unlike many, I don't think terrorists are going to be necessarily limited to a "dirty bomb." That means possibly first having to deal with the initial blast and fireball. As silly as it may sound, I think maybe we need to go back to the '50's and dust off the old "duck and cover" technique. It certaintly makes a lot more sense now when dealing with an isolated nuclear detonation than it did with total nuclear war. After that, it becomes a matter of getting out of the fallout area.

Some will live who are not prepared at all, while some who have the most carefully planned equipment checklists and escape routes will die. That is just the nature of a surprise attack. But I'm thinking that if you are not killed outright, you stand a pretty good chance of making it with some preparation and maybe a little luck.