The segment "Duck and Cover" showed how school children were reassured by "Bert the Turtle" that they would survive a nuclear bomb by simply forming a huddle together by the wall of the school-house. "The Atomic Cafe" has been attributed to raising public consciousness of the short film "Duck and Cover" and introducing it to a whole a new generation.
The ratio of materials viewed to materials used in the film "was maybe 10,000 to one" according to producer-director Pierce Rafferty.
The filmmakers wanted to make a movie that would foster "a healthy skepticism about official voices of reassurance" on the subject of the atomic bomb and nuclear warfare.
Jayne Loader regrets "not being able to use more of the U.S. Army training films, which were made to prepare the troops for nuclear war, like 'Manual Damage Assessment' and 'The Management of Mass Casualties' which dealt with triage after a nuclear war. And 'Memorial Activities' - which pertained to burying radioactive bodies".
The documentary took five years to make. Work on the movie began in 1977 with the film being first released in 1982.