Created by the Office of Civil Defense in 1955, "Fallout" drolly discusses the fallout produced by nuclear explosions. The goal of the film was to promote nationwide adoption of fallout shelters as part of the Civil Defense program and indeed, at the time it was made, these kind of shelters were required for public buildings including schools. A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War.
As the film explains, radiation can make a person sick and even kill them. The three best defenses are distance, mass, and time. Get as far from the fallout as possible, which may mean going to the middle of a large building rather than near its outside; have concrete and other materials between you and fallout; and, allow for the fact that radioactive material loses its potency over time: e.g., two weeks after an explosion, it's at 1/1000th of its initial strength. Fallout shelters are the best civil defense: the federal government has a program to ensure adequate fallout shelters for all.
A booklet that accompanied this film, with the same title, was widely disseminated by the Office of Civil Defense and can be found on line.
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