Simple, they don't

The first meeting with the thugs, the family had pulled to the side of the road. The thugs drive past and get out. The father tells his family to get in the camper then he confronts the 3 thugs. They rough him up and take his pistol and point it at him. They want to know what's in the trailer (camper). Harry tells them to stay out, but one moves toward it and Rick shoots through the camper window wounding the first thug in his right shoulder. The thug drops the pistol and Harry retrieves it. The three say they were just joking around. Harry looks at the wounded one's shoulder and says it was just buck shot and not serious. He tells them to beat it. They drive off.

Later, In the movie, the mother is washing clothes by a creek and a negligee drifts downstream without her noticing. The daughter, Karen, is supposed to be fishing but is reading a magazine and the garment floats passed her without being seen. Two of the three thugs retrieve it and find Karen. She tries to run but the two drag her off. The scene quick cuts back to the mother, where a shotgun is shown clearly behind her leaning against a rock. She hears her daughter scream, calls her name, picks up the weapon and goes to higher ground in the direction of her daughter, where she sees the two men and shoots. Now, rape is definitely implied, but only a few seconds have actually gone by. So, though we don't know, it seems the mother shooting prevented the actual act. Harry and Rick go look for the perps. They find them drunk in a farmhouse nearby (that's owned by the hardware store guy) and shoot them. They hear noise from a back room. It is the daughter of the hardware store owner the thugs had enslaved. She says the thugs murdered her parents. They let the girl come back with them, where Harry expresses remorse to his wife. He felt he was becoming no better than the thugs. She reassures him he did what he had too to protect them saying she had tried to kill them too (when she shot at them.

The gas scene is before the two above. Harry had bought a lot of supplies at a "dry goods" store then asked if there was a hardware store. The dry goods clerk called for the hardware store owner to come and open his shop. Harry bought a lot of supplies including a rope and some gas cans. He asked if he could buy any guns. The owner showed him some hand guns and showed him how to load one. He told Harry it would be over $300 for all of it and he'd have to wait a day on the guns because "Los Angeles may have been nuked but the boys in Sacramento will still want the paper work". Harry said he had $220 in cash and would write a check for the rest. When the shopkeep refused, that's when Harry grabs the pistol. They fight and Rick comes in, gets the gun and holds off the clerk. Later at a gas station, the attendant says "that'll be ninety dollars." Harry asks why, the attendant says "because people are payin' it" Harry says "your pump says 34 cents a gallon that's only ten dollars". The gas guy tells him he can return all the gas if he doesn't like it or trade something for it like a nice watch or jewelry. That's when Harry pull the handgun the second time in the movie.

And I dare you to look me in the eye and deny the greatness that would be a remake/reboot of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" starring Alfonzo Rachel as Chick Young and Steven Crowder as Wil Grey.

Shoot it in Dallas on HD video and take advantage of experienced non-union crews and the 15% state tax break.

Guaranteed to make money.

Milland goes to buy gas and groceries and the guys tries to charge him a few hundred bucks for a few gallons and a few bags of food. Milland pulls out his gun, tosses the guy a $20 telling him that that is what it would have cost yesterday.

Lou to Frank Ferguson – Do you still want your exhibits?

FF – Yes.

Lou – Well, here comes one of them now.

OMG – priceless!

Soon after an average middle-class family, the Baldwin's, leave on a camping trip they learn America has come under nuclear attack. The story focuses on the transformation of the family, but primarily the father Harry (Ray Milland) from "mild-mannered" to survivalist. He takes firm control of what little he can to protect his family, even when it means being reduced to robbery at one point. In one scene after he is roughed up by three thugs, his son Rick (played by Frankie Avalon) wounds one of them with buckshot. His wife, Ann (Jean Hagen) admonishes him for letting their son use a gun, saying she doesn't know him anymore. Later on, she winds up using a gun herself to save their daughter Karen (Mary Mitchell). Even while Harry finds himself going to lengths for his family he would never consider in normal life, he still tries to cling to some sense of civility and justice. Later, when it seems radio reports indicate the war has ended and Rick has been badly hurt, the family is racing through the night to the nearest town with a hospital. They're stopped by a vehicle where all you can see are headlights. Harry is ordered out of the car. He doesn't know who it is and thinks it's more thugs. You finally see the distress begin to take hold of him. It turns out to be a US Army patrol and the family is not just relieved but overjoyed to see them.

I liked how the movie showed a situation becoming so surreal (America's largest cities having been nuked) it forces an ordinary man to shed the trappings of homogenization and become a warrior. I also liked how his wife is a stabilizing force, bringing him back from the brink and giving him a sense of balance and civility.

I've not read the book it was based on and, perusing the web, it sounds as if the movie ending is different (better IMO). Many end of the world genre films of that era had anti-military themes and often showed the limits of a man. This story spends very little time on those themes and even puts the military in a positive light.

By the way, is anyone else so sick of hearing "green" they recoil at buying anything from anyone touting the green revolution?