Starring a group of mostly unknown actors, This Is Not a Test begins with lone deputy sheriff Dan Colter (Seamon Glass)[2] receiving orders to block a road leading into an unidentified city (dialogue indicates the location is somewhere in central California, however).

[2] Complicating matters is the revelation that the hitchhiker Clint Delany (Ron Starr) is a psychotic who is wanted for murder.

[1] As the countdown to the missile attack continues, the men and women try desperately to convert a supply truck into an impromptu bomb shelter.

[3] This Is Not a Test is presently in the public domain in the United States, and has been released in numerous DVD formats, on its own or in collections of similar films.

[4] Gary Westfahl mentioned that the film shows the ineptitude that would come from ordinary people in the face of impending nuclear attack)[2][5]