Jetpunk...?

I've been trying to describe to people something that has been in my head for a while, an alternate history genre that I'm not sure exists. Talking it over with some folks on a Dieselpunk Facebook group, it seems like "Jetpunk" is the best name for it.

How to describe it... it's kind of like Dieselpunk, but set during the Cold War, or like Atompunk, but without the Ray Gun Gothic stuff.
Imagine if "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" was taking place in 1962, around about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. (That's the best description I've come up with so far.)
Picture the "Fallout" series before the bombs fell.
Imagine "Happy Days" with a dark side.
"Iron Sky" with Commies instead of Nazis.
Early "James Bond" flicks, but with the gadgetry cranked up to 11, and the super-spy stuff only 1/3rd or so what we can expect from the story...at most.
"The Right Stuff" with fighter jets.

People are scared; nuclear war looks imminent. Schools have air-raid drills, duck-and-cover classes in case the bombs fall. Danger looms.
But the kids are still walking around with boys in letterman jackets taking girls to the school dance, there are large and curvy cars with fins on 'em, it's a very idealized mom-and-apple-pie 50s/60s world...except those scary communists are poised to take over, perhaps even infiltrating the US already, masquerading as one of us. You have to be careful who you talk to or they might try to suborn you, make you a traitor without your knowing it.
And, of course, the looming Space Race is beginning, which can't be good for our future.

Enter a team of heroes in fighter jets, flying planes that look like a mashup of an S-86 and an F-89.
They face off against the evil government from the other side of the world, with a culture that seems like a fascist antithesis of their own. Sometimes they're spies, sometimes they're pilots, but they're there to protect Freedom™.

I've gone looking, and I don't really see anything in that sort of vein. Not really.
Actually, weirdly, a lot of the inspiration for my wanting this comes from a comedy film: "Matinee". It's about a movie producer who decides that the best place to debut his flick about a man who turns into a giant ant because of radiation...is Key West. During the Cuban Missile Crisis. It's a very fun, funny movie, but I was thinking, "What if this was not quite so amusing, and was more of an action movie instead?"
Well, as near as I can tell, this doesn't exist, neither as a movie nor as a genre. But given that it's set during the heyday of the Jet Age, the pre-digital age, it seems like "Jetpunk" is the best name for it.

I d'know...I do animation, so I'm tempted to make this my next project, but I was wondering whether anybody knows of anything that fits this bill.
 
Okay, "The Iron Giant" is a great flick, and it's definitely in the right timeline...but it's still aimed at kids.
The two suggestions so far have been sooooo close, but with at least one insurmountable deal-breaker.

I strongly suspect that what I'm looking for really doesn't exist, that if it's going to exist, I'm gonna have to be the one to make it.
 
Aesthetically I'd suggest Batman: The Animated Series which takes place in an art deco adorned city that is constantly terrorized by external threats, albeit in the form of costumed supervillains rather than communists. The clothing, costumes, buildings and cars are evocative of the 30s, 40s and 50s. The series is a masterful demonstration of how to create an atmosphere just through art alone.
 
Okay, "The Iron Giant" is a great flick, and it's definitely in the right timeline...but it's still aimed at kids.
The two suggestions so far have been sooooo close, but with at least one insurmountable deal-breaker.

I strongly suspect that what I'm looking for really doesn't exist, that if it's going to exist, I'm gonna have to be the one to make it.
Just rewatch Dr Strangelove and go from there I'd say. In French, you have OSS 117, although it's a comedy. A very Secret Service, on Netflix, also has a very strong storyline in that period (on top of the humour)
 
Aesthetically I'd suggest Batman: The Animated Series which takes place in an art deco adorned city that is constantly terrorized by external threats, albeit in the form of costumed supervillains rather than communists. The clothing, costumes, buildings and cars are evocative of the 30s, 40s and 50s. The series is a masterful demonstration of how to create an atmosphere just through art alone.

I'd say that's more Dark Deco/noir, which are their own distinct things from what OP is requesting
 
Just rewatch Dr Strangelove and go from there I'd say. In French, you have OSS 117, although it's a comedy. A very Secret Service, on Netflix, also has a very strong storyline in that period (on top of the humour)
Yes, but...humor. Not taking itself seriously.
That's a dealbreaker.

I'd suggest Batman: The Animated Series
Not lookin' for superheroes, here. No costumed crusaders.
Wrong genre.

The clothing, costumes, buildings and cars are evocative of the 30s, 40s and 50s.
Those are the three decades before the one I'm after.
That's off-target.
 
Now that I think about it, The Twilight Zone seems to fit. Specifically the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "Third From the Sun" and "The Shelter".
 
The Studio Ghibli films Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky might fit, at least aesthetically speaking. How about the film Metropolis?

The HG Wells novels The World Set Free and The War in the Air could fit, despite the fact that they were written before WW1. The Shape of Things to Come could work too.

Come to think of it, the series Captain Scarlet might fit your proposed scenario better than Thunderbirds would.

Mind you, how about Crimson Skies?

Unfortunately, most of the examples I can think of involve propeller-driven aircraft, rather than jets, though I'm sure they are out there somewhere.
 
If your going for a fifties vibe you might want to look at Norman Rockwell or the Jetsons, although it sounds like you want something a little darker.
 
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