In the beginning of Wargames, they have a drill for a missile launch which includes opening the exterior doors required for 10 missiles.
Would people living in the local area have been able to hear this and understand what the noise was?
I’m guessing the missile bases were isolated but how much so?
In short, very isolated. At least 8km for the nearest town, which are normally tiny.
Here’s a subset of launch sites as an example : https://www.newyorkprepper.com/post/u-s-nuclear-missile-silo-fields-maps-and-coordinates
The is purposely done, both for security of the sites themselves, and security of people who would happen to live near sites.
Good thing the preppers posted those locations.
All major players know exactly where each other’s silos are. The real question is, do all of them have missiles in them?
A missile costs the same as a missile, but a hole in the ground is vastly cheaper. If you can entice an adversary to use a missile to bomb your hole in the ground, you can cheaply soak up counter force strikes.
Nuclear war logic fucking sucks.