Fail Safe starring Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau
Director: Sidney Lumet



Essential Actor / Actresses Here

Amazon.com
It's Dr. Strangelove, but without the laughs. Fail Safe, made within a year of Strangelove and at the height of cold war atomic anxiety, posits a similar nightmare scenario. A U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered toward Moscow, ready to drop its load. The U.S. president (Henry Fonda) and various military and congressional leaders must then scramble to deal with the disaster. The built-in suspense is well maintained by director Sidney Lumet, working from a script by former blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein. The solemn, serious approach doesn't begin to touch the brilliance of Strangelove's inspired take on the nuclear nightmare, but Fail Safe is absorbing and well acted (a memorable role for Walter Matthau, for instance). The movie enters unexpected territory in its final minutes; conditioned for feel-good endings, viewers are still genuinely shocked by the plot turns in the final reels. The climax comes as a sobering slap in the face, intriguingly staged by Lumet. Now that the cold war has passed on into history, Fail Safe stands as--thank goodness--an interesting period piece.
Synopsis
After a U.S. bomber accidentally receives orders to destroy Moscow, American leaders must figure out a way to avoid all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The nightmare starts at the Strategic Air Command base in Omaha, where a mechanical error causes a U.S. bomber flying over Alaska to receive the erroneous command. Once U.S. officials find out what's happened, they make a desperate effort to get the flyer to abort his mission. As it becomes clear that the pilot won't change course and will carry out his order to bomb Moscow, the U.S. President tries to explain this strange series of events to the Soviet premier. But to prove to Russia that the U.S. has not started a sneak attack, the President is asked to destroy New York City. Will the horrified U.S. leader actually ask the military to go through with this request? And, if he doesn't, will nuclear war break out between the two countries?

Video Description
A gripping cold war drama about a computer malfunction that sends a squadron of American bombers to destroy Moscow. The U.S. President is then forced to take terrible measures in order to prevent an all-out nuclear exchange. Based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, this features an excellent debut performance by Larry Hagman.

 

 

 

 

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