Fail-Safe (1964)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Walter Bernstein (screenplay)
Eugene Burdick (novel) ...

Release Date:

7 October 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller | War

Tagline:

It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!

Plot:

American planes are sent to deliver a nuclear attack on Moscow, but it's a mistake due to an electrical malfunction. Can all-out war be averted?

Plot Keywords:

Military | Air Attack | Nuclear Power | Super Powers | Bullfight

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Dan O'Herlihy	...	Brig. Gen. Warren A. Black
Walter Matthau	...	Prof. Groeteschele
Frank Overton	...	Gen. Bogan
Ed Binns	...	Col. Jack Grady
Fritz Weaver	...	Col. Cascio
Henry Fonda	...	The President
Larry Hagman	...	Buck
William Hansen	...	Defense Secretary Swenson
Russell Hardie	...	Gen. Stark
Russell Collins	...	Gordon Knapp
Sorrell Booke	...	Congressman Raskob
Nancy Berg	...	Ilsa Wolfe
John Connell	...	Radioman Thomas
Frank Simpson	...	Sullivan (crew)
Hildy Parks	...	Betty Black

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | West Germany:16 | Australia:PG | UK:PG | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Columbia Pictures produced both this movie and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Director Stanley Kubrick insisted his movie be released first, and it was, in January 1964. When Fail-Safe (1964) was released, it garnered excellent reviews, but audiences found it unintentionally funny because of "Strangelove", and stayed away. Henry Fonda later said he would never have made this movie if he had seen "Strangelove" first, because he would have laughed too.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Professor Groeteschele concludes his remarks on the casualties that NYC will suffer and the need for excavating large corporations' records (which are vital to the economy), he crosses in front of the "tactical" screen. The screen displays the sixth "defensive" bomber (which carried no bombs) and it's spread of "decoy" transmissions. At this point in the film, the Russian fighters have already focused on and detroyed this bomber (to General Bogan's dismay) and the final bomber (which has no decoy capability) has dropped below radar, never to be seen on the tactical screen again. It is likely that this scene was moved during editing.

Quotes:

The President: How did you get to be a translator, Buck? You don't seem the academic type.
Buck: [nervously] I guess I have a talent for languages, sir. I hear a language once I pick it right up. I don't even know how. They found out about it in the Army.
The President: You sound sorry they did.
Buck: No, sir. It's a very interesting job.
[pauses]
Buck: That is, most of the time.
The President: Well, you did a good job today, Buck.
Buck: Thank you, sir. All I did was repeat what he said.
The President: You didn't freeze up. Another man might have.
Buck: You're the one who didn't, sir.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Mondo cane (1962)

How do you show your good will when your own bombers are about to mistakenly nuke Moscow?

That's the biggest moral dilemma this movie puts in front of its characters. It falls to the President (ably played by Henry Fonda) to make the agonizing decision of how to handle the situation without causing a global thermonuclear war.

From the Soviet point of view, here's what happens. The hot line in Moscow rings. The premier picks it up to hear the American president explaining that three unstoppable bombers are on their way to obliterate Moscow. Oh, but it was an accident. We didn't mean to send them out, sorry. And we can't call them back, because they're beyond their fail safe position (and thus are trained to maintain complete radio silence and ignore any communication they may receive), and we can't shoot them down because they're way out of our range. Sorry. Our bad.

The pacing of the movie moves from a calm, cool tone while various media figures are shown around the facility in charge of all the bombers. Then it picks up a tiny bit as the facility detects a bogie over Hudson Bay. And this is where the situation begins that eventually leads to the erroneous deployment of a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Although it seems small at the time, this is the metaphorical horseshoe nail that loses the kingdom. ("For want of a nail....") From this point, the movie steadily increases the suspence as progressively more drastic measures are taken in the effort to stop these bombers, with the situation growing more desperate by the moment. I started out firmly positioned on my seat, but by the end I had moved further and further forward towards the edge of my seat until eventually I couldn't even sit still. Too much suspense.

There are quite a lot of technical errors in the film (for instance, due to the Air Force refusing to assist in the film, they had to resort to a fairly limited set of stock footage for the shots of aircraft, which are thus extremely inaccurate) but it remains a good movie. If you can ignore the errors in set design and stock footage and concentrate instead on the dialog (which is where the action is anyway), watching people rise to the challenge or snap under the pressure, this is a movie you will never, ever forget.