Fail-Safe (1964)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

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

Release Date:

7 October 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

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:

Bomber | General | Control | Strategic Air Command | Colonel

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Dan O'Herlihy	...	General Black
Walter Matthau	...	Groeteschele
Frank Overton	...	General Bogan
Edward Binns	...	Colonel Grady
Fritz Weaver	...	Colonel Cascio
Henry Fonda	...	The President
Larry Hagman	...	Buck
William Hansen	...	Secretary Swenson
Russell Hardie	...	General Stark
Russell Collins	...	Knapp
Sorrell Booke	...	Congressman Raskob
Nancy Berg	...	Ilsa Wolfe
John Connell	...	Thomas
Frank Simpson	...	Sullivan
Hildy Parks	...	Betty Black

Also Known As:

Angriffsziel Moskau (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
A prova di errore (Italy) [it]
Bombsäkert (Sweden) [sv]
Fail Safe - Feuer wird vom Himmel fallen (West Germany) [de]
Fejl-sikker (Denmark) [da]
Limite de Segurança (Brazil) [pt]
Missão Suicida (Portugal) [pt]
Point limite (France) [fr]
Pommin varjossa (Finland) [fi]
Punto límite (Spain) [es]
Synagermos thanatou (Greece) [el]

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:

Dana Elcar's first film role.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Many errors in the map displays. For example, Bering Strait is shown too narrow and twisty, with part of Russia extending north of the Seward Peninsula; and in the first two scales of map shown, Hudson Strait is too narrow and a nonexistent island appears southeast of Baffin Island.

Quotes:

Gen. Bogan: Sergeant Collins! On the double!
[Collins races to General Bogan at the main communication board of SAC headquarters]
Gen. Bogan: You're backup man on fire control, aren't you?
TSgt. Collins: Yes sir.
Gen. Bogan: Do our Vindicator missiles have both infrared and radar-seeking capacity?
TSgt. Collins: [tentatively] Yes sir.
Gen. Bogan: [grabbing Collins forcefully toward the radio mike] Loud and clear! They've got to know we're on the level!
TSgt. Collins: [fearfully] It has both capacities, sir!
Marshall Nevsky: [Over the radio] Can the radar-seeking mechanism be overloaded by increasing the strength of the signal?
Gen. Bogan: Tell him!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fonda on Fonda (1992) (TV)

Frightening

I'm a child of the 1970s, but this movie still scared me. You didn't have to grow up during the 50s or 60s to appreciate this. Anways in the 1980s, when Reagan was in office, nuclear war seemed a very real prospect. This movie is deadly serious, NO humor at all, and lit very sparsely. The battles between Russian and US planes seen as blips on a huge screen, is just as scary as if we had seen it realistically. Frightening, harrowing...hard to believe this film still has that effect now. Well worth watching but it's very very grim. Also, Fonda is superb as the President.