"Fail Safe" (1964 - 112 minutes), photographed in Black & White, is a drama of science fiction directed by Sidney Lumet from the script of Walter Bernstein, based on the book of Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. Fails in the system of the Strategical Air Force Command of the United States sends orders for six B-58 bombers, equipped with nuclear ogives, to bomb Moscow. General Bogan (the actor Frank Overton), Commander of the Air Force, tries desperately to establish contact by radio with the bombers pilots, but they had been taught that once exceeded the "security limit" any order of reversion must be disrespected, because the enemy can know how to imitate the voice of the commanders and even of the president. Running against time, the president (the actor Henry Fonda), helped by Buck, an interpreter (Larry Hagman), informs to the Russian prime minister the imminent nuclear disaster. Working with the Strategical Air Force Command, the Russians send all their antiaircraft armory to knock down the American bombers. Unhappyly, an aircraft commanded by colonel Grady (Ed Binns) escapes and continues in its fatal mission. Perceiving that Moscow is doomed, the president takes then a radical decision to prevent the Third World-Wide War. In Time: There was a remake of "Fail Safe" produced in live with 85 minutes by CBS in 2000, directed by Stephen Frears. In this film, also in times of the Cold War, an unidentified flying object intrigues the American army that orders some bombers to investigate. When they arrive, they discover that it was only a commercial airplane out of its route. However, a fail in the computers of the Department of Defense sends to a squadron of bombers a transmission of the codes of a nuclear attack. The orders are irreversible and indicate that the target is Moscow. From now on, the Pentagon and the proper president of the United States fight to prevent the Third World-Wide War.
Review of Fail Safe
