Fail Safe: The nukes are on the way

0 0 December 23, 2025 Edit this post

by Chris Riley

Sometimes the best movies are not the latest movies and the 1964 Fail Safe is a case in point.

Shot in black and white for dramatic effect, the film follows attempts to avert a nuclear war after a mechanical error sends US strategic bombers to destroy Moscow

After a certain point in the fail-safe process, the pilots are told to ignore any attempt to call them back, up to a direct order from the President of the United States.

The race is on to find a way to call them back as a strike will no doubt trigger a Soviet retaliatory nuclear strike.

Directed by Sydney Lumet, Fail Safe stars Henry Fonda as the President, with support from Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Edward Binns, Larry Hagman, and Fritz Weaver appear in support.

Eagle-eyed readers may even spot Dom DeLuise in a minor role.

The film is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler.

With half a dozen false alarms a month, the intruder is finally confirmed as an off-course civilian airliner.

However, a computer short causes a single US bomber flight -- Group 6 -- to be ordered into the air for a nuclear attack on Moscow.

Their commander, Colonel Jack Grady, like a good soldier, obeys the command and six Mach II “Vindicator" bombers shriek over the Arctic towards Moscow.

Attempts to rescind the order fail, due to stringent safeguards to prevent a fraudulent recall, compounded by a better than expected Russian response which blocks US radio communications.

Running out of options and with the clocking counting down, the President orders their own fighters to shoot down the bombers rather than start a war.

However, political adviser, Dr Herman Groeteschele, an expert on nuclear warfare, advocates what many in the room may be thinking -- that as the strike has been launched, the US may as well finish what has started -- because the Russians will no doubt launch an all-out attack if Moscow is destroyed.

The President phones the Russian Premier to explain what has happened and to apologise, and to offer any assistance he can to stop the bombers completing their mission.

The large, metal phone the President uses to talk to the Soviet premier was actually a special phone used by explosives companies during blasting.

Except for background radio noise, there's music -- only the electronic sound effects act as the film's main and end title music.

With few exceptions, the action takes place largely in the Strategic Air Command war room, the Pentagon war conference room, the White House's underground bunker, and a single "Vindicator" bomber cockpit (in reality a flight simulator).

When it becomes clear that Moscow will be destroyed, the President makes the only offer he can -- to destroy New York.

What happens next?

You'll have to watch Fail Safe to find out and you won't be disappointed.

This film is a master class by director Lumet on how to do it and do it right. Suspenseful, atmospheric and tightly scripted.

Lumet, who died in 2011, made his name with 12 Angry Men back in 1957, along with films like Serpico (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007).

At the credits roll by, a message scrolls across the screen, rendered in bold type.

"The producers of this film wish to stress that it is the stated position of the Department of Defence and the United States Air Force that a rigidly enforced system of safeguards and controls insure that occurrences such as those depicted in this story cannot happen".

How did the Government of the time feel about this film?

A well-known opponent of the film was President Lyndon B. Johnson who disliked the implication that a computer malfunction could bring about such catastrophe.

Apparently, the Department of Defence and the US Air Force expressed strong disapproval of Fail Safe, claiming that the events depicted in the film were unrealistic and that safeguards were in place to prevent such occurrences.

General Curtis LeMay, in particular, criticised the film, stating that it contained "deliberate lies" about military operations.

The filmmakers received no cooperation from the Pentagon or US Armed Forces, and interiors of the Pentagon and Strategic Air Command base were replicated on sound stages of the Fox Movietone Studios on 10th Avenue.

Although the release dates of several politically themed films were affected by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Nov 1963, Columbia did not plan to open Fail Safe until the following autumn.

Fail Safe is available to rent from $3.99 on YouTube, but we have not been able to find it on any of the streaming services for free.