Dr. Groeteschele (Walter Matthau) is a professor of political science, an anti-communist, and a political hawk. He is basically an end justifies the means sort of guy and wants America to initiate war with Russia and stamp out Communism. He is in Washington D.C. leading a conference concerning the use of nuclear weapons. Attending the meeting is Air Force General Black (Dan O’Herlihy) and Secretary of State Swenson (William Hansen).
During the meeting a radar warning goes off indicating that there is a UFO coming into U.S. airspace. The UFO ends up being a regular civilian airliner. A glitch in the Air Force’s sophisticated computer system triggers a nuclear armed American bomber group, Group 6, to believe that they are being ordered to bomb Moscow.
The president of the United States (Henry Fonda) is notified. The president tries to tell the bombers to abort but there is interference that causes the communications to be interrupted. The president orders that the bombers be shot down but the jets sent to do that run out of fuel. They shoot their missiles but miss. Group 6 continues on their mission.
The President believes that should Moscow be bombed, the Russians will retaliate, and war will happen. He receives advice from Groeteschele telling him to use the bombers to initiate an all-out attack. He believes that Russia will surrender. The President gets on the phone with the Soviet Premier to explain to him that the bombers cannot be cancelled, and that Russia needs to destroy them. Should the worst outcome happen, and Moscow is destroyed, the President will authorize that a nuclear bomb be dropped on New York City as compensation for the millions that would die in Moscow.
“Fail Safe” was released in 1964 and was directed by Sidney Lumet. It is a Cold War thriller and a propaganda film. It is based on the 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. In addition to Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau, the film features a lot of great actors. The cast includes Fritz Weaver, Dom DeLuise and a very young Larry Hagman.
The movie was filmed in black and white. Stock footage was used of Convair B-58 Hustlers, a Lockheed F104 Starfighter, a Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, a Dassault Mirage III and a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo as well as other stock footage, some of it in photographic negative to give the bomber elements a harsher and dire feeling.
Both “Fail Safe” and “Dr. Strangelove” were released in the same year and both were released during the Cuban missile crisis. “Strangelove” was released first, at the insistence of Stanley Kubrick. As a result, many people though that “Fail Safe” was similarly a comedy so it didn’t do as well at the box office as was hoped.
The movie is a slow burn but ends up quite tense and suspenseful. The main aspect of it is the varied opinions about war and who is right and who is wrong. Fortunately the military and the President have more sense than the war monger professor. The fault of what happened is a combination of faulty technology and human error. It reveals that the cold war was not quite as cold as believed. At any moment, events could change and the world would be altered forever.