Whether or not everything is factually accurate, the debates and decisions made during the film are incredibly thought-provoking. Lumet had to rely on the knowledge and research of the book’s authors, Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler, for accuracy within his story. The lack of music also helps build this atmosphere. Strangelove, but suitably stark and oppressive, aided by the greys of the moody black and white cinematography. The sets ended up looking quite impressive, perhaps not as good as Ken Adams’ work in Dr.

So the crew had to guess as to how everything looked and cobble it together as cheaply as possible. Plus, regardless, Lumet and his team do an amazing job of making it feel realistic, with characters making logical decisions, generally by-the-book, in attempting to deal with the crisis.įail Safe was made on a relatively low budget and, due to the subject matter, the US Air Force refused to help obtain stock footage or give technical advice. The exact circumstances under which the mistakes happen here to cause the crisis are perhaps not feasible, but I’m sure there’s a possibility of something going wrong down the line. It’s scary because, of course, so much of it is based on reality. People may love the jump scares and blood and gore of standard horror movies, but this is truly frightening to me. This was one of the most terrifying and intense thrillers I’ve ever seen. The staff at SAC, military experts at the Pentagon (including civilian Walter Matthau) and the President (Henry Fonda) in his underground bunker, all frantically attempt to stop this happening, by any means necessary. So, the bombers continue their journey to spark either the end of the world, WWIII, or at the very least totally level a vastly populated capital city. Unfortunately, once they’ve reached the fail-safe point and received this code, the bomber pilots are ordered to ignore any commands from SAC, as they might be faked by the Soviets. When the operators back in SAC reset the system they accidentally send out a special order code to the bombers to drop their nuclear load on Moscow. However, a glitch in the system means one bomber group doesn’t receive the call. When the UFO is identified and the alert cancelled, the planes are called home. Here, the planes wait on the fringes of US/Soviet airspace, ready to attack once they receive special order codes. However, the situation is drawn out long enough for planes carrying nuclear weapons to be dispatched to their titular ‘fail-safe’ points. This is a fairly common occurrence and, as usual, the UFO ends up being an off-course commercial aircraft. Strangelove, one of my all-time favourite films.įail Safe sees a group of VIPs visit the US SAC (Strategic Air Command) headquarters when the Air Force’s early warning system spots an unidentified flying object on its radar. Criterion have deemed it worthy of inclusion in their prestigious collection, so I got hold of a screener to see how it held up against Dr. Over the years, the film has, thankfully, been rediscovered and taken on its own merits. Although garnering critical acclaim, Fail Safe was a box office bomb (pun intended). Strangelove meant audiences couldn’t take it seriously, coming so soon afterwards. This was a devastating blow for Fail Safe, as the success of the hilarious Dr. The case was settled out of court, helped by the fact Columbia was distributing both films, but Kubrick came out tops, winning the right to release his film first. Reportedly worried the film would affect the box office of theirs, Kubrick and Peter George (whose book, ‘Red Alert’, was adapted into Dr. Strangelove is a comedic satire whilst Fail Safe is deadly serious), the themes and many plot mechanics were very closely related. During the filming of the latter, Kubrick discovered that a similar production was in progress, that of Fail Safe. Sidney Lumet’s nuclear warfare thriller Fail Safe is perhaps most famous for its relationship with Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Starring: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Dan O’Herlihy, Fritz Weaver, Frank Overton, Edward Binns, Larry Hagman Based on a Novel by: Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler

Fail safe 2000