MOVIE · 1964

Fail Safe

DramaThrillerWar112 min

When a technical failure sends an American bomber squadron toward Moscow with orders it should never have received, Henry Fonda is the U.S. president racing to stop a nuclear exchange. In Pentagon war rooms and urgent calls with the Soviets, Walter Matthau's hard-line political theorist pushes for escalation while commanders and interpreters try to cut through a broken chain of command. Made at the height of the Cold War, Sidney Lumet's film keeps the crisis focused on procedure, miscommunication, and the terrifying possibility that a system built for deterrence can start moving on its own.