Fail-Safe (1964 film)
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Fail-Safe is a 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the Cold War novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler.
In 2000, the novel was adapted again for a televised play, starring George Clooney, Richard Dreyfuss, and Noah Wyle and broadcast live in black and white on CBS.
Plot
An unknown aircraft approaches North America from Europe. American bombers of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) are scrambled to meet the potential threat. As a fail-safe protection, the bombers have standard orders not to proceed past a certain point without receiving a special attack code. The original "threat" is proven to be innocuous and recall orders are issued. However, due to a technical failure, the attack code (CAP 811) is transmitted to Group Six, which consists of six Vindicator supersonic bombers. Colonel Grady, the head of the group, tries to contact Omaha to verify the fail-safe order (called Positive Check), but due to Soviet radar jamming, Grady cannot hear Omaha. Concluding that the fail-safe order and the radar jamming could only mean nuclear war, Grady commands the Group Six crew towards Moscow, their intended destination.At meetings in Omaha, the Pentagon, and in the fallout shelter of the White House, American politicians and scholars debate the implications of the attack. Professor Groteschele (played by Walter Matthau), who is loosely based on Henry Kissinger and Herman Kahn, suggests the United States follow this accidental attack with a full-scale attack to force the Soviets to surrender.
Following procedures, the military sends out six "Skyscrappers" in an attempt to shoot down the Vindicators. The attempt is to show that the Vindicator attack is an accident, not a full-scale nuclear assault. This involves turning on afterburners to increase thrust and speed. Without tanker refueling, the "Skyscrappers" will run out of fuel and crash, dooming the pilots to die of exposure in the Arctic Sea. The Vindicators are too far away, and all six fighters shoot their rockets and fail to hit the Vindicators.
The President of the United States contacts the Soviet premier (unnamed in the movie, but whom the book names as Nikita Khrushchev) and offers assistance in attacking the group. The Soviets decline at first; however, they soon decide to accept it.
At SAC headquarters, General Bogan attempts to stop the attack. However, his executive officer, Colonel Cascio, wants the attack to continue. Cascio attempts to take over command of SAC, but is stopped by Air Police. However, precious time has been wasted.
Meanwhile, the Soviet PVO Strany air defense corps has managed to shoot down two of the six planes. The Soviets accept American help and shoot down a third plane. Two bombers and a support plane remain on course to Moscow. General Bogan tells Marshal Nevsky, the Soviet commander, to ignore Plane #6 (the support plane) because it has no weapons. Nevsky, who mistrusts Bogan, instead orders his Soviet aircraft to attack all three planes. Plane 6's last feint guarantees that the two remaining bombers can successfully attack. Following the failure, Nevsky collapses.
As the two planes approach Moscow, Colonel Grady opens up the radio to contact SAC to inform them that they are about to make the strike. As a last-minute measure, the Soviets fire a barrage of nuclear-tipped missiles to form a fireball in an attempt knock the low-flying Vindicator out of the sky. The Vindicators shoot up one last decoy, which successfully leads the Soviet missiles high in the air. However, one missile explodes earlier than expected; the second bomber blows up, but Colonel Grady's plane survives.
With the radio open, the President attempts to persuade Grady that there is no war. In the movie, Grady's wife also attempts to convince him. Under standing orders that such a late recall attempt must be a Soviet trick, Grady ignores them. The Vindicator's defensive systems operator fires two missiles that decoy the Soviet interceptor missiles to detonate at high altitude. Grady tells his crew that "We're not just walking wounded, we're walking dead men," due to radiation from the burst. He intends to fly the aircraft over Moscow and detonate the bombs in the plane. His copilot notes, "There's nothing to go home to."
When it becomes apparent one bomber had made it through Soviet defenses and destroyed Moscow, the American President orders an American bomber to destroy New York. The Soviet leader is appalled but realizes that it is the only way to prevent a worldwide nuclear war which will probably destroy humanity. It was earlier revealed that the American President's wife was in New York City while the events of the film transpired, meaning she would be killed in the blast.
In the book, the New York attack is carried out in person by a senior officer who himself lives in the city, who does it knowing that his wife and children will be among those killed and committs suicide immediately afterwards, being posthuously granted the Congressional Medal of Honor for "The highest act of courage and the most supreme conception of duty to his country and to mankind".
The name of the pilot is Abraham Black, and the book's last chapter - including the bombing of New York - is called "The Sacrifice of Abraham" - a possbile reference to the Biblical Abraham who was willing to sacifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22, see Binding of Isaac).
Notes
- The novel's authors intended for the events depicted as having taken place in the then-near future of 1967. Some narrative dialog gives strong hints that the President was intended to be John F. Kennedy, who was still alive when the novel was being written.
- Colonel Grady's crewmen show no real emotions as they fly the airplane. They are automata, carrying out preplanned actions, trained not to alter their course. This is a stark contrast to the conventions of "bomber crew movies" such as Air Force (1943), where the fliers are portrayed as disparate individuals who, by working together, can change the course of history. The action in Fail-Safe is portrayed on giant maps overlooking the War Room in the Pentagon and SAC Headquarters; the Soviets are never seen.
- The robotic Colonel Grady, grimly jetting toward Armageddon despite all pleas to turn back, has had relatively few fictional successors. Major characters in Martin Caidin's novel Ju-52, Dale Brown's novel Chains of Command, the Tom Clancy book The Sum of All Fears and the 1995 film Crimson Tide actively resist direct orders to launch nuclear weapons and are presented as heroes for doing so.
- Additionally, the "Vindicator" bombers were inventions of Burdick and Wheeler; their defensive capabilities were similar to those of the B-52 Stratofortress, and their flying characteristics more like the B-58 Hustler. In the 1964 film version, stock footage of B-58s was used to represent the Vindicators, although the footage was optically inverted in contrast.
- The title refers to what could be called an "engineer's commandment": "fail safe", meaning to take account of the ways things can go wrong—fail—and ensure as far as possible that the machine, process, etc. will not make things worse. The title's irony is that, in this case, it is assumed failure is caused by enemy attack, and that the "safe" response is to follow the last authenticated orders at all costs.
Influences
The 1964 film version was released shortly after , which shares many plot similarities with Fail-Safe, but adds black humour and satire to the mix.
Cast
- Henry Fonda - The President
- Dan O'Herlihy - Brig. Gen. Warren A. Black
- Walter Matthau - Prof. Groeteschele
- Frank Overton - Gen. Bogan
- Ed Binns - Col. Jack Grady
- Fritz Weaver - Col. Cascio
- Larry Hagman - Buck
- William Hansen - Defense Secretary Swenson
- Russell Hardie - Gen. Stark
- Russell Collins - Gordon Knapp
- Sorrell Booke - Congressman Raskob
- Nancy Berg - Ilsa Woolfe
- Dom DeLuise - Sgt. Collins
- Frieda Altman - Mrs. Jennie Johnson
- Hildy Parks - Betty Black
- Janet Ward - Helen Grady
- Louise Larabee - Mrs. Cascio
External links
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