Overview
See production notesUnited States Air Force Brigadier General Warren Black flies to Washington, D.C. to attend a Pentagon conference led by Dr. Groeteschele, a political advisor renowned for his expertise on nuclear strategy and fervent anti-communism. At a dinner party the previous evening, he dismissed the fears that a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union would destroy the human race. To him, nuclear war, like any other, must have a victor and a vanquished, and the millions who might die in one are the price to be paid to end the threat of communism. USAF early warning radar detects an unidentified aircraft over Hudson Bay, a potential circumpolar Soviet preemptive strike, prompting a scramble of USAF strategic nuclear bombers. After heightened tensions at Strategic Air Command—interceptions happen half a dozen times a month—the intruder is confirmed as an off-course civilian airliner. However, a computer short causes a single USAF bomber flight, Group 6, to receive apparently valid orders for a nuclear attack on Moscow. Colonel Jack Grady, its commander, obeys them, and six advanced "Vindicator" bombers take off over the Arctic toward Moscow. Attempts to rescind the order fail due to stringent U.S. safeguards against a fraudulent recall, compounded by a better than expected Soviet ability to jam U.S. radio communications. The President of the United States personally attempts to have the bombers recalled, to no avail, then orders them shot down. While Groeteschele lobbies for a full-scale U.S. strike to opportunistically piggyback on the serendipity of an accidental attack, the military—including General Black, a college friend of the President—warns the President that "the Soviets will retaliate with everything they have, just as we would, and did after Pearl Harbor, if we compound things in any way". USAF fighter jets scramble to intercept Group 6, but are unable to catch up with the Mach II Vindicators before they run out of fuel and crash into the Arctic. Communications are opened with the Soviet Premier. With U.S. help, the Soviets harmlessly trigger the Vindicators' defense missiles. The President struggles to find a solution that will avert a nuclear holocaust, and dispatches General Black on a secret mission to New York City. Meanwhile, the Soviets shoot down most of Group 6, but ignore SAC General Bogan's pleas to focus only on Grady's command aircraft, allowing it to evade their defenses. Drawing on the Bible, the President proposes an "eye for an eye" to the Soviet Premier: sacrificing New York City to prevent a retaliatory attack. Wistfully, he inquires if the gesture alone is enough to spare millions of lives; the Premier responds by asking him what he would do if he were in his place. As Grady nears Moscow, the Soviets cease their jamming and American radio contact resumes. Grady's wife begs him to stop, but he ignores the pleas, fearing it is a Soviet ruse. To maximize bomb damage, he tells his crew they will go in low, even though they will die in the explosion; no-one resists. Per his prearrangement with the Soviet Premier, the President remains in contact with the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union until his telephone melts, confirming the worst. He then orders General Black to go through with his secret mission: destroying New York City. Despite Black's family and the First Lady being present in New York City at the time, Black obeys, dropping the atomic bomb before committing suicide by lethal injection. As an evacuation of New York City was determined to only cause more harm than good, the residents are left completely oblivious to their fate. Glimpses of New Yorkers in everyday life are shown before the atomic bomb detonates, incinerating the city and its inhabitants.
Plot from Fail Safe (1964 film)CC BY-SA 4.0
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See all quotesFemale Party Guest: Two hours ago, you said a hundred million dead. Now you say sixty million. Prof. Groeteschele: I say sixty million is perhaps the highest price we should be prepared to pay in a war. Mr. Foster: And what's the difference between sixty million dead and a hundred million? Prof. Groeteschele: forty million. Mr. Foster: Some difference! Prof. Groeteschele: Are you prepared to say the saving of forty million lives is of no importance? Mr. Foster: You miss the point, Professor! The saving of those sixty million lives is what's important! Prof. Groeteschele: Face facts, Mr. Foster. We're talking about war. I say every war, including thermonuclear war, must have a winner and a loser. Which would you rather be? Mr. Foster: In a nuclear war, everyone loses! War isn't what it used to be. Prof. Groeteschele: It's the resolution of economic and political conflict. Mr. Foster: But what kind of resolution with a hundred million dead?! Prof. Groeteschele: It doesn't have to be a hu
Fail-Safe (1964 film), CC BY-SA 4.0
Ilsa Woolfe: You could joke about the convicts and file clerks because you know there won't be any survivors, will there? Prof. Groeteschele: Not many. Ilsa Woolfe: None. None at all. That's the beauty of it. Prof. Groeteschele: I've heard nuclear war called a lotta things, Miss Woolfe. Never beautiful. Ilsa Woolfe: People are afraid to call it that, but that's what they feel. Prof. Groeteschele: The beauty of death? Ilsa Woolfe: Don't patronize me. What else but that are you selling, Professor? And we all know we're going to die, but you make a game out of it, a marvelous game that includes the whole world. You make it seem possible. Prof. Groeteschele: It is possible. Even probable. Ilsa Woolfe: You make death and entertainment something that can be played in a living room. Prof. Groeteschele: As good a place as any. Ilsa Woolfe: No. No, there's an even better place. Turn in there. [Professor Groeteschele steers his car into that road and stops the car.] Prof. Groeteschele: This wher
Fail-Safe (1964 film), CC BY-SA 4.0
Billy Flynn: Ploesti. That was the rough one. We lost half our group. Col. Grady: Regensburg was the worst one for us. Billy Flynn: I never flew the B-17. Only 24s. Col. Grady: Good airplane, the 24. Least you knew you were flying the airplane, not the other way around, like today's things. Billy Flynn: Eh, you still have to fly the Vindicator, Grady. Col. Grady: We're the last of the lot, Flynn. Don't kid yourself about that. The next airplanes, they won't need men. Billy Flynn: You'll be too old, anyway. Col. Grady: After us, the machines. We're halfway there already. Look at those kids. Remember the crews you had on the 24s? Jews, Italians, all kinds. You could tell them apart. They were all people. These kids. You open them up, you find they run on transistors. Billy Flynn: Nah, they're good kids, I tell you. Col. Grady: Sure, you know they're at their jobs, but you don't know them. How can you? Get a different crew every time we go up. Billy Flynn: That's policy, Grady. Eliminates
Fail-Safe (1964 film), CC BY-SA 4.0
Col. Grady: There must be some mistake. Check Omaha. Airman Thomas: [activating the radio, and getting nothing] Can't get through, Colonel. Interference. Col. Grady: What do you mean you can't get through? What kind of interference? Airman Thomas: I don't know, Sir, it's a kind I've never heard before. Col. Grady: Well try another band! Try all of them! Airman Thomas: [after futile effort to get through] Can't get through, Colonel! Airman Sullivan: They must be trying to keep us from getting our Go signal. Airman Thomas: Well they're too late for that.
Fail-Safe (1964 film), CC BY-SA 4.0
General Bogan: Mr. Knapp here knows as much about electronic gear as anyone. He'd like to say something. Gordon Knapp: The more complex an electronic system gets, the more accident prone it is. Sooner or later it breaks down. Secretary Swenson: What breaks down? Gordon Knapp: A transistor blows... a condenser burns out... sometimes they just get tired--like people. Professor Groeteschele: Mr. Knapp overlooks one factor, the machines are supervised by humans. Even if the machine fails a human can always correct the mistake. Gordon Knapp: I wish you were right. The fact is, the machines work so fast... they are so intricate... the mistakes they make are so subtle... that very often a human being just can't know whether a machine is lying or telling the truth.
Fail-Safe (1964 film), CC BY-SA 4.0
Gen. Stark: They're good men, we've seen to that. If their orders are attack, the only way you're going to stop them is to shoot them down. Brig. Gen. Black: We've got no alternative! This minute the Russians are watching their boards, trying to figure out what we're up to. If we can't convince them it's an accident we're trying to correct by any means, we're going to have something on our hands that nobody bargained for, and only a lunatic wants!
Fail-Safe (1964 film), CC BY-SA 4.0
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