Fail Safe (2000 TV film)
Fail Safe is a 2000 televised broadcast play, based on FailSafe, the Cold War novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The play, broadcast live in black and white on CBS, starred George Clooney, Richard Dreyfuss, Harvey Keitel, and Noah Wyle, and was one of the few live dramas on American television since its socalled Golden Age in the 1950s and 1960s. The broadcast was introduced by Walter Cronkite his introduction, also broadcast in black and white, is included in the DVD releases of the film it was directed by veteran British filmmaker Stephen Frears.
The time is the earlytomid1960s, the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. An unknown aircraft approaches North America from Europe. American bombers of the Strategic Air Command SAC are scrambled to their fail safe points near Russia. The bombers have orders not to proceed past their fail safe points 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 is transmitted to Group Six, which consists of six Vindicator supersonic bombers and four escort fighters. Colonel Grady, the head of the group, tries to contact Omaha to verify the failsafe order called Positive Check, but due to Soviet radar jamming, Grady cannot hear Omaha. Concluding that the attack order and the radar jamming could only mean nuclear war, Grady commands Group Six 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, who is loosely based on John von Neumann and Herman Kahn, suggests the United States follow this accidental attack with a fullscale attack to force the Soviets to surrender. ........
Source: Wikipedia
