FAQ for
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) More at IMDbPro »

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In the film? Yes. In "War Games" 1983 the WOPR computer provides the same function.

In real life SLAM (Supersonic Low Altitude Missile) comes close. This little baby was unrecoverable and unstoppable once launched. Powered by an unshielded air-cooled nuclear ramjet it was designed to penetrate the Soviet Union at an altitude of 100 feet with a speed of Mach 3. It carried 16 one megaton devices spit out at predetermined sites programmed into its terrain following guidance. Its range was estimated not in miles but in years, the only limitation was metallurgic decay to the airframe from intense radiation. It spewed radioactive exhaust the entire time while its sonic over-pressures devastated the surface a mile either side of its flight path. Both the airframe and propulsion had been proven with a contract let to Chance Vought for completion. By coincidence, this monster was cancelled the same year as Strangelove's release in favor of the more expensive, MIRVed ICBMs.

In the book "Red Alert", the doomsday device was a number of hydrogen bombs hidden in the Ural mountains, each with a cobalt shroud. The radioactive cobalt would then be spread, via the atmosphere, across the entire world, killing all life in the process.

In the film, it is implied that the device would be triggered automatically by the explosion of the nuclear warhead ridden by Major Kong. In the book "Red Alert", it was under the control of the Soviet leadership and was therefore a manual process.

It was meant to be Russia's way of deterring a nuclear attack. The theory goes like this: The Device was hooked up to enough bombs to create the fatal "doomsday shroud" that would eventually annihilate all life on earth. It was also unstoppable once it was triggered by a nuclear explosion. The desired effect was that no one would want to risk attacking Russia for fear of setting off the device, especially since no amount of negotiation with the Russians afterwards could possibly stop the thing from going off.

As Strangelove said, the whole point of the Device is lost when it is kept a secret, which is one of the ultimate ironies of the film. Russia had hesitated too long between implementing the Device and announcing it to the world, and in the interim, General Ripper had taken the initiative to attack.

He was taking a picture of the big board, just as Buck Turgidson had feared he would. He was NOT "setting off the Doomsday Device" (see: FAQ questions relating to the DD).

To illustrate Kubrick's main point: That despite it all, both sides are simply aiming to get ahead of each other with no regard for the reality of a given situation. Everyone knows that the doomsday device has been activated, but the first thing on the Ambassador's mind is using the distraction to spy on the War Room.

The Ambassador's sneaky photography is mirrored on the Americans' side by Buck Turgidson, who proclaims that they "cannot allow a mineshaft gap!" In this, he means that he truly believes that in the century or so of hiding in mineshafts, people will still be very concerned about staying one step ahead of Russia.

In brief: Even at the end of the world, prejudice wins out over reason.

They were a representation of the destruction that occurs as a result of nuclear war. The footage was taken from various atomic tests, and is NOT meant to be a direct reference to the doomsday device going off, which would have happened as soon as Major Kong's nuclear bomb detonated.