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Pommin varjossa

Original title: Fail Safe
  • 1964
  • K-8
  • 1h 52m
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
24K
YOUR RATING
Pommin varjossa (1964)
Watch Trailer [OV]
Play trailer2:56
1 Video
99+ Photos
DramaThriller

A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?

  • Director
    • Sidney Lumet
  • Writers
    • Walter Bernstein
    • Eugene Burdick
    • Harvey Wheeler
  • Stars
    • Henry Fonda
    • Walter Matthau
    • Fritz Weaver
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.0/10
    24K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Sidney Lumet
    • Writers
      • Walter Bernstein
      • Eugene Burdick
      • Harvey Wheeler
    • Stars
      • Henry Fonda
      • Walter Matthau
      • Fritz Weaver
    • 197User reviews
    • 53Critic reviews
    • 75Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    Trailer [OV]
    Trailer 2:56
    Watch Trailer [OV]

    Photos180

    Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Dan O'Herlihy in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Dan O'Herlihy and Hildy Parks in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Dan O'Herlihy and Hildy Parks in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Walter Matthau in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Dana Elcar in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Walter Matthau and Dana Elcar in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Nancy Berg in Pommin varjossa (1964)
    Pommin varjossa (1964)

    Cast

    Edit
    Henry Fonda
    Henry Fonda
    • The President
    Walter Matthau
    Walter Matthau
    • Dr. Groeteschele
    Fritz Weaver
    Fritz Weaver
    • Col. Cascio
    Dan O'Herlihy
    Dan O'Herlihy
    • Gen. Black
    Frank Overton
    Frank Overton
    • Gen. Bogan
    Edward Binns
    Edward Binns
    • Col. Grady
    Larry Hagman
    Larry Hagman
    • Buck
    William Hansen
    William Hansen
    • Secretary Swenson
    Russell Hardie
    Russell Hardie
    • Gen. Stark
    Russell Collins
    Russell Collins
    • Knapp
    • Director
      • Sidney Lumet
    • Writers
      • Walter Bernstein
      • Eugene Burdick
      • Harvey Wheeler
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The "computer-generated" image on the control-room screen (including the map of the world, the planes and the explosions) was entirely drawn and animated by hand.
    • Goofs
      The interior shots of the bombers, Convair B-58 Hustlers (see Trivia), actually were shot inside of a commercial airline simulator then under repair at a a New York airport. The three crew members sit within feet of each other, in an open cockpit layout. In an actual B-58, the world's first fly-by-wire and supersonic bomber (and capable of twice the speed of sound), the three-man crew of pilot, bombardier/navigator, and defense systems specialist were seated in-line and had no physical contact with one another. To make survivable ejection possible on such a high-speed aircraft, each compartment was specifically designed as wholly contained clam-shell "pod" that would be ejected intact if the need arose. As a result, the crew had to rely on an internal telecommunications system to talk, or a string-and-pulley system that ran along the cabin wall to exchange notes if those systems failed. It's speculated that this pod design was incorporated as a presidential safeguard on modern 747 versions of Air Force One, as implied in the film Air Force One (1997).
    • Quotes

      [last lines]

      Brigadier General Warren A. Black: The Matador, the Matador... me... me

    • Crazy credits
      [FINAL CREDIT]: The producers of this film wish to stress that it is the stated position of the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force that a rigidly enforced system of safeguards and controls insure that occurrences such as those depicted in this story cannot happen
    • Connections
      Featured in Henry Fonda: The Man and His Movies (1982)

    User reviews197

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    The Ultimate Moral Dilemma In Superior Cold War Drama
    The ultimate moral dilemma confronts the President of the United States when everything goes wrong with the strategic offensive power of a US Air Force bomber squadron, leaving viewers shaken at the end of a superior Cold war drama highlighted by its extraordinary claustrophobia.

    Filming of Fail-Safe coincided with filming of Dr. Strangelove, and Stanley Kubrick succeeded in getting his film done first. The earlier publicity for Strangelove hurt Fail-Safe's exposure, and this is doubly disappointing because Fail-Safe is in most ways a superior film, telling its story straight and highlighting superior performances by the entirety of the cast, from Henry Fonda, Frank Overton, Fritz Weaver, and Dan O'Herlihy to a stunningly strong performance by comedian Dom Deluise in a rare dramatic role.

    What begins as a routine albiet annoying tour for a visiting Congressman of Strategic Air Command's headquarters in Omaha turns into the ulitmate nightmare. An unidentified aircraft is spotted on a course toward Detroit and airborne bombers are scrambled to fixed points orbiting Soviet Russia until the UFO can be identified. The scramble is routine but this particular one becomes more dramatic as identifying the UFO proves more troublesome than usual, but eventually all is cleared up.

    But replacement of a faulty componant in SAC's mainframe briefly flashes the base's plotting board, and activates an attack signal in Bomber Group Six under the command of old-school Colonel Jack Grady (Edward Binns). Attempt to contact Omaha runs into unexpected and mysterious jamming, and the attack signal is verified - Moscow.

    It is here that the real nightmare begins, and the President himself must summon Peter Buck (Larry Hagman) down to the underground command shelter in which lies the direct "hotline" oral communication hookup to Soviet Russia's ruling chairman himself. From here the President must coordinate with the Pentagon and SAC HQ to try and stop the bombers, despite endless jamming and the crew's own orders not to answer further contacts.

    The actions to stop the bombers drive the drama and bring out the excellence of the cast. Frank Overton is the SAC commanding general whose faith in his systems is shaken by the accident. Fritz Weaver is his XO, driven by shame over his upbringing (shown when he gets into a fight with his alcoholic father before being summoned to SAC HQ) and more likely to crack under the strain. Dan O'Herlihy is a Brigadier General harboring endless doubt about the sagacity of the US strategic arsenal - "We've got to stop war, not limit it," he says, against the better judgement of his peers - who plays a pivotal role in the crisis' outcome.

    But even with the excellence of these and others, it is Henry Fonda as the President and Larry Hagman who drive the drama in their hotline conversations with the Soviet chairman; the pivotal angle of these conversations is Peter Buck's whispered comments about the intangibles of the Russian leader's words and expression of them - when the Soviet claims no knowledge of jamming equipment, Buck expresses belief that the Russian is lying - and also his analysis of arguments among the Russian leader's own staff; as the conversations continue on Buck takes on more and more of the role of outright surrogate for the Soviet chairman.

    The running battle to stop the bombers leaves the President with a decision that is the only hope, should the bombers succeed, to prevent Russia from a full-scale retaliatory attack that will incinerate the world; the President's decision is of course outrageously implausible in real life but nonetheless works in the context of the film, and leads to a delicious bit of irony at the very end that ties in a bizarre fixation with a matador.

    Among the liberties the film takes to tell the story, aside from the hotline telephone (the actual hotline was a teletype transmitter, continuously updgraded over the years), are the types of bombers used and the speed and weapon capability of these craft. Such focus on hardware often hurts dramatic pull, but here it is kept to a minimum and only serves to help move the story along, a nice balance that exemplifies the strength of the story and the performances within.
    helpful•47
    15
    • stp43
    • May 28, 2003

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    FAQ16

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 15, 1965 (Finland)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • Fail Safe
    • Filming locations
      • Westbury, Long Island, New York, USA(Roosevelt Field: President's bunker)
    • Production company
      • Columbia Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,924,000
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 52 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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