Fail Safe (2000)

Directed by

Stephen Frears

Genre

drama film, psychological thriller, political thriller

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 24m

Rated

12

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 88 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Cold War crisis unfolds when a U.S. bomber is mistakenly ordered to attack Moscow. Military and political leaders race to prevent a nuclear disaster as the clock ticks down.

tensebleakatmosphericsuspensefulcoldurgentstarknoir-ish

What happens

Fail Safe is a 2000 televised broadcast play, directed by Stephen Frears and based on Fail-Safe, 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 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. The novel was first adapted into a 1964 film of the same name directed by Sidney Lumet; the TV version is shorter than the 1964 film due to commercial airtime and omits a number of subplots. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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