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I first saw this film over 30 years ago, and I just saw it again (July 2001). It is as frightening now as it was then. I believe that a new version has been filmed, but this was made in 1964.
Basically during an alert when all bomber groups went to their fail-safe point, an unspecified malfunction sends one group on its attack. The target is Moscow. The US president (played by Henry Fonda) has to convince the Soviet Premier that it is indeed an accident. Some of his advisors want him to follow up on the attack and launch a full strike. Meanwhile some of the Soviet advisors don't believe it was an accident and want to strike back.
The compromise that the US President comes up is that if Moscow is hit, he will order a bomber to drop the same bombs over New York. Only the loss of a city each (and estimated casualties of over 5 million dead each) will prevent a full scale war with 100's of millions dead.
A choice that hopefully will never have to be made.
Note that at the start of the movie there was a discussion in the Pentagon about the possibility of winning a limited nuclear war. This nonsense seems to come up every decade or so. A limited nuclear war is not winnable.
If you get the chance to catch this movie, then do so.
One thing I noticed though - there was no music in this movie at all. It made the drama more realistic.
One of the great movies.
P-Con VI March 27th/28th/29th 2009
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