Fail Safe is Dr. Strangelove without the smirk. Misled by a false radar sighting, several squadrons of SAC bombers are sent to their “fail safe” point overlooking Russia. The bombers are withdrawn, but, due to technical snafus, one continues on its way, carrying nuclear warheads and the instructions to “Bomb Moscow!” We are then plunged into the manly chaos of the Pentagon's War Room where the beribboned generals spar over dwindling options as the Soviets detect the shocking intrusion. Shot in stark black-and-white, Lumet's hair-trigger film threatens to detonate at any minute. Ensconced in an emergency shelter, Henry Fonda, supremely cerebral as the president, calmly negotiates with the Soviet premier while at the Pentagon a cold-blooded adviser (chillingly toned by Walter Matthau) recommends we seize the day. Fail Safe offers up an unimaginable solution, but one that embraces the crazy logic of “mutually assured destruction.”