In Missile, Frederick Wiseman “has given a fair and hard look into the twentieth century’s most horrifying institution” (Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter). The film is about the men and women who have their fingers on the bomb, members of the Strategic Air Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is not a setting for Hollywood-type heroics; rather, we witness the day-to-day routines and listen in on the conversations of the recruits and officers who are trained to arm, target, and launch nuclear warheads. One might imagine such a job would make philosophers out of farmers’ sons, but the institution does its work thoroughly. Protected by their mandate—to follow orders, unquestioningly—their complacency is chilling.