Fail Safe

"It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!"

1964 1h 52m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 503

ThrillerDramaWar

Synopsis

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Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little time to prevent an atomic catastrophe from occurring.

“It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!”

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Cast

Henry Fonda
The President
Walter Matthau
Prof. Groeteschele
Fritz Weaver
Col. Cascio
Larry Hagman
Buck
Frank Overton
Gen. Bogan
Edward Binns
Col. Jack Grady
Dan O'Herlihy
Brig. Gen. Warren A. Black
William Hansen
Defense Secretary Swenson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sidney Lumet
Writers: Walter Bernstein
Languages: English, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

62 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Directed by Sidney Lumet, shot by Gerald Hirschfeld. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ralph Rosenblum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau and Fritz Weaver carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0058083 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sidney Lumet directs. Gerald Hirschfeld behind the camera. Ralph Rosenblum cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

162 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.
3Directed by Sidney Lumet, shot by Gerald Hirschfeld. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Ralph Rosenblum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau and Fritz Weaver carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!".
7IMDB entry: tt0058083 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 19 themes, including "new york city", "usa president", "general", "atomic bomb".
9Released under 16 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld
Editing: Ralph Rosenblum
Costume design: Anna Hill Johnstone
Makeup / hair: Bill Herman
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Fail Safe (1964)

Also by

Sidney Lumet

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

badelf2026-04-25
★ 9/10
Fail Safe (1964) Directed by Sidney Lumet Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe is one of the first Hollywood films to seriously propose that nuclear Armageddon could be brought about by system error. A technical malfunction sends American bombers to Moscow with orders to attack, and the President (Henry Fonda) must work desperately to stop catastrophe before it's too late. Based on a novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, the screenplay is excellent, the tension relentless, the performances more than sufficient to create the desired effect. As far as nuclear war goes, we as a world apparently have not made any progress toward reducing the risk of suddenly and catastrophically wiping out most of Earth's population. If anything, it's now worse. More nations have nuclear weapons, command structures are more fragmented, and the possibility of miscalculation or accident has only multiplied. It is ironic that the movie hinges on a mechanical failure. Even now, politicians are talking about AI-controlled weapons, and we all know the safety rating of AI is not anywhere near 100%. We're rushing headlong into systems we don't fully understand, trusting machines to make decisions that could end civilization, convinced that technology will save us from the very problems technology creates. Fail Safe warned us sixty years ago that putting apocalyptic power into automated systems is insanity. We apparently weren't listening. Does this film hold up? Indeed it does. Fail Safe, like some others from Lumet, aged very well. The black-and-white cinematography, the claustrophobic sets, the faces in close-up sweating through impossible choices—all of it still works, still creates dread. Henry Fonda's President, calm and desperate simultaneously, remains one of the most convincing portraits of leadership under unimaginable pressure. Fail Safe is as urgent today as it was in 1964, maybe more so. We're still playing the same game with higher stakes and worse odds. We are staring at the choice between a "nuclear winter" or the apocalyptic world of The Terminator series. When do we start listening?

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