Twilight's Last Gleaming

"We have invaded Silo 3. We are prepared to launch nine nuclear missiles. We demand ten million dollars, Air Force One... and you, Mr President."

1977 2h 26m EN

😐

6.5

MID

★6.5TMDB · 85

Thriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 unless the President reveals details of a secret meeting held just after the start of the Vietnam War between Dell and the then President's most trusted advisors.

“We have invaded Silo 3. We are prepared to launch nine nuclear missiles. We demand ten million dollars, Air Force One... and you, Mr President.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Burt Lancaster
Gen. Lawrence Dell
Roscoe Lee Browne
James Forrest
Charles Durning
President David T. Stevens
Joseph Cotten
Arthur Renfrew - Secretary of State
Melvyn Douglas
Zachariah Guthrie
Richard Jaeckel
Capt. Stanford Towne
William Marshall
William Klinger - Attorney General
Gerald S. O'Loughlin
Brig. Gen. O'Rourke

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Aldrich
Writers: Ronald M. Cohen, Edward Huebsch
Languages: French, English
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 / 8

ERA

Did you know

49 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Aldrich, shot by Robert B. Hauser. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Original score by Jerry Goldsmith. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Burt Lancaster and Roscoe Lee Browne and Charles Durning carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "We have invaded Silo 3. We are prepared to launch nine nuclear missiles. We demand ten million dollars, Air Force One... and you, Mr President.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0076845 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Aldrich directs. Robert B. Hauser behind the camera. Jerry Goldsmith scores. William Martin cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

149 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
3Directed by Robert Aldrich, shot by Robert B. Hauser. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Jerry Goldsmith. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor William Martin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Burt Lancaster and Roscoe Lee Browne and Charles Durning carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "We have invaded Silo 3. We are prepared to launch nine nuclear missiles. We demand ten million dollars, Air Force One... and you, Mr President.".
8IMDB entry: tt0076845 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 85 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert B. Hauser
Original score: Jerry Goldsmith
Editing: William Martin
Production design: Rolf Zehetbauer
Costume design: Thomas S. Dawson
Makeup / hair: Georg Jauss
Sound: John Wilkinson
Runtime: 146 min · 2h 26m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)

Also by

Robert Aldrich

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2020-03-22
★ 8/10
Gentlemen, we are now a superpower. Twilight's Last Gleaming is directed by Robert Aldrich and collectively written by Ronald M. Cohen, Edward Huebsch and Walter Wager (novel "Viper Three"). It stars Burt Lancaster, Burt Young, Richard Widmark, Roscoe Lee Browne, Joseph Cotten, Charles Durning, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Jaeckel and William Marshall. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by Robert B. Hauser. A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell (Lancaster), escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 unless the President reveals details of what the Vietnam War was really all about... Twilight's Last Gleaming is the sort of tight gripping politico thriller that we could do with more of these days. Aldrich, a damn fine director of ensemble casts, slips on his angry hat and gets subversive as he implores the U.S. Presidency of the 70s to make do on the promise of an open armed government. At over two hours and twenty minutes in length, Aldrich asks his audience to buy into every single sentence being spoken. With so many characters involved in the story, we are treated to a number of split screen scenarios, this is where we can follow what is being said in the various key areas of the plot at the same time - and it's high quality. The pace never sags, and as the president (Durning) and his advisors sweat on Dell's very real threat, so too do we the audience as the paranoia of the story seeps out from every camera Aldrich uses. Still relevant today, this demands to be seen and evaluated by more like minded film fans. With a cast responding in full to a shrewd director, and a story of great worth that builds to a crushing finale, Twilight's Last Gleaming is well worth your time. 8/10
CinemaSerf2023-06-04
★ 7/10
40-odd years on, and this still has a certain resonance about it even now. Burt Lancaster in a disgraced US Air Force General who, along with two colleagues, escapes from jail and takes control of an active nuclear missile silo with 9 deadly missiles at his disposal. Richard Widmark, his former commanding officer is now on the opposing side as they play a cleverly constructed, well paced and genuinely quite menacing game of cat and mouse. The plot thickens significantly when the President (Charles Durning) learns that aside from the usual money and aeroplane demands from their antagonists, there is a requirement from him to make a statement condemning the brutality of war in South East Asia; a secret document stating the facts of which, horrify this decent, honourable fellow. The story is compelling and the three principals generate a considerable degree of tension for much of the film. Unfortunately it really does run out of steam after about 100 minutes, as the moralising and frankly rather depressing politics kick in taking the story down a big road marked "preposterous" to a really disappointing - indeed, implausible, conclusion that undoes quite a bit of the earlier quality of this Robert Aldrich film. It is certainly worth watching though - I suppose it could happen!!