CRM 114 (fictional device)

The CRM 114 Discriminator is a fictional piece of radio equipment in Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove (1964), the destruction of which prevents the crew of a B-52 from receiving the recall code that would stop them from dropping their hydrogen bomb payloads onto Soviet territory.

The device is one of several that malfunction in the film, along with Mandrake's telephones, the bomb doors failing to open and the Doomsday Weapon's misuse, a common theme in Kubrick's work of the failure of human planning.

[1] Kubrick used a near homophone of "CRM 114", "Serum 114", for the name of a drug injected into Alex to help his reformation in A Clockwork Orange (1971).

[2] In the movie Eyes Wide Shut (1999), the morgue Bill visits is stationed in the hospital's corridor C, Room 114 (CRM 114).

[6]Kubrick corresponded with George in 1963, while preparing the film, to make sure that the failure of the CRM 114 device could credibly interfere with the recall of an aircraft.