Fail Safe is a 1964 Cold War thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler.

The film features performances by actors Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Fritz Weaver, Edward Binns, Larry Hagman, Sorrell Booke, Dana Elcar and Dom DeLuise.

In 2000, the novel was adapted again as a televised play starring George Clooney, Richard Dreyfuss and Noah Wyle, and broadcast live in black and white on CBS.

United States Air Force General Black has been having recurring dreams in which a Spanish matador kills a bull before a cheering crowd.

U.S. fighters scramble to intercept the Vindicators, but, needing to use their afterburners to catch up, they run out of fuel before they or their missiles can reach Group 6, and plunge into the Arctic waters.

The President remains in contact with the U.S. ambassador in Moscow until the telephone line abruptly cuts off with a loud squeal.

Black obeys, taking full responsibility by dropping the bomb himself, then dies by suicide with a vial of poison hidden in his flight suit.

The film was shot in black and white, in a dramatic, theatrical style, with claustrophobic close-ups, sharp shadows and ponderous silences between several characters.

The character of Groeteschele was inspired, according to Lumet's audio commentary on the film, by military strategist Herman Kahn.

Fighters sent to attack the bombers are illustrated by film clips of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, Dassault Mirage III and McDonnell F-101 Voodoo.

[2] Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove were both produced in the period after the Cuban Missile Crisis, when people became more sensitive to the threat of nuclear war.