Fail Safe is a movie directed by Sidney Lumet in 1964 and based on the book Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, first published in 1962. The movie features Dan O’Herlihy, Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman, Frank Overton, and others.
What users say
“The movie is better than the book”
But the book is worth reading.
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Storyline
During a VIP visit to the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command, at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, the Air Force’s early warning radar indicates that an unidentified aircraft has intruded into American airspace. Shortly after, the “intruder” is identified as an off-course civilian airliner and the alert is cancelled, but a computer error causes one American bomber group to receive apparently valid orders for a nuclear attack on Moscow.
Movie vs Book
Year
1964
Minutes
112
Movie Rate
8.00
Source: IMDb
Year
1962
Pages
288
Book Rate
8.32
S: Goodreads
Book
Fail-Safe
Author: Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler
Country: USA
First published in: 1962
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Fiction
Other screen adaptations of the book
Movie by Stephen Frears, Martin Pasetta
User polls & recommendations
“The purest experience for the movie is not to have read the book because when you've read the book you're just ticking off boxes.”
ZACK SNYDER (Filmmaker)
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