Fail Safe

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

The President (Henry Fonda) is a quiet, tired man who spends one night in a bunker and a conference room trying to undo a mistake no one meant to make. A faulty signal sends an American bomber group toward Moscow, and Prof. Groeteschele (Walter Matthau) argues for letting the strike stand. Sidney Lumet puts the President on the phone with the Soviet premier, two men who have to trust each other's voices.