FILM · 1964 · USA
Fail-Safe
34 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (34)
- #001
The large metal telephone the President uses to speak with the Soviet premier was actually a special telephone used by explosives companies during detonations.
- #002
The "computer-generated" imagery on the control room screen (including the world map, the aircraft and the explosions) was entirely hand-drawn and animated.
- #003
Columbia Pictures produced both this film and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Director Stanley Kubrick initially insisted on his film's release, and it opened in January 1964. When Fail-Safe was released it received excellent reviews, but audiences, because of "Strangelove," found it unintentionally funny and stayed away. Henry Fonda later said that if he had seen "Strangelove" first he would never have made this film, because he would have laughed too. Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove were produced after the Cuban Missile Crisis, at a time when people had become far more sensitive to the threat of nuclear war.
- #004
The novel was so similar to Peter George's "Red Alert," the novel that formed the basis of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), that George sued for plagiarism. The case was settled out of court.
- #005
The shot of the satellite zooming in for a closer view is actually footage taken from a camera mounted on a German V2 rocket launched from White Sands, NM. The film is played backwards to create the illusion of zooming toward the ground.
- #006
The interior of Colonel Grady's aircraft was not a set but a flight simulator rented for the production. These scenes were shot at LaGuardia airport, where the production team used the interiors of a training aircraft for the scenes set inside a bomber.
- #007
One of the film's notable opponents was President Lyndon B. Johnson, who disliked the implication that a computer malfunction could cause such a disaster.
- #008
No year or date for the events is given in the film. However, the novel's authors state in the introduction that the events take place in 1967. This is consistent with details given about various characters and their backstories; for example, Groteschele is forty-eight years old and his search for work after graduating from university was interrupted by Pearl Harbor. And the sealed packet containing Grady's printed Fail-Safe code aboard the bomber was dated March 13.
- #009
The countdown at the end of the film, showing live footage of New York City, was inspired by the countdown at the end of The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), which shows different places around the world.
- #010
The producers received no cooperation from the Pentagon or the US Armed Forces, and the interiors of the Pentagon and the Strategic Air Command base were replicated on the sound stages of Fox Movietone Studios on 10th Avenue. Stock footage was used because the Air Force refused to cooperate with the production, disliking the suggestion that it lacked control over its nuclear strike forces.
- #011
Some might think a bombing attack on Moscow from a safe point just north of Alaska would be impossible. This is not true. The B-58 Hustler's maximum range was 4,400 miles, and the distance from the stated point to Moscow was 3,800 miles. Given the maximum range of the potential targets, the bombers would have needed to be refueled at their fail-safe points or shortly before reaching them.
- #012
During the UFO encounter over Hudson Bay, General Bogen states that the US has never been at red condition (DEFCON 2). This was not true; the US was at DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. At the time the film was made, this was the only such instance. The US also declared DEFCON 2 in 1991 at the start of the Gulf War. The stated color order is correct: blue, green, yellow, red. The omitted white is DEFCON 1 — imminent and inevitable nuclear war.
- #013
With one exception (see the joke entry), all shots of the US Air Force "Vindicator" bombers are footage of the same Convair B-58 Hustler taken from a stock film, after the Department of Defense refused to cooperate with the filmmakers.
- #014
The large screen in the control room in Omaha was entirely front-projected, and the contrast had to be adjusted very carefully so that it would look sharp in black-and-white film. This posed a problem for the crew, since the air in the room had to be completely free of dust so as not to spoil the image (and make the projection visible). The screen in the war room used the same film stock but was rear-projected.
- #015
This was Dom DeLuise's first film.
- #016
A low-budget film, it was allowed only 32 days of overtime. Miraculously, Sidney Lumet brought the film in at that point.
- #017
Several members of the cast and crew were real military veterans; most served during World War II. Both director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter Walter Bernstein served in the Army during the war, while author Eugene Burdick was in the Navy. Peter George, who did not write the film but whose novel "Red Alert" was later attributed to "Fail Safe," was an officer and navigator in the Royal Air Force (RAF) who flew night combat missions over Malta and Italy; George wrote his novel drawing on his personal experiences while serving as an RAF officer. Henry Fonda and Dana Elcar served in the Navy. Actors Walter Matthau, Edward Binns and John Connell, along with art director Albert Brenner, served in the US Army Air Forces. Both actor Charles Tyner and cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld were in the Army; Tyner served as a combat infantryman and Hirschfeld served in the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center. Some cast and crew members served in other roles during the war; toward the end of World War II, editor Ralph Rosenblum worked as a filmmaking apprentice in the US Office of War Information. Actor Fritz Weaver volunteered for Civilian Public Service, a US government program providing an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors. Actor Russell Collins helped entertain the troops in the USO. Both Larry Hagman and Sorrell Booke served during the Korean War; Hagman in the Air Force, Booke as a counterintelligence officer in the Army.
- #018
Some reference works list Hal Schaefer as the composer of the score. In fact, Columbia's record division released his five-minute "Fail Safe Suite" in 1964 on a seven-inch disc (Colpix Records CP 751), and the film's actual label became FAIL SAFE - A Columbia Pictures Release. Schaefer's music, performed by the Hal Schaefer Quintet, was a somewhat tense and dissonant jazz piece quite suited to the film's content. However, director Sidney Lumet decided to release the film without background music, so Schaefer's music exists only on the promotional disc.
- #019
Although the release dates of many politically themed films were affected by President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Columbia did not plan to release Fail Safe until the following fall.
- #020
For the film, the largest set of its time was built at Fox's New York studios.
- #021
George Clooney was a big fan of the film and remade it as a live broadcast in 2000.
- #022
1964 was the most important year for the genre, which began to die out in 1965. While most of these genre films captured the feeling of humanity being destroyed by its own creations, Fail Safe is the only film to offer a realistic, convincing contribution to a nuclear exchange triggered by a series of equipment malfunctions.
- #023
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 nominated films for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.
- #024
Fritz Weaver's first feature film.
- #025
Dana Elcar's first film.
- #026
Henry Fonda also played Presidential characters in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) and Meteor (1979).
- #027
The film's cast includes two Oscar winners, Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau, and one Oscar nominee, Dan O'Herlihy.
- #028
Although Henry Fonda's first appearance is a full-body shot as he walks down a corridor, his first close-up is shot from behind, looking over his shoulder with a smile. This resembles Fonda's surprise appearance as the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), where he first shows his face as a young boy is killed.
- #029
Will Wright's final screen appearance (uncredited in the titles). The film was released after his death.
- #030
The full name of General Koniev, seen on the paper file folder, is Alexandr'h Koniev.
- #031
It reunites Henry Fonda with Edward Binns after 12 Angry Men (1957), though the two actors never appear together in any scene.
- #032
The bullfighting footage at the beginning of the film was stock footage.
- #033
This film is part of the Criterion Collection as spine number 1,011.
- #034
Henry Fonda and Dana Elcar later appeared together in The Boston Strangler (1968).
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