Editing Fail Safe (1964 film) (section)

==Plot==
[[United States Air Force]] General Black has been having recurring dreams in which a Spanish [[Bullfighter|matador]] kills a bull before a cheering crowd. Black flies to [[Washington, D.C.]], to attend a conference led by Dr. Groeteschele, a political scientist renowned for his expertise on the politics of nuclear weapons, a character based on [[Herman Kahn]].

Groeteschele is a fervent anti-communist. At a dinner party the previous evening, he dismisses the fears that such a war would destroy the human race. To Groeteschele, nuclear war, like any other war, must have a victor and a loser, and the millions who might die in such a war are the price to be paid to end the Soviet threat.

USAF [[Distant Early Warning Line|early warning radar]] indicates that an unidentified aircraft has intruded into U.S. airspace. Shortly after, the intruder is identified as an off-course civilian airliner. However, a computer error causes one U.S. bomber group, Group 6, to erroneously receive apparently valid orders for a nuclear attack on [[Moscow]]. Attempts to rescind this order fail because a new Soviet countermeasure [[radio jamming|jams]] U.S. radio communications. Colonel Jack Grady, the group's commander, obeys the order, and Group 6 starts flying their "Vindicator" bombers over the [[Arctic]] toward Moscow.

The [[President of the United States]] attempts to recall the bombers or shoot them down. Groeteschele is called to advise the President. The military—including Black—warns the President that the Soviets will retaliate with everything they have, and Groeteschele argues for a full-scale attack to reduce that. U.S. fighters scramble to intercept the Vindicators, but, needing to use their [[afterburner]]s to catch up, they run out of fuel before they or their missiles can reach Group 6, and plunge into the Arctic waters.

Communications are opened with the [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Soviet Premier]]. The jamming ceases, but the crew follows their training, dismissing the counter-orders as a Soviet ruse. General Bogan advises the Soviets on how to trigger the Vindicators' defense missiles. The President struggles to find a solution that will avert a [[nuclear holocaust]]. He orders a U.S. nuclear bomber to fly toward [[New York City]] to bomb it if necessary, trading the largest American city for the largest Soviet city, despite knowing that the [[FLOTUS|First Lady]] is there.

The Soviets destroy most of Group 6, but miss both Grady's plane and a second decoy plane, carrying only defensive weapons. The second plane draws Soviet aircraft away from Grady, despite Bogan's desperate pleas to the Soviets, allowing Grady to evade their defenses.

The Soviets, in desperation, fire all their weapons in the path of the remaining Vindicator. As Grady nears Moscow, the Americans are finally able to reach him via radio. Both the President and Grady's own wife desperately urge him to stop the attack. As Grady wavers, a salvo of Soviet missiles targets his plane. Grady decoys them with the last of his defensive missiles, causing them to detonate far above him, although Grady knows that his crew has received a fatal dose of radiation. Grady dismisses the pleas as a trick.

The President remains in contact with the U.S. ambassador in Moscow until the telephone line abruptly cuts off with a loud squeal. He orders General Black, whose wife and children live in New York City, to fly over the city and bomb it, using the [[Empire State Building]] as [[ground zero]]. Black obeys, taking full responsibility by dropping the bomb himself, then dies by suicide with a vial of poison hidden in his flight suit. As he dies, he calls out to his doomed wife, telling her that he has at last learned the meaning of his recurring dream: "The Matador, the Matador, the Matador ... me ... me".

Meanwhile, New Yorkers go about their daily lives, unaware of the coming disaster, at which point, the nuclear bomb explodes.