Sidney Lumet: A Life Behind the Camera

Fail-Safe, 1964
A confused computer causes a unit of the Strategic Air Command to launch an H-bomb attack on the Soviet Union. The U.S. President (Henry Fonda) hops to the hotline and tries to persuade the Soviet Premier that the assault is unintentional. Their first two conversations are harrowing. The whole of history seems consummated in an instant; Armageddon rages in a telephone booth.

• Sidney Lumet: Apostle of Streetwise Cinema