Fail-Safe Page #10

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- We'd better get some altitude.

- Jack, please, answer me!

170,000!

Jack, do you...

Answer me, please!

You can't trust it, sir!

We gotta get out of here!

No!

Hang on!

Their rockets are catching up!

We're gonna catch some of it.

Hold tight.

There they go.

Think we'll make it now.

How many minutes to Moscow?

Seven minutes, sir.

Look...

we have our choice about what altitude

to drop the bombs from.

It's about the only choice

we do have now.

Blast gave us enough radiation.

At best we'd only last

a couple of days.

So I'm taking her in low.

When we're over the target...

climbing to 5,000 feet.

Bombs are set to go at 5,000.

We'll go with them.

Okay?

What the hell.

There's nothing to go home to anyway.

General Stark, are there any papers

or documents in New York...

which are absolutely essential

to the running of the United States?

General Stark?

No, sir.

There are

important documents, but...

none of them

absolutely essential.

Will there be any warning given?

A lot of lives could be saved

if people had a few minutes.

On short notice, an alert to a big city

would do more harm than good.

All you'd produce is panic.

What about this?

Maybe...

Maybe he doesn't know

his wife is there.

He knows.

Gentlemen, we are wasting time.

I've been making

a few rough calculations...

based on the effect

of two 20-megaton bombs...

dropped on New York City

in the middle of a normal workday.

I estimate the immediate dead

at about three million.

I include in this figure those buried

beneath the collapsed buildings.

Wouldn't make any difference,

Admiral Wilcox...

whether they reached

a shelter or not.

They would die just the same.

Add another million or two

who'll die within about five weeks.

Are immediate problem would be the joint

one of fire control and excavation.

Excavation not of the dead.

The effort would be wasted there.

Even though there are no irreplaceable

government documents in the city...

many of our largest corporations

keep their records there.

It will be necessary to...

rescue as many

of those records as we can.

Our economy depends on this.

Our economy depends on this.

"And the Lord said," gentlemen...

"'he who is without sin...

let him cast the first stone. "'

Sir?

May I have a drink, please?

How'd you ever get to be

a translator, Buck?

You don't seem

the academic type.

I guess I've got

this talent for languages, sir.

I hear a language once,

I pick it right up.

I don't even know how.

They found out

about it in the army.

You sound sorry they did.

Oh, no.

Very interesting job.

I mean, sometimes.

Well, you did

a good job today, Buck.

Thank you, sir.

All I did was repeat what he said.

You didn't freeze up.

Another man might have.

You're the one who didn't, sir.

I wonder what it's like out.

Looked like rain before.

Radio said it would clear

by the afternoon.

The premier, sir.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. President...

I have ordered

our long-range missiles...

to stand down from their alert.

Only that part of our defense...

that has a chance

of shooting down your bomber...

is still active.

We do not think

we have much of a chance.

I know.

And yet, this was nobody's fault.

I don't agree.

No human being did wrong.

No one is to be blamed.

We're to blame, both of us.

We let our machines

get out of hand.

Still, it was an accident.

Two great cities may be destroyed,

millions of innocent people killed.

What do we say to them, Mr. Chairman?

"Accidents will happen"?

I won't accept that.

All I know...

is that as long

as we have weapons...

All I know is that men

are responsible.

We're responsible

for what happens to us.

Today we had

a taste of the future.

Do we learn from it,

or do we go on the way we have?

What do we do, Mr. Chairman?

What do we say to the dead?

I think, if we are men...

we must say...

this will not happen again.

But do you think it possible...

with all that stands

between us?

We put it there, Mr. Chairman,

and we're not helpless.

What we put between us,

we can remove.

- Mr. President?

- Yes, Jay.

I can hear the sound of explosions

from the northeast.

The sky is very bright,

all lit up...

Put me through

to General Black.

Yes, Mr. President.

Yes, Mr. President?

Moscow's been destroyed.

Drop your bombs

according to plan.

Yes, sir.

You've all been briefed on the mission,

so there's nothing more to say.

I have only one last order.

Nobody else is to have anything to do

with the dropping of the bombs.

Repeat:
I will fly the plane

and release the bombs.

The final act is my own.

On course, sir.

Approaching target.

Count down from ten.

Give me the signal.

Ten, nine...

eight, seven...

six, five...

four, three...

two, one.

Mark.

General Black!

Katie...

The dream...

The dream!

The matador.

The matador!

The matador.

Me!

Me.

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