A computer malfunction sends American bombers on an unstoppable mission to destroy Moscow, and a desperate U.S. president must make an unthinkable choice to avert nuclear war. Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe is a relentlessly tense, technically rigorous Cold War thriller that dares to follow its premise to its logical, devastating conclusion. Shot in stark, documentary-style black and white, with an ensemble cast including Henry Fonda as the agonized president, the film remains a harrowing examination of the fragility of civilization in the atomic age.