This live TV-movie is an update of the 1964 theatrical thriller. While not quite as good as the original, it was the first live TV drama in about 40 years. Several U.S. bombers miscommunicate due to Russian radio jamming, and mistakenly head straight for Moscow with their nuclear weapons. The rest of the film primarily takes place in Strategic Air Command headquarters and in a small room where the U.S. President and the Soviet Premier try desperately to avert a global nuclear war via telephone link.Like the 1964 movie, it's a very tense, claustrophobic film which shows just how easily a global crisis could occur due to human failing. Richard Dreyfuss as the President, George Clooney as a bomber pilot, Sam Elliott as a visiting congressman who watches the drama unfold, Harvey Keitel as a general who is trying to understand the crisis, are all great. Walter Cronkite introduces the production, which is shot beautifully in black and white.The movie has earned my respect for its daring live production, in an age in which everything is shot on videotape and all acting and directing mistakes can be easily corrected. If you're too young for truly live TV, please take time to watch this once.

I was born a month after the Berlin wall was torn down, so the Cold War for me was just an event in a history book.This TV movie, along with the original film, helped bring me the cold, horrific realities of a world where hundreds of millions could be hours away from certain death (interesting side note: look up Stanislav Petrov on wikipedia).It's scary, very scary, and I think that shows the fear that everyone lived with, even those who had to cover it up to get on with their lives.I hope more movies and TV series like this one are made, films that educate my generation about what the world had to face for half a century, and how things might have been different if only a few things had gone wrong.

--Contains spoilers-- Excellent mind numbing drama-thriller, a must see film for everyone. Superb acting, from a fabulous cast. Fail Safe tugs at your very core and evokes emotions from love to the vary basic instincts of survival and extreme sacrifice in a climax that will not disappoint. There are many many emotional moments in this film ,but near the end ,when the Airforce pilots son is pleading to his own father not to proceed with his mission, a mission that has been en-grained in his soul to complete no matter what the cost is perhaps the most heart wrenching moment I have experienced in film. I watched this with a heavy heart and was so engrossed that I just sat there at the end of the movie numb from its effects, now thats a great movie.

Tomaroon wrote: ..."when General Bogan and the Russian General are discussing their time... (the 1964 film), here the location has changed to Paris. I really can't see the reason why"The actor did NOT say Paris, he said Persia.The movie was great, the black and white was a great affect (and I'm generally prefer color) and I loved the fact that it was live. I do agree with those who said the lighting was bad, it looked cheaply made but that was because it was supposed to appear to look like the times (like when they make westerns with mostly brown tones, even though everything wasn't brown, it sets the atmosphere for the times). However this person unfairly knocked this movie and was bothered by things that he/she misunderstood (like the name of the city where the two people just missed meeting).See it and judge for yourself.