Thanks for the memories!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are actually a lot of things to like of this movie, but unfortunately the writers didn't know where to stop. The result is a mash of sub-plots that do nothing to advance the core plot of the movie. Whether or not that core is enough to keep the movie afloat is hard to say, but there's some fine moments from both Martin Landau and James Earl Jones, offset only to a degree by Darren McGavin's hammy performance.To be honest, I think the entire bomber subplot could be removed without effecting the outcome much. Especially at the end, it seems the writers just kept adding new events to that plot line without any obvious need or plan. Reduced to its core there's maybe 1 hour of movie here, and that might have worked on its own. But as a two hour movie I think it fails.

It's rather like "Fail Safe" except that this time it's some renegade group of Russian rebels who launches a missile at a Russian target. The Russian defense system launches its missiles automatically in the direction of American targets. Boom -- and it hits the fan. Communications are cut off. Cities are blasted. The president's helicopter is downed. Control of American war gear and war policy is now turned over to the semi-conscious Secretary of the Interior, who's first question of his advisers is, "Are we losing?" (As if there will be a winner and a loser, as in a high school football game.) Thereafter, it gets complicated. It's fast paced. No time is wasted on personality or reality intrusions, except for the first few minutes, when Powers Boothe as the pilot of a problematic B-52 falls drunkenly into bed with his girl friend and co-pilot, Rebecca DeMornay. There must be a romance between a pilot and a female staff member or it's not an airplane movie.There are -- let me think -- there are two fist fights, three drawn pistols, two premature ejections, one bitch slap, one mid-air collision, one rude Russian premier, one and a half blindings, and a handful of thermonuclear bombs.It's taut. How could it not be? It's another movie about the accidental attack of one nuclear power on another, and the subsequent attempts to call the whole thing off. But it's not "Fail Safe" or "Doctor Strangelove"; it's a commercial product. The characters aren't uninteresting and they show the kind of diversity required for a movie like this. But they stay the same throughout.The novel, I would guess, is more accessible because in a book you have time to stretch things out -- get to know the people and their milieu. A movie is by nature more concise. It must leave things out. This film is marred by so many lacunae that it left me confused enough that the climax came as a complete surprise. Maybe I'm just dumb. That's what my friends keep telling me -- my former friends, anyway.If you want to see a serious dramatic film about a subject like this, do watch "Fail Safe." If you want to watch a masterpiece, try "Dr. Strangelove."

This film was recommended to me by a friend or (ex-friend as he has become to be known after this movie,)and I had high hopes for it, with stars such as rip torn and James Earl Jones.But this was truly awful, with truly awful acting and scriptwriting. The story could and should of been so much better, but it was soo bad, i actually signed up to IMDb, just to comment on it.Dropping nuclear bombs just to kill fighter jets? come on..... and classic lines like...."bogey's my are, them's bandits"......all the guy needed was the cowboy act and well it would be fantastic......I got 45mins & 36 seconds into this movie and then decided i really didn't care, fast forwarded to the last 5 mins, and pleased for the credit to come.However this was released onto DVD, ill never know......All i can summarise is, a truly awful movie, and one which makes you wish that a nuclear bomb had been dropped, just to save everyone from this movie.

I have never heard of this movie until recently. After watching it, I have decided that it is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. It's not too flashy or over dramatic (for the most part), and shows what would happen with our government if it were to respond to a nuclear strike.The best thing about the movie was the fact that it was able to show both sides of the story without trampling, or placing too much emphasis on one of the other. The bomber crew and the political players were each given equal time in the story giving a more full picture of a world coming apart. Powers Boothe is one of the more underrated actors. He had a strong performance in this movie. It would be good to see more of him. He plays the military officer role better then many others I have seen lately. Here he shows that he does deserve more because of the flair he gives his characters.In comparison to Sum of All Fears, I say this was the better movie when it comes to nuclear warfare. This was a more realistic view of what it would be like.