DR. STRANGELOVE

Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is producer/director Stanley Kubrick's brilliant, satirical, provocative black comedy/fantasy regarding doomsday and Cold War politics, featuring an accidental, inadvertent nuclear attack. The film has been inevitably compared to another similar, yet much more serious 1964 film titled Fail-Safe. The witty screenplay, co-authored by the director (with Terry Southern), was based on Peter George's novel published in America titled Red Alert [it was first published in England under the pseudonym Peter Bryant with the title Two Hours to Doom] as a cynically objective, humorous, biting response to the apocalyptic fears of the 1950s. Its nightmarish, apocalyptic theme in the mid-60s of how technology had gone haywire and dominated humanity occurred shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the heated-up intensification of the Cold War. The film cleverly cuts back and forth mid-scene (and increases in rapidity as the film draws to a close) from three main set locations: the locked office of a psychotic, bomb-group commander in a sealed-off Air Force command base; the flight deck interior of the B-52 bomber sent to destroy the Soviets - led by a Southern-accented major; and the Pentagon's huge underground War Room where an inept US President has convened an advisory staff - including a saber-rattling general and a crazed nuclear scientist. There were a total of four Academy Award nominations (with no wins) for the film: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Dr. Strangelove is most memorable for Peter Sellers' Oscar-nominated, masterful performances in three distinct roles in two of the three set locales (similar to his various identities in Kubrick's Lolita (1962)):

Dr. Strangelove (an eccentric scientist) Mr. Merkin Muffley (President of the US) Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (a British Exchange Programme officer) Many of the absurd, omnipresent names of the male, military characters (caricatures) have sexual connotations or references, suggesting the connection between war, sexual obsession and the male sex drive: Jack D. Ripper (a notorious English sexual psychopathic killer, or a killer in general), Mandrake (a plant root said to encourage fertility or potency), Buck Turgidson (a male animal or stud, and swollen), Merkin (slang for female pubic area) Muffley (a pubic hair wig), Guano (meaning bat excrement), Kissof ("kiss-off", literally means 'start of disaster'), Ambassador Desadeski (named after the Marquis de Sade, infamous perverted sexual lover, sadist), and "King" Kong (signifying a beast with primitive, destructive lust). The irreverent film opens to the whirring sound of the stratospheric wind with a slow tracking shot over a sea of dense cloud cover. Rocky mountain peaks visibly poke through in the distance. The Earth is without sign of man. The narrator (in voice-over) drones ominously, with factual directness, about a top-secret Doomsday Machine being constructed in the Arctic that could reduce the world to nothingness:
For more than a year, ominous rumors have been privately circulating among high-level western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the Ultimate Weapon, a Doomsday device. Intelligence sources traced the site of the top secret Russian project to the perpetually fog-shrouded wasteland below the arctic peaks of the Zhokhov Islands. What they were building, or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place, no one could say.

The credits play over the graceful, mid-air refueling of a long-range, B-52 SAC nuclear bomber - [symbolically interpreted as either sexual foreplay or maternal sustenance]. From above, the silvery, huge, phallic-like nose of the tanker aircraft juts toward the camera before its aerial copulation with the bomber below - like a mother extending its nipple to its young child. On the soundtrack in the background plays Try a Little Tenderness. After fueling, the tanker aircraft's fuel nozzle breaks away from the aircraft. The B-52 bomber lands on the airfield of Burpelson Air Base at night as it is tracked by radar. Inside a brightly-lit computer room, filled with large machines spitting out endless data sheets of information [and a sign reading "PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION"), petty officer Group Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers), the stereotype of a chivalrous, good-old-boy British officer with a stiff upper lip, receives a phone call from his supervisor, Strategic Air Command General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden). The obsessively paranoid, crazed, right-wing commander sits at his desk in a dark room, chomping on a large, jutting cigar under a flourescent overhead lamp - he is calling about something "pretty damned important." He has phoned Mandrake, an English officer on the Officer Exchange Programme, to inform him of the declaration of a Red Alert.

Deliriously believing that there has been a Russian sneak attack (a "shooting war" [something with sexual connotations]), Ripper orders Plan R (later identified as "an emergency war plan in which a lower echelon commander may order nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack if the normal chain of command has been disrupted") :
Ripper: The base is being put on Condition Red. I want this flashed to all sections immediately.
Mandrake: (deferentially) Condition Red, sir, yes, jolly good idea. That keeps the men on their toes.
Ripper: Group Captain, I'm afraid this is not an exercise.
Mandrake: Not an exercise, sir?
Ripper: ...It looks like we're in a shooting war.
Mandrake: (politely irritated) Oh hell. Are the Russians involved, sir?
Ripper: ...It just came in on the Red Phone. My orders are for this base to be sealed tight, and that's what I mean to do, seal it tight. Now, I want you to transmit plan R, R for Robert, to the wing. Plan R for Robert...It looks like it's pretty hairy...Now last, and possibly most important - I want all privately-owned radios to be immediately impounded...They might be used to issue instructions to saboteurs.

As the alert is signaled by a siren sounding on the base - and the special code is transmitted to a fleet of B-52's, Ripper closes his venetian blinds. The narrator makes a final statement regarding Strategic Air Command readiness - later dubbed "Operation Dropkick":  In order to guard against surprise nuclear attack, America's Strategic Air Command maintains a large force of B-52 bombers airborne 24 hours a day. Each B-52 can deliver a nuclear bombload of 50 megatons, equal to 16 times the total explosive force of all the bombs and shells used by all the armies in World War Two. Based in America, the Airborne alert force is deployed from the Persian Gulf to the Arctic Ocean, but they have one geographical factor in common - they are all two hours from their targets inside Russia. In the claustrophobic, machine-dominated interior of one of the B-52 bombers at its failsafe point, a dim-witted crew is engaged in routine pursuits. [The "Leper Colony" crew is supposedly one of the more sophisticated crews in the large force of bombers on 24-hour alert against the Russians.] The plane's crew is commanded by Major T. J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens), a simple-minded, ape-like, thick-accented Texan cowboy who is flipping through a Playboy Magazine (staring at the centerfold) and later napping. Another crew member amuses himself practicing shuffling tricks with a deck of cards. Radio operator

Lieutenant B. "Goldie" Goldberg (Paul Tamarin) is munching on some food when he receives a loud radio transmission that clicks into view on his dial (FGD 135). The letters and numbers are decoded in his Top Secret Aircraft Communications Codes manual as Wing attack Plan R.  Irritated when informed of the orders for Wing attack Plan R (R for Romeo [Ripper's attack is correlated to a famous male lover]), Major Kong questions whether his crew is playing a practical joke and disdains the order: "How many times have I told you guys that I don't want no horsin' around on the airplane?...Well I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones." Kong insists that the message and code be confirmed, muttering to himself: "there's just gotta be somethin' wrong." The bombadier suspects that the top secret order may be "some kind of loyalty test." After examining the code book, the decoded message, and legitimate confirmation from the base is received by Goldberg, Kong declares that they have indeed received Plan R: "Ain't nobody ever got the Go code yet. And old Ripper wouldn't be giving us plan R unless them Russkies had already clobbered Washington and a lot of other towns with a sneak attack. "

Kong dons his ten-gallon hat and solemnly announces to his crew, as the soundtrack plays a snare-drum accentuated theme song: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home": Well boys, I reckon this is it. Nuclear (pronounced 'nookular') combat, toe-to-toe with the Rooskies. Over the intercom, Kong delivers a memorable, patriotic speech to his men - a parody of the totally-loyal American sent on a glory mission: "Now look boys. I ain't much of a ham at makin' speeches. But I got a pretty fair idea that somethin' doggoned important's going on back there. And I got a fair idea of the kind of personal emotions that some of you fellas may be thinkin'. Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human beins if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelings about nuclear combat. But I want you to remember one thing - the folks back home is a countin' on ya, and by golly, we ain't about to let 'em down. Tell ya somethin' else - this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions an' personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for every last one of ya, regardless of your race, color, or your creed. Now, let's get this thing on the hump. We got some flyin' to do."

In the next scene, the phone rings in the mirrored hotel suite of hawkish General "Buck" Turgidson (George C. Scott). It is answered by his sunlamp-bathing brunette "secretary"/mistress Miss Scott (Tracy Reed, the Playboy centerfold from earlier) who lounges across a bed. Running interference, she tries to tell the caller Col. Freddie Puntridge that Turgidson is "catching up on some of the General's paperwork" but is currently "tied up" in "the powder room." She relays the message by shouting out that the message is urgent. He has just "monitored a transmission about eight minutes ago from Burpelson Air Force Base...it was directed to the 843'rd bomb wing on Airborne Alert...It decoded as Wing Attack, Plan R." From off-screen, Turgidson suggests that he call "what's his name" Ripper at the Command Base, but is told that he already tried and "all communications are dead."

Grumbling, complaining that he always has to think of everything, boyish crew-cutted Turgidson approaches the phone from the bathroom, first viewed in the wall mirror reflection next to his secretary. War hawk Turgidson wears an open sports shirt and shorts, slapping his bare gut during the phone conversation, first finding out that there's nothin' "cookin' on the threat board." Worried, he advises Puntridge: "You better give Elmo and Charlie a blast, and bump everything up to Condition Red and stand by the blower." Turgidson nonchalantly tells Miss Scott: "I just thought I might mosey over to the War Room for a few minutes," although it is three o'clock in the morning: "The Air Force never sleeps." That will interrupt their sexual plans, however. Turgidson intermingles war and sex talk in his departing words: "Miss Scott: Buck, honey...I'm not sleepy either. Turgidson: I know how it is, baby. Tell you what you do. You just start your countdown, and old Bucky'll be back here before you can say...Blast Off!"

Back at an alerted Burpelson Air Force Base, Ripper uses the PA system from his desk with his cigar in one hand and the phallic-looking microphone in the other. He paranoically proclaims the Red Alert to grim-faced guards and soldiers who stand ready (behind many quick shots of the soldiers is again posted the motto of the SAC: "Peace is Our Profession"): "Your commie has no regard for human life, not even his own. And for this reason, men, I want to impress upon you the need for extreme watchfulness. The enemy may come individually, or he may come in strength. He may even come in the uniform of our own troops. But however he comes, we must stop him. We must not allow him to gain entrance to this base...."

His foreboding words include three simple rules: (1) trust no one, despite his uniform or rank unless he is known personally, (2) anyone or anything that approaches within 200 yards of the perimeter of the base is to be fired upon, and (3) if in doubt, shoot first and ask questions afterwards. General Ripper has effectively closed off his base so that it will be impossible to reverse the order or contact him. "Any variation on these rules" must come personally from him. He concludes with words of encouragement and enforced loyalty: .."in the two years it has been my privilege to be your commanding officer, I  have always expected the best from you, and you have never given me anything less than that."

A jeep backs up, filled with all the tagged, confiscated radios that have been ordered collected, to prevent the Russians from planting false radio transmissions. While listening to Ripper's voice, Mandrake finds one transistor radio in the computer room as he is closing up. He switches it on and listens to soft jazz dance music instead of what he expected to hear - civil defense broadcasts. The radio's music blends into the background thematic music of the airborne B-52 bomber, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Kong has the top secret attack profile distributed to his crew. To insure that the enemy cannot monitor or send voice transmissions, Kong orders that all of the transmission receivers aboard the aircraft must be adjusted to a locked position so that only messages preceded by the emergency code prefix OPE will get through (they will be routed through a device called the "CRM-114 discriminator").

At the Air Force base, Mandrake walks with the portable radio playing jazz tunes through the halls to Ripper's office. Demonstrating that regular "civilian broadcasting" is being played on the radio while twirling the dial, he tells Ripper that if a real Russian attack was under way, regular broadcasts wouldn't be playing: "I think those fellas in the Pentagon have given us some sort of exercise to test our readiness. Personally, I think it's taking things a bit too far. Our fellows will be inside Russian radar, Captain, in about twenty minutes....I thought to myself, 'Our fellows hitting Russian radar cover in 20 minutes, dropping all their stuff, I'd better tell you because if they do, it will cause a bit of a stink, what?'" The general slowly rises from his desk, walks to the far end of the room, and locks the door. Ripper menacingly tells Mandrake, that he will not tolerate "any special prerogatives to question my orders" from an officer in the Exchange Programme. With typical British understatement, Mandrake suddenly realizes that the bomber attack orders originated not from the President but from Ripper himself, and he respectfully suggests: "Let's face it, we, we don't want to start a nuclear war unless we really have to, do we?"

As Mandrake stands in front of Ripper's desk, Ripper is firm: "The planes are not going to be recalled. My attack orders have been issued and the orders stand." Mandrake suggests that there is "something dreadfully wrong somewhere." Ripper commands him to mix a drink of grain alcohol and rainwater. Saluting and coming to attention, Mandrake respectfully announces his duty (with a cracking voice) to issue the recall code under his own authority and bring back the Wing - the code prefix which can radio the bombers to turn back in time. As he walks to the door, he finds that he is being held hostage - his only exit is locked. While Mandrake insistently asks for the door key and recall code, the demented Ripper uncovers his pearl-handled .45 revolver sitting on the desk.

Crazed with his plan, Ripper justifies, with a big cigar in his mouth, what is happening, condescendingly quoting to Mandrake from Clemenceau: ...a decision is being made by the President and the Joint Chiefs in the War Room at the Pentagon. And when they realize there is no possibility of recalling the Wing, there will be only one course of action open. Total commitment. Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?...He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. A total madman with John Wayne machismo in his locked office, Ripper, who fears the degradation of his bodily fluids (his male potency), reasons that his actions will forestall the Soviet plot to fluoridate US drinking water: "I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

The Pentagon's huge underground War Room, a murky, cavernous locale with a round  conference table is the third central focus of the film. Lights illuminate the room from above in a circle, casting a glow over the assembled wimpy, balding 'Adlai Stevenson-like' President (Commander-in-Chief), Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers in the second of three roles) and his undersecretary advisors at the round war council table. At the far end of the room is the Big Board - a massive graphic display strategic map lit with blinking lights to indicate the progress of the bomber wing planes to their Russian targets (resembling an illuminated pinball game).

The shiny-headed President is briefed by his hawkish, blustery Air Force General Buck Turgidson of the orders issued by General Jack Ripper to the 34 B-52's [Turgidson has a 3-ring binder in front of him titled World Targets in Megadeaths]. The aircraft were engaged in an airborne exercise dubbed "Operation Dropkick" - Ripper's "order called for the planes to attack their targets inside Russia." The planes are now fully armed with nuclear weapons (having an average load of 40 megatons each) and will begin "penetrating Russian radar cover within 25 minutes." He points out the flight paths (dots), the primary (triangles) and the secondary targets (squares) marked on the display. Reprimanded with the fact that Muffley is the only one with authority to order a nuclear strike, Turgidson nervously admits that "General Ripper exceeded his authority," and the President is powerless to recall the attack. The Air Force General sheepishly recalls for Muffley's memory that he had approved the emergency war plan procedures: "Plan R is an emergency war plan in which a lower echelon commander may order nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack if the normal chain of command has been disrupted." Buck admits that the Plan R "retaliatory safeguard" lacks "the human element" since its main objective was: "to discourage the Russkies from any hope that they could knock out Washington, and yourself, sir, as part of a general sneak attack and escape retaliation because of lack of proper command and control. The planes will not return automatically once they reach their "failsafe points," because they were already holding at their failsafe points. The aircraft will continue flying until they reach their targets. The GO code cannot be countermanded in the provisions of Plan R - the aircraft are using the CRM 114 discriminators and cannot be recalled except by radio transmissions preceded by the correct three letter code group prefix - known only to Ripper. "We are plowing through every possible three-letter combination of the code" but it could take about two and a half days - there are 17,000 permutations. In about eighteen minutes, the planes will penetrate Russian radar cover. The President realizes the impossible has indeed occurred - systems in place to prevent an ccidental nuclear war have in fact triggered an attack. At the President's urging, Turgidson reads a partial transcript of General Ripper's last conversation to SAC headquarters shortly after he issued the "go code." Turgidson stumbles over the meaning of Ripper's final phrase about "the purity and essence of our natural fluids": 'They are on their way in and no one can bring them back. For the sake of our country and our way of life, I suggest you get the rest of SAC in after them. Otherwise, we will be totally destroyed by Red retaliation. My boys will give you the best kind of start, 1400 megatons worth, and you sure as hell won't stop them now. So let's get going. There's no other choice. God willing, we will prevail in peace and freedom from fear and in true health through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. God bless you all.' Then he hung up. The President declares Ripper "obviously a psychotic," and asks about the reliability of the human psychological tests instituted by Turgidson. Pained, the General cautions against making any hasty judgments: "I think I'd like to hold off judgment on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in...I don't think it's quite fair to condemn the whole program because of a single slip up, sir."

While in the midst of the heated crisis in the War Room, Turgidson receives an unimportant phone call from his secretary/mistress. He crouches down and whispers, attempting to calm her down, explaining that he is too busy with real bombs to have sex with her: "Well, look baby, I can't, can't talk to you now, but... My president needs me. Of course Bucky would rather be there with you (Pause) Of course it isn't only physical. I deeply respect you as a human being. Someday I'm gonna make you Mrs. Buck Turgidson. (Pause) Listen, you go back to sleep. Bucky'll be back there just as soon as he can. All right? Listen, sug', don't forget to say your prayers."
 After composing himself, and advising that Burpelson Base will defend itself from any outside invasion force, General Faceman (Gordon Tanner), who will dispatch the 23rd Airborne Division at Alvarado to enter Burpelson, is confident that troops near Burpelson can successfully attack the sealed-off base, find Ripper, put him in touch with the President and learn the recall code: "My boys can brush 'em aside without too much trouble." Turgidson gleefully rattles off a number of factors: hope of recall is low, the planes will soon make radar contact initiating retaliation against the US and "they are gonna go absolutely ape and they're gonna strike back with everything they've got." He predicts that the US "will suffer virtual annihilation." He points to the only remaining action he feels would be effective - reinforce Ripper's attack with an all-out nuclear offensive war against the Russians before they can retaliate: "If...we were to immediately launch an all-out and coordinated attack on all their airfields and missile bases we'd stand a damn good chance of catchin 'em with their pants down. Hell, we got five to one missile superiority as it is. We could easily assign three missiles to every target and still have a very effective reserve force for any other contingency...An unofficial study [he rifles through the binder entitled World Targets in Megadeaths], which we undertook of this eventuality, indicate that we would destroy ninety percent of their nuclear capabilities. We would therefore prevail and suffer only modest and acceptable civilian casualties from the remaining force which would be badly damaged and uncoordinated."
 The blithe, obtuse Turgidson is pleased with his own assessment of the situation and his aggressive solution, until his ideas are countered by the President who wants to stop a potential World War III and find other alternatives: "It is the avowed policy of our country never to strike first with nuclear weapons." Turgidson shrugs and laughs: "Well Mr. President, I would say that General Ripper has already invalidated that policy!" Muffley barks back: "That was not an act of national policy and there are still alternatives left open to us."

To cover his butt military-style,Turgidson presents the President with an impossible choice between the lesser of two evils, a reinforced Ripper attack, or a non-reinforced Ripper attack: "Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth...Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing, but it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless, distinguishable post-war environments. One where you got 20 million people killed, and the other where you got 150 million people killed." In the face of universal destruction and "mass murder," General Turgidson rants about the tremendous 'overkill' potential of the nuclear offensive. He also minimizes the Soviet retaliatory counter-attack casualty statistics: "Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops, uh, depending on the breaks."

President Muffley refuses to "go down in history as the greatest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler." Turgidson deflects Tuffley: "Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American people, than with your image in the history books." Another possibility is to negotiate with the Russian Ambassador, Alexei de Sadesky, or use him to track down the Russian premier. The Soviet envoy has been summoned to be admitted to the War Room despite Turgidson's opposition to the "serious breach of security...he'll see everything. He'll see the Big Board!" To extend the insanity further, Kong checks the contents of his survival kit with his crew on board the B-52:

- one .45 caliber automatic
- two boxes of ammunition
- four days' concentrated emergency rations
- one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills,
sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
- one miniature combination Russian (pronounced 'Rooshan') phrase book and Bible
- one hundred dollars in rubles
- one hundred dollars in gold
- nine packs of chewing gum
- one issue of prophylactics
- three lipsticks
- three pair of nylon stockings

Kong comments positively: "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff." [If a viewer looks closely, the word 'Vegas' is substituted for the mouthed word 'Dallas' on the soundtrack, shortly after President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.] The puffy Russian Ambassador De Sadesky (Peter Bull), dressed in a frock coat, enters the War Room, walking along a elaborate buffet table covered with an array of meats, breads, and pies. He orders poached eggs and Havana cigars. Turgidson clutches his strategic charts and manuals to his chest, sneering at the Russian while telling Muffley: "You gonna let that lousy Commie punk vomit all over us like this?" Mr. Staines (Jack Creley) tells the President that the Soviet premier is unattainable by phone for the next two hours. De Sadesky, knowing that the premier often engages in drunken revelry, provides an alternative unlisted phone number (B86543 in a Moscow brothel?). He reasons - the premier is unavailable because he is "a man of the people, but he is also a man, if you follow my meaning."

A struggle and fight break out between Turgidson and the Russian ambassador, when the  General accuses the Soviet premier of being "a degenerate athiestic Commie." The President intervenes with an ironic punchline, scolding both of them for their outrageous behavior: "Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

Turgidson has caught the "lousy Commie rat" ambassador taking pictures of the Big Board with a miniature camera - the ambassador claims the camera was planted by Turgidson. On the outside of Burpelson Air Force Base where an attack is about to begin, guard soldiers view approaching trucks of soldiers through their binoculars - filmed by Kubrick in grainy, documentary style. They believe Ripper's admonition about Communist infiltration, accepting the fact that they are going to fight Russians disguised as Americans: "You sure gotta hand it to those Commies...Gee, those trucks sure look like the real thing, don't they?...I wonder where they got 'em from?...Probably bought them from the Army as war surplus...OK. Open up at 200 yards." The firefight battle - of American troops against Americans - commences between guards with machine guns in the foreground against their own troops in the distance. In Ripper's office, Muffley and Ripper listen to the gunfire in silence.

In the War Room, the President calls the drunken Soviet premier Kissof on the Hotline. (The Soviet premier, Dmitri Kissof, is never seen on-camera.) In a brilliant, memorable monologue, the self-assured President has difficulty getting to the point while describing the critical state of affairs in a delicate way. He speaks to the Premier as if he were placating a juvenile. During the call, General Turgidson reacts to the President's bowing-and-scraping with disbelief:  "Hello? Uh, hello? Hello, Dmitri? Listen, I can't hear too well, do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little? Oh, that's much better. Yes. Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitri. Clear and plain and coming through fine. I'm coming through fine too, eh? Good, then. Well then, as you say we're both coming through fine. Good. Well, it's good that you're fine, and - and I'm fine. I agree with you. It's great to be fine. (Laughs) Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb. The BOMB, Dmitri. The hydrogen bomb. Well now, what happened is, uh, one of our base commanders, he had a sort of, well, he went a little funny in the head. You know. Just a little...funny. And uh, he went and did a silly thing. Well, I'll tell you what he did, he ordered his planes...to attack your country. Well, let me finish, Dmitri. Let me finish, Dmitri. Well, listen, how do you think I feel about it? Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dmitri? Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello? Of course I like to speak to you. Of course I like to say hello. Not now, but any time, Dmitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened. It's a friendly call. Of course it's a friendly call. Listen, if it wasn't friendly,...you probably wouldn't have even got it. They will not reach their targets for at least another hour."

Muffley offers to give the Russian air staff at the Omsk People's Central Air Defense Headquarters "a complete rundown on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes," and "if we're unable to recall the planes...we're just gonna have to help you destroy them." Muffley is instructed to call the Omsk Defense Headquarters. He asks the Soviet premier for the phone number. Because the premier has forgotten the telephone number, he suggests that the American President try Omsk information. The phone call concludes with endless apologies: "...I'm sorry too, Dmitri. I'm very sorry. (Listens) All right! You're sorrier than I am! But I am sorry as well. I am as sorry as you are Dmitri. Don't say that you are more sorry than I am, because I am capable of being just as sorry as you are. So we're both sorry, alright? All right." The Russian ambassador, who takes the phone and speaks in Russian to the premier for a few moments, gasps in alarm, and rests the phone on the table: The fools...the mad fools...The Doomsday Machine...A device which will destroy all human and animal life on earth. Back in Ripper's office with gunfire sounding in the background, General Ripper puts a comforting - and menacing - arm around a worried Mandrake's shoulder, revealing his completely paranoidal, psycho-sexual, psychotic lunacy. As Mandrake realizes he is speaking face-to-face with the real enemy and is literally being gripped by him, he nervously fingers and folds a piece of chewing gum in his fingers in front of him. According to the nutty, obsessed General, Commies are unaffected by the Russkie plot to pollute the water of the world because they drink vodka:

Ripper: Mandrake?
Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.
Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.
Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)
Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

Machine-fun fire rips through Ripper's office, shattering his window, and knocking down his overhead fluorescent light unit. Ripper strides to the window and shouts: "Two can play at that game, soldier!...That's nice shooting soldier!" Then, he takes his own machine gun from a golf bag in his closet, sweeps his desk clear with the gun barrel, and mounts the gun on his desk, asking Mandrake to help feed the ammunition belt of cartridges (taken from the golf bag ball compartment) into the machine. Ripper, believing that Commie soldiers, disguised in US uniforms, are fighting their way into the base, wishes to "play in this game." He orders Mandrake to help him fend off the invading army: "In the name of Her Majesty and the Continental Congress, come here and feed me this belt, boy...The Red Coats are coming." On the couch, Mandrake begs off by gasping that he has a "gammy leg" from an old war injury and that he can't get up. In the echoing chamber of the War Room, the Russian ambassador describes the effects of the lethal, automatic Doomsday Machine if triggered by a nuclear bomb attack inside Russia. It would destroy all human and animal life on Earth and enshroud the planet in a 93-year radioactive cloud, and it could also go off if any attempts are made to disengage it: When it is detonated, it will produce enough lethal radioactive fallout so that within ten months, the surface of the Earth will be as dead as the moon!...When they are exploded, they will produce a Doomsday shroud. A lethal cloud of radioactivity which will encircle the earth for ninety-three years!...It is not anything a sane man would do. The Doomsday Machine is designed to trigger itself automatically...It is designed to explode if any attempt is ever made to untrigger it...

Although Turgidson calls the machine "a load of Commie bull" and "an obvious Commie trick" (He walks backwards toward the Big Board, falls over backwards, somersaults, and lands back on his feet!) and the President labels it "absolute madness," the Ambassador also explains the economic considerations for its construction: There were those of us who fought against us. But in the end, we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. And at the same time, our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our Doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a Doomsday gap...Our source was the New York Times. Muffley then consults with a wheelchair-bound German nuclear scientist (an ex-Nazi "kraut" who changed his name from Merkwuerdigich-liebe, literally meaning "strange-love" to Strangelove when he became a citizen) and U.S. weapons strategist, Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers in his third role). Strangelove whines with a German accent [possibly inspired by the evil inventor Rotwang in Fritz Lang's Metropolis, by physicist and father of the H-bomb, Edward Teller, or later resembling and personified by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger]: ""A moment please, Mr. President." Dark-shaped, he wheels his chair into view. He confirms the validity of the Doomsday Machine and explains a US study that considered the Doomsday Machine for America. Based on findings of a report conducted by the Bland Corporation [a take-off on the Rand Corporation] and commissioned by Strangelove, the US abandoned its own plans for a Doomsday mechanism: My conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent, for reasons which, at this moment, must be all too obvious. With thick dark sunglasses, Strangelove, director of weapons research and development, also has a black-gloved mechanical, robotic right hand which shakily holds his cigarette: ""The technology required is easily within the means of even the smallest nuclear power. It requires only the will to do so." The essence of the Doomsday Machine is that it is "triggered automatically" and also "impossible to untrigger." "With fervent, Nazi-like ardor, he theorizes: "It is not only possible - it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday Machine is terrifying. It's simple to understand. And completely credible and convincing." Turgidson says dreamily: "Gee, I wish we had one of them Doomsday Machines, Stainsey."

According to Strangelove, the Doomsday Machine is automatically triggered by "a specific and clearly defined set of circumstances" programmed into a "deep memory bank" of a "gigantic complex of computers" - it automatically triggers world destruction if an H-bomb falls on Russia. Strangelove demands to know why the Russians kept the machine a secret, because "the whole point of the Doomsday Machine...is lost...if you keep it a secret. Why didn't you tell the world, eh?" In a dignified voice, the Russian envoy divulges its announcement: "It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises. Back at Burpelson Air Force Base, General Ripper is exchanging gunfire with the attacking troops - his office is in shambles with glass flying in all directions. He continues his discussion about his concerns with fluoridation while Mandrake is feeding the machine gun: "Do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake? Children's ice cream!...You know when fluoridation began?...1946. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works."

He first developed his theory and became aware of the international Communist plot during a strenuous bout of physical love-making in which he felt sexual anxiety. He blames his male impotency and sexual inadequacy on the Russian conspiracy. From then on, he kept his bodily fluids to himself [Ripper cannot or will not ejaculate during sex]: "I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love...Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I-I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, er, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake...but I do deny them my essence."

General Ripper's defending troops surrender Burpelson. Mandrake still thinks there's timeto "recall the wing." But Ripper strides through the debris in his office, using his machine gun as a crutch, to a chair where he sits and moans: "Those boys were like my children, Mandrake. Now they let me down." Symbolically, his cigar has gone out, hanging limply in his mouth. Man to man, Mandrake consoles Jack with talk of his own water-drinking habits and resultant virility. "Do I look all rancid and clotted? You look at me, Jack. Eh? Look, eh? And I drink a lot of water, you know. I'm what you might call a water man, Jack - that's what I am. And I can swear to you, my boy, swear to you, that there's nothing wrong with my bodily fluids. Not a thing, Jackie."

General Ripper asks Mandrake about his experience as a POW facing torture. Worried about the passing time, Mandrake quickly recalls his torture by the Japanese [reminiscent of the plot of The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957)]: "They got me on the old Rangoon-Inchinana railway. I was laying train lines for the bloody Japanese puff-puffs, eh...The strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras." In a confessional scene, Ripper mumbles about his fear that he'll be tortured to divulge the code: "You know those clowns outside are gonna give me a pretty good going over in a few minutes - for the code...I don't know how well I could stand up under torture." Mandrake, realizing his opportunity, cajoles and advises that Ripper could confide in him and divulge the code: "Well of course, the answer to that is, boy, no one ever does. And my advice to you, Jack, is to give me the code now. And if those devils come back and try any rough stuff, we'll fight 'em together, boy, like we did just now, on the floor, eh? You with the old gun, and me with the belt and the ammo, feeding you Jack! Feed me, you said, and I was feeding you, Jack."

Ready to commit suicide, the despondent General expounds his belief in the afterlife: "I happen to believe in a life after this one. I know I'll have to answer for what I've done." As Mandrake follows him to the washroom, playing a guessing game of "guess what the code is...," Ripper calmly blows his brains out inside the bathroom with his loaded pistol and falls against the closed door. Mandrake is unable to push open the door from the outside.

On board the airborne B-52 bomber, Lieut. H. R. Dietrich, D.S.O. (Frank Berry) reports to Captain Kong about an "unidentified radar blip" - a missile at MACH 3 speed is tracking them, first at a distance of sixty miles. [The information provided to the Russians by the President has evidently been utilized.] The D.S.O recommends commencing evasive action to the right as the missile's range approaches closer and closer, tracked in a realistic sequence on a radar screen. Major Kong initiates evasive actions, but the missile continues to close in "true and steady." The missile detonates at a range of one mile from the plane, sending a shockwave through it and nearly knocking the plane out of the sky. Smoke from fires and debris from the explosion fills the plane, but it is only damaged - fires are extinguished and the aircraft is quickly brought under control to continue on course.

In Ripper's office at Burpelson Air Force Base, Mandrake studies doodles on a notepad left on Ripper's desk - the jumble of words that filled Ripper's mind in his last few hours make the code's discovery difficult - P e a c e O n E a r t h and P u r i t y O f E s s e n c e form interlocking, crossword-like patterns. Arbitrarily, Mandrake whispers the letters: "O P E." They are twisted permutations of the recall code. Shots destroy the lock on the office door. Colonel "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn), the gun-happy leader of the attack forces, enters brandishing an M-1 rifle. Guano orders Mandrake to put his hands over his head and then inspects his uniform: "What kind of suit you call that, fella?" Offended by the insult, Mandrake indignantly replies: "This happens to be an RAF uniform, sir. And I am Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. I am General Ripper's Executive Officer." Although Guano wants to question him about Ripper and take him prisoner, Mandrake is anxious to call SAC and urgently pleads with him to phone the President and try a recall code based on the POE patterns in Ripper's doodles: "I've got a very good idea what the recall code is and I have to get in touch with SAC headquarters immediately...May I tell you that I have a very, very good idea, I think, I hope, I pray, what the recall code is. It's some sort of recurrent theme he kept repeating. It's a variation on Peace on Earth or Purity of Essence. EOP. OPE. It's one of those...Don't you know that General Ripper went as mad as a bloody March Hare and sent the whole Wing to attack the Soviets? Don't you know that?"

Both of Ripper's phones are inoperable (one was blasted away during the fighting, the other lacks a phone cord). Back in the B-52 as the plane settles back on course, Goldberg reports on missile damage to the CRM-114 mechanism, demolished by its own self-destruct system: "All the radio gear is out, including the CRM-114. I think the auto-destruct mechanism got hit and blew itself up." The communications system aboard  the plane is also inoperable. The navigator reports their fuel loss: "I've worked out our rate of fuel loss at approximately one six two per minute. This gives us a radius of action sufficient to take out primary and secondary targets. But we will not, repeat, not be able to make it back to any base or neutral country." Satisfied for having outfoxed the missile, Kong reassures his crew with his twangy Texan accent: Now, boys, we got three engines out; we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule; the radio's gone and we're leakin' fuel, and if we's flying any lower, why, we'd need sleigh bells on this thing. But we got one little budge on them Rooskies, at this height, why, they might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen."

Mandrake is marched out of Ripper's office at gunpoint by the gung-ho Guano to the main gate. Sexually-anxious like Ripper was, Guano assesses the situation, blames not Commies but "preverts" [his assessment is absolutely correct - Ripper was a prevert!], and suspects that Mandrake is one of them:  "I think there's some kind of deviated prevert. And I think General Ripper found out about your preversion and that you were organizing some kind of mutiny of preverts....All I was told to do was get General Ripper on the phone with the President of the United States.As next in command after Ripper, Mandrake insists on talking to the President by phone in a nearby phone booth. He threatens Guano: "And I can assure you, if you don't put that gun away and stop this stupid nonsense, the court of Enquiry on this'll give you such a pranging, you'll be lucky if you end up wearing the uniform of a bloody toilet attendant."  Guano is persuaded to let Mandrake enter a pay phone booth, but warns, with an oft-repeated comedy line: "If you try any preversions in there, I'll blow your head off." In a scene filled with irony, Mandrake reaches for his change, places coins in the slot, and dials the operator for the President, requesting first a person-to-person call and then a collect call. The collect call is refused, and Mandrake doesn't have the necessary change to pay for the call - he's just 20 cents short. He asks Colonel Guano to shoot the lock off a nearby Coca-Cola machine to obtain change: "Shoot if off. Shoot with a gun. That's what the bullets are for." Guano shows extraordinary reverence for the Coke company's machine: "That's private property...OK, I'm gonna get your money for you. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?...You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company."

The Colonel fires into the machine, causing coins to spill out from the coin return slot. As he bends down to scoop them up, he is showered in the face with a jet stream of Coke from the rebellious machine. In the War Room, a voice on the PA announces that the recall code, OPE, has been successfully transmitted and acknowledged by the 843 bomber wing (except for four planes which were reported destroyed by enemy action). Jubilant cheers signal rejoicing over the announcement - the bomber paths blink out on the Big Board. In a moment of false religiosity, Turgidson hushes the room, climbs onto a chair, and offers a military-style prayer to God, as the camera focuses on Dr. Strangelove in the dark shadows: "I think we ought to all just bow our heads and give a short prayer of thanks for our deliverance. LORD, we have heard the wings of the Angel of Death fluttering over our heads from the Valley of Fear. You have seen fit to deliver us from the forces of evil..."

The prayer is interrupted by a hotline phone call from Premier Kissof who is "hopping mad." Dmitri reports to the President that "one of the planes hasn't turned back...it's headed for the missile complex at Laputa." The Russian air defense staff claims only three aircraft destroyed and the fourth plane, Kong's damaged plane flying at a low altitude, is still on its way to its target - "the fourth may only be damaged" - it fails to respond to the recall code. Turgidson is immediately suspicious: "I'm beginning to smell a big fat Commie rat. I mean, supposin' Kissof is lyin' about that fourth plane, just lookin' for an excuse to clobber us. I mean, if the spaghetti hits the fan, now we're really in trouble." President Muffley returns to the phone, encouraging the Soviet premier to put all their air power into the two target sectors of the B-52 to defend Laputa, the plane's primary target: "Dmitri, look, if this report is true and the plane manages to bomb the target, is it...is this going to...is this going to set off the Doomsday Machine? Are you sure? Well, I...I guess you're just gonna have to get that plane, Dmitri. Dmitri, I'm sorry they're jamming your radar and flying so low, but they're trained to do it. You know, it's, it's initiative! Look, Dmitri, you know exactly where they're going and I'm sure your entire air defense can stop a single plane. Listen, I mean, it's not gonna help either one of us if a, if the, if the Doomsday Machine goes off, now is it? Dmi...Dmitri, there's no point in you getting hysterical at a moment like this! Dmitri! Keep your feet on the ground when you're talking, Dmitri...Can I give you just one word of advice, Dmitri? Listen, Dmitri, put everything you've got into those two sectors and you can't miss." But they will be doomed to miss - the navigator on the B-52 re-evaluates the situation and reports greater fuel loss than anticipated, advising that the aircraft cannot reach either its primary or secondary targets. Kong is exasperated and asks the crew to find another target that they can reach [the phallic-shaped B-52 is racing toward completion of the sex act]: "Well, shoot. We ain't come this far just to dump this thing in the drink. What's the nearest target opportunity?" The navigator and bombadier select a new course and target - the ICBM complex at Kodlosk. Muffley finishes his conversation with Dmitri and then asks Turgidson about the B-52 plane's ability to carry out its mission. Turgidson can barely contain his excitement that the plane might succeed: "President: Is there really a chance for that plane to get through?

Turgidson: Mr. President, if I may speak freely, the Russkie talks big, but frankly, we think he's short of know-how. I mean, you just can't expect a bunch of ignorant peons to understand a machine like some of our boys. And that's not meant as an insult, Mr. Ambassador, I mean, you, you take your average Russkie, we all know how much guts he's got. Hell, look, look at all them them Nazis killed off and they still wouldn't quit...if the pilot's good, see, I mean, if he's really..sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low (he spreads his arms like wings and laughs), you oughtta see it sometime, it's a sight. A big plane like a '52. VRROOM! There's jet exhaust, fryin' chickens in the barnyard. President: Yeah, but has he got a chance? Turgidson: Has he got a chance? Hell, Ye...ye... (He covers his mouth dumbstruck, suddenly and solemnly grasping the implications of his words.) The film is near its conclusion with the unforgettable scene of the "Leper Colony" bomber plane approaching closer and closer to its target. As the airship approaches its new objective with the bombing plane's theme song: When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again playing on the soundtrack, Major Kong and bombardier Lieut. Lothar Zogg (James Earl Jones) make final bomb run technical checks: bomb fusing circuits, the bomb arming test lights, the primary trigger switch override, the track indicators for maximum deflection, the detonator set at zero altitude, and safety releases. Then Kong finds that one of the bomb bay doors won't open - "the teleflex drive cable must be sheared away." He leaves his cockpit seat to fix to faulty bomb-release mechanism manually, telling his co-pilot Capt. G. A. "Ace" Owens (Shane Rimmer): "Stay on the bomb run, Ace. I'm goin' down below and see what I can do." He proceeds through the hatch to the bomb bay, telling the D.S.O. and crew: Stay on the bomb run, boys. I'm gonna get them doors open if it hare lips everybody on Bear Creek. There are two huge nuclear warhead bombs in the foreground, each labeled with sexual salutations: "Hi There!" (a homosexual advance), the other labeled "Dear John!" (the typical opening of a letter that ends a relationship). Kong sees a sparking tangle of wires, and climbs astride the "Hi There!" bomb like a bucking bronco, fanning the flaring sparks with his cowboy's Stetson hat. Sweating profusely, he busily works to fuse two wires together to rewire the door circuitry. Ace asks anxiously: "Roger, 3 miles. Target in sight! Where in hell is Major Kong?" as Kong attaches an alligator clip to a patch panel above his head, causing the bomb doors to open wide. The film has given us a memorable cultural image. When the bomb doors open, he firstgrabs onto his Stetson to avoid losing it in the sudden draft of air. The Hi There! bomb is dislodged, with Kong riding on it - the huge bomb [a potent sexual symbol] between his legs. The bombardier asks: "Hey, what about Major Kong?" Kong is flailing the bomb with his hat like a rodeo cowboy atop a bucking bronco, howling wildly toward oblivion: "YAHOO!! YAHOO!!" as it malevolently descends toward its target and detonates in a white, climactic flash on the ground. In the War Room in the final scene, the prophet of doom with a frozen smile - the villainous Dr. Strangelove, makes an abrupt turn - signalling the major turn of events for the world. He swings around in his wheelchair from the Big Board, explaining that all is not lost. After making calculations with a circular slide rule, he proposes an idea for a one hundred year plan for survival - life can continue underground. But he cannot control a slip-of-the-tongue when he addresses the President as "Mein Fuehrer" while dreaming of an underground bunker world populated by "top government and military men" after the impending  apocalypse:

Strangelove: I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy...heh, heh...(He rolls his wheelchair forward into the light.) at the bottom of ah...some of our deeper mineshafts. Radioactivity would never penetrate a mine some thousands of feet deep, and in a matter of weeks, sufficient improvements in drilling space could easily be provided. President: How long would you have to stay down there? Strangelove: ...I would think that uh, possibly uh...one hundred years...It would not be difficult Mein Fuehrer! Nuclear reactors could, heh...I'm sorry, Mr. President. Nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely. Greenhouses could maintain plant life. Animals could be bred and slaughtered. A quick survey would have to be made of all the available mine sites in the country, but I would guess that dwelling space for several hundred thousands of our people could easily be provided. President: Well, I, I would hate to have to decide...who stays up and...who goes down. Strangelove: Well, that would not be necessary, Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross-section of necessary skills. Of course, it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. His thoughts of personal survival underground after the end of the world energize Dr. Strangelove - his left fist slams down and his black-gloved mechanical right arm reflexes into an unintentional Nazi salute ('Sieg Heil'). He pulls his right arm back into his lap, fighting off his own, spring-loaded gloved hand with his good arm. With an absurd grin on his face, his own sexual pleasure is kindled as he excitedly talks about selective sexual breeding at a ratio of 10 females to one male. A male elite would be surrounded by beautiful women - they would eventually repopulate the planet: Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. Ha, ha. But ah, with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present Gross National Product within say, twenty years. The President is concerned about the depression of the grief-stricken survivors: "Wouldn't this nucleus of survivors be so grief-stricken and anguished that they'd, well, envy the dead and not want to go on living?" Strangelove isn't worried, but must first beat his wayward, lethally-impulsive right arm with his left before answering: "When they go down into the mine, everyone would still be alive. There would be no shocking memories, and the prevailing emotion will be one of nostalgia for those left behind, combined with a spirit of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead! Ahhh!"

With his recurring muscular tic, Dr. Strangelove's right arm again reflexes into a Nazi salute. He pulls it back into his lap and beats at it. His gloved hand attempts self-strangulation. Turgidson is intrigued by the sexual implications of Strangelove's hundred year plan: Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned? Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious...service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature. Russian Ambassador: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor. Strangelove's future vision of "strange love" imagines love-less, assembly-line, mechanical sex, in a world in which everyone can "Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." As they discuss hypothetical possibilities while time ticks away, the world is on a course toward Doomsday, as viewed in the first scene of the film. Turgidson is paranoid about Russian military supremacy in a hundred years when they would emerge from the deep mine shafts. He suggests stockpiling nuclear weapons and fighting for more potency to support "mine shaft space" [sexual breeding space]: "Supposing the Russkies stashed away some big bombs, see, and we didn't. When they come out in a hundred years they could take over!" A General agrees with Turgidson: "...In fact, they might even try an immediate sneak attack so they could take over our mineshaft space." The Russian Ambassador has, meanwhile, quietly drifted away from the crowd around Strangelove over to the banquet table, where he surreptitiously takes photographs of the Big Board with a secret camera concealed in his pocket watch. Turgidson suggests increasing alertness against Soviet conspiracy: We must be...increasingly on the alert to prevent them from taking over other mineshaft space, in order to breed more prodigiously than we do, thus, knocking us out in superior numbers when we emerge! Mr. President, we must not allow...a mine shaft gap!

Ecstatic over the total annihilation of the Earth, Dr. Strangelove "resurrects" himself, miraculously regaining his ability to walk. His mechanical, robot-like body rises out of his wheelchair, crying exultantly: Sir! I have a plan. Heh. (He realizes he is standing up.) Mein Fuehrer, I can walk!

The Doomsday Machine is triggered and the world is destroyed. A chorus of H-bomb mushroom clouds [unclassified newsreel footage from 1963 including the original Trinity test in 1945, other atmospheric explosions, and the Bikini Island blast] spread as multiple explosions detonate around the world [endless orgasms?], annihilating and causing oblivion to millions of people with radioactive fallout. The popular WW II tune We'll Meet Again Some Sunny Day plays: "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day..." [the original recording was by singer Vera Lynn].