From the U.S. base at Bulperson, General Ripper launches B-52 bombers armed with nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union.
Under established protocols, only Bulperson himself can recall the aircraft using a secret code. However, the general is a manic-depressive. Inside the War Room, with the U.S. President present, a decision must be made on how to respond.
"If one considers January 2018, when the U.S. President tweeted in response to the leader of North Korea, 'My nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than his. And mine works,' one realizes that Dr. Strangelove is a masterpiece that remains, unfortunately, still relevant today." (Giancarlo Zappoli)
"Stanley Kubrick’s innovation in Dr. Strangelove lies in applying the registers of the grotesque, the comic, the absurd, and the impossible to a film with a political purpose—broadly and complexly political—while basing it on a plot that, given the political climate of the era, could have proven absolutely and terrifyingly real, possible, and frighteningly credible. The film sets in motion a mechanism that uses farce to stage truths which—once laid bare and stripped of all satire and spectacular embellishment—remain absolute. Kubrick creates a dazzling cinematic spectacle, scattering hilarious and paradoxical situations throughout, while subverting and breaking every rule. Above all, he defies the rule of treating the subject matter with solemnity, contrasting the film’s humorous tone with the dread of 'the Bomb' that—quite justifiably—permeated those years of political tension." (Tonino De Pace)
