The "computer-generated" image on the control-room screen (including the map of the world, the planes and the explosions) was entirely drawn and animated by hand.
Columbia Pictures produced both this movie and Dr. Fantástico (1964). Director Stanley Kubrick insisted his movie be released first, and it was, in January 1964. When Fail-Safe was released, it garnered excellent reviews but audiences found it unintentionally funny because of "Strangelove," and stayed away. Henry Fonda later said he would never have made this movie if he had seen "Strangelove" first, because he would have laughed, too.
Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove were both produced in the period after the Cuban Missile Crisis, when people became much more sensitive to the threat of nuclear war.
Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove were both produced in the period after the Cuban Missile Crisis, when people became much more sensitive to the threat of nuclear war.
Hal Schaefer wrote a score for the film but director Sidney Lumet decided to release it without any music. However, a promotional single by The Hal Schaefer Quintet, "Fail Safe Parts 1 and 2", was released on the Colpix label. There is music on the trailer, and it is probably extracted from Schaefer's score.
The large, metal phone the President uses to talk to the Soviet premier was actually a special phone used by explosives companies during blasting.
The view of the satellite zooming into a closer shot is actually film taken from a camera mounted on a captured German V2 rocket launched from White Sands, NM. The film is run backwards to show the illusion of zooming closer to the ground.