Missile

In this wonderful and quietly devastating documentary, Wiseman visits with the members of the U.S. Air Force who would be ordered to launch our strategic nuclear missiles in the event of total war.

The story progresses matter-of-factly through classrooms and training exercises to final evaluations. Wiseman's familiar narrative-free style is particularly effective here, because the subject matter is so extreme and yet the participants seem relatively at ease with what they are about. The result is that the tension and amazement that are not apparent on-screen instead build up in the viewer. The final 15 minutes contained a revelation that taught me something about myself I had not previously known.

I recommend this film highly to everyone. My only warning is that you need to hang in through the endless military and technical jargon, which goes almost entirely unexplained to no ill effect. It's not what matters here anyway.

I watched this movie in the age of 19. Since I watched "War Games", when I was a kid, I was very interested in control rooms to launch nuclear missiles. And how that works in reality, you get to see in that excellent made documentary. This movie is about young people joining military lessons to learn how to launch Minutemen missiles. In the end you see, how two of them get it and became Space Commanders or how it is called. Very interesting, indeed, all that buttons and codes and keys, even more than in "War Games". But- and that is what makes that movie such a lesson to me- it also shows something, that you do not see in "War Games":

The trainees are no muscular warriors with sharp shaped faces. They are mostly complete small and weak and have bad eyes, so they wear glasses. And there are many women, including the two who get it in the end. That way look the modern warriors, who are able to kill millions of people in a single strike. And they do not only look not like proud and dangerous soldiers, they don't act that way, neither. They act goofy and clumsy, have problems to insert launch keys and to fasten seat belts and yawn in lessons, when they learn about the seriousity of their job. And the trainers aren't better: They are calm and smiling, they make bad jokes, and in one scene one of them shows a trainee tricks how to succeed in a multiple choice test, if you don't know the answer!

I would compare this movie to the "Atomic Cafe": a real-life satire, that shows: Cold War was not only very dangerous, but also very embarrassing.

A shocking, but very interesting and funny (for people with dark humor) movie.

(If this is the film I saw on video about 15 years ago:) this fascinating documentary takes us through the training within the military of people whose job is to "push the button" in the event that the President made the decision to launch a nuclear strike. Particularly memorable are the myriad acronyms that the instructor uses in referring to the various elements of a very complex system. That system is designed to ensure that an accidental launch does not happen. The training is grueling, as well it should be, and the individual whose progress we have been following is tested at the end of the film. Included are philosophical discussions about the ethics of carrying out such an order from the President. I think one can gain insight into the subject of warfare whether one is "for" the use of the horrific weapons developed and deployed during the Cold War or not.