Based on a true story. On September 18, 1980, a Titan II ICBM inside Silo 374-7 of the US Air Force's 308th Strategic Missile Wing, located outside of Damascus, Arkansas, suffered a fuel leak due to a dropped socket wrench which struck and pierced the missile's skin. The missile exploded as two Propellant Transfer System airmen, Sgt. Jeff Kennedy and Sr. Airman David Livingston, were attempting to vent the leaking fuel and potentially save the missile. SrA Livingston died of his injuries. Sgt. Kennedy and twenty other airmen were injured in the blast. The nine-megaton W53 warhead was ejected from the missile and was found outside the complex with minimal damage. Jeff Kennedy was a technical advisor for this film.
The book "Command and Control" written by Eric Schlosser, recounts this very incident as well as describing many other "close calls" involving accidents related to the US nuclear weapons arsenal and transportation of such weapons. One factual error related to this very incident is that it was a socket that weighed around 8 lbs that punctured the Titan II fuel tank, not the socket wrench itself. Had the pressure within the fuel tank dropped low enough, the missile would have eventually collapsed onto itself. Everyone involved onsite did the best that they could to avoid what eventually unfolded. Many risked their lives and one individual perished. The many failsafes designed to prevent a detonation of the warhead other than for its intended purpose prevented this incident from becoming a nuclear nightmare. This abandoned site since has been designated a National Landmark and after the accident, the silo was filled in and the property returned to the previous owner. To find out more, this story can be found on certain social media sites. PBS also produced an episode and aired it under their "America Experience" series.