Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
DVD cover, based on the film poster by Tomi Ungerer.
Directed by	Stanley Kubrick
Produced by	Stanley Kubrick
Written by	Novel: Peter George Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick Terry Southern Peter George
Starring	Peter Sellers George C. Scott Sterling Hayden Keenan Wynn Slim Pickens
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	January 29, 1964
Running time	94 min.
Language	English
Budget	$1,800,000
IMDb profile

"Strangelove" redirects here. For other uses, see Strangelove (disambiguation).

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 Stanley Kubrick film based loosely upon the straight-faced thriller novel Red Alert by Peter George. Refashioned as a black comedy from the source material by screenwriter Terry Southern, Dr. Strangelove's subject matter satirizes the fragile nature of the Cold War conflict and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. The film opens at the fictional Burpelson Air Force Base, where the insane General Jack D. Ripper has just ordered a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The rest of Dr. Strangelove follows the President of the United States, his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and an RAF officer as they all scramble to recall Ripper's bomber-wing in order to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (548x718, 271 KB)The DVD cover of This image is of a DVD cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the DVD or the studio which produced the DVD in question. ... Tomi (Jean-Thomas) Ungerer, (November 28, 1931 - ) is a French illustrator best known for his erotic and political illustrations as well as childrens books. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ... Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 - October 29, 1995) was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... Richard Henry Peter Sellers, CBE (September 8, 1925 – July 24, 1980) was an English comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on the BBC radio series The Goon Show. ... George C Scott as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubricks George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was a film/stage actor, director, and producer. ... Sterling Hayden (March 26, 1916 - May 23, 1986) was an American actor. ... Wynn in Warning Shot (1967) Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor and member of a well-known show-business family. ... Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. ... Columbia Pictures current logo. ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Strangelove may refer to: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a 1964 Stanley Kubrick film. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ... Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... Black comedy, also known as black humour or dark comedy, is a sub-genre of comedy and satire where topics and events treated seriously – death, mass murder, sickness, madness, terror, drug abuse, rape, war etc. ... Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 - October 29, 1995) was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer. ... The World According To Ronald Reagan - a Finnish satirical poster from 1984 Satire is a technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Combatants Communists: Warsaw Pact, Soviet Union and its allied Anti-communists: Nato, United States and its allied Peoples Republic of China and its allied Casualties 70 millions civilians The Cold War (Russian: Холодная Война Kholodnaya Voina) was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between... // Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ... In nuclear strategy, first strike capability is a countrys ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation. ... The Titan II ICBM carried a 9 Mt W53 warhead, making it one of the most powerful nuclear weapons fielded by the United States during the Cold War. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America symbol The Joint Chiefs of Staff, photographed in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gold Room in the Pentagon on Jan. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Look up Apocalypse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Cast and crew

Dr. Strangelove stars British actor/comedian Peter Sellers, who improvised much of his dialogue during filming. Sellers plays three roles: Richard Henry Peter Sellers, CBE (September 8, 1925 – July 24, 1980) was an English comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on the BBC radio series The Goon Show. ...

• Group Captain Lionel Mandrake—a sane, well-meaning, "by-the-book" British exchange officer with an upper-class English accent. It is said that Sellers' experience mimicking his uptight superiors as an RAF airman during World War II aided him in creating this character. Mandrake's appearance and manner is reminiscent of actor Terry-Thomas.

• President Merkin Muffley—the Adlai Stevenson-esque American Commander in Chief—a decent character understandably flustered somewhat by the situation. The President's first and last name each crudely imply that he is a pussy by nature ("merkin" and "muff" both refer to female pubic hair). This fundamental quality becomes evident during the famous Hot Line scene with Soviet Premier Dmitri Kisof. For the role, Sellers flattened his natural English accent to sound like an American Midwesterner (another reference to Stevenson, who was from Illinois). In early takes Sellers faked cold symptoms to amplify the character's apparent impotence, although this was ultimately deemed inappropriate and in the takes used in the film he played the President straight.

• Dr. Strangelove—the sinister German title-character—an amalgamation of RAND Corporation strategist Herman Kahn, Nazi-turned-NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, "father of the hydrogen bomb" Edward Teller, and JFK's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. Henry Kissinger has also been cited as one of the Strangelove character's influences. However, this assertion is highly unlikely, as Kissinger was not a prominent figure in American politics at the time of the film's production. Dr. Strangelove serves as President Muffley's scientific advisor in the War Room, presumably making use of prior expertise as a Nazi physicist upon becoming an American citizen, he has translated his German surname "Merkwürdigliebe" to the English equivalent "Strangelove." Twice in the film, he accidentally addresses the President as "Mein Führer." Sellers' accent is reportedly based on that of Weegee (pseudonym of Austrian-American photographer Arthur Fellig), who was hired by Kubrick as a special effects consultant. Throughout the film, the speeches made by the character of Dr. Strangelove are interrupted by his erratic fits of alien hand syndrome (which is now also known as "Dr. Strangelove syndrome"). At one point, Strangelove's hand reaches out in an attempt to strangle his neck; at another it thrusts itself out in a Nazi salute. Strangelove's sinister black glove was actually Kubrick's; Sellers saw Kubrick using it to handle the hot lights on the set one day and thought it would be a good addition to his costume.

At the start of Dr. Strangelove 's production, Sellers was set to play a fourth role; that of Air Force Major T. J. "King" Kong, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber captain. However, Sellers fractured his leg during filming, and could not play the role because technical constraints would have confined him to cramped space of the cockpit set. It has been suggested that Sellers, who was concerned about correctly reproducing the Texan accent required, contrived the injury—or at least exaggerated it. Slim Pickens was quickly tapped to replace Sellers as Major Kong. It is no coincidence that his performance turned out so authentic; fellow actor James Earl Jones recalls, "He was Major Kong on and off the set—he didn't change a thing—his temperament, his language, his behavior." For the entire course of filming, Pickens was apparently unaware that Strangelove was a comedy, and instead played the role straight, thereby adding to the humor^{[citation needed]}. Kubrick biographer John Baxter further explains in the documentary "Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove": A Group Captains sleeve/shoulder insignia A Group Captains command flag Group Captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. ... Regional accents of English speakers describes the many identifiable variations in pronunciation of Standard English between various populations, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Terry-Thomas (left) and Clive Morton in a scene from Lucky Jim (1957) Terry-Thomas (Thomas Terence Hoare-Stephens) (14 July 1911 - 8 January 1990) was a distinctive British comic actor of the 1950s and 1960s. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and statesman, noted for his skill in debate and oratory. ... A Commander-in-Chief is the commander of a nations military forces or significant element of those forces. ... The Barrison Sisters lift their dresses to show a live kitten, a double entendre of pussy. For the village, see Pussy, France. ... A merkin (first use, according to the OED, 1617) is reported to be a pubic wig, worn by prostitutes after shaving their genitalia to eliminate lice or to disguise the marks of syphilis. ... Muff could refer to: An article of womens apparel shaped like a tube and used to keep hands warm. ... In telecommunication, a hotline (also called an automatic signaling service or off-hook service) is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically originated to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. ... Premier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the USSR (Председатель Совета Народных Комиссаров СССР) (1923-1946) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (Председатель Совета Министров СССР) (1946-1991), who... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... Acute nasopharyngitis, often known as the common cold, is a mild viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system (nose and throat). ... Alternate meanings: See RAND (disambiguation) The RAND Corporation is an American think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the U.S. military. ... Herman Kahn Herman Kahn (February 15, 1922 – July 7, 1983) was a military strategist and systems theorist employed at RAND Corporation, USA. // Background Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Kahn grew up in the Bronx, then in Los Angeles following his parents divorce. ... The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP), generally known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. ... NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... Edward Teller in 1958 as Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK, John Kennedy, or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... The United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense, concerned with the armed services and The Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. ... Robert Strange McNamara (born June 9, 1916) is an American business executive and a former United States Secretary of Defense. ... Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German-born Jewish American diplomat, Nobel laureate and statesman. ... Weegee photograph, The Critic, November 22, 1943, first published in LIFE Magazine, December 6, 1943. ... Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig (June 12, 1899 - December 26, 1968), an American photographer and photojournalist. ... Alien hand syndrome (anarchic hand or Dr. Strangelove syndrome) is an unusual neurological disorder in which one of the sufferers hands seems to take on a life of its own. ... Adolf Hitler being saluted with the Nazi salute. ... The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range eight-engined strategic bomber flown by the United States Air Force (USAF) since 1954, replacing the Convair B-36 and the Boeing B-47. ... Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. ... James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla Township, Mississippi in Tate County) is among Americas best known African American film and stage actors. ...

As it turns out, Slim Pickens had never left the United States. He had to hurry and get his first passport. He arrived on the set, and somebody said, "Gosh, he's arrived in costume!," not realizing that that's how he always dressed… With the cowboy hat and the fringed jacket and the cowboy boots—and that he wasn't putting on the character—that's the way he talked.

Pickens, who previously only played minor supporting and character roles, stated that his appearance as Maj. Kong greatly improved his career. He would later comment, "After Dr. Strangelove the roles, the dressing rooms and the checks all started getting bigger."

Also appearing in the film is George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson, a strategic bombing enthusiast who serves as the thinly-disguised avatar of General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force Chief of Staff who advocated a pre-emptive strike against bases in Cuba during the Missile Crisis of 1962, against Kennedy's better judgement. Sterling Hayden plays General Jack D. Ripper, who is equally (and rabidly) paranoid and patriotic; a young James Earl Jones plays bombardier Lieutenant Lothar Zogg; Keenan Wynn plays a Colonel "Bat" Guano, Shane Rimmer as Captain "Ace" Owens, and Tracy Reed plays Gen. Turgidson's seductive secretary Miss Scott, the film's only female character, also known as "Miss Foreign Affairs". George C Scott as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubricks George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was a film/stage actor, director, and producer. ... The remains of german town of Wesel after intensive allied area bombing in 1945 (destruction rate 98 % of all buildings) Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war style campaign that attempts to destroy the economic ability of a nation-state to wage war. ... General Curtis Emerson LeMay. ... Drink a niggas bucket of cum. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Sterling Hayden (March 26, 1916 - May 23, 1986) was an American actor. ... James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla Township, Mississippi in Tate County) is among Americas best known African American film and stage actors. ... Wynn in Warning Shot (1967) Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor and member of a well-known show-business family. ... Shane Rimmer (born 28th May 1936) is a Canadian actor and voice actor. ... Tracy Reed is an English actress. ...

Photography: Gilbert Taylor Gil Taylor (born 12 April 1914) in Bushey Heath, England, is a cinematographer. ...

Editor: Anthony Harvey

Production design: Ken Adam Sir Ken Adam (born 5 February 1921 as Klaus Adam) is a production designer most famous for his set designs for the early James Bond films. ...

Special effects: Wally Veevers

Plot

Jack D. Ripper, a delusional United States Air Force general, executes his plan to strike the Soviet Union with a nuclear knockout blow to thwart a Communist conspiracy which threatens to "sap and impurify" the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people with fluoridated water. The right-wing John Birch Society opposed fluoridation at the time claiming it was a government-mandated and involuntary medical treatment that violated citizens' civil rights.[1] Exceeding his authority, Ripper convinces everyone at Burpelson Air Force Base that the United States is in a "shooting war" with the Soviet Union, and orders the 843rd Bomb Wing (which was then airborne in a training exercise called "Operation Dropkick") past its fail-safe points and into Russia. The provisions of a military protocol known as "Plan R" ('R for Robert') allow lower-echelon commanders to authorize the use of nuclear weapons without Presidential authority during a "time of conflict." It was apparently established after a certain Senator named Buford pointed out that the nuclear deterrence plan of the United States lacked credibility, in that if only the President could authorize a nuclear strike, retaliation could be avoided if the USSR succeeded in wiping him out in a decapitation strike. The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerospace branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Water fluoridation is the practice of adding fluoride compounds to water with the intended purpose of reducing tooth decay in the general population. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Safety engineering is used to assure that a life-critical system behaves as needed even when pieces fail. ... In the theory of nuclear warfare, a decapitation strike is an attack that aims to remove the command and control mechanisms of the opponent, in the hope that it will severely degrade or destroy its capacity for nuclear retaliation. ...

Ripper: Mandrake, I suppose it never occurred to you that while we're chatting here so enjoyably, 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? Mandrake: No. I don't think I do sir, no. Image File history File links Cquote1. ... The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located at 48 N. Rotary Road, Arlington, Virginia 22211 (Map). ... Georges Clemenceau Georges Clemenceau[1] (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman, doctor and journalist. ... Ripper: 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. 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.

General Ripper is unaware that the Soviets have constructed a doomsday device (always referred to as a "doomsday machine" in the movie) which, on automatically detecting any nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, destroys all life on Earth via massive nuclear fallout. The president asks nuclear war expert and German expatriate Dr. Strangelove to discuss the possibility of the doomsday machine. Strangelove himself is a type of "mad scientist", whose eccentricities include a severe case of alien hand syndrome—his right hand, clad in an intimidating black leather glove, alternates between attempting to strangle Strangelove and shooting out in a Nazi salute. Strangelove explains to staff assembled in the American war room how the device is a natural extension to the Cold War stratagem of mutually assured destruction as a deterrent to an actual nuclear exchange. Moreover, the machine cannot be turned off as this would mitigate its value as a deterrent. Image File history File links Cquote2. ... Many hypothetical doomsday devices are based on the fact that salted hydrogen bombs can create large amounts of nuclear fallout. ... Map of hypothetical fallout dispersal after a large-scale nuclear attack against the United States. ... Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing — one popular stereotype of a mad scientist. ... Alien hand syndrome (anarchic hand or Dr. Strangelove syndrome) is an unusual neurological disorder in which one of the sufferers hands seems to take on a life of its own. ... Mutually assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ...

The iconic Pentagon War Room set

Dr. Strangelove delivering his "deterrence" oration

Major Kong, the captain of the "Leper Colony," riding the bomb to nuclear oblivion

As a result, the Federal government of the United States cooperates with the Soviets in shooting the American planes down until they can be recalled. As American troops attack Ripper's base, Ripper commits suicide. The clueless commander of the unit attacking the base, Colonel "Bat" Guano believes that British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, an officer participating in an "exchange program" with the USAF, is leading a mutiny of "deviated preverts" (sic) against General Ripper. He fails to recognise the RAF uniform as that of an allied nation, but ultimately relents and helps Mandrake call the President to tell him the recall code, which he deduced from Ripper's doodles. Mandrake is forced to use a phonebooth to inform the President, but, not having enough change, he tells Guano to shoot the coinbox on a vending machine. Image File history File linksMetadata Warroom. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Warroom. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Strangelove123. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Strangelove123. ... Image File history File links Slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb. ... Image File history File links Slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb. ... This law-related article does not cite its references or sources. ... A Group Captains sleeve/shoulder insignia A Group Captains command flag Group Captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. ... A doodle A doodle is a mindless sketch, an aimless drawing, while a persons attention is otherwise occupied. ... A classic red telephone box. ... A vending machine is a machine that dispenses merchandise when a customer deposits sufficient money into a slot or vent to purchase the desired item (as opposed to a shop, where the presence of personnel is required for every purchase). ...

Unfortunately, one B-52 ("The Leper Colony") was damaged, but not destroyed, by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile. The missile hit triggers the self-destruct system of the airplane's radio (presumably designed to prevent the CRM114 code machine from being reverse-engineered should it be captured), and with no radio the aircraft cannot be recalled; and with a fuel leak, it also cannot reach its intended target, the Laputa Missile Complex, where the remaining Soviet defenses have been concentrated. So the plane continues its mission, evading the combined efforts of both the US and the USSR to stop it, to drop its nuclear payload on an unexpected target (now selecting the Kodlosk ICBM complex, not the plane's secondary target but still within its range), which will in turn set off the doomsday machine. The bay doors jam closed, and in trying to open them, the pilot of the B-52, Major "King" Kong (in one of Hollywood's most memorable film moments) inadvertently ends up riding one of the bombs down to global destruction — with Kong cheering all the way. Kong straddles the bomb, gripping it with one hand and waving his cowboy hat in the air with his other in an homage to rodeo bullriding technique, whooping and hollering as he plummets to his thermonuclear doom. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range eight-engined strategic bomber flown by the United States Air Force (USAF) since 1954, replacing the Convair B-36 and the Boeing B-47. ... American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft, or air defense, is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. ... Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of discovering the technological principles of a mechanical application through analysis of its structure, function and operation. ... Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... A Minuteman III missile after a test launch. ... ... A cowboys hat, usually with a four to six-inch brim, acts as an umbrella in stormy weather, and a shade from the sun in hot weather. ... Steer roping Fiesta de los Vaqueros, Tucson, AZ. Rodeo is a traditional North American sport with influences from the history of Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) and American cowboys. ... Bull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a rider getting on a large male bovine, weighing between 1,000 and 2,500 pounds, which is held in a small pipe enclosure called a bucking chute. ...

The doomsday device is apparently activated. According to the Soviet ambassador, life on Earth's surface will be extinct in ten months; Dr. Strangelove recommends to the President that a group of about 100,000 humans be relocated deep in a mine shaft, where the nuclear fallout cannot reach, so the Earth can be repopulated. Because of obvious limits to space in the mines, Strangelove suggests a gender ratio of "ten females to each male." The chosen women would be selected based on their youth and beauty (to ensure the males would want to impregnate them), while the chosen males would be selected based on their intellectual and physical strength. The Soviet ambassador states at that point, "I must confess, that is an astonishingly good idea you've got there..." Turgidson rants that they "cannot allow a mine shaft gap" (spoofing the missile gap fears) and begins planning a war for when they emerge in a hundred years. During this rant, the Soviet ambassador retreats into the shadows and takes pictures of the war room display screens. In the concluding scenes, a visibly excited Strangelove bolts out of his wheelchair shouting "Mein Führer, I can walk!", mere seconds before the movie ends with a barrage of nuclear explosions, set to the song "We'll Meet Again". Earth (often referred to as the Earth, or the earth) whose Latin name is Tellus (often incorrectly referred to as Terra, meaning soil) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... (Fuehrer in English when umlauts are not used) is a proper noun meaning leader or guide in the German language. ... Well Meet Again is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn with music written by Ross Parker and words by Hughie Charles. ...

Themes

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Sexuality

The film is also uncompromisingly sexual. From the opening scene, depicting the refueling of a B-52 jet bomber (penetration and insemination), to General Ripper's sexual frustration being at the root of the eventual apocalypse, to Strangelove's plans to build a society of "ten females to each male" in the postapocalyptic mine shafts, sexual references are readily apparent. The character of Strangelove is similarly laced with innuendo—aside from his suggestive name, he is the character responsible for creating fantasies of a polygamous postwar society—during this explanation, it is even strongly implied that his uncontrollable right hand has started to masturbate. Strangelove's newfound ability to walk at the thrill of this world to come has even been seen as analogous to the male erection. Many character names also have sexual meanings—General Turgidson, who is initially depicted as being in an apartment preparing to have sex with his secretary, is named using the word turgid, a biological term meaning full of fluid to the point of hardness, as in an erection. General Jack D. Ripper is named after Jack the Ripper, the famous serial killer who murdered prostitutes; Group Captain Lionel Mandrake's last name refers to the plant that supposedly grows under gallows, where it is watered by the involuntarily ejaculated semen of hanging victims. The name of the target, Laputa, is a derogatory Spanish word for prostitute, la puta meaning "the whore" (Laputa is also the name of the flying island in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, later also used in the animated movie Castle in the sky by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli). The Soviet premier is Dimitri Kissoff. A final innuendo can be seen in the President's name: President Merkin Muffley. Merkin refers to a female pubic wig, used mainly by prostitutes in the 18th century, and "muff" is a reference to the area where the wig is applied. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Masturbation is the manual excitation of the sexual organs, most often to the point of orgasm. ... Osmotic pressure or turgor (also called turgor pressure) is the pressure produced by a solution in a space that is enclosed by a differentially permeable membrane. ... Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London, England in the second half of 1888. ... Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. ... Gulliver Exhibited to the Brobdingnag Farmer by Richard Redgrave Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Laputa: Castle in the Sky ( TenkÅ« no Shiro Rapyuta), or Castle in the Sky in the United States, is a 1986 film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. ... Portrait of animator Hayao Miyazaki. ... Studio Ghibli Inc. ... A merkin (first use, according to the OED, 1617) is reported to be a pubic wig, worn by prostitutes after shaving their genitalia to eliminate lice or to disguise the marks of syphilis. ... Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region. ...

Also, a written statement from General Ripper, read out by Turgidson, seems to evoke the idea of both sexual lubricant and semen: "God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural...fluids." Human semen collected on a glass surface during ejaculation process. ...

Suspenseful comedy

Although it is a comedy, Dr. Strangelove is also suspenseful and engrossing and not the least bit "madcap". Two major scenes of action are the immense War Room dominated by the Big Board showing the location of every American bomber in the world, and the meticulous B-52 interior. The remainder is set in General Ripper's headquarters at Burpleson Air Force Base. Comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humour with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ...

Pentagon cooperation

The Pentagon did not cooperate in making the film, as it did in making Strategic Air Command (1955). Because the B-52 was state of the art in the 1960s, its cockpit was off limits to the film crew; the cockpit was reconstructed by educated guesses made in comparing the interior of a B-29 Superfortress's cockpit and a single photo of a B-52 Stratofortress's cockpit to the geometry of the B-52's fuselage; it was so accurate that the Department of Defense suspected the film crew of sneaking into a B-52 and taking pictures.^{[citation needed]} The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located at 48 N. Rotary Road, Arlington, Virginia 22211 (Map). ... Strategic Air Command was a movie released in 1955 starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. ... The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a four-engine heavy bomber propeller aircraft flown by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and other military organizations afterwards. ... The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range eight-engined strategic bomber flown by the United States Air Force (USAF) since 1954, replacing the Convair B-36 and the Boeing B-47. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ...

Satirizing the Cold War

Dr. Strangelove takes passing shots at numerous Cold War attitudes, but focuses its satire on the theory of mutual assured destruction (MAD), in which each side is supposed to take comfort in the fact that a nuclear war would be a cataclysmic disaster. Herman Kahn in his 1960 On Thermonuclear War used the concept of a doomsday machine in order to mock mutually assured destruction - in effect, Kahn argued, both sides already had a sort of doomsday machine. Kahn was a leading critic of American strategy during the 1950s, urged Americans to plan for a limited nuclear war, and later became one of the architects of the MAD doctrine in the 1960s. The prevailing thinking that a nuclear war was inherently unwinnable and suicidal was illogical to the physicist turned strategist. Kahn came off as cold and calculating; for instance, in his works, he estimated how many human lives the United States could lose and still rebuild economically. This attitude is reflected in Turgidson's remark to the president about the outcome of a pre-emptive nuclear war: "Now I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I am saying no more than 10 to 20 million killed. Tops!" In the War Room, Turgidson also has a binder which is labeled “World Targets in Mega-deaths”. Combatants Communists: Warsaw Pact, Soviet Union and its allied Anti-communists: Nato, United States and its allied Peoples Republic of China and its allied Casualties 70 millions civilians The Cold War (Russian: Холодная Война Kholodnaya Voina) was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between... // Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of military strategy in which a full scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ... Herman Kahn Herman Kahn (February 15, 1922 – July 7, 1983) was a military strategist and systems theorist employed at RAND Corporation, USA. // Background Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Kahn grew up in the Bronx, then in Los Angeles following his parents divorce. ...

Satirizing Hollywood

Dr. Strangelove satirizes the conventions of Hollywood war movies, as well as the curious "red telephone" relationship between heads of state, in which a first-name intimacy competes with a culturally conditioned dislike for the other and for the entire political system which he heads: Red telephone was the popular name given to the direct White House-Kremlin hotline used during the Cold War. ...

"I'm sorry, too, Dimitri. ... I'm very sorry. ... All right, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well. ... I am as sorry as you are, Dimitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are. ... So we're both sorry, all right?! ... All right." (Dialogue improvised by Sellers)

Use of ex-Nazis in government

The title character, Dr. Strangelove, is a comment on the US government's use of Nazi scientists in programs such as nuclear weapons research. Dr. Strangelove, played by Peter Sellers, retains a thick German accent, and mistakenly calls the President "Mein Führer" on more than one occasion. He once refers to a study, that he commissioned, by the Bland Corporation (a parody of the Rand Corporation). His appearance echoes the villains of the Fritz Lang era in 1920s Germany whose sinister and evil characters were usually offset by some disability. Sellers improvised Dr. Strangelove's lapse into the Nazi salute, borrowing one of Kubrick's black gloves for the uncontrollable hand that makes the Sieg heil gesture. Sellers found the director's gloves that Kubrick perpetually wore to avoid direct contact with hot lights to be especially menacing. The thought of the new, post-war centrally controlled, underground, male-dominated society with its members specially selected from the population is evocative of Nazi visions and animates Dr. Strangelove at the end. Alternate meanings: See RAND (disambiguation) The RAND Corporation is an American think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the U.S. military. ... Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known émigrés from Germanys school of expressionism. ... Sieg Heil is a German phrase, which literally means Victory, Hail. ...

The Novel

The movie is based upon the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. Stanley Kubrick had originally wanted to film the story as a serious drama. However, he explained during interviews that the comedy inherent in the idea of MAD became apparent as he was writing the first draft of the film's script. Kubrick stated: Combatants Communists: Warsaw Pact, Soviet Union and its allied Anti-communists: Nato, United States and its allied Peoples Republic of China and its allied Casualties 70 millions civilians The Cold War (Russian: Холодная Война Kholodnaya Voina) was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between... Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. ...

"My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay. I found that in trying to put meat on the bones and to imagine the scenes fully, one had to keep leaving out of it things which were either absurd or paradoxical, in order to keep it from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question." - Macmillan International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, vol. 1, p. 126

Ending

The planned original ending to the film was a chaotic pie-fight scene with the Soviet ambassador in the war room; this sequence was supposed to be in color. It was cut from the final print because Kubrick thought it was too silly. ^{[citation needed]} The final cut of the film ends with Strangelove stepping out of his wheelchair (saying, "Mein Führer, I can walk!") before cutting to a montage of nuclear explosions, accompanied by Vera Lynn's singing of the WWII standard "We'll Meet Again." Reportedly, Spike Milligan was responsible for suggesting the montage ending. The ending is grimly amusing, since it depicts the end of the entire world, but at the same time, the song heard over the montage is a war anthem of optimism and hope, creating a black irony. It also suggests the danger that nuclear disaster is inevitable in the long term, given the indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons: "We'll meet again / Don't know how, don't know when / But someday we'll meet again"—as if to say, "sure, this film is a comedy, but humans and the bomb will eventually meet in a brilliant flash as if "on some bright, sunny day". Vera Lynn has written two autobiographies. ... Well Meet Again is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn with music written by Ross Parker and words by Hughie Charles. ... Terence Alan Milligan, KBE (16 April 1918–27 February 2002), known as Spike Milligan, was a writer, artist, musician, humanitarian and comedian. ...

The custard pie fight has become one of the most famous "deleted" scenes in the history of movies; it was not included in the laserdisc and DVD releases, and the only known public showing of it was in the 1999 screening at the National Film Theatre in London following Kubrick's death.^{[citation needed]} The used book sale in front of the National Film Theatre The National Film Theatre is located on the South Bank of the river Thames in London. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom. ...

Critical views

Dr. Strangelove was listed as #26 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #3 on its 100 Years, 100 Laughs. Sellers' line "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" made #64 on AFI's 100 Years, 100 Quotes. The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 24th greatest comedy film of all time. The American Film Institute (AFI) is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ... Total Film, published by Future Publishing, is the United Kingdoms second best-selling film magazine, after the longer-established Empire from Emap. ...

Roger Ebert has Dr. Strangelove in his list of Great Movies[2], saying it is "arguably the best political satire of the century." Roger Ebert (right) with Russ Meyer, 1970 Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a film critic who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. ...

This film is number 53 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". Bravo is a cable television network owned by NBC Universal. ...

Academy Awards

The Academy Award for Best Actor is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... Richard Henry Peter Sellers, CBE (September 8, 1925 – July 24, 1980) was an English comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on the BBC radio series The Goon Show. ... The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 - October 29, 1995) was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer. ... The Academy Award for Directing is an accolade given to the person that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences feels was best director of the past year. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ... // The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards, awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which are voted on by others within the industry. ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer, generally considered one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of his generation. ...

Fail-Safe and Seven Days in May

Dr. Strangelove was based on the paperback novel Red Alert (1958) by Peter George. George collaborated on the screenplay with Kubrick and satirist Terry Southern. Red Alert was far more solemn in tone than its film version and the character of Dr. Strangelove never even existed on its pages. The main plot and technical elements, however, were quite similar. A novelization of the actual film, rather than a re-print of the original novel, was later penned by Peter George. Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... The World According To Ronald Reagan - a Finnish satirical poster from 1984 Satire is a technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 - October 29, 1995) was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer. ... A novelization (or novelisation in British English) is a work of fiction that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work. ...

During the filming of Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick learned that Fail-Safe, a project with a similar theme, was being produced. Although Fail-Safe was to be an ultra-realistic thriller, Kubrick feared that its overall plot resemblances would damage Strangelove's box office run, especially if it were to be released first. What worried him the most about Fail-Safe was that it boasted an acclaimed director (Sidney Lumet) and first-rate dramatic actors (Henry Fonda as the American President and Walter Matthau as the bold civilian advisor to the Pentagon, Professor Groeteschele). As an ever-cunning strategist, Kubrick decided that it would be in Strangelove 's best interest for a legal wrench to be thrown into the gears of Fail-Safe 's production efforts. Director Sidney Lumet recalls in the documentary, Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove: Fail-Safe is a 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the Cold War novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. ... Portrait of Sidney Lumet, May 7, 1939. ... Henry Fonda in the classic 1957 film 12 Angry Men. ... Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an Academy Award winning American comedy actor. ...

We started casting. Fonda was already set... which of course meant a big commitment in terms of money. I was set, Walter [Bernstein, the screenwriter] was set... And suddenly, this lawsuit arrived, filed by Stanley Kubrick and Columbia Pictures.

Kubrick tried to halt production on Fail-Safe by arguing that its own 1960 source novel of the same name had been plagiarized from Peter George's Red Alert, to which Kubrick himself owned the creative rights. The plan ended up working exactly as Kubrick intended; Fail-Safe opened a full eight months behind Dr. Strangelove to critical acclaim, but mediocre box office results. Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... The term box office can refer to either: A place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue The amount of business a particular production, such as a movie or theatre show, does. ...

Also released in 1964 was Paramount Pictures' Seven Days in May (now owned by Warner Bros. Pictures). The plot involves a coup attempt by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to prevent the President of the United States from signing a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets, who, they believe, cannot be trusted. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Seven Days in May is a political thriller novel (current hardcover edition: ISBN 0060124369) written by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey. ... Warner Bros. ... A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ... Nuclear disarmament is the proposed undeployment and dismantling of nuclear weapons particularly those the United States and the Soviet Union (later Russia) targeted on each other. ...

The Kennedy assassination

A first test screening of the movie was actually scheduled to be on November 22, 1963, the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination. The film was just weeks from its scheduled premiere. The release was delayed until late January 1964 as it was felt that the public was in no mood for such a film any sooner. November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... President Kennedy, with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally in the Presidential limousine shortly before the assassination. ...

Additionally, one line by Slim Pickens ("a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff") was dubbed to become "in Vegas". The dub is just barely visible if Pickens' lips are watched closely when he speaks. Also, the climactic pie-fight scene was scripted to include General Turgidson exclaiming, "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" after Muffley takes a pie in the face. While the pie fight was filmed but cut, this line, no matter how coincidental, would have hit too close to home to be used. ·· Nickname: Big D Location in the state of Texas Country United States State Texas Counties Dallas, Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall Mayor Laura Miller Area    - City 997. ... Nickname: The Entertainment Capital of the World; Sin City: Location of Las Vegas in Nevada Coordinates: County Clark Mayor Oscar B. Goodman Area    - City 131. ...

Songs

• An instrumental version of "Try a Little Tenderness", a sentimental pop song from the 1930s, is played during the opening titles sequence which features shots of aerial refueling of a B52 bomber.
• "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", Irish traditional anti-war song. The tune is also used for the American patriotic song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". An instrumental version is used to accompany the B-52 flight, leaving an ambiguity as to which set of words is being referred to.
• "We'll Meet Again" sung by Vera Lynn, optimistic, sentimental World War II song, played as the bombs explode at the end of the film.
• Mandrake suspects that all is not as it seems, when he turns on an unconfiscated radio and hears pop music when there should be Civil Defense alerts, but the music itself is anonymous. Later, in Ripper's office, the radio is turned on again, this time to a jazz rendition of "Greensleeves".

USAF KC-135R Stratotanker, two F-15s (twin fins) and two F-16s, on an aerial refueling training mission Aerial refueling, also called in-flight refueling (IFR) or air-to-air refueling (AAR), is the practice of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during flight. ... Irish traditional anti-war and anti-recruiting song, the basis for the American popular song When Johnny Comes Marching Home. ... When Johnny Comes Marching Home (sometimes When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again) is a song of the American Civil War that expressed peoples longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war. ... Well Meet Again is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn with music written by Ross Parker and words by Hughie Charles. ... Vera Lynn has written two autobiographies. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The old United States Civil Defense logo. ... My Lady Greensleeves as depicted in an 1864 painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. ...

Trivia

• In several shots of the B-52 flying over the polar ice en route to Russia, the shadow of the actual camera plane, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, is visible on the snow below. The B-52 was a model composited into the arctic footage which was sped up to create a sense of jet speed. The camera ship, a former USAAF B-17G-100-VE, serial 44-85643, registered F-BEEA, had been one of four Flying Forts purchased from salvage at Altus, Oklahoma in December 1947 by the French Institut Geographique National and converted for survey and photo-mapping duty. It was the last active B-17 of a total of fourteen once operated by the IGN, but it was destroyed in a take-off accident at RAF Binbrook in 1989 during filming of the movie Memphis Belle. Home movie footage included in Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove on the 2001 Special Edition DVD release of the film show clips of the Fortress with a cursive "Dr. Strangelove" painted over the rear entry hatch on the right side of the fuselage.
• The nuclear explosions at the end of the film are all actual US nuclear tests. Many of them were shot at Bikini Atoll, and old warships (such as the German Prinz Eugen heavy cruiser) expended as targets are plainly visible. In others the smoke trails of rockets used to create a calibration backdrop on the sky behind the explosion can be seen.
• In the novelisation, the "mineshaft" survival technique succeeded, at least for a while, as the story is said to have been reconstructed from documents found at the bottom of deep mineshafts.
• During the filming, Stanley Kubrick and George C. Scott had differences of opinions regarding certain scenes. However, Kubrick got Scott to conform based largely upon his ability to beat Scott at chess (which they played frequently on the set).
• The photographic mural in General Ripper's office, presumably showing an aerial view of Burpelson AFB, is actually a view of Heathrow Airport, London.
• The line "I can walk" given by Peter Sellers in this film is repeated by Sellers in Revenge of the Pink Panther when he has to walk on his knees in his Toulouse-Lautrec disguise.
• According to the Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick had the round table in the War Room covered with green felt. Although the movie was shot in black and white and no one viewing the film would see the color green, Kubrick wanted to set a reference to a poker table as realistically as possible. Kubrick thought of that to emphasize how the few men at the table would be gambling on the world's fate.
• One of the primary targets of the B52 bomber is Laputa, which is a floating city in Jonathan Swift's satire Gulliver's Travels.
• The attack on the military airport was an 'attack' on the studio buildings in London where Kubrick made the film.
• The opening title sequence contains the grammatically incorrect spelling error "Base on the book Red Alert by Peter George" instead of "Based on the book Red Alert by Peter George". The error wasn't noticed until the final print had been made and was left in.
• In one scene where the army is attempting to infiltrate Burpleson, there is a shot of men shooting it out under a billboard that reads "Peace is Our Profession!", the motto of the Strategic Air Command.

The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer. ... The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was the first mass-produced, four-engine heavy bomber. ... The Institut géographique national (English: National geographic institute) or IGN is a French public state administrative establishment, whose task is to produce and maintain geographical information for France and its overseas departments and territories. ... The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress is a 1944 documentary film which documents the last (25th) bombing run of the B-17 bomber Memphis Belle. ... Bikini Atoll - NASA NLT Landsat 7 (Visible Color) Satellite Image Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an uninhabited 6. ... The German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen fought as part of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy (Prinz Eugen in German). ... London Heathrow Airport (IATA airport code: LHR, ICAO airport code: EGLL, and often simply Heathrow) is the United Kingdoms busiest and best-connected airport. ... Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) is the sixth film in the Pink Panther film series, and the last Panther film in which its star Peter Sellers appeared expressly for. ... Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. ... Gulliver Exhibited to the Brobdingnag Farmer by Richard Redgrave Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. ... Peter Bryan George (March 24, 1924 - June 11, 1966) was a British author, most famous for the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert. ... The Strategic Air Command or SAC (1946-1992) was the operational establishment of the United States Air Force in charge of Americas bomber-based and ballistic missile-based strategic nuclear arsenal, as well as the infrastructure necessary to support their operations (such as tanker aircraft to fuel the bombers...

Popular culture references

• The cover of the March 11, 2006 issue of The Economist depicts American president George W. Bush dressed in cowboy gear riding a nuclear bomb down to the earth while starring in a movie called "Dr. Strangedeal or: How I learned to stop worrying and love my friend's bomb". [3] The cover served to parody Bush's 2006 deal to look the other way as India develops nuclear weapons.
• The popular television series The Simpsons contains several references to Dr. Strangelove. Here are only a few examples:

• In the episode "Homer the Vigilante", Homer Simpson rides a bomb à la Major Kong.
• The episode "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" features a war room in the style of the film's, with Professor Frink as Dr. Strangelove. In a different scene, Sideshow Bob whistles "We’ll Meet Again".
• The episode "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)" is an obvious parody of the title.
• General Turgidson appears in Treehouse of Horror XIII, again in Mayor Quimby's war room.

• The Saturday morning cartoon version of The Tick had a recurring character named "Doctor Strangepants." He was confined to a wheelchair, spoke with a pronounced German accent, and had a hair style very similar to Sellers in the movie. He was a science advisor for Mayor Blank, and was frequently seen in closed meetings with various civil leaders, advising them on how to deal with various threats to the city. Usually, these plans involve giant versions of regular objects.
• In Dr. Strangelove, the CRM-114 is the nomenclature of the Strategic Air Command encryption/decryption device aboard the B-52 Stratofortress (and also a frequent in-joke used by Kubrick in his other films). This has been referenced:
  • In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Business as Usual", the characters make reference to a powerful Breen weapon called the 'CRM-114'.
  • In Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange the serum which is given to the main character during the so-called "Ludovico treatment" is called 'Serum 114'. "CRM-114" is also the license plate number on the car Alex and his droogs drive in the beginning.
  • In the first scene of Back to the Future, Marty McFly switches an amplifier with the words 'CRM-114' printed on it.
  • The CRM114 Discriminator is the name of a data stream analyzer (SPAM filter), which achieves very high accuracy based on a "learning" algorithm.
  • In the 2005 film Fun with Dick and Jane a financial transaction form is referred to as a 'CRM-114'.

• The film inspired the nickname "Dr. Strangeglove" for Boston Red Sox slugger Dick Stuart, a first baseman notorious for fielding his position poorly.

• The 1998 film Deep Impact discussed preparations for surviving a massive asteroid strike upon the Earth, and mineshafts are drafted into service for this reason, in an echo of the survival plan in Dr. Strangelove. Additionally, a lottery system is proposed for selection of candidates for survival, much like that proposed by Dr. Strangelove himself.

• In 1965 science fiction author Philip K. Dick released a novel about a post apocalyptic society titled Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb. This was not the originally intended title, but was suggested by his publisher to coincide with the popularity of the Kubrick film.

• In the 1987 film, Raising Arizona, the initialisms "P.O.E." and "O.P.E." appear written on the back of a men's room door shortly after Gale and Evelle have escaped from prison.

• The video for Muse's Time Is Running Out features military men and women sitting in a war room planning the destruction of the world around a table identical to the one in Dr. Strangelove as the band sings in the centre of the table.

• In the internet movie "This Land" made by JibJab, it depicts George W. Bush riding a nuke saying, "And, yes, it's true that I kick ass!"

• Dr. Strangelove is quoted many times in the television show Angry Beavers.

• In Animaniacs, the episode called "Sir Yaksalot", Wakko takes out a War Room door and they look into the War Room. In the background, a cartoon-ized version of Dr. Strangelove sits, fighting down his right hand.

• The National Lampoon film Men In White features a character based on Dr. Strangelove called Dr. Strangemeister - wheelchair bound (when he wants to be), he conspires with aliens to abduct the Earth's population; and it is up to 2 garbagemen called Ed and Roy to stop this scheme.

• Steve Buscemi's character Rockhound in Armageddon (1998) straddles a nuclear warhead much like the ending with Slim Pickens' character T. J. Kong does during the final scene.

• In the Sealab 2021 episode "Red Dawn", Doctor Quinn rides a nuke he dropped on America, "The United States of Oppression," while screaming, "Nobody shucks my corn but me!"

• In the 1992 film Stay Tuned, Spike's (Jeffrey Jones' character) control center is modeled after the War Room. The homage comes complete with a Dr. Strangelove impersonator.

• The scene of nuke-riding was presented in the intro of computer game Nuclear War, made by New World Computing in 1989. The person who is riding the bomb is apparently dressed in cowboy outfit and is waving cowboy hat.

• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Get It Done", nerd Andrew has been diagramming on his whiteboard when visitors arrive, causing him to exclaim "They'll see the big board!"

• In the first person shooter computer game Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a letter to a doctor Merkwurdigliebe can be seen. This translates roughly from german into "Doctor Strangelove".

• Carter USM's song "Cheer Up It Might Never Happen" from the album Post Historic Monsters features the line "I wanna learn to love the bomb".

• In the Futurama episode "A Big Piece of Garbage", the credit sequence contains a diffrent version of Vera Lynn's song "We'll Meet Again". The episode contained an almost earth destroying garbage ball which mirrors the nuclear bombs in Dr. Stranglove

• In Grosse Pointe Blank(1997) Martin, a hitman played by John Cusack is accused of being a psycho. His response, "Don't rush to judgment on something like that until all the facts are in." is an echo of Buck Turgidson's response to the same assertion made about General Ripper. "We-he-ell, uh, I'd like to hold off judgement on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in."

• In an episode of the animated series, Beast Wars, the Maximal Rattrap breifly rides a giant missile while exclaiming "yee-haw."

March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that The Economist editorial stance be merged into this article or section. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American businessman and politician, was elected in 2000 as the 43rd President of the United States of America, re-elected in 2004, and is currently serving his second term in that office. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Network. ... Homer the Vigilante is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons fifth season. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Sideshow Bobs Last Gleaming is the ninth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. ... Professor Johnathan I. Q. Frink, Jr. ... Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, better known by his stage name Sideshow Bob, is a fictional character on The Simpsons. ... Well Meet Again is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn with music written by Ross Parker and words by Hughie Charles. ... $pringfield (full title: $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)) is the tenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season. ... Treehouse of Horror XIII is the first episode of The Simpsons fourteenth season, as well as the thirteenth Halloween episode. ... The Tick The Tick is a comedic superhero, created by Ben Edlund in 1986. ... Doctor Strangepants is a fictional character in The Tick cartoon. ... The Strategic Air Command or SAC (1946-1992) was the operational establishment of the United States Air Force in charge of Americas bomber-based and ballistic missile-based strategic nuclear arsenal, as well as the infrastructure necessary to support their operations (such as tanker aircraft to fuel the bombers... The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range eight-engined strategic bomber flown by the United States Air Force (USAF) since 1954, replacing the Convair B-36 and the Boeing B-47. ... Space station Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 or STDS9 or DS9 for short) is a science fiction television series produced by Paramount and set in the Star Trek universe. ... Business as Usual is a fifth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first broadcast on April 5, 1997. ... Breen soldier appearing on Star Trek: Deep Space 9 The Breen are a species in the science fiction franchise Star Trek. ... This article describes the novel by Anthony Burgess. ... 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Quotes

General Jack D. Ripper: "Mandrake, 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!" A fluoride ion is the ionic form of fluorine. ...

President Merkin Muffley: "Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here...this is the War Room!"

General "Buck" 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?"

Major T. J. "King" Kong: "Stay on the bomb run, boys! I'm gonna git them doors open if it harelips everybody on Bear Creek!"

General "Buck" Turgidson: "The Duty Officer asked General Ripper to confirm the fact that he had issued the go code, and he said...uh... 'Yes, gentlemen, they are on their way in, and nobody 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.' Uh... 'My boys will give you the best kind of start, 1400 megatons worth, and you sure as Hell won't stop them now, uhuh.' Uh... '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."
(three beat pause)
General "Buck" Turgidson: "Uh, we're, still trying to figure out the meaning of that last phrase, Sir." Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem: The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital Moscow Largest city Moscow Official language(s) None; Russian de facto Government Federation of Soviet Republics Establishment October Revolution  - Declared 30 December 1922   - Recognized 1...

Colonel "Bat" Guano: "Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?"
Capt. Lionel Mandrake: "What?
Colonel "Bat" Guano: "You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company." The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... The wave shape (known as the dynamic ribbon device) present on all Coca-Cola cans throughout the world derives from the contour of the original Coca-Cola bottles. ...

Major T. J. "King" Kong: "Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five 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 Roo-shin 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, and three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot! A fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff." Russian (Russian: русский язык, russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... A standard latex condom still rolled up This article is about the contraceptive device. ...

Dr. Strangelove: "Mein Führer! I can walk!"

General "Buck" Turgidson: "Boy, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines."

General Jack D. Ripper: "Mandrake, you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?" This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ...

See also

• Slim Pickens for listing of the survival pack
• Films that have been considered the greatest ever
• Water fluoridation
• Politics in fiction

Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. ... While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films that have been regarded as the greatest ever. ... Water fluoridation is the practice of adding fluoride compounds to water with the intended purpose of reducing tooth decay in the general population. ... This is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

• Dr. Strangelove at the Internet Movie Database
• Dr. Strangelove at Filmsite.org
• "Dr. Strangelove" at DVD Journal
• Herman Kahn's doomsday machine
• Continuity transcript
• Commentary on Dr. Strangelove
• Great Movies: Dr. Strangelove By Roger Ebert