An all-out nuclear attack on America | Madam Secretary Season 4 Episode 22 - "Night Watch"
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2022
- President Dalton receives word of an imminent nuclear attack with satellites picking up thousands of warheads launched. While Russell (Chief of staff) is reluctant about responding in kind, Dalton is advised by his SecDef and national security advisor that doing so is his only option.
TV Show Name: Madam Secretary >>> Season 4, Episode 22 - Night Watch - - - Read full comment below for context.
In a previous episode, an American mission goes very wrong, accidentally killing 300 Russian soldiers. The Russian government swears to get payback, which is partly why they believe the attack is real at the beginning of this clip.
In the episode, General Nelson gets caught having an affair (4:48) and is subsequently going through a divorce. Due to this**, he gets pulled from the command center while he is literally in the middle of receiving instructions to launch the American counterattack (4:37) . As a result, the president must give the order again to someone else, delaying them for a few minutes, allowing General Bradley to get there in time (2:57).
At the end of the episode, the US and Russia come to an agreement to move their nuclear weapons off “hair-trigger” alert, to allow for any future alarms to be properly verified.
**The reason the General is removed is due to the “Personnel Reliability Program” of the US DoD. It’s basically a rule that any significant change, such as a divorce in an individual’s life is grounds for them being removed from having access to nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
Ok anyone know why they belt up don't see reason for it
@@michaelgodbee5361 The blast effect from a nuke would shake the silo up.
There will be 3 times more. LOL
NO. không ráp BẢNG IN ít số không. NO ? WORLD ? MONEY
NO. không ráp TRỤC SERIES số nhỏ. NO ? MONEY
Imagine having a job where your only function was to sit calmly in a chair and wait for a presidential order to launch nuclear missiles.
Gotta be a pretty shit job
Some people sit their just to get him coffee
It’s a real job. Pretty sure it’s an enlisted thing too so you can have that job basically right out of high school if you get a good score on the ASVAB
@@ReformedSooner24It’s an officer job, not enlisted.
Gives you alot of time to think about things. The trick is to think about something OTHER than the end of the world.
"Fire Bradley" is one of the most appropriate and responsible things I've heard a fictional president say.
That's why he is not real president
If I was him, I would have had that General dragged in and fired him in person. After something like this, I imagine anyone would want to after almost ending the world in a nuclear apocalypse.
In real life, this would all be hushed up and General Bradley would retire.
The more correct option would have been, "Fire Bradley.......out of a cannon into the sun"
Shouldn't have fired him, should have just busted him down to private with a posting to Greenland.
Fun fact: This was based on a real event that almost ended the world on November 9th, 1979, where somebody put in the wrong tape at the NORAD Chechyenne Mountain Complex during a training exercise, and as a result 250 Ballistic missiles were falsely detected heading for the US.
It may also be the initial reason and kickstarter to why the Soviets started developing the dead mans hand switch for there nuclear arms, and increased GPS prevalence, as the Soviets were completely unaware the US was about to nuke them.
Which is what Hill was referring to when she was talking about ‘changing the procedures after ‘79.’
@@mercifulmoff really? 🙀
ffs we're screwed
what made usa think that ussr would've have retaliated?
Thank god that one from ussr who said no to launch nuke
"Major, open the football."
I can't be the only one whose skin crawled at that line.
That is the actual name of the briefcase
@@grimlyreaper5364 yes, but the idea that we would ever be close enough to disaster for it to be opened is terrifying.
@@ClassicalMusic2002 we've come extremely close a few times and those are the ones we know of. President Nixon allegedly drunk once order a all out first strike on North Korea after they shot down a spy plane of ours. Good thing the vice president talked the commander in chief down
@@ClassicalMusic2002 There is an incident in 1995 where the Russians had literally opened their version of the nuclear football.
you ought to feel how it is on the receiving end in the launch control center
I live in Greenland, I’d be scared shitless if I saw that many missiles in the sky on their way to America…
You wouldn't see them as they would be 2000+ Km Of Hight So no you might see Some in the night though
@@sadiqahmed4143 well we have days here where it’s just completely night so it’s possible tho unlikely I’d see them, but I’d rather we not have a nuclear war at all
@@crimson_axi5892 theire to high amd by the time theyre over greenland the rocketmotors are already off so you wont see a thing
Yeah, they may stop by to use the bathroom and get a snack
What about if you were in hawaii and got that glitched text about the inbound missles.
POTUS really took this well considering he almost ended the world over a stress test
I would've finished dealing with the scenario and then cried myself to sleep that night.
@@Ananamitron Oh i think he probably did exactly that in silence but infront of his advisors and staff: Never. The backstory of that character is that he was formerly a CIA director (i am not shure if it was a deputy director post or THE Director, probably the last one), so he is trained to stay calm in stressfull situations.... or at least he was trained to PRETEND that he is staying calm while thinking about a solution.
I think that's the point. He didn't show any exacerbated emotion because that solves nothing, he simply dealt with the situation as it needed to be dealt with; I think the slivers of outrage in the Oval Office are just the right amount of fury he should've shown. Seems like he's mentally fortified and prepared for the responsibilities of the job.
@@Ananamitron Why would you cry?
@@KevinJohnson-cv2no If you wouldn't after almost ending the world, you are a sociopath.
President: "Colonel, is there anything indicating a possible intrusion in the network?"
Colonel: "yes all our allies and warning systems except the screen I am looking at report nothing."
The guy who failed to turn the key is the true unsung hero in this situation. Probably single-handedly saved billions of lives.
The dude that failed to turn the key is a part time student that got a small 2 line role in a tv series that probably paid him enough to buy a Starbucks on the way and a weeks worth of tissues for his right arm habit in his dorm room. ITS A TV PROGRAM
@@Oppinnindi well duh, can't you see that I'm referencing in the movie context?
@@yuhno808 that guy took it way too seriously 😂
He saves lived but probably not billions, it would have been just one of dozens or hundreds of silos ready to launch.
@@remeyrune6009 you're forgetting that even a single nuclear attack can lead to an escalation that can see thousands of nuclear missiles flying on the sky.
Judging from the comments I don’t think many people know this is based on a real story of a technician who ran a sim and they responded exactly how they did in this clip
If I am not mistaken with another similar accident, that time the world was saved from nuclear war because the URSS premier was in a state visit in New York. So they immediately figured out that something wasn't quite right
Name of the incident?
@@DeadSkyWT en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
@@rayg9344 thanks
Not exactly like in this clip. All command centers recived alert about incomming Soviet missles and retaliation strike was being prepared but radars and satellites didn't see anything so everything was called off.
In actuality, that General would NOT have had the ability to issue an abort over the Presidential order. The missiles would've flown. Also, it's more than just that one crew in that flight/squadron of missiles - if enough of the crews turn their keys, the missiles fly - the vote does not have to be unanimous, but it does need to be a majority.
In reality none of it would've happened in the first place because they would've wanted confirmation from other sensors and sources before firing.
@@MB-jt9gs Yeah there are like 30 different things wrong with this scenario and I have absolutely nothing to do with or any expertise with the nuclear triad or missile defence.
@@MB-jt9gs that's what I don't get. They had 20 minutes but couldn't use a presidential line to the UK and find out if they detected any launches? Could've saved at least 19 minutes of useless worrying. France, India, hell half of Europe would all be confirming with us that 2,000 missiles left Russian soil.
This scenario is actually based on an actual event that happened in Russia. A Russian spy sat detected 5 nuclear launches from American soil that happened to just be environmental errors and if not for one russian who said "Why'd they only launch five of them... they have hundreds" the world would of gone up in nuclear hellfire. Apparently at that time Russian defense had the ability to launch nukes if under threat of attack (it's actually their defense doctrine hence the concern in Ukraine). So although it's unrealistic because of control systems in the US... in reality the panic and the not using your brain to check with your allies who would of been bombed into oblivion before you could reach em anyways isn't entirely farfetched.
@@dontcare7086 they don’t have a presidential line to the UK. The only hotline that exists is between the US and Russia, and would, under the circumstances, be highly unreliable as the Russians could just lie.
On 26 September 1983, during the Cold War, the nuclear early-warning radar of the Soviet Union reported the launch of one intercontinental ballistic missile with four more missiles behind it, from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were suspected to be false alarms by Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces on duty at the command center of the early-warning system. He decided to wait for corroborating evidence-of which none arrived-rather than immediately relaying the warning up the chain-of-command. This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack against the United States and its NATO allies, which would likely have resulted in an escalation to a full-scale nuclear war. Investigation of the satellite warning system later determined that the system had indeed malfunctioned.
Sounds like Russian propaganda to me. "Look how well trained we are, with such restraint".
@@ryanf8780 you know that Google exist, right?
Wasn't this just after the Abel Archer exercise that almost caused the USSR to launch. The paranoia in the Soviet leadership was extremely high in the early 80's.
@@yin6287 in the Russian sub also the same thing happened.
@@ryanf8780 What
I used to work at a satellite relay Center and all of the satellites have cameras that are pointed at the Earth and we were told never to watch those feeds but every time I got the opportunity I would pull up those feeds and they were amazing how detailed they were and how much you could see.
In the event of a launch the satellites would see the missiles
As would the radar
As would the people in Russia and Europe
Thank god for those redundancies.
Don't know why but that sounds really uncomfortable for me...
Don't know why, it just does.
@@Erich8101 No One survives a Nuclear Holocaust. Everything on Earth dies. Some areas would take a little longer. The hardened sites are designed to last a few days maybe a few weeks, to carry the signals to launch against the enemy
Why weren’t you allowed to watch the feed ?
@@omitnl For all the obvious reasons.
"So the world was saved by a felandering general! Maybe his mistress should get a medal." This was icing on the cake. Amazing scene.
'Philandering'.
I wonder how many times Monica Lewinsky saved the world?
Everything has it's positive side so far it seems...
@@remeyrune6009 She use to be a Democrat, until they left a bad taste in her mouth. 😮
That line was hysterical, but the General who caused this should have been Charged with Gross Dereliction of Duty rather than just relieved of duty and probably given a Dishonourable Discharge.
"Didn't we change procedures on simulations after '79?" HAHA "The only winning move is not to play."
I remember that movie.
Tic Tac Toe
Wargames came out in 1983. She's referring to an actual 1979 incident where computer errors at NORAD reported over 2000 inbound missiles, proven false by checking with other sources. It became congressional knowledge because a senator was there at the time, so he witnessed the few minutes of panic and calls to SAC to launch bombers before confirmation that it was a false alarm, which led to the finding that false alarms were not uncommon, which led to an effort to STOP having false alarms.
@@westrim There's also the Soviet false alarm where a similar issue happened but with only a few nukes inbound from the US at about the same era. The officer in charge withheld his permission to launch and called up the first base that was projected to have been obliterated only to have the base say everything was fine.
How about a nice game of Chess?
This really happened on September 27, 1983. Russian air force lieutenant Stanislav Petrov saved the world when he refused to turn his launch key for 10 minutes after a computer glitch showing an American missile attack. And in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russian submarine captain Vasiliy Arkhipov refused Moscow's orders to fire off a nuclear-tipped torpedo to destroy a U.S. Navy destroyer 30 miles off the Florida coast near Miami.
Soviet*
Uh that's a hard no on the Petrov piece, my man. Petrov had no access to missiles--he was part of the early warning aspect of the Soviet military. He suspected the early warning system was giving false indications. What he's credited with is not informing his leadership with incorrect information from the computer glitch. If he had, he would have started a domino effect based on the computer glitch that could have led to disaster.
The submarine one is much worse, the orders were to fire their one nuke if attacked, and the US destroyer started depth charging them. The Commander, second officer, and political officer decided they would rather risk being destroyed by surfacing to confirm a war had begun than risk starting a nuclear war themselves.
@@jmackmcneill That's intense! Being prepared for war doesn't mean being a warmonger for it's the soldier (or in this case sailor) that bears the deepest scars in war. Not sure if I quoted Patton correctly, but it does seem apropros.
Well the incident in the show was from something that happened in 1979 and happened just like the show, 1983 and 1962 were different incidents that did not involve a simulation being carried out.
Reminds me of a similar incident in the 60s when the system detected what seemed to me multiple Soviet launches. The US went to response mode but no launch command was given. The command realised eventually that the Soviets did not have the number of missiles that kept growing and stood down. Investigations discovered the system was providing return echoes of the rising moon.
So you're saying the russians tried to use the moon against us?
@@12345MrTomcat No idiot. I'm saying the system misread a natural event for a hostile one. Sheesh. Did you pass primary school?
@@12345MrTomcat gru is a communist confirmed
@@12345MrTomcat no the american early warning radar hat a malefunction. 1 Target in 300000 km (the Moon) was displayed as somthing like 100 targets in 3000km (ICBM-attack)...
@@ichich3978 it was sarcasm
Something that a lot of people don’t know is those missile operators actually get matching codes sent in routinely and they ‘launch’ but nothing happens, so in the case of a real launch, they have no clue whether it is an actual launch or not.
Stressful job.
Holy crap, I didn't know that. They must just assume it's normal. But if what they see on the news the night before scares them, it must be a different ballgame
@@Chris11249 fair point and I can only imagine what they think, but also this is precisely why we have this system in the first place
They USSR had the exact opposite system, and this likely saved the world from armageddon multiple times during the CW. Still not a fan
They will eventually realize why they can't call anybody after hours and why nobody came to relieve them from their duty.
Still, i wonder how their chances of survival are.
@@Laminar-Flow It's only 35-50 feet deep to the LCC, and all the counterforce nukes aiming for them are gonna be ground burst, not air bursts, since the blast pressure wouldn't destroy the missiles in the silos. The LCC's are the primary target, then the silos.
Not quite, there's a few videos out there that are pretty accurate on crew life.
Interestingly the Russians had a real life incident like this where orders went out to a sub to launch nukes because they misinterpreted pigeons as launches. Everyone in the chain of command obeyed except 1 out of 2 officers on the sub. That one officer from Russia thought critically and decided a nuclear launch was impossibly unlikely. He refused to launch. And the world was saved
It wasn't a sub, it was ground radar post. And soviet officer saw single american ICBM on the screen and decided that it was a glitch. Because logically USA wouldn't attack with only single missile.
@@artemvektor1 both happend , I think even in the same year lol
@@dog209 Only one happened. No Soviet missile sub ever was about to launch its missiles based on false information. The one that happened was the ground one.
@@zombieshoot4318 google b-59 and Vasily Arkhipov. i find it funny you sounded so confident when this took not even a minute to research and find out on my own
@@elpresidente7569 he was also on the sub K-19.
I don't know if this was supposed to be funny or not, but that one guy talking about impending nuclear winter while still wearing a golf visor had me rolling.
Mutually Assured Destruction is both a final resolution and a life preserver at the same time.
The problem is, the Russians don't believe in MAD, and never did.
@@n7ekg they clearly do since you and I are having this conversation. Or at least they like power more... Either way, wether it be sooner or later we will go down a path there is no coming back from. That is if we don't destroy ourselves from the inside first. Also we probably wouldn't be seeing what's going on in Ukraine if they had not given up their nukes to Russia.
@@Randomperson462 Ukraine having a tiny fraction of the nukes that Russia has would not be anything even remotely close to MAD.
Watching this with the situation in Russia is terrifying
no sucederá , ya esta arreglado , estamos in action
CZcams is scrubbing this clip too, it had like 26 million views on the original upload
Not quite. My old channel got merked because of "community violations" (video with nudity)
Well, they have a satellite to do a bird-eye view now so you don't have to rely on a computer saying a real missile just launched.
Yeah, I'm terrified we are going to start a war with the Russians from stupidity.
Look on the Wikipedia at the list of nuclear close calls. Was there also a very similar idea of this in the 1979 Norad simulation, that was almost misconceived as a nuclear attack back in the day, there was also the Russian Officer, who was Commended by the United Nations for saving the World from a Nuclear Attack, because he reset the early warning system, thinking it was a fault, but also did not call his Supperiors in Moscow. LT Col Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov.
In ‘62 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. there was Vasily Arkipov, who, as a nuke flotilla commander, had the Captain and Commissar aboard his command sub vote to launch in response to a false negative, voted “no” until they could get orders from Moscow.
Playing Russian Roulette with nukes can only be survived so many times.
@@militustoica unless you want world wars every 20 years you have to keep nukes.
@@militustoica Just to be clear the submarine that Arkipov was on was an attack submarine with a single nuclear torpedo to be used against the US Navy. It was not a missile submarine. Though using a nuclear torpedo would still have probably started a nuclear war.
"as there also a very similar idea of this in the 1979 Norad simulation" the characters in this video explicitly mention the 1979 incident and mentioing that after that there an additional procedure that any system running a simulation could not be connected to the live mainframes (but the general in the show ignored that rule).
which is what war games was based on
This was actually fucking intense, especially the scene with the two launch room guys. Good job producers.
That's the kind of job that makes my skin crawl. Two guys, acting soulless over an order on a screen, 100% ready to disintegrate half the world without blinking an eye.
I agree
This is based on a real cold war incident. A simulation tape of an all-out attack was mistakenly fed into the computer by a technician. They got on the red phone with Soviet command and cleared it up. I'm just glad Boris Badenov took that call :)
good to know that a random general dude without the authorization can abort a strategic nuclear strike - I would have thought they might have contingencies for that
He can't. Its Hollywood.
Would never happen in real life. Only POTUS could abort and he could only abort before the missiles were fired. Once those missiles leave the silos it's too late to abort. They should all be dead.
@@Laotzu.Goldbug
Well authority belongs to whom we give it to.
I haven't seen the tv show--I thought for sure somebody was going to shoot him
Wouldn’t the first thing to do be to call the Russians to make sure this isn’t a false alarm (or an accident) ? Or to call their allies to make sure they’re seeing the same thing? Or to call their surveillance teams to make sure the nukes didn’t magically appear overnight from their storage sites?
EDIT1: For those of you wondering "would the Russians answer truthfully?" they wouldn't need to: If the Russian leader starts ranting about the loss of Russian lives to American savages, or ranting about how soon the world will be free from America's presence, then that's all the White House needs to confirm that it's a true launch.
If the Russian leader starts saying "what the hell are you going on about?!?" or "yes, there's a launch, but it's from a rogue element. do not launch!" then they'll know that he, at least, didn't authorize a launch, and should therefore focus on interception rather than knee-jerk retaliation.
If the Russian leader sounds like he's just stalling for time, then they'll just hang up and call someone else, since he's obviously not reliable for help. And speaking of which....
Everyone seems to be focusing on "if the Pres calls the Russians" but nobody seems to be addressing "what if the Americans call Canada/UK/Japan" - or any of the countless other American allies that can easily say "nope, no launch detected on our end. you sure you're not just seeing things?"
Or better yet, go to the DoD ppl watching the spy satellites / Google Earth, and say "look at the launch sites. do you see any smoke plumes? look at yesterday's images of the launch sites & our last images of the storage sites; has anything moved recently? - No? everything's unchanged/unmoved?" and there you have it. False positives on the system (unless the Russians developed teleportation & smokeless rocket technologies).
EDIT2: As it turns out, it's not a phone line, it's now an instant messaging system on a secure computer link. And it doesn't just connect the 2 Presidents' offices, it can be read by any of the dozens of authorized staffers in either Federal Office. That's even less reason to react without making any communications attempts toward the Russians.
And this is why there's a permanent hotline to Russia. Because, yes, they'd get confirmation and then all hell would break loose.
Hello, this is USA, did you just launch 2000 nukes to annihilate us? - USA
No we did not (giggle) - Russia
@@Creamagination hehehehe, they will never know!
@@Creamagination "Do you... do you pinky swear?"
"..."
"Hello Moscow?"
"Okay Okay you got us. We did launch 2000 nukes :P"
"Oh you goofballs! xD c u in hell bby"
@@30secondstomarsMBH WHy would the enemy give us confirmation when theres still time to react to it? Makes no sense, that would not happen
I think the wildest thing is that stuff like this has happened, there's been quite a few documented times, but what scares me is the amount of times this has happened that they haven't shared
Always love scenes like this at 2:06.
Who knew ending the world looks so satisfying to watch.
Even though I’m across the world from both Russia and America, I’m still scared that the current crisis with Russia and Ukraine will turn this the alternative ending of this video.
My too :-(
Why would you be scared? You’d probably be the first ones to get disintegrated.
@@Sauron66633 No. how?
Never thought that would ever be a possibility. That we under such threat astounds me.
If Russia uses a nuke on Kyiv you can bet Putin will be arrested immediately and NATO leaders restrained by there respective militaries to prevent annihilation. No one in there inane minds would even dare to annihilate the world over Ukraine.
2:07 I was really expecting someone to call and mind control them.
Red Alert 2, anyone? XD
Well done my Friend! Yuri would be Happy!
"Be one with Yuri. Launch the missiles comrades"
"Yes master"
Jerry we have to open the silos
“No more stones, no more spears….”
Yes, give the mistress a medal for saving the planet from WW3.
Little do most people know, this scenario has actually happened. More than once.
Just like that Russian submarine commander
@@ConsumptiveSoul Yes. There were close calls on both sides in the 80's and 90's Cool heads prevailed because they were all computer malfunctions.
The job of the guys who turn the keys is the most mentally disturbing job in the U.S.
You’re in a bunker who YOU launch a missile that can destroy the entire world, fail to turn the key and you get shot
Imagine being a new airmen working on random hardware within a operational capsule and you hear the alert tone go off. Its not an alarm like in the show rather fast beeps/tone from their dashboard that goes off randomly. The tone either alerts them of a critical sys error, LF critical issue or EAM (Emergency Alert Message). First time I head it go off and the LT told us to wait out side their blast door I was like "OH SHIT".
You dont ger shot
You don't get shot. They expect people to have problems launching which is why you have a team of five command bunkers. Each with two officers controlling ten missiles. You only need three command bunkers to turn the keys and you can launch all 50 missiles. If for some reason three bunkers refuse to fire the Airborne Command Post plane can launch the missiles. Those missiles will fly.
You wouldn't get shot. You'd get blown up by the incoming ICBMS.
@@JimmyBoombox No, each of the officers carry a gun with them in the control room. They can threaten the other officer if they refuse to turn their key.
This is why Skynet should be in, ahhh nevermind.
This was a very interesting episode. I would’ve had a borderline heart attack if this was real. 200 nukes Coming your way yet???? Yeah That’s not a good day.
2000
Even knowing this is drama, the sheer intensity of it making me anxious of how the world is always this close to nuclear winter
The missileers wouldn’t know if it was a drill or not until they heard ignition.
The launch control centers are some distance from the silos. They wouldn’t hear much
By the time the 1000000 letter authentication codes are confirmed, missiles would have hit.
Ehh nope it take up to 30 min :)
@@davidzahour1892 Not the outgoing, but the incoming. Sheeesh.
Just almost gave me a heart attack man.
All our lives can be over that simple.
That turn of the key was the end of humanity.
Pretty much, just think, thousands of lives lost at the behest of two people, the presidents of opposing nations.
nah how dare you get so scared? it saves millions of soldiers doesn’t it
This situation is scarier than any horror movie
“The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking.
The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.
If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
Albert Einstein (1945)
One day during the cold war, I was driving to work at an Army Base in California. Looking to my left, I saw what was clearly a missile launch arcing up into the sky. I turned on my car radio looking for warnings of nuclear war, but all seemed quiet. Went to work, normal day. Went home, and heard on the news that Vandenberg AFB had launched some kind of satellite early that morning. Don't mind admitting, I was scared sh*tless for a few minutes though.
Less than 15-20 minutes to decide the fate of all of humanity is such a short damn time.
If this comes real I don't know how the world will recover after this it's so scary to think about it.....
some people will survive , but with Time , famine and radiation and low temperature will eventually kill them , so i Hope this will end in the good way , i hope...
@@FARMonitor let's hope that this never happen
@@R.R.5809 Yeah man, i Hope , God bless you and stay safe
@@FARMonitor thx
@@FARMonitor Your “hopes” won’t stop shit.
we have motion-tracking cameras now designed with our satellites to view nuclear missile launches in real-time. This is a very old movie concept remember Google Earth wasn't even around at that time.
And as if one of the first steps wouldn't be to contact the UK, Japan and all of our other first world allies to see if they were detecting the same launches.
Motion tracking cameras in satellites was a thing since the 80s.
It's not so much "motion" as infrared. We see the launch plumes. How bright are they and where are they going. Different missiles have different signatures. We learn them by observing tests.
The issue here was that all the computer data was programmed to tell the staff that the Russians were launching nukes, so they would have been shown the nuclear launches. in fact, that's what the first alert was, nuclear missile launch plumes detected by satellites.
3:04 the way he just threw the guy out of the chair is funny as hell to me.
i find it chilling that the guy pointing out 'Hey!! where probably about to end the whole fucking world here' is essentially told to shut up
If I was president and had to make that decision I would be releasing my bowels right about now.
Kind of wish the president said “okay well watch this drive then we can go”
I kind of think being fired is the absolute very least that General deserved 🤔
Dalton has anger management problems.
3:21 this guy is the real hero
In real life those missiles would have flown. First the general would have no ability to abort the orders of the President. There would be no abort command sent out. Second an ICBM squadron has ten officers and 50 missiles. Five two man crews who each control 10 missiles. Even if that one officer refused to turn the key you only need 3 crews out of the 5 to launch the missiles. All the missiles. The world would have been plunged into a nuclear holocaust had this been real and not a TV show. Thank God it's only TV.
@@zombieshoot4318 if it was real it wouldn't even have got to that point because High Command would have contacted their allies first and they would've known it was a false alarm.
@@thekrakenrises9040 You're relying on a belief that we would call other nations up as missiles are incoming and ask them if they also saw the missiles. We consider ourselves to have the best equipment for this stuff since we're the ones who invented almost all of it. That's a huge gamble you're taking that we'd call anyone else and ask them if they see anything.
I almost ended the world because of a simulation
While this is a pretty unrealistic scenario (the mid-launch abort, for one), it's terrifying how many times it almost happened. There were more times the quick thinking of a small group of Soviets or Americans than I can count on one hand, and those are just the declassified incidents...
Can't be that unrealistic if the whole thing happened in 1979 right down to the letter.
Even though I knew it was a video, my heart rate was up. When they popped the cookie to get the launch codes............................my word.
Fun fact: you can swim to russia from my country and I could instantly be dead
can you see russia from your house?
Came here after Russian media said they believe a nuclear war is more possible than a Russia accepting defeat.
Worst part is how they said it’s good since they’ll go to Heaven.
Nope, they're going into the boiler room.
@@AwkwrdPrtMskrt Optimistic cynicism
Total lie man. Russian said they believe nuclear war is real close. About Heaven, president Putin said Russia not strike first, and after russian people go to Heaven, everyone go to Hell
@@Ivan7Park If "everyone else" means Putin, Trump, Orban and their followers, then yes, they can all F right off.
Truth is, besides terrorists, the average people don't want to die. Even is they're promissed heaven.
2:38 bro what, are they flying the nukes ? 🤣
"I almost ended the world over a simulation"... NO ONE should have the power to do this.
We have submarines with enough warheads to destroy the earth. The whole "they take out our ability to respond" is 100% a dramatic vehicle for this scene.
They didn't really said that tho, they just said that it will diminish the ability to respond and destroy one arm of the nuclear triad, which would be true
Getting the message to the sub is hard if you've been vapourised along with every piece of comms gear, including carrier pigeon.
@@capnskiddies In the event that communication is cut off from US command & control and our subs due to a nuclear strike, the sub captain would launch his nukes at predesignated strike packages.
@@capnskiddies There are automatic nuclear detonation detection systems deep underground and protected, on both Russia and the USA's side that will send the go ahead to retaliate if there is no word from HQ after such an event (Such as if the POTUS, VicePOTUS or anybody else who could order the strike is dead). So yes, the subs would still retaliate. These same systems also detect where the launches originated from. Scary shit huh?
@@capnskiddies
Absence of comms with High Command is a big red flag for subs, isn't it?
Thank god we’re still on launch on warning!
We actually "de-targeted" the ICBMs a while back, but it's trivial to re-target them and takes a few seconds, even with the dated hardware.
Imagine Biden being in this situation holy
"I got hairy legs" 🍦
much better than trump being in this situation, given his constant state of derangement.
I was in SAC in the early 1970’s and had a Top Secret clearance and to this day I’m still a little nervous when I see something like this.
Don't forget to send "Wing Attack Plan R"
"I been to one world's far, a picnic, and a rodeo and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones"
Big boss: Get NORAD on the phone, now!
I love that he just goes “here we go” like “oh shit we doing this huh?”
as every programmer know, you always deploy to production on a friday at 5pm
"nuclear winter is just a theory" - if Carl Sagan says it will happen ... it will happen
That's like saying "Go ahead and jump off your roof, gravity is only a theory". Too many people don't understand what the word "theory" actually means.
Pale blue dot
Nuclear Winter would not happen I'll explain why. The theory was proposed closer to the time Titanic sunk than to modern day it's actually not accurate under modern assessment at all for several reasons doesn't matter who said it science is always evolving and improving especially since the 60s.
First of all the average warheads today are between 100KT-800KT on the NATO and Russian side which aren't large enough to send material high enough into the stratosphere to get stuck in the first place. Even if they did material does not stay in the stratosphere for as long as believed in the 1960s.
As for out of control fires from bombs even if you assume all the 50 square miles destroyed from the shockwave of a modern warhead burn (it wouldn't and didn't in Japan) and multiply that times 3000 for the strategic arsenal of NATO and Russia that leaves 150,000 square miles ablaze which is only 10% of the 1,500,000 square miles of earth that burn annually in natural wildfire patterns. We had no idea of this in the 60s.
So combined Nuclear ejecta and fires even in a full conflict are rather insignificant to global patterns this not even mentioning Volcanic activity.
Additionally the over 2000 Nuclear Weapons that have already been tested in the 60s didn't have any measurable impact on the climate despite a various range of tests from ground tests to airburts.
@@mykillmetal1814 Nuclear winter is not a theory though, it is a hypothesis.
Nuclear war is more like an action that has never happened. A “hypothesis” I think that’s what is called
Really cool scene from an underrated tho middling show
lol.. of all the doomsday scenarios I've seen, computer manager makes a change that will break something, then leaves for the weekend has to be the most plausible.
Then Yuri calls em on the phone and the silo doors don't open. lol.
Seriously though, would be nice to see a series where this actually happens. The devastation the ambiguity of who shot first (what if we actually fired first because of something like an unscheduled test), the reactions of the world and citizens to the new reality.
Maybe it would calm the voices the brush off the idea of a nuclear exchange between US and Russia or US and China.
Movie "Fail Safe" with Henry Fonda, b&w but still great.
Spoiler:
U.S. accidentally destroys Moscow. President "Fonda" to protect all out nuclear war, orders U.S. bombers to nuke New York. Peace.
My parents allowed me to watch Dr. Strangelove, but would not let me watch Fail Safe. Yes, I'm old.
"Does anyone disagree with the assessment"
Yes, the whole of humanity!
The insanity that mutually assured distruction is what is keeping us safe from attack.
Except its 100% true. If you're the only nation with nukes, you would use them and dominate the world. When more than one nation has them, they get too scared to use them lest they be retaliated against and have their entire culture erased in return. Dictators and politicians all have one thing in common: ego. And what egomaniac would willingly commit suicide, be looked down upon for all eternity as the worst human, murder everyone and everything they care for, and lose a war they otherwise had a chance of fighting?
@@PhoenixFires as much as nuclear power is safe, as is flying. Statistically correct but there are accidents, errors etc
It is absolutely certain that at some time in the future, a nuclear weapon will be used, either by accident or deliberately by a 'rogue nation' or terrorism.
Actually, no. The Russians don't believe in MAD...
This is legit what happens in Metal Gear Peace Walker, where an ai sent a simulated attack on the US where their satellites thinck an attack is coming, right as they were about to lunch the American nukes the president only delayed it, still intending to launch but because of one man "Big Boss" simplys asked to delay the launch so they can stop the ai of "The Boss" but the ai became fully self aware with the "The Boss" taking over and self destructing themselves.
Mr. President, it’s just some balloons. There’s 99 of them and they’re all red.
Satelites could have easily confirmed that this wasn't real.
Not if they are tied into the same system that "detected" the launches. To make an accurate simulation you simulate everything, that includes satellites.
Surley the people doing the lauch codes know their abouts to get eaten by an explosion right?
No they would be safe
The silo can survive anything less that a direct hit. They have a good chance of survival.
To be honest, considering those people likely know what it means to launch the missiles and what it will mean afterwards, they might consider themselves lucky that the explosion would consume them.
In a nuclear holocaust, I might suggest the lucky ones would be the ones that died instantly and painlessly first.
The LCCs were prime targets and they knew it. So did everyone at the nuclear bomber and ballistic missile sub bases.
The LCCs were prime targets and they knew it. So did everyone at the nuclear bomber and ballistic missile sub bases.
I like at the end when he said "maybe his wife should get a medal "😂.
Mistress actually
I like how the two guys in the silo are just having a casual conversation then go robotic when the orders come in
3:18 "Turn your key, sir!"
I like how most of my recommendations are mostly nuclear lol. At the same time it’s really scary.
this actually made my skin crawl how realistic this could be
We ain't got nothing to fear
This was such a good show. I miss it
It’s all fun and games until you hear your aide on the phone asking for confidence level
“Hey mom I’m joining the army to see the world!”
*gets stuck in a bunker full time in the middle of ~Idaho~* 😂
'Everybody is dead already' - Sarah Connor - Terminator 2 Judgment Day
Thanks to this scene. It got me into the show...
As a physicist we have studied this exact scenario. It's not impossible for a glitch to start a launch. Fortunately most of our nuclear arsenal is managed by Amiga computers from the early 1980's. Way less chance they can be hacked. But still there's always a glitch in the system.
As other replies here have noted, in real life the government would have sought corroborating evidence from allies and from the Russians themselves before retaliating. So things aren’t as grim as this clip implies.
@@GrapeCheckerBoard Not only that, there's a large amount of BS explanations around here. It's amusing, actually.
My man, I'm not sure where you get your information, but it's largely incorrect.
*Guru Meditation Error **#000000000653*
Amigas!!! I see Asteroids, Space Invaders, and, Frogger.........
Well that was a terrifying clip! And I've never seen this show before!! jeeze.
very accurate to how nuclear launch keys/codes are accepted and entered.
Glad to know that the advisor disregard a possible theory that could end the world just to attack between the two nations.
I know it good to have an adviser to play devil's advocate and not just be a yes man
It's already disregarded, as most scientists are sure nuclear winter is not gonna happen. Especially not with the low number of nukes now compared to the height of the cold war.
They're all pretty chill about ending the world. Very nice!
This was one of those intense episodes where you couldn't leave your seat on the couch otherwise you'd miss something.
I thought that the 2 guys sitting receiving orders on their monitor from the president going to answer a word puzzle to launch that ICBM
Lol, "he said he'd get us back after Syria" "by launching nukes?" LMFAO
SNAPCOUNT! :D
Turn your key sir! TURN YOUR KEY! Time for Michael Madsen to shoot "Leo". :)
The reality is this... once that box opens inside the command points... that's it. The SIOP will be executed. It would not be possible to EAM after the command centers lock down and go into launch.
Also find it amusing... the O6 would be the guy with the football... and if the 4 star was busy taking a shit... I assure you... a 3 star would be the guy manning the conn at SAC. Not some 0-6.
And I love the idea of MAJOR ATTACK OPTION ONE!
LOL!
Why not name it "MASSIVE ASS KICKING!"
We call the current plan for a massive retaliatory strike as OPLAN 8044... but that doesn't sound as good as "MAJOR ATTACK OPTION ONE!" :P
Great show!
Never seen this show but this clip was cool!
lmao imagine the kremlin.. "CYKA BYLAT WTF DID WE DO???"
The truly hilarious and terrifying thing is that if this ever does actually happen, there are absolutely no limits to what a government would do to keep that kind of screw up buried beyond all possible chance of exposure. "Remember that time we almost ended all life on Earth by accident?" "Nope. What are you talking about?" "Exactly."
Except they didn't cover it up. It happened in 1979 and 1983 and we all know about it.