Based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George, Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece drops you right at the height of the tensions between the USSR and the United States, world destruction literally at folks' fingertips. And General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has itchy fingers. Convinced that the Soviets have infiltrated America's "vital essence," the crazed Ripper gives the go code to the 843rd bomb wing to attack the Soviet Union, setting in motion a series of darkly hilarious vignettes involving gung-ho soldiers, wacky generals, spying Soviets, drunken premiers, battles with soda machines, fights in the War Room, and the Soviet's top-secret Doomsday Machine.