Command and Control

Based on investigative journalist Eric Schlosser's titular 2013 book, filmmaker Robert Kenner's (Food, Inc.) chilling PBS-aired American Experience documentary centers on a near-nuclear apocalypse in the U.S. In September 1980, a worker accidentally dropped an eight-pound socket while servicing a Titan II missile at a well-hidden silo in Arkansas, a mishap that touched off a nine-hour ordeal that could easily have led to an explosion that would have been 600 times more destructive than the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima. The socket bounced and pierced the fuel tank of the intercontinental ballistic missile, releasing vaporous fuel that quickly filled the silo and reduced the missile's internal pressure, threatening the imminent collapse of the Titan II. Kenner does an extraordinary job of visually recreating these doomsday scenes (which were shot in a decommissioned Titan II silo), filling in the narrative with numerous interviews of the men who were at the site on that fateful day, along with various politicians, a retired officer from the Strategic Air Command, and former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. As the blow-by-blow account of confusion, ineptitude, courage, and catastrophe unfolds, numerous related issues concerning the state of America's nuclear arsenal then and now are discussed. Also horrifically noted is a hidden history of U. S. accidents—totaling more than 1,000—involving nuclear weapons. Featuring both the full-length version and a 90-minute theatrical release edition, this riveting and terrifying tale of human fallibility and weapons of unimaginable power could not be more timely or more alarming. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)