Goofs for
Fail-Safe (1964) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: In scenes intended to be simultaneous, the time is 5:30 AM in New York, Washington, Omaha, and Anchorage. Consideration of sunrise times shows that 5:30 AM Eastern Time must have been what was meant.
  
  
• Continuity: The bombers in the film are portrayed using a Convair B-58 Hustler (see trivia entry), except during the final attack on Moscow, when the plane briefly appears as a North American F-86 Sabre Jet instead. Also some on-board footage of an X-15 experimental plane launch is used to depict the contrail of the missiles fired at the last attempt to stop the bomber (also, previous external shots of the bombers did not show much of a contrail, whereas the rocket engine exhaust of the X-15 is clearly visible.)
  
  
• Errors in geography: Many errors in the map displays. For example, Bering Strait is shown too narrow and twisty, with part of Russia extending north of the Seward Peninsula; and in the first two scales of map shown, Hudson Strait is too narrow and a nonexistent island appears southeast of Baffin Island.
  
  

• Continuity: The UFO is reported initially "near Hudson's Bay" and its course is given (both in dialogue and on text superimposed on the map display) as 196, heading for Detroit. But according to the map display itself, it initially appears near the Labrador coast, more than 500 miles from Hudson Bay; and while it is heading for Detroit, its course from there is to the southwest, about 225.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the fighters count down to light off their afterburners to try to catch up with the bombers, the shot where they light off their afterburners is actually a shot of the fighters launching missiles as you can see the missiles streak ahead of the fighters.
  
  
• Continuity: After Professor Groeteschele concludes his remarks on the casualties that NYC will suffer and the need for excavating large corporations' records (which are vital to the economy), he crosses in front of the "tactical" screen. The screen displays the sixth "defensive" bomber (which carried no bombs) and it's spread of "decoy" transmissions. At this point in the film, the Russian fighters have already focused on and detroyed this bomber (to General Bogan's dismay) and the final bomber (which has no decoy capability) has dropped below radar, never to be seen on the tactical screen again. It is likely that this scene was moved during editing.
  
  
• Continuity: The end credits list General Black's wife as named Betty, but in the film he addresses her as Katie, and in a radio conversation, the President asks Black, "are Kathryn and the kids in New York?"
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the pilot is talking to a member of his crew and playing pool he clearly hits a striped ball with the cue, using it in stead of the cue ball
  
  
• Factual errors: The interpreter is repeatedly described as a 'translator'. These are quite distinct professions (even though some people pursue both). Translators work on written texts, interpreters help people speaking different languages to communicate verbally.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The flyover of the Empire State Building shows it without its television transmitter mast, which was completed in 1952.
  
  
• Factual errors: The interior shots of the bombers, Convair B-58 Hustlers (see Trivia), actually were shot inside of a commercial airline simulator then under repair at a a New York airport. The three crew members sit within feet of each other, in an open cockpit layout. In an actual B-58, the world's first supersonic bomber (and capable of twice the speed of sound), the three-man crew of pilot, bombardier/navigator, and defense systems specialist were separated by banks of equipment, and had no physical contact with one another. To make survivable ejection possible on such a high-speed aircraft, each compartment was specifically designed as wholly contained clam-shell "pod" that would disengage intact if the need arose. As a result, the crew had to rely on an internal telecommunications system to talk, or a string-and-pulley system that ran along the cabin wall to exchange notes if those systems failed. It's speculated that this early "jettison pod" design was incorporated as a Presidential safeguard on modern 747 versions of Airforce One, as implied in the 1997 Harrison Ford movie thriller, "Air Force One," and that it also inspired the crew containment compartment of the space shuttle.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the beginning of the meeting in the War Room at the Pentagon, while everyone is milling around and providing "small talk", General Stark mistakenly calls General Black "Whitey", when his actual nickname is "Blackie".
  
  
• Continuity: Just before Mrs Grady tries to speak to her husband, the Ultimate 1 war room display shows 3 Vindicator bombers when at this time there is only one left.
  
  
• Continuity: When there are only 2 bombers left, they are shown in very tight formation, while on the map being monitored as they fly over Russia, the bombers are shown very far (miles) apart, certainly not feet.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the very beginning of the first scene in the White House, look closely at the President, his secretary and the 2 other men: they're all standing perfectly abreast of each other at the end of a hallway, as if they were just standing there waiting for the director to yell "Action!". If they really had just come around the corner (which is the only place they could have come from, since the hallway dead ends on a window), they should be jumbled more closely together, being able to walk abreast of each other only after 3 or 4 steps.
  
  

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