Dr. Strangelove ending explained: Was the nuclear war averted?
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a political satire black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Terry Southern and Peter George.
Based on Peter George's 1958 novel Red Alert, the film is considered among the greatest satire films of all time. It is among the 25 films selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry for its cultural and aesthetic significance.
Starring Peter Sellers in three different roles, including the titular character, the film is about a potential nuclear war and the end-of-the-world scenario. When a United States Air Force Brigadier General sets Wing Attack Plan R in motion to attack Russia, the President must stop it before the Russian Doomsday Machine sets off.
The film ended with multiple nuclear bombs exploding and ending the world, while a rendition of Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again, played in the background.
Besides Sellers, the film also stars George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, and Tracy Reed in prominent roles.
Dr. Strangelove is a satire on the bizarre politics of the Cold War
The film began with a news-style voice-over that informed about a rumor that the Soviet Union had developed the ultimate weapon, called the doomsday machine, and stationed it somewhere below the arctic peaks of the Zokov islands.
After a title sequence showing the clips of a US Air Force plane, the scene shifted to the Air Force Base, where General Ripper ordered his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, to put the base on red alert.
The alert initiated a special provision in which all the communications were locked, and any person or vehicle approaching the facility was fired at.
The B-52 bombers armed with thermonuclear bombs were ordered to Wing Attack Plan R, which meant that 34 bombers would attack different Soviet bases, initiating an all-out nuclear war.
When the President of the United States got the information about this unauthorized attack, he called all the available authority figures to stop the impending doom.
In his war room, three prominent figures played the biggest role in the discussion. General Buck Turgidson, the nuclear war expert Dr. Strangelove, and the Russian ambassador, Alexei de Sadeski.
It was informed by Sadeski that if Russia is attacked, a special weapon called the doomsday machine would self-detonate, creating massive explosions and making the surface of Earth inhabitable for the next 100 years.
However, implementing all possible strategies and constantly communicating with the Russian Premier Dmitri Kissof, the War Room experts couldn't stop one of the bombers from attacking the Russian base.
Dr. Strangelove proposed a nazi-inspired plan to save humanity
After one of the US bombers dropped a nuclear weapon on the Soviets, the people in the War Room immediately began to discuss the possibility of surviving the nuclear holocaust.
Dr. Strangelove proposed the idea of selecting a few hundred thousand suitable people to live in the mines, which would be unaffected by the impacts of the doomsday machine. The suitable people, of course, include the top-level diplomats, politicians, and generals, to so-called keep the order amid chaos.
All the top-level staff immediately came on board after hearing the specifics of his breeding program, which would include a ratio of 10 physically healthy females to one male, to keep the population maintained for 100 years.
The decision of choosing the suitable people to save and the unsuitable to die would be selected by the computers on the basis of intelligence, health, se*ual fertility, etc. Hence, creating the 'master race,' as envisioned by Adolf Hitler.
The nuclear war wasn't averted in Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove's final moments, General Buck Turgidson discussed the 'mineshift gap,' which referred to the potential gap in the mine population of the US as compared to that of the Soviets. He emphasised that the Americans must breed more than the Soviets to have an upper hand in the fighting capacity, after the nuclear winter is over.
The 'mineshift gap' is a reference to the 'missile gap,' coined by John F. Kennedy, that referred to the superiority of the Soviets' missiles over those of America. As the American War Room staff discussed the next arena of the Cold War, the Russian ambassador pressed a button on his watch, setting the doomsday machine in motion.
In the final few second of the film, a crippled Dr. Strangelove, miraculously stood up from his chair, proclaiming, "Mein Führer, I can walk!" referencing a return of Hitler's ideology.
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