With all the tension surrounding the North Korean nuclear program, this Friday Film certainly was topical. The movie this week was Dr. Strangelove, the story of how the world comes to an end through sabotage, mistakes, miscommunication, and possibly from one too many unfunny jokes. It is important to realize that humor (apparently) was very different in the 1960s, so setting that aside we should look to the message that the filmmakers were trying to convey. A general sends out his nuclear bomber planes without consulting anyone else. This leads to the uncomfortable position in which the American president tries to work with  his generals, the Russians, and the eponymous Dr. Strangelove to save the world from an accidental nuclear war. The resulting comedy is based around the ridiculous nature with which everyone attempts to resolve the situation. The general who started the attack has a crazy obsession with “bodily fluids”, the other American generals think that maybe war isn’t a terrible idea, the Russian leader is drunk at a party, and Dr. Strangelove (a former Nazi scientist) seems a little too excited about the destruction of the world. It seems as though humanity is destined to destroy itself by its own incompetence.

So how realistic is this? Spectacularly realistic. There have been multiple examples of how people around the world treat nuclear weapons with little to no concern. It is scary to learn about the number of nukes which have rolled off ships or been accidentally been deployed. In 1958 the US Air Force lost a bomb off the coast of Georgia, they looked for it for years but still have never found it. In 1961 the Air Force did it again in North Carolina, accidentally dropping two nuclear bombs into a swamp. They found both, but one was so deep in the swamp they left it and just bought all the land around it. To this day there are soldiers guarding a bit of swamp so that no one can try and dig it up. During the Cuban missile crisis a Russian submarine mistakenly thought it was under attack so they armed their nuclear weapons. Nuclear war almost started because some Russians heard a weird noise. Then there was the time a US airmen dropped a wrench on an ICBM and almost blew-up most of Arkansas. Even today it was reported that at the North Korean nuclear test site satellites took photos of people playing volleyball. So rather than the image we have of war, grave faces contemplating the fate of the world, World War Three could start while our president eats “the best” chocolate cake and the North Koreans play volleyball.

So are we destined to destroy ourselves in some  morbid comedy? Probably not, despite all the accidents the fail-safes have proved effective. The truly insane thing about all this is that humanity has the capability to destroy itself. It is such a strange concept to kill everything imaginable, and governments really do seem to love.  This is exemplified in the character Dr. Strangelove, he takes a great interest in the idea of a world-wide nuclear war. So we must be responsible with our new power, but remember no to love it too much.