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Question about the ending and The Doomsday Machine

posted 8 years ago by napalminthemorning47
6 replies | jump to latest

I've seen Dr. Strangelove possibly over 40 times and is one of my top 10 favorite films. Also the ending is one of my all time favorite endings as well. But I just finished watching it for the umpteenth time and I was shocked to find myself confused about something. Didn't Dimitri tell the president on the phone that if Major Kong's (Slim Pickens) plane succeeded bombing it's target that the Doomsday Machine would be set off? Well, Kong succeeded even though it wasn't the primary target. The Doomsday machine should've been set off. So shouldn't the scene afterwards where Strangelove is taking about his mine shaft plan not be possible? Shouldn't the whole world be dead at that point? Shouldn't the plan be useless? I mean, even if the Doomsday Machine hasn't gone off yet, there is no way there is enough time for Strangelove's mine shaft to come to fruition. The human race should be done for.

Sir! I have a plan![standing up from his wheelchair] Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!

[–] Coconut_Kaasa 8 years ago

I think that sequence was put there to make it even more absurd. These are the most important leaders of the world basically acting as little boys talking about building a clubhouse, when they know full well that the situation is out of their hands.

They call me the Mayor, 'Cause I spend all my days here

[–] action_on_deck 8 years ago

The best I can figure, the new target that Kong's crew selected would also set off the Doomsday Machine.

[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

You know I thought the same thing, napalm. How can they be planning for putting people in the mine shaft when the doomsday machine has been detonated, and all life will soon be eradicated?

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

[–] cfhfan138 8 years ago

I always just assumed that it takes time for the ICBMs connected to the Doomsday Machine to reach their targets. Even a fast travelling missile would take a considerable amount of time to travel from the Zhokhov Islands (or the Ural Mountains) to Washington D.C. So basically, they're spending their last few minutes before Armageddon fantasizing about a 10:1 ratio of women to men.

[–] Badass_123 8 years ago

I don't think the Doomsday Machine would target every square inch of Earth.
It would only hit major cities, and then it would take time for the radioactivity to spread throughout the entire world. So it could be weeks before the radioactivity reached the location of the War Room, and by then they would have moved everyone into the nearest mineshaft.

[–] marktayloruk (2590) 3 years ago

Didn't they say nine or ten months?