Command and Control — Trailer

added: Mon, Jul 4th '16

Back in September of 1980, in the rural city of Damascus, Arkansas, there was a mass explosion at a top-secret Air Force facility that sent chills through the entire state, including the town officials and then-governor Bill Clinton. At the time, the military downplayed the incident, and their lack of transparency eventually turned the events into an obscure footnote in history. But we now know, it could have been a nightmare of epic proportions.

Check out the trailer for "Command and Control," a documentary thriller that chronicles the nearly forgotten story of the "1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion," in which a maintenance accident inadvertently caused a fuel-tank explosion inside an underground missile silo that stored one of the most powerful nuclear warheads produced by the United States. Though regarded as a near-miss, the incident could have potentially wiped Arkansas off the map, if the warhead was detonated by the blast. Miraculously it didn't.

Based on the 2013 investigative book of the same name by journalist/author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), and directed by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.), "Command and Control" premiered to rave reviews at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and will screen at a couple of other festivals this summer.

The documentary will officially be released in select cities in September and will air on PBS sometime in 2017.

(Note: Schlosser's book inspired Radiohead to write the song "4 Minute Warning," which is featured in the above trailer.)

synopsis:
A chilling, Dr. Strangelovian nightmare plays out at a Titan II missile complex in Arkansas in September, 1980. A deadly accident -- the result of a falling socket puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States -- leads Air Force personnel, weapon designers, and first responders to work feverishly to prevent a calamitous explosion. Directed by Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) and based on the critically-acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Command and Control is a minute-by-minute account of this long-hidden story -- much of it based on recently declassified documents that expose other freak accidents and near-misses. How do you manage weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?

directed by Robert Kenner

release date September 14, 2016 (NY), September 30, 2016 (LA) -- Other cities to follow