about to drop their bombs. As a last-ditch effort, the Soviets fire a barrage of nuclear-tipped missiles to form a fireball in an attempt to knock the low-flying Vindicators out of the sky. The Vindicator shoot up one last decoy, which successfully leads the Soviet missiles high in the air. However, one missile explodes earlier than expected; the second bomber blows up, but Colonel Grady's plane survives. With the radio channel still open, the President attempts to persuade Grady that there is no war. Believing that such a late recall attempt must be a Soviet trick, as per his training, Grady ignores them. The nearby explosion of the Soviet missiles has given the bomber crew a huge radiation dose, and Grady tells his crew, "We're not just walking wounded, we're walking dead men." He intends to fly the aircraft over Moscow and detonate the bombs in the plane. His co-pilot agrees, noting, "There's nothing to go home to" under the belief that the United States has already been devastated by a full-scale nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. When it becomes apparent that one bomber will get through Soviet defenses and destroy Moscow with their two 20-megaton bombs, the U.S. President states that he will order an American bomber to destroy New York City at the same time, using two 20-megaton bombs, targeting the Empire State Building as ground zero; this also involves a grave personal sacrifice, as the First Lady is visiting New York, and the President decides not to warn her. On hearing the New York attack plan, the supposedly atheist Communist leader bursts out with "Holy Mother of God!" He is appalled but realizes that it is the only way to prevent a worldwide nuclear war which will probably destroy humanity as "others" (presumably the Soviet military) would not accept the unilateral destruction of Moscow, and would depose him and retaliate against the West. Moscow is bombed and immediately thereafter the New York bombs are dropped by a senior general within SAC, a long-time friend of the President who orders his crew to let him handle the entire bombing run by himself, assuming responsibility for the destruction of New York city; he then takes his own life. In his book "Men Who Play God: The Story of the Hydrogen Bomb", Norman Moss describes both the book and film as flawed due to the way nuclear release orders