After the insane General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop the nuclear strike.
Only Ripper knows the code to recall the B-52 bombers – and he's unreachable. Meanwhile, at the Pentagon's war room, the hapless U.S. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) and General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) grapple with the questionable advice of a nuclear scientist and adviser: former Nazi Dr. Strangelove (Sellers).