When the President's plane mysteriously disappears with him on board, it is left to the seemingly weak Vice President to try to avert a nuclear exchange with the Chinese.
Acting
Rip Torn seething in every scene he's in.
Direction
Daryl Duke squeezing Hitchcock tension from TV budgets.
Production
Pentagon-set authenticity that aged terrifyingly well.
Director
Daryl Duke
Buddy Ebsen
Vice President Kermit Madigan
Peter Graves
Mark Jones
Arthur Kennedy
Gunther Damon
Raymond Massey
Secretary of State Freeman Sharkey
Mercedes McCambridge
Hester Madigan
Rip Torn
George Oldenburg
Louise Sorel
Joanna Spencer
James Wainwright
Gen. Dunbar
Dabney Coleman
Sen. Bert Haines
Joseph Campanella
Col. Doug Henderson
Richard Eastham
Gen. Colton
Tod Andrews
President Jeremy Haines
Maida Severn
Judy Nance
Ivan Bonar
Colonel to Dunbar
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Watergate's slow burn, this played like documentary to paranoid audiences. The weak VP archetype hit different when Agnew was actually resigning.
Arthur Kennedy filmed his scenes while visibly ill; his frailty as Damon was genuine and uncorrected.
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