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From the script:
General Ripper is unaware that the Soviets have constructed a so-called " doomsday device" which automatically detects any nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, whereupon it destroys all life on Earth via massive nuclear falloutFallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion and is named from the fact that it "falls out" of the atmosphere in to which it is spread during the explosion. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust created when a nuclear weapon expl. Dr. Strangelove ( Peter SellersRichard Henry Sellers ( September 8, 1925 July 24, 1980), better known as Peter Sellers was a British comedian, talented comic actor, and performer on The Goon Show (a long-running BBC radio show, 1951- 1960). Sellers was born in Southsea, Hampshire, Engl) explains to the staff assembled in the American war room how the device is a natural extension to the Cold War strategem of mutually assured destruction as a deterrent to an actual nuclear exchange. Moreover, the machine cannot be turned off as this would mitigate its value as a deterrent.
As a result, the American government cooperates with the Soviets to shoot the General's planes down until they can be recalled, and Ripper's plan is ultimately foiled by British Group CaptainGroup Captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above Wing Commander and immediately below Air Commodore It has a NATO ranking code of OF-5, and is equivalent to a Captai Lionel Mandrake (also played by Peter SellersRichard Henry Sellers ( September 8, 1925 July 24, 1980), better known as Peter Sellers was a British comedian, talented comic actor, and performer on The Goon Show (a long-running BBC radio show, 1951- 1960). Sellers was born in Southsea, Hampshire, Engl), an officer participating in an "exchange program" with the USAF, who deduces the recall code from Ripper's childish doodles. Unfortunately, one B-52 ("The Leper Colony") cannot be called back as its radio was destroyed by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile and it continues its mission to drop its nuclear payload on a Soviet target, that will in turn set off the doomsday machine. The particular bomb is jammed in its bay, and in trying to release it, the pilot of the B-52, Major "King" Kong ( Slim Pickens) inadvertently ends up riding it down to global destruction — with Kong cheering all the way. Kong straddles the bomb, gripping it with one hand and waving his cowboy hat in the air with his other in an homage to rodeo bullriding technique.