Command and Control (2016)
86%RT Audience Score: 75%
Awards & Nominations: 2 wins
Command and Control takes a riveting look at the American nuclear program that offers some disturbing insights — and raises some immensely troubling questions
Command and Control” is a documentary that will make you want to hide under your bed and never come out. It’s scarier than any horror movie because it’s real. The film explores the terrifying possibility of a nuclear accident and how close we’ve come to disaster. It’s a wake-up call to the fact that sometimes the biggest threat to our safety is ourselves. So, if you want to spend 92 minutes on the edge of your seat, this is the movie for you. Just don’t forget to breathe.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
PBS, American Experience
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
2016
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:NA
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Runtime:1h 32m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 14, 2016 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2017
Genre(s)
Documentary
Keyword(s)
Command and Control, documentary, Robert Kenner, Eric Schlosser, Melissa Robledo, nuclear program, self-annihilation, human error, American nuclear program, PBS, American Experience, 2016, 1h 32m, Tomatometer, critic reviews, audience score, box office, gross USA, $46.6K, directed by Robert Kenner, produced by Eric Schlosser, written by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, reviewed by Brad Newsome, Mick LaSalle, J.R Jones, Matthew Lickona, Tirdad Derakhshani, Kenneth Turan, Phil W Bayles, Nathanael Hood, Andrew Parker, Cole Smithey, Elias Savada, documentary film, nuclear explosion, nuclear accident, Cold War, nuclear weapons, nuclear site, survivors, journalist, risks, accidental nuclear-weapon explosion, malevolence, security, terrifying documentary, white-knuckle thrill ride, deadly doomsday scenario
Worldwide gross: $57,635
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $71,035
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 3,058
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 7,746
US/Canada gross: $57,635
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $71,035
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,713
US/Canada opening weekend: $5,385
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $6,637
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,774
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Eric Schlosser – Producer, Screenwriter
Melissa Robledo – Producer
Robert Kenner – Screenwriter
Director(s)
Robert Kenner
Writer(s)
Robert Kenner, Eric Schlosser
Producer(s)
Eric Schlosser, Melissa Robledo
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
2 wins
Academy Awards
All Critics (40) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (2)
Survivors give gripping accounts of events, while journalist Eric Schlosser (on whose book the documentary is based) explains that the risks of an accidental nuclear-weapon explosion have always been much higher than we imagined.
August 2, 2018
Brad Newsome
Sydney Morning Herald
TOP CRITIC
As a child, I worried about nuclear war. It never occurred to me that I should have been worried about a nuclear accident.
October 12, 2016 | Rating: 3/4
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
The inescapable conclusion is that we have more to fear from our own human error than from our enemies’ malevolence.
October 6, 2016
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
There’s an important story to tell here, one about the risks created by the very people and things we employ to keep us secure, but not enough to fill the 92-minute runtime.
October 5, 2016 | Rating: 1/5
Matthew Lickona
San Diego Reader
TOP CRITIC
A terrifying documentary that’ll have your heart racing as fast as any Hollywood thriller, Kenner’s film reveals that, due to a range of errors and accidents, we were very close, more than once, to detonating a nuke on our own soil.
September 30, 2016 | Rating: 3.5/4
Tirdad Derakhshani
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
Lots of documentaries these days will tell you to be afraid, to be very afraid, but few will scare you as coolly and as convincingly as “Command and Control.”
September 29, 2016
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
Meticulously crafted and deeply disturbing, Command and Control is as riveting as any fictional thriller – more so because of its chilling implications for the future.
April 2, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Phil W. Bayles
One Room With A View
These are the things of which nightmares are made.
December 28, 2018 | Rating: 8/10
Nathanael Hood
Screen Comment
A film that’s as close to a white-knuckle thrill ride as talking head documentaries will probably ever get.
August 28, 2018
Andrew Parker
The Gate
(PODCAST) This well researched and expertly executed documentary is essential viewing for understanding a potentially world-ending pervasive threat facing America.
August 17, 2017 | Rating: A+
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Command and Control is one heck of a deadly doomsday scenario.
March 12, 2017 | Rating: 4/5
Elias Savada
Film International
Robert Kenner’s compelling and tense documentary Command and Control… looks at the danger arguably more basic and constant than that of nuclear war in the mere deployment of nuclear weapons in supposedly safe stateside locations.
December 9, 2016
Jonathan Stevenson
Brooklyn Magazine…
Plot
Command and Control is a documentary that explores the human error that led to a nuclear explosion at the end of the Cold War and raises questions about the risks of mutually assured destruction.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Fresh Kernels does not provide any tidbit about the cast of Command and Control in this particular section.
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