Despite being made over four decades ago, the movie continues to hold some impact. Burt Lancaster portrays an American Air Force General stripped of his rank who, along with two others, breaks out of prison and seizes control of a nuclear missile site containing nine missiles. Richard Widmark appears as his previous superior officer, now on the opposing side, in what becomes a carefully planned, steadily unfolding, and genuinely unsettling battle of wits. The narrative gains considerable weight when the President—played by Charles Durning—discovers that beyond standard requests for funds and transportation from their captors, there’s also an order for him to publicly denounce the violence in South East Asia; a confidential report detailing this information shocks the president, who is presented as an upstanding man. The narrative proves captivating, and the three lead actors create a substantial amount of suspense throughout much of the runtime. Sadly, the film loses momentum around 100 minutes into its length, as moralizing and what feels like bleak political commentary emerge, pushing the story onto a path leading to a very unbelievable ending that diminishes much of the earlier merit of this Robert Aldrich production. It’s still worthwhile to view, I guess it's conceivable that something like this could actually occur.

Source on TMDB