Aside from the lunatic premise that we'd ever perpetually lock ourselves into the nuclear-hostage situation of Mutual Assured Destruction, thus forever ending any hope of real nuclear disarmament (to say nothing of possible changing geo-political situations, such as the fall of the Soviet Union), this movie had some real plot holes.
I saw Colossus: The Forbin Project when it was first released, and even at 10 years old I noted a particular plot-hole large enough to drive a semi through. Colossus/Guardian only hold their power thru the fact that they control America and Russia's nuclear-tipped ICBM's, right? Then why not de-fang this monster right at the source? Secretly move troops into the areas of our and the Russians ICBM launch complexes, ringing them with machine guns, anti-air artillery, and SAM's (surface-to-air missiles) -- then let Colossus/Guardian TRY firing them off!
An ICBM coming out of a silo is EXTREMELY vulnerable -- it's relatively slow, very thin-skinned, and filled with highly-explosive propellant. One good machine-gun burst would puncture it's skin and blow it to bits (to say nothing of what the radar-controlled anti-air artillery and heat-seeking SAMs that existed in 1970 could do). Our ICBM force's credibility as a deterrent always took for granted that we would have physical control of the ground around the ICBM silos -- otherwise they could be "taken out" as soon as they emerged from the ground. (Also note that accidental detonation of the warhead when the missile blows up is virtually impossible; the only slight risk might involve a small amount of radiation leakage from the warhead's plutonium components -- but all our ICBM sites are located in remote areas, anyway). What I'd realized back in 1970 was confirmed in the 1980's when I was attached to a strategic missile test squadron at Vandenberg AFB (the Air Forces' premier missile test facility), not only gaining a working-knowledge of our ICBMs but witnessing many test launches.
Verbal orders passed along to move troops into the ICBM areas would have ensured no Colossus/Guardian eavesdropping and pre-emptory launches. Once in place the super-computers' would have been thoroughly "check-mated". And just imagine Colossus/Guardian's surprise when they launched some missiles to teach us dumb humans who's the boss, and each missile got flamed within a thousand yards of it's silo! "Goodbye, Colossus! Goodbye, Guardian! Take your orders and shove them!"
I saw Colossus: The Forbin Project when it was first released, and even at 10 years old I noted a particular plot-hole large enough to drive a semi through. Colossus/Guardian only hold their power thru the fact that they control America and Russia's nuclear-tipped ICBM's, right? Then why not de-fang this monster right at the source? Secretly move troops into the areas of our and the Russians ICBM launch complexes, ringing them with machine guns, anti-air artillery, and SAM's (surface-to-air missiles) -- then let Colossus/Guardian TRY firing them off!
An ICBM coming out of a silo is EXTREMELY vulnerable -- it's relatively slow, very thin-skinned, and filled with highly-explosive propellant. One good machine-gun burst would puncture it's skin and blow it to bits (to say nothing of what the radar-controlled anti-air artillery and heat-seeking SAMs that existed in 1970 could do). Our ICBM force's credibility as a deterrent always took for granted that we would have physical control of the ground around the ICBM silos -- otherwise they could be "taken out" as soon as they emerged from the ground. (Also note that accidental detonation of the warhead when the missile blows up is virtually impossible; the only slight risk might involve a small amount of radiation leakage from the warhead's plutonium components -- but all our ICBM sites are located in remote areas, anyway). What I'd realized back in 1970 was confirmed in the 1980's when I was attached to a strategic missile test squadron at Vandenberg AFB (the Air Forces' premier missile test facility), not only gaining a working-knowledge of our ICBMs but witnessing many test launches.
Verbal orders passed along to move troops into the ICBM areas would have ensured no Colossus/Guardian eavesdropping and pre-emptory launches. Once in place the super-computers' would have been thoroughly "check-mated". And just imagine Colossus/Guardian's surprise when they launched some missiles to teach us dumb humans who's the boss, and each missile got flamed within a thousand yards of it's silo! "Goodbye, Colossus! Goodbye, Guardian! Take your orders and shove them!"