Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (commonly shortened to Dr. Strangelove) is a 1964 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. Loosely based upon the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert (also known as Two Hours to Doom) by Peter George, the source material was refashioned as a black comedy by screenwriter Terry Southern. Dr. Strangelove satirizes the fragile nature of the Cold War conflict and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. The film opens at the fictional Burpelson Air Force Base, where the insane General Jack D. Ripper has just ordered a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, and proceeds to follow the President of the United States, his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer as they try to recall Ripper's bombers in order to prevent a nuclear apocalypse.

In 1989 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Additionally, it was listed as #26 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies" and #3 on its "100 Years, 100 Laughs."
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