How A Nuclear War Will Start - Minute by Minute

Mr. President! Nuclear missiles will  strike our country in 14 minutes.

I know it’s your first day in office so I’m going  to walk you through it, but you’re the only one

who can authorize our nuclear retaliation in  

response and you’ve only got a  few minutes to make a decision!

As you know tensions have escalated  rapidly in the past few days.

Today’s joint allied aerial defense exercise  began just minutes before we detected the launch.

A simple misunderstanding maybe.

We assume the sudden attack is meant to neutralize  as many of our nuclear forces as possible.

But that doesn’t matter now – missiles are in  the air and we can’t shoot all of ‘em down.

Why? Because Intercontinental ballistic  missiles are basically rockets launched into space

before re-entering the atmosphere over their  target and releasing many different warheads.

Higher and faster than anything  you can send after them.

We need to get you to the bunker!