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Very few people know of Stanislav Petrov, yet hundreds of millions are alive because of him. Petrov single-handedly averted a full-scale Nuclear World War in 1983.
1983. The height of the Cold War. Stanislav Petrov is the man with his finger on the button when Russian radars intercept what appear to be five American nuclear missiles heading straight towards Russian soil. With alarm bells ringing and panic spreading, will Petrov fire back and start a nuclear world war, or break protocol and trust instead the gut instinct that tells him it’s a false alarm.
You may never have heard of Petrov, but his actions on 26 September 1983 saved us from World War III, sparing the lives of millions. Yet, decades later we find him a ruined man, forgotten and struggling, his life unravelling around him. When he is unexpectedly invited to New York to speak at the UN, Petrov embarks on a spectacular journey, finally receiving the recognition he deserves and starting to come to terms with the past.
The Man Who Saved The World powerfully combines stunning reconstruction of the past and real-life filming today, expertly interweaving the two into a nerve-tingling cold war thriller and an extraordinary warning to avoid the mistakes of the past.