The Man Who Saved the World

2013 film by Peter Anthony This article is about the 2013 documentary film. For the 1982 Turkish action film, see Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam. For the Secrets of the Dead episode, see Secrets of the Dead § Season 11 (2012).

The Man Who Saved the World
Cinema poster
Directed by	Peter Anthony
Written by	Peter Anthony
Produced by	Jakob Staberg
Starring	Stanislav Petrov Galina Kalinina Sergey Shnyryov [ru] Kevin Costner
Cinematography	Kim Hattesen Anders Löfstedt
Edited by	Morten Højbjerg
Music by	Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Production companies	Statement Film Light Cone Pictures Studio Mao (in association with)
Distributed by	Syndicado
Release date	27 April 2013 (2013-04-27) (Hot Docs)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Denmark
Languages	English and Russian

The Man Who Saved the World is a 2013 feature-length Danish documentary film by filmmaker Peter Anthony about Stanislav Petrov, a former lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces and his role in preventing the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident from leading to nuclear holocaust.

The film premiered in October 2014 at the Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, New York, winning; "Honorable Mention: Audience Award Winner for Best Narrative Feature" and "Honorable Mention: James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Narrative Feature." On 22 February 2018 the film premiered in Russia at the Documentary Film Center in Moscow.

Synopsis

On 26 September 1983, the computers in the Serpukhov-15 bunker outside Moscow, which housed the command centre of the Soviet early warning satellite system, twice reported that U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles were heading toward the Soviet Union. Stanislav Petrov, who was duty officer that night, suspected that the system was malfunctioning and managed to convince his superiors of the same thing. He argued that if the U.S. was going to attack pre-emptively it would do so with more than just five missiles, and that it was best to wait for ground radar confirmation before launching a counter-attack.

The documentary features Petrov's 2006 trip to the US with interpreter Galina. On the trip, Petrov visits the UN, meets among others Kevin Costner and visits the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

Production notes

In the film, footage of Petrov today is intertwined with re-enactments of the dramatic moments in 1983. Sergey Shnyryov plays Petrov in the re-enactments.

Peter Anthony made the film over a decade; the process was difficult because of Petrov's reluctance to open up. Anthony said: "He is quite difficult to work with, as in his day, you could still go to the gulag for disclosing unauthorised information, and as an ex-soldier, he wasn't really interested in discussing his personal feelings. That though is the beauty of the story."

Awards

2013

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

Nominated, Best International Documentary

2014

CPH:DOX

Nominated, Politiken's Audience Award
Nominated, Nordic Dox Award

Woodstock Film Festival

Won, Honorable Mention: Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Won, Honorable Mention: James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Narrative Feature
Nominated, Jury Prize: Best Narrative Feature