Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove
Esay 5701 is a fictitious line in the 1964 dark comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is a phone number that the fictional character, Dr. Strangelove, gives to the US President during a telephone conversation, in an attempt to prevent a nuclear holocaust. This phone number alludes to themes of technology, humanity, and despair in the film, as Dr. Strangelove wants the president to use it out of desperation against the relentless Soviet nuclear attack. The number itself is never actually dialed, but it serves as a symbol of a last-ditch attempt by the final authority figure in the story to try and overcome the imminence of disaster. It stands for a possible hope against the impending destruction of life. In its own way, the number serves as an underlying statement from Kubrick on the complexity of human nature and its endless capacity to contrive seemingly miraculous solutions in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
