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Burpelson Air Force Base
General Jack D. Ripper
General Jack D. Ripper
Played By: Sterling Hayden
The crazed general who triggers the whole plot out of a paranoid frenzy.
- Adaptation Name Change: His novel counterpart was named General Quinten.
- Big Bad: Is the man trying to trigger nuclear war.
- Compensating for Something: You know a man has issues when he compensates for The Loins Sleep Tonight by starting World War III.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Ripper believes that the Communists are behind a vast international conspiracy to sap all Americans of their "precious bodily fluids", and is convinced that they are achieving this by putting fluoride into the drinking water.
- Driven to Suicide: Ripper's fate. He does it because he is not sure he could trust himself not to give up the code to call The Wing back if he is given "a pretty good working over."
- Evil Is Petty: He is planning to blow up the world because he blames the Russians for ruining his sexual performance.
- Four-Star Badass: Is he crazy? Certainly. Is it badass to keep a belt-fed machine gun in a golf bag? Definitely.
- General Ripper: The Trope Namer.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: While outlining to Mandrake his theory about fluridation, he takes care to stress he still sleeps with women. He just "denies" them his essence.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Before kicking the bucket, Ripper remarks that he knows he'll have to answer in the afterlife for what he did and that he thinks he can.
- Improperly Paranoid: He triggers World War III because, in a movie where Communist Russia literally has dastardly plans afoot (ex. the Doomsday Machine), he still jumps on the most brain-dead silly conspiracy theory of all as the reason to champion such a thing.
- Insane Troll Logic: His whole reasoning is one whole bout of insanity caused by him feeling impotent during sex. He blames said impotence on a international communist conspiracy to steal and impurify the American people's "precious bodily fluids" by putting fluoride into the water.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: His whole motivation for going rouge and ending the world is that he was unable to perform during sexual intercourse and subsequently convinced himself that a vast communist conspiracy was somehow the reason.
- Madness Mantra: "Purity Of Essence", "Peace On Earth".
- Manipulative Bastard: Manipulates the army to effectively launch World War III under the nose of the President.
- Mask of Sanity: He was able to convince everybody into thinking he wasn't down the rabbit hole, and speaks about his mad schemes in a perfectly calm voice.
- Funnily enough, most characters who fall into the General Ripper trope tend to be such violent rage-bags it strains credibility for them to have ever gotten to such a high rank. The Trope Namer, on the other hand, is calm, cool and collected for most of the film, to the point that he's been cleared for a psych evaluation to be given potential clearance to order a nuclear strike. He remains completely in control even after ordering a preemptive nuclear strike, and the sheer depths of his madness don't become clear until he gives Mandrake a Motive Rant: Which even then he has to be lightly goaded into giving.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims to believe in what's best for America, but he had no proper reasons to attack the Russians, and it's clear that was interested in the glory more than anything.
- Punny Name: His name is clearly based on Jack the Ripper.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: As mentioned above he never raises his voice even when he's talking about his nuclear war plans.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the novelization, General Ripper escapes from Burpleson on his private plane rather than commit suicide.
- Testosterone Poisoning: An extremely dark example, actually pretty close to the original meaning of the term: in her book Missile Envy, Helen Caldicott coins the term 'testosterone poisoning' to mock men insecure about their masculinity who were driven by it to perpetuate the nuclear arms race. Ripper is an exaggerated example of this idea, played for both drama and Black Comedy; he destroys the world because he can no longer get it up during sex. The movie in general plays on the ridiculously phallic and Freudian aspects of the conflict, even playing porn music over scenes of bomber airplanes refueling.
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
Played By: Peter Sellers
The British Group Captain who cottons on to Ripper's insanity and tries to get the situation under control.
- Adaptation Name Change: He was Major Paul Howard in Red Alert.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He puts in a great effort to be empathetic and relate to Ripper so he can get the code out of him, but you can see on his face as he listens to just how insane the general is, he is terrified.
- Cry Laughing: At one point, he tearfully laughs once he realizes Ripper has well and truly given up his sanity over conspiracy theories about fluoridated water.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mandrake, as the Only Sane Man, gets designated snarker status for this film.
- Expy: Sellers is doing an imitation of Trevor Howard in his performance here.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: He offers a literal Lame Excuse:"I'd love to come, Jack, but you see, the thing is, the string's... Gone out... In my leg!"
- Only Sane Man
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: A WW2 fighter pilot who was shot down before he has the chance to see much action, spending the rest of the war in a Japanese prison camp where he was tortured For the Evulz.
Col. "Bat" Guano
Col. "Bat" Guano
Played By: Keenan Wynn
An officer involved in the attack on Burpelson Air Force Base. He doesn't care why he's there, he's going to carry out his orders exactly as given to him.
- Adaptation Name Change: He was Lt Col. Andrew Mackenzie in Red Alert.
- Combat Pragmatist: Col. Bat Guano is right for not going into combat with loose change in his pocket; apart from the risk of it rattling, a nearby explosion's shockwave could suddenly turn that pocket change into shrapnel embedded in his body.
- The Comically Serious: There's no joy in anything he says and does but this makes him hilarious."Ok, but you'll have to answer to the Coca-Cola corporation."
- Lawful Stupid: He initially refuses to let Mandrake break into a vending machine to get the change he needs to call the President even though the latter is trying to prevent a nuclear holocaust. Even after giving in, Guano sternly insists he will "have to answer to the Coca-Cola company".
- Malaproper: Bat Guano gets it all wrong, even on a verbal level.Bat Guano: I think you're a deviated prevert. Gen. Ripper found out about your preversion and that you're organizing some kind of mutiny of preverts. If you try any of your preversions in there, I'll blow your head off.
- Unfortunate Name: Literally means "bat shit."
The War Room
President Merkin Muffley
President Merkin Muffley
Played By: Peter Sellers
The milquetoast President of the United States who tries to get control of the situation.
- Expy: His appearance and flat Midwestern accent were deliberately meant to invoke former Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.
- Meaningful Name: He's a pussy: wimpy and a bit soft-spoken.
- Named by the Adaptation: His counterpart in Red Alert was nameless.
- Our Presidents Are Different: He's a mixture of President Personable and President Focus Group
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He angrily shoots down General Turgidson's gung ho desires, preferring a more diplomatic solution to the problem.
Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove
Played By: Peter Sellers
The titular, thinly-veiled Ex-Nazi scientist and authority on the H-bomb. He is called to the war room to advise on the consequences of any of the bombs being successfully dropped.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: His hand does the Hitler salute, and his idea of selecting people with the right qualities to live underground is an obvious allusion to Nazi eugenics.
- Ambiguously Evil: Strangelove spends all his screen time acting as cartoonishly evil as possible, and has a Nazi past to boot, but he never does anything all that evil while onscreen (although his obsessive planning of a suspiciously fascist bunker system to survive the war and obvious glee to see that humanity is going to be destroyed, and the fact that this joy is enough to make him walk again...).
- Beware the Silly Ones: Mentally ill? Check. Constantly battling his own hand? Check. A genius ex-Nazi you want to mess with? Heck no.
- Boomerang Bigot: He's barely able to hide his nostalgia for the time of Nazism even though as a paraplegic, the Nazis would've killed him, assuming he hasn't just been faking it for the Americans.
- Canon Foreigner: He has no counterpart in Red Alert.
- Cool Shades: Dr. Strangelove's teashades.
- Doctor von Turncoat: Keeping in line with the film's satire of the Cold War, Strangelove is a Nazi scientist who was hired as President Muffley's scientific advisor in the hopes that his skills would give America an upper hand against the Soviet Union, much like many Operation Paperclip scientists. Unlike many Operation Paperclip scientists, however, his Nazi origins and attitudes are a lot more flagrant. Furthermore, it turns out that Strangelove is more "mad" than "scientist" and is more than happy to revel in the aftermath of a nuclear war if it means being able to establish a Fourth Reich.
- Evil Hand: Famously has one, which seems to act on his violent Nazi subconscious; it does Nazi salutes and hilariously grapples with him throughout the movie, even punching him in the face and trying to choke him at one point. The portrayal was so influential that the real-life condition "alien hand syndrome"
is also known as "Dr. Strangelove Syndrome". - Evil Laugh: Dr. Strangelove has a broken way of laughing on occasion that sits comfortably between Un-Evil and just plain Evil.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: A sadistic, sociopathic Nazi with shaded spectacles.
- Genius Cripple: Is confined to a wheelchair for unclear reasons, although he regains the ability to walk seconds before the world ended.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Has a prominent cigarette clenched firmly in his teeth in his first scene. Is not a good guy.
- Herr Doctor: Strangelove is an ex-Nazi Mad Scientist who became a U.S. operative after the war, with a comically thick German accent. He has trouble shaking his old ways, such that at one point he accidentally addresses the President as "Mein Fuehrer" before correcting himself to "Mr. President." With elements of Morally Ambiguous Doctorate.
- Red Right Hand: His black leather gloved hand.
- Mad Scientist: The dear doctor is a Shout-Out to Rotwang from Metropolis and classical Stock Characters.
- Naturalized Name: His birth name was "Merkwürdigliebe", note but he changed it when he became an American citizen.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: A nasty caricature of Herman Kahn, a famously pro-nuclear war scientist and irl creator of the 'doomsday device'. Also closely resembles a fellow ex-Nazi, the rocket scientist Wehrner Von Braun, and pro nuclear war amoral scientists involved in the development of the H Bomb, Edward Teller and John Von Neumann.
- Arthur C. Clarke, who knew both Stanley Kubrick and Wernher von Braun, reported that Kubrick once asked him to "tell Wernher I wasn't getting at him." Clarke adds, "I never did because, firstly, I didn't believe him, and secondly, even if Stanley wasn't, Peter Sellers certainly was."
- His ridiculous and implied "Blind Idiot" Translation name change to sound more Americanised is especially reminiscient of Von Neumann; a Hungarian born margittai Neumann János, which he changed to the German Johann von Neumann, then John von Neumann in America, insisting he be referred to as 'Johnny'. note
- Scary Shiny Glasses: As funny as Strangeglove is, his menacingly glinting shaded glasses are just one part of his character that makes him also something of a figure of
nightmare. - Secondary Character Title: He's the title character, but he's definitely not the main character.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Rather inexplicably regains the ability to walk at the end of the movie note
General Buck Turgidson
General Buck Turgidson
Played By: George C. Scott
An arrogant, bombastic general. He is called to the war room to help figure out how to call off the attack, or deal with the consequences.
- Adaptation Name Change: His counterpart in Red Alert was named General Franklin.
- All Men Are Perverts: Is an adulterer and is subtly excited about the idea that the underground society could see the abandonment of monogamy.
- Colonel Kilgore: General Turgidson is letting his inner five-year-old who plays with army men out. His over-the-top enthusiasm shows he gets a hell of a kick out of a war he is supposed to prevent.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When asked if the final bomber has a chance to reach its target, he becomes more and more animated in his describing how well trained, determined American service men could get the job done. His pride in the idea becomes gleeful, until he suddenly realizes what it means if they succeed.
- General Ripper: Plays this straight with his loud desire to see Communism wiped from the map, not caring for the massive loss of life that could result from nuclear war.
- Jerkass: He's an arrogant, stubborn, belligerent warmonger.
- Properly Paranoid: He rightly suspects the ambassador of having a camera.
Ambassador Alexi De Sadeski
Ambassador Alexi De Sadeski
Played By: Peter Bull
The Soviet Ambassador. He is called to the War Room and briefed on the situation to act as a mediator between the US and USSR.
- Adaptation Name Change: The corresponding character in Red Alert was named Zorubin.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: Insults an officer who offers him a Jamaican cigar, and abuses the President's trust to take pictures of The War Room.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a jerk to his American hosts, he's horrified when he learns of the Doomsday Machine and what will happen when it's triggered.
- Hypocritical Humor: When offered a Jamaican cigar, he refuses since he doesn't support imperialist stooges...after helping himself to the food and putting in a specific request for fresh fish. He also asked for a Cuban cigar, which was a client state of the USSR.
The Leper Colony B-52 Bomber
Major T. J. "King" Kong
Major T.J. "King" Kong
Played By: Slim Pickens
Pilot and commander of the B-52 bomber that is determined to make it to their target and avenge the supposed destruction of the USA.
- Adaptation Name Change: From the novel's Captain Clint Brown.
- Age Lift: Clint Brown in the novel is 26, rather than being middle-aged as Kong is.
- Americans Are Cowboys: Major Kong, who wears a cowboy hat on duty, speaks with a Texan accent, and, of course, rides the bomb. Also, his actor, Slim Pickens, started his career as a rodeo performer and played plenty of cowboys.
- Determinator: Major Kong and the rest of the crew of The Leper Colony. Despite taking damage from an exploding missile, they successfully bomb one of their targets.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Captain Brown dies of his injuries from one of several missile attacks on the Alabama Angel, rather than ride the bomb into thermonuclear oblivion as Kong does.
- A Father to His Men: In his Rousing Speech, he tells his bomber crew that they all deserve citations and promotions "regardless of your race, color, or your creed".
- The Friendly Texan: Major: T.J. "King" Kong, who wears his cowboy hat proudly. He cements his status as the Friendly Texan after reading through the contents of the survival kit, after which he notes cheerfully:Major Kong: Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Ordinarily, any man who finds himself falling to his death while on top of a nuclear bomb would probably be screaming in terror in his final moments. Major Kong, on the other hand, waves his hat and yodels with excitement as he and the bomb plummet towards the surface of Russia.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He orders his men to perform every check available to insure that the Plan R order is genuine. Only after exhausting everything does he proceed to have the orders carried out.
- Riding the Bomb: The Trope Codifier himself: after one of the nuclear bombs drops with him seated on it, he decides to use what little time he has left to celebrate, waving his hat around and cheering as he rides the bomb to his death.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He has no idea his “success” would mean the end of all life on Earth.
- Unwitting Pawn: He and his crew have no idea they’re being used by a howling-mad general to start World War 3.
Ancillary Characters
Soviet Premier Dimitri Kissov
Soviet Premier Dimitri Kissov
The president of the USSR. He is called to help call off the nuclear war.
- The Ghost: No actor plays him and his lines are only implied by Muffley's side of the phone calls.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Soviet premier. Not only not seen, but not heard either. Sellers does a Newhart-style telephone gag where, though you only hear President Merkin's side of the conversation, it's pretty clear what "Dmitri" is saying.Merkin: I'm sorry too, Dmitri. I'm very sorry.... All right, you're sorrier than I am. But I am sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri. Don't say that you're more sorry than I am because I am capable of being just as sorry as you are. So we're both sorry, all right? ...All right.
- Skewed Priorities: When Muffley calls to warn him of the impending attack. Kissov seems more deeply concerned that Muffley doesn't like him as a friend and would rather spend time chatting with him socially. Justified by the fact that he's drunk.
- The Ghost: No actor plays him and his lines are only implied by Muffley's side of the phone calls.
- Too Dumb to Live: He activates the doomsday device before it is announced publicly that they have one. Dr. Strangelove points out that a doomsday deterrence doesn't work if you don't tell anybody about it.
- Vodka Drunkenski: As the ambassador points out before the call, the premier is relaxing at his residence and will also be sloshed out his mind by that time of night.
Miss Scott
Miss Scott
Played By: Tracy Reed
General Turgidson's secretary and mistress.
- Flat Character: She clearly only exists to be Ms. Fanservice considering she only gets one scene.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her appearance is pretty attractive.
- Sexy Secretary: She's Turgidson's secretary who's also having an affair with him, and spends her entire screentime in a bikini.
- The Smurfette Principle: She's only female character in the entire movie.
