Don't watch this movie if you are expecting a fast paced thriller. Don't watch this movie if you are banking on Kevin Costner acing yet another role. Don't watch this movie if you don't want to know why you are alive!

Any movie that follows a factual event, detailing the circumstances, adding in some personal story, combining that with moments of reverence, deserves an award. This is that movie. More of a 'docu' drama, it fills in some character turmoil, that while unrelated to the core reason for its creation, adds to the ultimate admiration that you have to feel for Stanislav. I for one would willingly line up to shake this mans hand and this movie made me feel inclined to buy a ticket to Moscow to do so.

I was truly moved by the human nature that not only showed throughout, but was the epicenter of the basis for the movie. Add the speech that Kevin Costner gave in Stanislav's honor and you would have to be made of stone not to be moved by the whole thing.

You do not need to have a car chase, a womanizing hero, a crooked cop or any of the over used clichés to make a great movie, all you need is a real hero, some humbled super stars and a dash of reality to make a blockbuster, and this was it.

The Plot/

Few people know of him.

Yet hundreds of millions of people are alive because of him.

The actions of Stanislav Petrov, a retired Soviet military officer, prevented the start of a worldwide nuclear war and the devastation of much of the Earth.

I am shocked at the good reviews here on IMDb and am convinced most of them are from clowns who worked on the movie.

This film is dull, lifeless and boring.

It's really a 20 minute TV show stretched out to 105 minute that will put you to sleep. There is no drama or tension. And you already know the ending. Zzzzzzzzzz.

You are warned.

In a YouTube world one gets conditioned to subject headers that are clearly "click bait" in which the actual video hardly lives up to the tag line. One could certainly be forgiven for thinking roughly the same about a film titled "The Man Who Saved The World". This title, however, is meant to be serious and literal in it's ramifications. To watch this film is to get a glimpse into the horror of the nuclear option which grows yet today. To see a reinactment of what almost happened in 1983 along side of current day observations by the one man who averted a real close call to the world as we know it's end is sobering.

The story of Stanslav Petrov is one of a child who was pushed out from his family into early military service. It was a path which took a very ordinary man ultimately into a life of heavy responsibilities. He came to command the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal at a time in which the love of his life, his wife, was terminally ill. The pressures on this man couldn't have been greater until they were in an instant when the Soviet early warning system of nuclear attack grossly malfunctioned. All systems warned of five incoming nuclear missles from the US. Stanaslav's job was to initiate the retaliation.

Against protocol he feared his decision to launch may be based on false information due to some kind of glitch.

Standing firm he did not follow protocol but denied the retaliatory strike. He became in this moment a singular hero, a man who literally saved the world from destruction by total nuclear holocast. This should make him a hero of heroes yet the story is largely unknown to the world at large. This film corrects that while taking the viewer on a personal healing for Stanislav aside from his former anonymity. It's a very moving account with many layers from which there's multiple lessons. War is death, love is life...all life deserves to be cherished and loved. Love is the only path to peace. Love is wisdom above fear, anger, greed, and false pride. We all have this capability and it's a choice. In showing us this, and saving the earth as we know it, Stanislav is.