The mechanism of using a single doomsday weapon is somewhat unique, but the effect isn't that different from the actually implemented Dead Hand system that ensured that eliminating the Russian command structure would trigger a rocket that sends out launch commands to all ICBMs. Though that was implemented years after the movie came out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand

I recall that the system existed to ensure that cooler heads (in Russia) could have more time to ensure that they were being actually being nuked i.e. it wasn't a false alarm, and that retaliation was guaranteed.

Growing up in the middle of the cold war and with some sense of history it dawned on me that the whole thing was an aberration. Geopolitically the world is usually not like that. I thought eventually the cold war order would fall ppart and it did. Think reversion to the mean.

Got to say anytime someone whines that we can't afford some public works project like the California High speed rail I think of the much larger amount were spending on nukes. With $1.5T we could crisscross the US with high speed rail. Unlike nukes you personally might actually use it.

Not much about the Cold War tension actually got dismantled, from a nuclear risk perspective. We put the revolver to our collective heads during the Cold War and didn’t put it back down, just merely got used to holding it there.

I might describe the western countries as being cocksure and overly optimistic after the USSR fell apart. Would also describe the amount of nuclear weapons produced during the 1960-70's as insane and serving no rational reason other than pure pork.