It is not a tremendous exaggeration to suggest the world almost ended on September 26, 1983. At the command center for the Soviet Union's Oko nuclear early warning system a report came in stating that six hostile missiles were launched from the United States. The commanding officer at the center, Stanislav Petrov, was convinced that the missiles were a false alarm, and indeed the Oko system had malfunctioned. Petrov was justified in reporting the attack to his superiors, which would have likely resulted in retaliatory strikes from the Soviet Union, leading to nuclear war. This relatively obscure, but immensely important moment in history is the inspiration for Alarm.