Toward the Unknown

Toward the Unknown
theatrical film poster
Directed by	Mervyn LeRoy
Produced by	Mervyn LeRoy
Written by	Beirne Lay Jr.
Starring	William Holden Virginia Leith Lloyd Nolan
Music by	Paul Baron (Song: "The U.S. Air Force", written by Robert MacArthur Crawford )
Cinematography	Hal Rosson
Edited by	William H. Ziegler
Production company	Toluca Productions (William Holden)
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date	October 20, 1956 (US)
Running time	115 minutes, Color (WarnerColor)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.2 million (US)

Toward the Unknown (also titled Brink of Hell in its UK release) is a 1956 movie about the dawn of supersonic flight filmed on location at Edwards Air Force Base. Starring William Holden, Lloyd Nolan and Virginia Leith, the film features the screen debut of James Garner.

Toward the Unknown was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and written by Beirne Lay, Jr. who had also penned the novel and screenplay for Twelve O'Clock High (1949), and later screenplays for Above and Beyond (1952) and Strategic Air Command (1955). The film's title is derived from the motto of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Ad Inexplorata.

USAF Major Lincoln Bond (William Holden) was captured during the Korean War and subjected to torture, finally cracking after 14 months and signing a confession used for propaganda. Upon his release, he took a year to recover from the ordeal before showing up at the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, hoping to return to work as a test pilot. His old buddy, Colonel McKee (Charles McGraw), tries his best for him, but the base commander, Brigadier General Banner (Lloyd Nolan), turns him down because he cannot trust him to be stable. A complication is that the general's secretary and love interest, Connie Mitchell (Virginia Leith), is an old flame. Bond presses for a job and accepts the general's offer of routine flying in support. Banner is a hands-on leader, taking the most dangerous assignments himself.

When Bond flies the new Gilbert XF-120 fighter, he finds dangerous structural problems that threaten its imminent acceptance by the Air Force. However, nobody really believes his claim that he did not subject the fighter prototype to stresses beyond its design specifications, especially H. G. Gilbert (Ralph Moody), the head of the company that built the fighter. When the general tries to replicate Bond's maneuvers, nothing untoward happens. Afterward, Bond sees Banner nearly collapse in the locker room, but Banner shrugs off the incident.