Hämta namnet på en gammal klassisk SFF-film

Även om det inte är bara forskare som vialerna ges till, tror jag att filmen du söker är: "Den 27: e dagen" från 1957. För det är det lite äldre än din vän kanske har nämnt sedan det var i B & W.

I detta fall är det faktiskt 5 kapslar som ges till individer runt om i världen.

"Fem personer från fem nationer, inklusive" Supermakterna ", USA, Sovjetunionen och Kina, befinner sig plötsligt på ett rymdfarkoster. En utlänning ger varje behållarhållande kapslar. Ingen kraft på jorden kan öppna en viss behållare förutom Varje person har fått livets och dödens kraft. Någon av dessa individer har möjlighet att omedelbart starta kapslar till vilka koordinater han / hon väljer, och varje kapsel kommer sedan att utrota allt mänskligt liv inom en radius på 3000 mil i den angivna platsen. "

Ett utdrag från Wiki är listat nedan vilket kan hjälpa till att bekräfta att det här är den film som du tänker på. I synnerhet som en del av spoilerdelen finns det en "avkodning" av kapslarna som matchar din beskrivning av uttalandet "Livets liv och död" (versus Or)

"Five people, Englishwoman Evelyn Wingate, American reporter Jonathan Clark, Chinese peasant Su Tan, German physicist Klaus Bechner, and Soviet soldier Ivan Godofsky, are randomly transported to an alien spacecraft in Earth orbit. There, they are met by a humanoid referring to himself only as "The Alien" (Arnold Moss), who explains that he is the representative of a world orbiting a sun about to go Nova. Needing a new world to inhabit within the next 35 days, yet prohibited by their moral code from killing intelligent life, The Alien provides each of the five with sets of three capsules in a clear, round, hand-held case. Each capsule is capable of destroying all human life within a 3,000-mile diameter, with the expectation that humanity will use all the capsules, obliterating itself, leaving the Earth free for alien colonization. The capsules' clear containers can only be opened by the thought waves of the person to whom they were given. Once out in the open, the capsules inside can then be used by anyone, but only during the next 27 days, after which they become inert."

Mot slutet av historien lär vi oss:

On board a U. S. destroyer being used as a deterrent against the Soviet capsules being used against America, Bechner, Clark, and Eve discuss their concerns that the Soviets will use them at the last minute, avoiding retaliation. Determined to find another way, Bechner studies the remaining capsules and discovers an imprinted mathematical code on them. As the Soviet general prepares to use the capsules from a balcony, Godofsky rushes him, and the capsules fall to the ground two stories below. At the very same moment, Bechner simultaneously launches his remaining capsules and the ones from Clark's container. He has deciphered the hidden code and discovered that the capsules can be programmed. The world is then blanketed with a high-pitched sonic wave that kills every "known enemy of human freedom".

Och sedan i slutet:

In the aftermath, at an undisclosed later time, a now united humanity invites the aliens to coexist peacefully, sharing the Earth. It turns out, however, to have all been a test of mankind's character. The Alien's sun is quite stable. He in turn invites the people of Earth to join the Galactic Federation, having now passed its crucial test.

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