PLOT: A single nuclear missile is launched against the United States from an unknown adversary. In the minutes leading up to its impact, officials and the president must figure out how to respond, with the threat of kicking off a global nuclear war looming large.
REVIEW: There have been some great movies about nuclear war—Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, and The Day After among them—but since the Cold War, it’s become a less familiar genre. Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, her first film since Detroit in 2017, aims to reopen the conversation. It’s a stark, realistic, and thoroughly researched look at how a global thermonuclear war could be sparked in mere moments. To this day, the ultimate authority to launch America’s nuclear weapons remains at the sole discretion of the president of the United States. As the movie presents it, no matter what decision is made, it’s likely to be the wrong one. As a character states, the president must choose between surrender and suicide, with no wiggle room either way.
A House of Dynamite uses a Rashomon-style structure, showing the same sequence of events from various points of view. In the film, a lone nuclear missile is launched at the U.S., and a system failure means no one knows where it comes from. Is it North Korea? Russia? China? Iran? A coalition of nations? No one knows, and the president (played by Idris Elba) is left in a terrifying quandary. He and his advisors can assign blame to one adversary, but in neutralizing them, risk antagonizing others and sparking nuclear war. He can opt to preemptively neutralize any nation under suspicion, committing genocide on an unimaginable scale. Or he can do nothing, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to further attack. In short: there is no scenario in which anyone wins.
As Bigelow depicts it, this is a game no rational mind could ever win. Unlike other nuclear-war films that pit “good guys” against “bad guys,” no one in A House of Dynamite wants war. No one is especially hawkish or aggressive in their responses. The the first chunk of the movie centers on a collection of characters, including Rebecca Ferguson as a captain in the Situation Room and Anthony Ramos as the commander of the base that initially detects the threat. The sequence highlights how powerless even those in authority are, able to do little but watch their screens as the terror unfolds.
The second part of the film centers on Gabriel Basso as the young Deputy National Security Advisor and Jason Clarke as the highest-ranking official in the Situation Room, both desperately trying to convince the president not to retaliate. Meanwhile, Tracy Letts, as the general in charge of the nuclear arsenal, warns that the opportunity to respond is slipping away by the second. The most compelling part comes in the third act, focusing on the president (Elba) as he wrestles with his impossible decision. Jared Harris delivers a standout performance as the secretary of state, who crumbles upon realizing his daughter will almost certainly be killed in the rogue missile strike.
Everyone in Bigelow’s cast is exceptional. Elba anchors the film as an outwardly cool and confident president forced to make the most important decision in human history. Harris is heartbreaking as an official who, despite his duty, is a father first, realizing there’s no saving his daughter and losing his ability to stay rational. Basso, Ferguson, Letts, and Clarke are all superb as officials doing their best to advise the president, despite their personal leanings, each recognizing they’re trapped in an unwinnable scenario. Bigelow and writer Noah Oppenheim wisely avoid specifying the president’s political party or demonizing either side—those who push for restraint or those who argue for retaliation. Barry Ackroyd’s guerrilla-style cinematography gives the film an urgent immediacy, while Volker Bertelmann provides a powerhouse score.
That said, A House of Dynamite will likely polarize viewers, with an ending already dividing critics and sure to spark discussion once it arrives in theaters on October 10 and on Netflix October 27. Some may also day that it’s far-fetched that no one knows where the attack comes from, but even if they did (as outlined in the recent book Nuclear War: A Scenario) the result wouldn’t be that much different. Whatever the reaction, no one can deny this is a propulsive thriller that leaves its audience with a terrifying truth to reckon with: the scenario depicted here is all too real, and perhaps likelier than ever. It picks up where Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer left off, with its chilling reminder that the invention of the atomic bomb may have triggered a chain reaction leading to humanity’s end. For that notion alone, A House of Dynamite is the most terrifying film of the year.
