To many of us, nuclear weapons seem like something relegated to the Cold War past, but in Kathryn Bigelow’s chilling psychological thriller A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE, we are reminded that threat is still very much with us.
An ICBM of unknown origin is detected by military sensors, and is headed towards the continental United States. The assumption is that it has a nuclear warhead but there are many unanswered questions. Who launched it? Was it launched by mistake? Is it the start of a barrage or a single missile? Most importantly, what do we do?
Military sensors detected the single missile after its launch, so determining it’s origin is difficult. The missile is coming from somewhere in Asia, but the exact source is hard to pinpoint, as the missile was not detected until it was far up in the atmosphere. The source could be North Korea or China, even Russia but all is unclear. Questions must be answered: Who launched it? Was it accidental? Will there be more? And can this lone missile be stopped?
The military has plenty of plans for responding to attacks but not knowing who launched it and whether it was deliberate plays a enormous role in how to respond. A HOUSE DYNAMITE follows the response of the U.S. on differing levels to this mysterious threat headed our way. There are only a few minutes until the ICBM reaches the U.S., and those minutes tick down quickly.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is a past master at taut action and suspense, a skill showcased in her films ZERO DARK THIRTY and THE HURT LOCKER. Besides the ticking clock, she loops the action back so that we see events and decision-making from three points of view, ascending the chain of command, and frames this shocking situation with the human element and their personal emotional reactions as well as their professional ones. The film sports an outstanding cast, including Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Rebecca Ferguson and Gabriel Basso, all who deliver the goods in this nail-biting psychological – political thriller.
The events that unfold are terrifying, and even more so because of all the uncertainty and unanswered questions. Looping the events back, to see from different viewpoints, makes things even more tense.
Bigelow tells this story in three over-lapping viewpoints, starting with the rank-and-file who first detect it, the boots-on-the-ground charged with carrying orders to destroy it, as well as the lower-level White House staff, White House reporters covering it, and technical experts charged with providing information to the decision-makers. The next two versions move us up the chain of decision-making, overlapping what we saw happening but now from a new viewpoint, advancing events a few steps as well, and with the last one including the President. Presenting the same unfolding events from different viewpoints builds both suspense and fear, as we see some of the same confusion, or sometimes more, as we move up the level of responsibility, reaching into the highest levels.
The scenario is not far-fetched as one might think, but it takes by surprise the characters in this dramatic thriller as much as it does us in the audience. The mystery of who would launch this nuclear missile now headed towards the U.S. is a major puzzle, one that limits what can be done to counteract or respond. The launch could be accidental or deliberate, part of a larger coming attack or just a single missile on its own. The questions sow confusion that magnifies the paralyzing disbelief, disbelief that consumes everyone involved, top to bottom.
The film’s title refers what one character says about the world, that it is a house built of dynamite – explosive material – just awaiting a blow to set it off. It is a good metaphor for the pile of nuclear weapons – “dynamite” – built during the Cold War, but built during that time but never disarmed or disposed of after the Soviet Union fell apart, and now largely forgotten about. A danger forgotten but still very deadly.
That forgetting comes back to bite the United States in this fictional tale but the danger it reminds us about is very real. Disbelief is a big factor complicating this situation, as well as confusion about what to do. Too many unanswered questions, about who and why, cloud the search for solutions, and the lack of knowledge and direct experience is even more chilling.
The film is terrifying as well as engrossing. Bigelow crafts the story written by Noah Oppenheim with a sure hand and builds both tension and human emotion as it unfolds in it triple form, a process aided by its terrific cast. The cast humanize this story, as things twist and go down the dark alleys, and they struggle to cope with an emergency they never expected to face, as if the past has come back to haunt them, which it kind of has.
In the first iteration, Rebecca Ferguson plays Captain Olivia Walker, who is in charge of the technical military team who discovered the threat and are tracking the progress of the mysterious missile. Gabriel Basso has a major role that runs through the film as a Deputy National Security Advisor, pressed into service as an expert on nuclear policy and political dynamics when his boss is unavailable. Much of the time we see Basso on video screen in the first version, as he hurries through the street to reach the White House.
The further in we go, the more we learn of the individuals facing this crisis, and their personal fears. Jared Harris, as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker, and Tracy Letts, as General Anthony Brady, are stand-outs. Harris’ and Letts’ characters play smaller parts in the first telling of events but more significant ones in the second and third iterations.
The overlapping, looping-back technique, gives us different takes on events, adds information others did not know, and gives both insights and a particularly human perspective. Information is revealed as we move up the chain of command, as well as upping the fear. The three-version approach is far more chilling than one might expect, for what is known and for what is unknown, about the unfolding situation and the human aspects.
Writer Noah Oppenheim’s script delves deep into the unexpected situation, as well as the lack of experience or knowledge that nearly everyone has about nuclear war. Different personalities react with varying levels of emotion or coolness, with the military characters the coolest heads but also the ones with the strictly military point of view.
The film is also an eye-opener for the audience, and it opens with a reminder of the too-common mistaken idea that many people have of nuclear weapons have somehow vanished, deactivated after the Cold War, a process that actually started but was never finished.
This is a powerful film, gripping as a fictional thriller, but so close to the possible that the terror rises to a fever level. The sterling A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE may be Kathryn Bigelow’s most significant film, as well as her most terrifying. Hopefully, it will also spark some thought, and alarm, in all of us about the unseen cliff on which we are unconsciously teetering.
A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE opens in theaters on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
