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R | 1h 52m | War, Drama | 2025
When it comes to high-tension military tales, director Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Hurt Locker”) is the one you want telling them. She’s top-shelf.
Netflix’s “A House of Dynamite,” shot mostly in the kind of shaky-cam closeup that recalls the tenser moments of the TV series “24,” isn’t only a TV movie in the sense that one watches Netflix content on a TV. It also recalls the Reagan-era nuclear paranoia-type flicks that were routinely featured on television in the 1980s. That said, it’s simultaneously not a TV movie—“A House of Dynamite” would be dynamite in IMAX.
What Happens
There’s an unprovoked intercontinental ballistic missile launch. Where it came from, nobody knows—somewhere in the Pacific. Who it came from is even more obscure. Maybe the Russians, maybe the Chinese. Possibly the North Koreans. One thing is certain: It’s headed straight for the United States. It takes roughly a half hour for a ballistic missile from the Pacific to arrive in heartland America, and as the American military’s targeting computers gradually isolate the missile’s parabolic trajectory—it’s looking more and more like destination Chicago.
What are the options? Shoot it down? There’s much talk of that being like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet. Should we retaliate against the missile’s country of origin? What if someone messed with our satellites and we can’t tell who the perpetrator is? Should we send up a B-2 bomber fleet to be in a better position to reciprocate if more foreign missiles launch? Lastly, should we try and smash the total nuclear forces of every nation the missile might have come from?
“A House of Dynamite” illustrates why you really don’t want the president’s or the secretary of war’s job. So many excruciating possibilities, all leading to unimaginable death tolls. But somebody has to step up; somebody has to decide on the future of humanity. As the missile flies closer and closer to Chicago, your breath will get shorter and shorter: One wrong move and it’s curtains for humanity.
‘A House of Dynamite’
The actual fear of nuclear annihilation has never been about a full-scale conflict, where all involved (in the inimitable words of the rock band Steppenwolf) “fire all of your guns at once and explode into space.” The fear of nuclear annihilation always has to do with the latent terror that we’ll accidentally blow everything to smithereens. Therefore, “A House of Dynamite” lives in that eerie twilight zone between understanding and escalation, the premise that all nuclear nightmares are based on.
Will we ever see complete disarmament? The Communist Party of the Russian Federation remains the second-largest party in parliament. The Communist Party of China controls the government, military, and police, and the political system is a one-party authoritarian state. North Korea is shifting from a nominally communist state to a totalitarian state, centered on a monarchic Kim dynasty. Present-day Iran is a West-hating Shia Islamic theocracy. These are all countries interested in nuclear proliferation. The nature of Soviet communism was to turn the whole world communist, and one of the regime’s goals was to get the United States to disarm.
Good thing the United States changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War—we need to not sit back on our heels, on defense. We need a proactive stance. As long as all those chess pieces are on the board, the fear of accidental annihilation isn’t going anywhere. “A House of Dynamite” may feel Reagan-era, but the past isn’t done with us just yet.
“A House of Dynamite” features a rock-solid cast—Idris Elba who plays the president, Rebecca Ferguson of the “Misson: Impossible” franchise, stolid Bigelow regular Jason Clarke, Jared Harris, and Tracy Letts—heavy hitters all. See “A House of Dynamite” as a way to avoid slacking off on your prayers for world peace.
‘A House of Dynamite’
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Clarke, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 24, 2025
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
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