Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller streams on Netflix
Dynamite House ★★★★
In Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping nuclear thriller, it takes 18 minutes for the ordinary to become the unthinkable: A single intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from somewhere in the Pacific, America’s military apparatus is activated, and the target is confirmed to be the city of Chicago. The first deaths of millions are predicted, guilt is assessed, and a possibly apocalyptic counterattack is discussed. Table jokes and calm professionalism give way to terrible realities.
Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) is in the White House situation room in A House of Dynamite.
With riveting efficiency, Bigelow moves the film forward through this countdown again and again, moving up the chain of command. It all begins in the White House situation room at a missile base in Alaska, where Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) is the first responder, followed by Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) and her team observing the world.
The clock then resets to follow high-ranking officials previously heard as voices in hasty calls, including an unnamed president (Idris Elba) and secretary of defense (Jared Harris) and General Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts) before the final round.
The heyday of nuclear conflict thrillers was 1964, the year of Sidney Lumet’s horrific collateral damage. Fail Safe and Stanley Kubrick’s megaton satire Dr Strangelove was released. All these decades have passed, and the American system is even more expansive but still flawed; When a senior leader learns that a $50 billion defense system is only half-functioning successfully, it’s a darkly comedic moment in an exciting narrative. When the line is crossed, you realize that destructive tension becomes the default response.
Idris Elba plays an unnamed US president in the thriller A House of Dynamite.
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Bigelow (Between Points, Zero Dark Thirty) is the ideal director for this story. His visual technique is masterful; constantly compresses details and captures intimate reactions. Bigelow’s fascination with how far a nation’s power can be taken by those who wield it diligently finds its ultimate expression here. Everyone does their job even though they know what’s going to happen, and that’s not enough. Power and certainty are pushed upward until Elba’s shaken POTUS retreats from a media-friendly public to consider retaliatory options. He’s not ready. Who would it be?
Repeating the same time period from different perspectives may cause the tension to ease, but with each pass the tension becomes more intense. Moments of familial regret and characters’ personal communication add traces of humanity, which only emphasize the immediate consequences. Even though we are spectators to this nightmarish American exceptionalism, the global fragility in this scenario is inevitable as Bigelow and her team deftly push you to the brink. “This is insane,” the president exclaims. Brady replies: “It’s real.” One Dynamite HouseThey are both right.
