A House Of Dynamite: A Brilliant Watch To Question Everything

This Netflix film centers on the premise of a nuclear missile being launched from unknown coordinates. As tracking software determines that its destination is the continental United States, the American government races to stop the threat, including the President (Idris Elba), the Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (Jared Harris), and White House Situation Room Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) among others.

Although some technical details have been debunked by experts since its release, I counter that the emotional distress and impossible choices portrayed in the film would be very much real. As a watcher, I finished it in the exact mindset that director Kathryn Bigelow wanted the audience to be in: questioning and condemning why this system of mutual destruction exists in the first place. Well, she suceeded in her ambitions, because I was positively mindblown. Despite being occasionally repetitive, as each new "act" saw the same day unfold from a different perspective, I enjoyed watching it that way. It showed that there would be so much collaborative involvement from governmental forces, that there wouldn't be one single heroic protagonist who stops the threat themselves.

The details carefully included in everyone's stories are great storytelling devices that effectively depict the surprise of upcoming events. The day starts like any other before the unexpected intrusion: colleagues talking about baseball game results, arguing over messy snack eating, and anticipating a successful proposal. And then we watch these compassionate, intelligent, dedicated individuals as they helplessly witness a weapon prepared to hit the majorly urban city of Chicago. You can feel the optimism dissolve with each passing scene until everyone is simply despondent.

Spoiler alert, sorry not sorry. We never discover if the missile actually hits Chicago. Because of that, I was initially gobsmacked and frankly, a little exasperated. I just sat through almost 2 hours of incredibly tense, stressful cinema and I never even found out what the culmination of it looked like? But after reflecting on it afterwards, it made sense. It kept me on my toes even after the credits rolled, forcing me to think about the horror of it all. Rather than having a conclusive ending, you start a conversation about the careless creation of nuclear weapons. And honestly, that's more explosive than any CGI decimation of Chicago could ever be.