TL;DR – As divisive as it is fascinating, anchored on understandable tension, and character performances that rocked me at times.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A House of Dynamite Review Introduction –

We are getting to the pointy end of the year, and that means it is time to start catching up with a bunch of the films that I missed this year. This is made more apparent because I just spent a month away in Japan, and there are a bunch of films that I missed while I was away. The first cab off that rack is a political thriller that explores the calamity of nuclear weapons, which means that this is already 100% my jam.

So, to set the scene, it is just a typical day for people around the world, including those in the missile defence systems in Fort Greely, Alaska and those in the Situation Room in Washington DC. But tensions have slowly been growing around the world, and when you have a fuel around, all it takes is one match for it all to explode, which is when a ballistic launch is detected over the Pacific Ocean, heading right to the USA. A nuclear event that everyone has feared is now a reality.   

Tension

One thing this film does very well is build that tension in the first ten minutes; you know from the opening frame that something is about to go very, very wrong, and the film, from its score to the editing, you can feel the coming storm, the clouds coming at you from the horizon. The ambiguous cello hits like a supernatural, dragging its fingers up your neck. So, the moment you hear the words ‘sub-orbital’, you don’t need to know what it means from a technical perspective; you know from an emotional perspective. You understand that pain, you understand the grief of “we did everything right”. It is that setup that makes each word of dialogue hit as hard as it needs to.

Cast

What helps sell this situation is the cast, because the scenario is still abstract to us, even though it is frighteningly real. That connection comes from both the cast, but also those human moments in the script that help make the action shine. If there is an MVP, it is Rebecca Ferguson, who anchors the first act with her character. While she is profoundly professional, she is not a robot; that humanity connects you with what must have been a character going through a truly awful day. Conversely, it was interesting to watch Idris Elba play a character that is lacking in confidence, not just running at 100% bravado 100% of the time. This is an ensemble movie, and everyone is stepping up to the task.

Scenario

While there is a lot that is happening in this film, the question then becomes how credible the scenario is that they posit, frankly, given that we must take for granted that the launch was missed, which would be surprising given the sheer satellite coverage that exists over the world for this very situation. But if we let The Martian have a kinetic dust storm, we can hand-wave away that. If you were a rogue actor, or even a competing power, and you wanted to ignore the nuclear taboo, completely destabilise the USA, and then limit the chance of being caught in a retaliatory strike, this would be one way to go about it. Hiding in the confusion is a legitimate tactic, even more so when it is hard to see why someone would act irrationally, like risk a MAD response.   

The Ending

Now, we can’t talk about this film without talking about the ending, but obviously, as we are talking about the ending, there will be [SPOILERS] going forward. Structurally, this is a film that shows the same period of time from three different perspectives as the nuclear bomb races towards Chicago, but all three stop before we know the outcome. Indeed, there are no answers here. We don’t know the choice of the president, we don’t know who died, and we don’t know if the whole world just went up in a nuclear holocaust. The fact that you don’t know leaves you unsettled in a way that I think successfully rammed home the themes. But then, there is also a trove of characters introduced over the three acts that never get any sort of resolution, even though the film sets them up as having one, and that was understandably frustrating.      

Conclusion

In the end, do we recommend A House of Dynamite? Yes, I would, but maybe not for everyone. I found it to be quite evocative and emotional throughout, and it connected me with both the scenario and the characters within. But the way they resolve the film is going to be frustrating for a lot of people, and I can understand why. Have you watched A House of Dynamite? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.If you liked A House of Dynamite, we would recommend Dunkirk to you because it also plays with time, exploring an event that would have ramifications throughout the world.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of A House of Dynamite
Directed by – Kathryn Bigelow
Written by – Noah Oppenheim
Music by – Volker Bertelmann
Cinematography by – Barry Ackroyd
Edited by – Kirk Baxter
Production/Distribution Companies – First Light, Prologue Entertainment, Kingsgate Films & Netflix
Starring – Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Malachi Beasley, Brian Tee, Brittany O’Grady, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Willa Fitzgerald, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kyle Allen & Kaitlyn Dever
Rating – Australia: M;