\u201cAt the end of the Cold War, global powers reached the consensus that the world wouldbe better off with fewer nuclear weapons,\u201d we\u2019re told via big bold lettering in the opening of A House of Dynamite. \u201cThat era is now over.\u201d<\/p>\n
What starts as an ordinary day for Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) at the 49th Missile Defense Battalion, Fort Greely, Alaska, will confirm the statement, as his morning rapidly escalates into a hellscape which could precipitate global nuclear war.<\/p>\n
An ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) has been launched. No one can identify a definitive launch site. Nobody knows what geopolitical power is behind it. What becomes alarmingly clear is that it is not a test and that it\u2019s headed straight for Chicago. Impact: 19 minutes and counting.<\/p>\n
Once appraised of the situation, Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) conducts the real-time response in the WHSR (White House Situation Room). DEFCON 4 (Defense Readiness Condition \u2013 increased intelligence watch and strengthened security measures) quickly turns to DEFCON 2 (next step to nuclear war), with Admiral Mark Miller (Jason Clarke) asserting: \u201cOur job is not to solve the puzzle, it\u2019s to find the pieces and send them up the chain. We got this.\u201d<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t. Especially when the GBI (Ground Based Interceptor) and its EKV (Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle) fail to shoot down the ICBM, which becomes a massive headache for STRATCOM (Strategic Command) and the PEOC (Presidential Emergency Operation Center), who need to figure out whether or not to retaliate. And if they do, against whom and at what cost?<\/p>\n
A House of Dynamite <\/span> – Netflix <\/span><\/p>\n For Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s first movie in eight years, the Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker takes your greatest nuclear fears, throws a first-class roster of performers into the explosive mix and, as you may have noticed, heavily peppers the powder keg with a litany of impenetrable acronyms.<\/p>\n The opening \u2013 titled \u201cInclination is flattening\u201d – is nerve-shredding, featuring a commanding turn from Ferguson and impressive levels of detail which lend the white-knuckle tension a discomforting air of plausibility.<\/p>\n The clock counts down and then… Reset.<\/p>\n A House of Dynamite reveals itself as a narrative split into three parts, with each chapter covering the same events told from different perspectives, each ending on the same cliffhanger.<\/p>\n The second, \u201cHitting a bullet with a bullet\u201d, focuses on General Brady (Tracy Letts), who isn\u2019t quite as manic as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, but shares his 1964 counterpart\u2019s desire for pre-emptive counterstrikes. This segment also features North Korea expert Ana Park (Greta Lee) and NSA advisor (Gabriel Basso), who\u2019s advocating for calm and communication.<\/p>\n For the third part of the triptych, \u201cA house filled with dynamite\u201d, we witness events through Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (Jared Harris) and POTUS himself (Idris Elba).<\/p>\n A House of Dynamite <\/span> – Netflix <\/span><\/p>\n It’s a bold structure, but a segmentation which frustratingly flatlines the tension and yields diminishing returns.<\/p>\n What a damn shame, as Bigelow previously tackled mutually assured destruction in 2002\u2019s K-19: The Widowmaker and the prospect of her leaving individual character studies like those in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty to embrace an ensemble piece was tantalizing. However, her considerable filmmaking talents, as well as her understanding that anticipation is significantly more terrifying than any visual depiction of destruction, feel undercut by the efforts of former NBC executive and Jackie screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, whose gimmicky timeline rewinds ensure the cast feels uniformly underused.<\/p>\n Worse, his screenplay tanks the inherently gripping atmosphere of the first act, and brims with overearnest moments. Cutaways of children going to school; soldiers overcome with panic and needing to throw up; even a wee dinosaur toy reminding you that children are the future and there may be none to leave behind.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n