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Netflix\u2019s new original film, A House of Dynamite,<\/em> arrived on the streaming platform Oct. 24. The nail-biter of a film depicts the tense 18 minutes after a missile is detected heading toward the United States. However, it purposefully leaves its ending ambiguous.<\/p>\n The new movie, helmed by The Hurt Locker <\/em>and Zero Dark Thirty<\/em> director Kathryn Bigelow, unfolds between the missile\u2019s launch and its potential detonation, as different sectors of government react to the threat and consider what the president of the United States (Idris Elba) should do next.<\/p>\n At Fort Greely, Alaska, Maj. Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) and his military team scramble to intercept the threat, while in the White House Situation Room, Capt. Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) coordinates intelligence and emergency response. Meanwhile, deputy national security adviser Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso) attempts to deescalate the situation as the President weighs whether to retaliate against potential adversaries \u2014\u00a0something that Gen. Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts) insists is necessary to save the rest of the country. At the end of the film, Elba\u2019s character is left making a decision from the \u201cblack book\u201d of options for how to handle a nuclear threat.<\/p>\n Bigelow previously told Yahoo U.K.<\/a> that the tight timeline \u2014\u00a0while the film runs for two hours, it only follows the 18 minutes of drama \u2014\u00a0was to show how difficult the decisions made by the people in the movie would be, putting the audience in the shoes of people like the president who must make \u201cpotentially catastrophic\u201d choices.<\/p>\n The decision to tell the story in this way originated from the movie\u2019s screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, the former president of NBC News and writer of the TV series Zero Day<\/em>, which also revolves around an attack on the United States. \u201cI wanted to do it in real time,\u201d Bigelow said, noting that the choice to toggle back and forth between perspectives came about in part because \u201c18 minutes would be a very short movie.\u201d<\/p>\n While the film takes place entirely before the missile hits Chicago, it never reveals what happens when it does \u2014\u00a0and if the impact is as devastating as expected. However, even the threat of what may happen has caused irrevocable damage: Secretary of Defense Reid Baker, played by Jared Harris, jumps off the roof of the Pentagon when he learns that the plans to thwart the missile have failed. His daughter, played by Kaitlyn Dever, lives in Chicago, and he has one final phone call with her before he decides to take his own life.<\/p>\n The film also ends without showing what choice the president made on retaliation. Bigelow said in an interview with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists<\/a> that she hopes the ambiguous ending allows for an \u201copportunity to start a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see people decide they don\u2019t want to live in a world that\u2019s this volatile or this combustible,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then of course, the next step is to reach out to their representatives and try to, you know, create a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, not everyone is thrilled with the ambiguous ending, as evidenced by comments on Netflix\u2019s Instagram post<\/a> about the film.<\/p>\n \u201cWTF was that ending!!!!!\u201d one commenter wrote. Another added, \u201cYou can stop watching after 30 mins, nothing new happens with a crappy ending. Which is literally no ending.\u201d A third wrote, \u201cThe movie is good, but the ending? We don\u2019t know what happens\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat happens in \u2018A House of Dynamite\u2019?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How does \u2018A House of Dynamite\u2019 end?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n