From a GenX perspective: "Netflix’s ‘A House of Dynamite’ warns of nuclear threats"
Ellen Thomas
Netflix’s ‘A House of Dynamite’ warns of nuclear threats
Review: A House of Dynamite (2025) — Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
For those of us too young to remember air raid drills and bomb shelters, nuclear war has never seemed as plausible, nor as worrisome, as it surely did for older generations.
That’s not to say that my generation never thought about any catastrophic scenarios. It’s just that our worries came in different packaging, such as the threat of a mass shooting, an act of terrorism, or another deadly pandemic just to name a few. Right or wrong, nuclear war has never been at the forefront of that list for us – a luxury for which we must thank previous world leaders.
Nevertheless, it’s now 2025 and geopolitical tensions are the highest they’ve been in a generation. Consequently, young Americans can no longer afford that same luxury.
With films such as “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”, director Kathryn Bigelow is no stranger to exploring the rawness and poignancy of war and political turmoil. Now, in an effort to remind a new generation of the dangers of nuclear proliferation, Bigelow gives us “A House of Dynamite”.
Brilliantly told using foreshadowing and multi-perspective storytelling techniques, “A House of Dynamite” is engrossing from start to finish and unquestionably the best Netflix original film of the year. Bigelow’s fictional account of a nuclear strike against the United States not only drives home important lessons concerning nuclear war – it also humanizes our nation’s most-powerful leaders in a way seldom depicted onscreen.
“A House of Dynamite” is divided into three chapters, with each showing the same sequence of events from a different perspective. The first chapter begins at the lower levels of government and by the third chapter reaches the highest offices including the secretary of defense and the president. In an attempt to let the audience share in the feeling of being on a “need to know” basis with the characters, Bigelow doesn’t even reveal the identity of the president until the third chapter.
Although “A House of Dynamite” is fictional, Bigelow makes a point of teaching audiences real-life military terminology, acronyms, and protocols, giving the film some educational value to go along with its entertaining plot. Audiences are given a tour of our military’s most important defense facilities, including the White House Situation Room and the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM). Additionally, through the performances of its talented cast, the film explains the detailed chain of command within the Department of Defense in the event of a nuclear attack.
Bigelow selects a mix of American and non-American actors for her film, creating an eclectic melting pot of a cast emblematic of America as a whole. On the American front, we have Gabriel Basso, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, and Greta Lee. On the international side, the film features Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson, Australian actor Jason Clarke, and British actors Jared Harris, Jonah Hauer-King, and Idris Elba.
Bigelow succeeds in humanizing her characters, in large part, due to the incredible dialogue written for them by Noah Oppenheim. Audiences watch as all of the characters, including the Secretary of Defense and the President, struggle to navigate healthy work-life balances. It is through these portrayals that Bigelow gives us a better understanding of our real-life leaders, and the terrible circumstances they must endure while making wartime decisions.
“A House of Dynamite” will have you on the edge of your seat and give you a new appreciation for the Department of Defense – an agency most of us have either ignored or taken for granted.
Bigelow isn’t trying to reinitiate air raid drills or reinstall bomb shelters. She just hopes that audiences, particularly younger ones, will remember to treat the threat of nuclear proliferation with as much diligence and caution as any other threat around – especially now that our geopolitical landscape looks eerily similar to the one from yesteryear.
