A House of Dynamite

A House of Dynamite is a 2025 American political thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Noah Oppenheim. It stars Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King with Greta Lee and Jason Clarke. The film shows the perspectives and responses of different U.S. government and military officials after an unknown adversary launches an intercontinental ballistic missile at Chicago.
A House of Dynamite premiered in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2025, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. It had a limited theatrical release in the UK on October 3 and was released in the United States on October 10, before its global streaming debut on Netflix on October 24. It generally received positive reviews.

Plot

In Washington, D.C., Captain Olivia Walker, the oversight officer for the White House Situation Room, is informed of several geopolitical developments: an imminent exercise by the PLA, suspicious chatter between Iran and its proxies, and silence from North Korea after a recent ballistic missile test.
The Pacific-based SBX-1 early-warning radar detects an unidentified intercontinental ballistic missile in flight over the northwest Pacific. Initially presumed to be a North Korean test, the situation changes when the ICBM enters low orbit, with a trajectory targeting Chicago within the next twenty minutes.
A video conference is initiated among the Situation Room, the Pentagon, and various commands of the armed forces. The president joins last, and alertness is raised to DEFCON 2. NORTHCOM directs units under Maj. Daniel Gonzalez at Fort Greely, Alaska, to launch two ground-based interceptors. The first fails to deploy while the second misses impact with the ICBM, horrifying Gonzalez, who vomits outside. Alertness is raised to DEFCON 1.
Secretary of Defense Reid Baker initiates the government's continuity of governance protocol, resulting in the evacuation of designated federal employees, including FEMA official Cathy Rogers. Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington, who was rushed to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, advises the president not to retaliate until the missile’s origin is confirmed. With impact only a few minutes away, Walker phones her family to warn them to leave the D.C. area.
Earlier that morning, at Offutt AFB in Nebraska, STRATCOM commander Gen. Anthony Brady is informed of the launch, and joins the conference call while B-2 bombers under INDOPACOM are scrambled to prepare for possible retaliation. Brady's team observes that China, Russia, and Iran have mobilized their forces; he presents the president with the OPLAN 8010 and recommends immediate retaliation.
While Baerington rushes to the PEOC, he considers attributing the launch to North Korea, and refers to NSA advisor Ana Park, who infers North Korea may possess submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Baerington and Park warn that failure of the DSP satellites to detect the launch could indicate a cyberattack against U.S. C2 systems.
Baerington speaks with Russia's foreign minister, who denies that they and China launched the missile, but threatens retaliation should Russia be targeted. Baerington attempts to convince him to stand down all Russian military assets in goodwill; the minister leaves to present the idea to the Russian president. With the ICBM nearing Chicago, the president confirms his nuclear command authority with Brady through the biscuit, who advises him to consult with his nuclear aide, Lt Cdr. Robert Reeves, regarding retaliation options.
Earlier that morning, Reeves accompanies the president to a basketball event while Baker starts work at the Pentagon. Both are informed of the unfolding crisis; the president is evacuated by the Secret Service, while Baker unsuccessfully attempts to evacuate his estranged daughter from Chicago. The president is uncertain of Baerington's idea of non-retaliation, considering it surrender, but cannot bring himself to retaliate as suggested by Brady.
The president learns of the GBIs' failure to intercept and is airlifted by Marine One to an undisclosed location. Airborne, he confirms his nuclear authority with Brady, confers with Reeves regarding strike options, and is informed of Baerington's conversation with the Russian foreign minister. He informs the First Lady, who is in Kenya, of the coming disaster. While being evacuated, Baker instead commits suicide by jumping from the rooftop helipad.
The president discusses with Reeves the precarity of nuclear proliferation, comparing it to living in "a house of dynamite". He is divided between Baerington's advice against retaliation and Brady's advice supporting it. Reeves presents the President with two major retaliation options from the OPLAN. Rogers and Park enter the Raven Rock Mountain Complex and Gonzalez kneels outside Fort Greely.

Cast

Idris Elba as the President of the United States
Rebecca Ferguson as Captain Olivia "Liv" Walker, the duty officer in charge of the White House Situation Room during the crisis
Gabriel Basso as Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington
Jared Harris as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker
Tracy Letts as General Anthony Brady, Combatant Commander of United States Strategic Command
Anthony Ramos as Major Daniel Gonzalez, commander of Fort Greely, Alaska
Moses Ingram as Cathy Rogers, a FEMA official with the Office of National Continuity Programs
Jonah Hauer-King as Lieutenant Commander Robert Reeves, the Presidential Military Aide
Greta Lee as Ana Park, the National Intelligence Officer for North Korea
Jason Clarke as Admiral Mark Miller, Director of the White House Situation Room
Malachi Beasley as SCPO William Davis, Walker's colleague in the Situation Room
Brian Tee as SAIC Ken Cho, the head of the United States Secret Service Presidential Protection Detail
Brittany O'Grady as Lily Baerington, Jake's pregnant wife and a Senatorial aide on Capitol Hill
Gbenga Akinnagbe as Major General Steven Kyle, Director of Global Operations, STRATCOM
Willa Fitzgerald as Abby Jansing, a CNN representative at the White House Press Briefing Room
Renée Elise Goldsberry as the First Lady of the United States
Kyle Allen as Captain Jon Zimmer, a B-2 bomber pilot
Kaitlyn Dever as Caroline Baker, Baker's daughter
Francesca Carpanini as Staff Sergeant Ali Jones, a soldier at Fort Greely
Abubakr Ali as Lieutenant Dan Buck, a soldier at Fort Greely
Angel Reese as herself in a cameo appearance
Production

In May 2024, it was announced that Kathryn Bigelow would direct a thriller film for Netflix, her first feature film since Detroit. In June, Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, and Greta Lee joined the cast. In August, Tracy Letts and Moses Ingram joined. In September, Anthony Ramos, Brian Tee, Jonah Hauer-King, Kyle Allen, Francesca Carpanini, Abubakr Ali, Malachi Beasley, Aminah Nieves, and Jason Clarke joined the cast of the film. In October, Gbenga Akinnagbe joined the cast. On October 24, it was reported that filming had begun in Trenton, New Jersey. In early December, it was reported that the film was in post-production.

Accuracy

The film's sets and its portrayal of the telecommunications that would ensue in the event of a nuclear threat were commended as accurate. However, the likelihood of its central premise was deemed unlikely; a nuclear attack would likely involve many missiles instead of a single missile, and use of nuclear missiles is more likely to erupt from a more conventional conflict instead of "out of the blue" as the film shows. It is also unlikely that leadership would be pressured to respond to a nuclear attack before the first strike arrives, instead relying on second strike capabilities.
Experts were divided over the depiction of U.S. missile defenses. The film has drawn criticism from the U.S. Department of Defense and the subordinate agency responsible for the U.S. missile defense system, the Missile Defense Agency, for misstating the reliability of the Ground-Based Interceptor system, which has an officially recorded success rate of 100% interception, versus 61% depicted in the film. Oppenheim responded that the 100% rate quoted was only for certain recent tests, while the overall success rate for the 20 tests conducted since the system was introduced in 1999, backed up by publicly available data, is 57%. Ted Postol of MIT, a critic of the Missile Defense Agency, praised the film's accuracy and stated the 61% claim was artificially high. In a presentation with retired U.S. Army officer Daniel Davis, Postol broke down how the 61% was calculated and claimed the entire missile defense program is fraudulent.

Release

In June 2025, the film's title was revealed to be A House of Dynamite, with the film scheduled to be given a limited theatrical release in the United States sometime in October 2025 before streaming on Netflix on October 24. In August 2025, it was announced that the film would be released in select theaters in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2025, and globally on October 10.

Reception

Critical response

Writing for RogerEbert.com, critic Glenn Kenny gave the film four out of four stars, writing that the film is a "tense, precise, extremely sobering thriller" and that Elba showcased the range of his acting abilities. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood wrote that the film "might not fall into the horror movie genre, but it might as well because it is more frightening than any of them".