The US military and government are blindsided by an incoming nuclear missile launched by an unknown source. Remember Katherine Bigelow of director Oscar fame for the Hurt Locker and Point Break? What a relief, that A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE feels like her return to form, a genuinely electrifying race against – the- clock thriller that’s as frightening as it is gripping.
The existential terror of mutually assured destruction becomes apparent as we are subjected to some stomach- churning statistics regarding the Cold War escalation of nuclear weapons, told in a parallel storyline of people who each have a role to play, within the US nuclear defence plan- from the tie-wearing decision-makers in Washington DC to the troops on a far away army base. If there is a protagonist here, it’s probably Captain Olivia Walker, played by a steely Rebecca Ferguson,whose workday involves a normal routine except when she arrives in the Situation Room, an intercontinental ballistic missile is heading straight for Chicago. The fate of the world teeters on the edge of a precipice.
Noah Oppenheim, the screenwriter, populates the narrative with impenetrable acronyms and technical terms that we adopt as the real deal. The film is split into a triptych of interweaving perspectives, each one ending with the final moments before impact.
The excellent ensemble make minimal acting time but most notable are Greta Lee, Jared Harris and Gabriel Basso.
If there is an element of Hollywood fantasy here, it’s that those in the White House are entirely honourable. The president is played by Idris Elba. His characterisation feels like a hangover from the Obama era. Bigelow wisely decides not to indulge in any spectacle of violence and destruction propping the audience’s anticipation of the inevitable is far more frightening than what she might be able to present visually. If only all cautionary tales could be this brilliantly entertaining.
Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson and Tracy Letts do well in this immaculately constructed nightmare that ticks down the minutes from an atomic bombs launch to its detonation. Maybe we prefer to see something for its absurdism and satire, akin to Kubrick ‘s black comedy Dr Strangelove. Bigelow and Oppenheim broach one of the most frightening concepts that a nuclear war could or will start with no one knowing who started it or who would end it.
