Everyone is talking about this terrifying thriller
In a world where it sometimes seems like a new war is lurking around every corner, you sometimes just want to escape. At least, I am that kind of person. Just no news, no wars, no world problems. Just diving into a good movie. But some movies don’t let you escape. They pull you back into reality hard. Netflix’ A House of Dynamite is exactly such a movie. It is so frighteningly realistic that you can’t look away.
You either love it or you hate it: those thrillers that seem to come straight out of a history book. Personally, I am a fan. That doesn’t surprise me at all, growing up with James Bond, Mission Impossible, Olympus Has Fallen and Independence Day. It’s those ‘real’ stories that I find interesting. Political intrigues, power games, life-threatening situations. Not in real life, of course, but on the big screen, it becomes a lot more exciting. I gladly add this film to that list. Why? Well…
It is disturbingly realistic
The film has a simple scenario: a nuclear missile has been launched at Chicago. But by whom? And that’s not even the worst part. The American government has only eighteen minutes to decide what to do. Eighteen minutes. Can you imagine? A missile is flying your way, and no one knows where the threat is coming from. I immediately wonder: how does the world react to something like this? Do governments panic? Or do they remain professional and calculated? That’s what director Kathryn Bigelow (yes, the one from The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty) wondered as well.
She wanted to know what would happen in different departments of the American government and military in such a situation. That’s exactly what she explains in a four-part film: “…We decided to divide the story into four parts. Because I wanted to tell it in ‘real time’ and make the audience feel how damn short such a quarter of an hour really is. By choosing that structure, we could also climb a step higher in the hierarchical chain. Thus, you see that, ironically, the president only hears something last and then has very little time to make a decision.”
Creepy scary
No, it’s not a horror movie, but it is scary. Scary because it feels so real. You watch people trying to stay rational while every system that should protect them is failing. The phone lines, the protocols, the politics: nothing works as it should. And that might be the most shocking of all. The film starts at Fort Greely in Alaska, where Major Daniel Gonzalez and his team see a dot appear on their radar. At first, it seems like a mistake, until the alarm goes off. The missile is real, and it’s coming their way. From that moment, the perspective shifts to Washington D.C., where Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) tries to understand the chaos in the Situation Room as information flows in. Everything is too slow, too vague. Higher officers, generals, the Secretary of Defense. Everyone is trying to maintain control, but the situation slips through their fingers.
You never really think about it, but how scary is it that these things just happen? In back rooms of governments and military bases. Now, with all these wars and problems in the world, it sometimes feels like we’ve fallen into a black hole — but it always feels far away. On the other side of the world, while you lie safely in your own bed. This film shows that it’s actually closer than you think: even in America, and in ‘your’ country, things can go wrong.
Why you should see this
There are millions of reasons to watch this film. Let me start with the star cast: Idris Elba plays the president and the handsome Jonah Hauer-King (aka Prince Eric) shines alongside Rebecca Ferguson, who finally takes a leading role again after her absence in the last Mission Impossible.
Moreover, this film is seriously well shot. Every detail has been thought through, it’s not a hodgepodge of collected thrilling stories. Kathryn Bigelow had the head of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim, write the script. There were even real soldiers walking around as extras. They practice these kinds of situations four hundred times a year, so they had plenty of practical knowledge here. It all really clicked. Just like the locations. The sets were based on the real deal. Like the Situation Room, where everything in the White House is monitored. Where they were really present was the road to the Raven Rock Mountain Complex — a military nuclear bunker in Pennsylvania.
So. Is A House of Dynamite a good movie? Or are opinions… uh, divided? As far as I’m concerned, yes. It’s a terrifyingly realistic picture of how our governments actually work. About how these world leaders deal with unimaginable power and make decisions about our lives behind closed doors. It’s confronting to see that this can really happen. No monsters, no alien invasions. Just people and machines having to make snap decisions that determine the fate of a lot of people. It could happen tomorrow. Or in ten minutes. So prepare yourself, and watch this film.
