The Final Countdown: Film Review of A Houseful of Dynamite
★★★1/2
By Geoff Carter
Illustration by Michael DiMilo
Call it techno-horror, apocalyptic cinema, or just plain science-fiction, but films about the dangers of military technology gone wild, especially when paired with the specter of nuclear annihilation, have been with us since the first days of the Cold War.
Going back to cautionary (and fantastical) science-fiction films of the fifties like Godzilla, Them!, The Amazing Colossal Man, or The Killer Shrews, we experienced dozens of movies (mostly at Saturday afternoon matinees) that warned of the dangers endemic to the atomic age. In these movies, residual radiation from nuclear testing caused everyday creatures, and sometimes people (remember Attack of the 50-Foot Woman?) to grow exponentially in size (and attitude) and become monstrous creatures. Giant ants, rodents, and dinosaurs rampaging across the landscape was the result. These films were a little silly, but their message was clear—nuclear radiation is dangerous.
Later, more sophisticated films like Fail-Safe, Dr. Strangelove, and WarGames explored the more realistic consequences of fallible military technology, specifically those devices used to regulate nuclear weapons, run amok.
The newest in this genre is the Netflix production of A Houseful of Dynamite. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the director who brought us The Hurt Locker, Point Break, and Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow’s newest offering is a taut and harrowing thriller about the American government’s less-than-effective response to a rogue nuclear missile.
The film is structured into three separate viewpoints of the same seventeen minutes—the time it takes for an ICBM to find its target. The introduction to the film takes place in Ft. Greely, Alaska, where Major Dan Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) and his crew are beginning a normal day manning the SBX early-detection radar unit.
The first section, titled “Inclination is Flattening”, follows Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) the oversight officer of the White House situation room, as she begins a normal day—with the night before the normal day. She is sitting up with her son, who is running a fever. After her husband takes charge of the child, she goes to work to what seems to be a routine day—until the SBX early-warning radar detects an ICBM launch. At first, Walker and her crew believe it is a test—until its orbit flattens and it is determined that it is headed toward the Midwest.
Captain Walker and her staff, along with Major Gonzalez and his crew at Fort Greely, do everything correctly—according to procedure, but unable to detect the launch origin and failing to intercept the missile, they are unsure if or where to retaliate. Once the interceptors miss, all they can do is watch helplessly and try to figure out who did it.
The second chapter is titled “Hitting a Bullet with a Bullet” and follows Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso) as he is forced into service while his boss in indisposed getting a colonoscopy. Joining a videoconference call with STRATCOM head General Anthony Brady, who has already scrambled B-1 bombers for retaliatory action. During the call, Baerington advises the president not to retaliate until the origin of the launch is determined. During all this, Defense Secretary Reid Brady has initiated the continuity of governance protocol, which designates certain employees to be whisked to secure locations.
The third and final chapter is titled “A Houseful of Dynamite” and follows the president (Idris Elba) as he is informed of the attack and is faced with a horrendous and cataclysmic decision—whether and how to retaliate. The Defense Secretary advises the president to consult with Ken Cho (Brian Tee) his secret service officer who holds the retaliation options.
Each of these chapters follows not only the events of the same seventeen minutes it takes the missile to reach its target, but how the responses and reactions of the characters intersect between the episodes. Anthony Brady, as head of SRATCOM (the Strategic Air Command) and Defense Secretary Baker figure significantly in all three, as their decisions and procedural options will determine the outcome—if the technology works.
What is revelatory—and terrifyingly real—about this movie is not only how distinctly possible it seems, but how frail our defense systems and the people who run them truly are. Surrounded by state-of-the-art technology, military hardware, and military intelligence, those who would defend us from annihilation are living under only an illusion of security—we are protected not by an iron dome, but one made of tissue.
When the computers and machines fail—which seems inevitable when Baerington reminds the officers in the conference call that hitting an incoming ICBM with a GBI is like “hitting a bullet with a bullet”—all we are left with is the inevitability of destruction.
Each character in the film, from the president down to the humblest bureaucrat, does what they are supposed to do to defend our nation—all to no avail. The destructive power of the thousands of megatons aimed at us worldwide is being held back only by the flimsiest of defenses.
Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim have constructed a multi-layered complex of ordinary people working within what is supposed to be the greatest military power in the world but which is revealed to be a only a flimsy house of cards.
From the moment the missile is discovered, Baerington, Walker, and the other players in this deadly game are vaulted from their ordinary lives, their illusion of normalcy, and into a maelstrom of predesigned protocols and strategies. They have been trained, and trained well, to deal with just such a crisis as an incoming ICBM. When the routine, the protocol, and the strategy fail, they are helpless The situation, in effect, is out of their hands.
The last sequence in which the president discusses nuclear options—rare, medium, and well-done—with this Secret Service agent, he cites the term “houseful of dynamite” as a metaphor for the deceptively fragile technological shield protecting us from hundreds of thousands of megatons of nuclear warheads, sort of like a fire alarm in the aforementioned house of dynamite.
A Houseful of Dynamite is a little desperate and desolate for a garden variety cautionary tale. There is not much hope attached to it, yet perhaps that is the best sort of bildungsroman. While its structure does illustrate the layers of response, and the human failings of the major players, it is a little redundant.
Bigelow, as usual, has constructed an excellent film. The authenticity of the sets, situations, and technology seem to be spot on—of course, I can’t say for sure. I’ve never been in the White House Situation Room—but the myriads of details are more than believable. As Captain Walker, Rebecca Ferguson gives a flawless performance. Morphing from a very tired working mother to a competent leader to a military office watching helplessly as the world teeters on the brink of annihilation.
Gabriel Basso also gives a fine performance, as do Idris Elba, but the supporting actor who truly shines is Jared Harris, whose performance as Secretary Baker is a beautifully calibrated portrayal. When he realizes his estranged daughter is in harm’s way, his reaction is both touching and awful.
A Houseful of Dynamite is a fine film, well-directed, well-conceived, and brilliantly performed. If for no other reason, it should be viewed as a cautionary tale, the Sword of Damocles hanging over us all, hanging by the thinnest of threads.