• Thriller
• War

A House of Dynamite 2025

The 2025 film A House of Dynamite is an American apocalyptic political thriller directed by Academy Award-winner Kathryn Bigelow and written by former NBC journalist Noah Oppenheim. The film features a high-profile ensemble cast led by Idris Elba as the U.S. President and Rebecca Ferguson as Captain Olivia Walker, a White House Situation Room oversight officer. Other principal cast members include Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, and Tracy Letts. The plot is a taut, high-stakes scenario focused on the 18-minute window after a single, unattributed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is detected heading toward the city of Chicago. The film explores the minute-by-minute response of the highest levels of the US government and military as they scramble to identify the adversary and determine a course of action. The narrative is structurally unique, presenting the same 18-minute countdown three times, each from a different vantage point: the White House Situation Room/Fort Greely missile defense crew, the STRATCOM (Strategic Command) leadership, and finally, the President himself. The tension centers on the President's impossible choice between two drastic options: immediately ordering a retaliatory nuclear strike, as advised by military leaders like General Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts), or exercising caution and restraint until the missile's origin can be conclusively identified, as urged by civilian advisors like Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso). A House of Dynamite premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in September 2025. It received a limited theatrical release in some countries before its global streaming debut on Netflix on October 24, 2025. The film is noted for its deliberately ambiguous, open-ended climax. It cuts to black right before the missile's impact in Chicago and before the President makes his final, world-altering decision. Writer Noah Oppenheim explained that this ending was chosen to avoid giving the audience a "neat, clean resolution," forcing them instead to grapple with the terrifying reality and ethical questions surrounding nuclear strategy and the possibility of human error under extreme pressure. Read More

• 2025
• 1 h : 53 min
• 134 views
• 6.141
• R