Copyright Screen Rant
Netflix's A House of Dynamite is making waves both in cinema and in discussions about the reality of its subject matter. Teetering on a 2026 Best Picture nomination, Kathryn Bigelow's political thriller follows many characters working at different levels of the U.S. government and military who face an impending nuclear missile strike on Chicago and the horror that they may not be able to stop it. While A House of Dynamite has done relatively well with critics, despite some frequent complaints about its ending, it has also drawn the attention of real government officials. Namely, Bloomberg reported yesterday that the Pentagon criticized A House of Dynamite in a memo, largely taking issue with how the movie depicts America's ground missile defense system as fallible, stating that it has only a 61% success rate. Despite the memo saying that modern GBIs (ground-based interceptors) "have displayed a 100% accuracy rate in testing" and that the movie's portrayal must be based on "earlier prototypes," A House of Dynamite's crew was quick to respond. The film's screenwriter, Noah Oppenheim, stated that he "did talk to many missile defense experts" and that "what you see on screen is hopefully a fairly accurate portrait." Now, the movie's Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty fame has also weighed in. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bigelow first responded to the Pentagon's memo by saying: "It's interesting. In a perfect world, culture has the potential to drive policy — and if there's dialogue around the proliferation of nuclear weapons, that is music to my ears, certainly." Bigelow was also asked about the Pentagon's statement about not being consulted for the film. The interviewer brought up that Bigelow had previously stated that she "felt it was important to keep this film independent." However, Bigelow still confirmed that she and Oppenheim did their homework: "It's the best course of action, to consult with all of the experts that we did. We had extraordinary tech advisors on this film [...]." When Bigelow's past experiences facing controversy and backlash from government officials because of her work were brought up, she simply said: "I just state the truth." Bigelow, like Oppenheim, stands by A House of Dynamite on the point of accuracy, and says that inviting the audiences into the government and military's intense processes in this situation was the goal. Check out her comments below: I just state the truth. In this piece, it's all about realism and authenticity. Same with Zero Dark Thirty and same with Hurt Locker — even though Hurt Locker was obviously a work of fiction, and this is a work of fiction. For me, these are pieces that lean in hard on realism. You're inviting an audience into, say, the battledeck of STRATCOM. That's a place that's not easily accessible, and so you want it to be authentic and honest. That's my goal, and I think we achieved it. The Pentagon also stated that A House of Dynamite "does not reflect the views or priorities of this administration." However, Bigelow counters by saying that she the movie was intended to drive discussion about the dangers of nuclear weapons that affect the entire world, reflecting little interest in what the current administration might agree with. She paints a picture of the potential domino effect of one missile being fired. Bigelow also said to THR: "It's grappling with the idea that we're surrounded by 12,000 (nuclear) weapons. We live in a really combustible environment, hence the title — we live in A House of Dynamite. The unthinkable — it's time to address it and, in a perfect world, begin discussions about reducing the nuclear stockpile."
