A House of Dynamite (15, 112 mins)

Verdict: Riveting and explosive thriller

Rating:

How might the United States respond in the event of a nuclear attack, with less than 20 minutes before an incoming missile lands on Chicago? 

Despite having state-of-the-art satellite technology, US military intelligence officials are clueless about which adversary launched the missile. They only know its potentially disastrous path began somewhere in the Pacific.

This nerve-wracking scenario is central to Kathryn Bigelow’s fast-paced thriller, A House of Dynamite, easily the most thrilling film I witnessed at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

Bigelow previously made history as the first female director to win an Oscar for Best Director, thanks to her 2008 action thriller, The Hurt Locker, which took place during the Iraq War.

With Chloe Zhao and Jane Campion, she remains one of only three women to ever win this prestigious award, and there’s a good chance she could be the first to win it twice.

A House of Dynamite is certainly good enough to win a raft of Oscars.

Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, said to be the standout film at this year’s Venice Film Festival, features Rebecca Ferguson as Captain Olivia Walker.

Bigelow’s film superbly evokes the furnace of decision-making that such an agonising dilemma might ignite (Gabriel Basso as Jake Baerington)

The movie is structured in three major acts, each retelling the events from a different viewpoint. The audience doesn’t meet the US President, played by Idris Elba, until the third act. At that point, he is abruptly removed from a jovial visit to a school—reminiscent of the moment George W. Bush was informed of the 9/11 attacks—to make a critical decision about whether to retaliate before Chicago faces destruction.

But retaliate against who? China? Russia? North Korea? Iran? All the above? The Russians are aware of the missile but say it’s nothing to do with them. Maybe it was even launched by accident, a scenario that inspired a terrific film at the height of the Cold War, Sidney Lumet’s 1964 thriller Fail Safe, starring Henry Fonda.

Then as now, the world stands uneasily on the brink of disaster. If this is a coordinated attack, can the US afford not to respond? Which cataclysm does POTUS choose?

Some 10 million people will die in Chicago if the missile detonates, hundreds of millions more around the world if he activates the nuclear codes. 

These are carried by a fresh-faced lieutenant-commander (Jonah Hauer-King) whose job is to advise his boss on the various magnitudes of response open to him. ‘It’s like a diner menu,’ says the President, with gallows humour.

Bigelow’s film superbly evokes the furnace of decision-making that such an agonising dilemma might ignite. There is a clanging ring of truth to the conflicting advice the President gets, from a gung-ho army general (Tracy Letts) insistent that there absolutely must be some kind of response before it’s too late, to the startlingly young Deputy National Security Advisor (Gabriel Basso), thrust into the frenzy because his boss cannot be reached, who counsels restraint.

The excellent screenplay is by Noah Oppenheim, a former television executive, indeed president of NBC News, who doubtless tapped his White House contacts for insight. 

Commendably, he and Bigelow do not talk down to their audience. There is some expository dialogue but it is sensibly kept to a minimum as abbreviations and acronyms fly. This alphabet soup adds to the authenticity. They know that EKV stands for Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, and DE for Designated Evacuee. We don’t need to.

The world stands uneasily on the brink of disaster. If this is a coordinated attack, can the US afford not to respond? Which cataclysm does POTUS choose? (Anthony Ramos as Major Daniel Gonzalez)

In some ways all this plays like the finest feature-length episode of The West Wing you ever saw. But much as I admired Aaron Sorkin’s hit TV drama, there was a rat-a-tat-tat glibness to the dialogue that is wholly lacking here. Nobody on this white-knuckle ride has time to be a smart-aleck.

Also, like all the scariest white-knuckle rides, it doesn’t last too long. Bigelow wisely keeps her film under two hours and wisely resists the temptation to tell us too much about the personal lives of her protagonists.

Instead, we learn just enough. The commander of a military base in Alaska (Anthony Ramos) is having some unspecified domestic issues. Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), who takes charge in the White House Situation Room, is a loving wife and mother.

Elsewhere, a key expert on North Korea (Greta Lee) is spending her day off with her son at a reconstruction of the US Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, gently rebuking him when he calls the spectacle awesome. There were 50,000 killed at Gettysburg in three days, she notes. It’s the only clunky line in the entire film. Clearly we’re meant to compare what constituted huge wartime casualties then, with now.

Bigelow wisely keeps her film under two hours and wisely resists the temptation to tell us too much about the personal lives of her protagonists (Kyle Allen as Captain Jon Zimmer)

Then there’s Secretary of Defence Reid Baker (Jared Harris), who has recently lost his wife of 30-odd years and has a daughter from whom he is semi-estranged. She lives in Chicago. In just a few minutes, she might be vaporised.

Coincidentally, Harris also starred in Chernobyl, the brilliant 2019 TV drama that chronicled the events surrounding an actual nuclear disaster. This, in a sense, is a companion piece, about a nuclear catastrophe that mercifully hasn’t yet happened in real life. But Bigelow’s message is plain. We all live in a house filled with dynamite. So it might.

A House of Dynamite will be released in cinemas on October 3, and on Netflix a week later.