A House of Dynamite Review: Kathryn Bigelow's Ominous Nuclear Thriller on Netflix
- By Fahad Ali -
- Oct 28, 2025
A House of Dynamite (2025), directed by Kathryn Bigelow and now out on Netflix following a limited theatrical release and Venice Film Festival debut, is an ominous nuclear thriller that updates Cold War-era anxieties to a contemporary setting.
Starring Idris Elba as a new President, Anthony Ramos as a Pacific-based general, Rebecca Ferguson as a White House commander, Jared Harris as Defense Secretary, and a supporting cast comprising Gabriel Basso, Tracy Letts, Greta Lee, and Moses Ingram, this movie is set in real-time as an unknown ICBM rockets toward Chicago with only 19 minutes until impact. Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, which both won Oscars, makes a tight, acronym-filled procedure based on actual military interviews by screenwriter Noah Oppenheim.
The plot is lean and chilling: No villains, no heroes—only imperfect officials against doomsday. From Ramos’ Major Daniel Gonzalez seeing the launch to Ferguson’s Captain Olivia Walker brushing it off as a test, tension mounts through cross-cutting point of views. Harris’ Reid Baker freaks out over his daughter within the target area; Basso’s underutilized deputy takes charge; Elba’s POTUS struggles with counterstrike choices. Private phone calls to loved ones make humanity touch during mayhem, reminiscent of classics such as Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove.
Bigelow’s 11th attribute shines in the first act, spiking blood pressure with relentless pacing and diamond-cut editing by Kirk Baxter. It lays bare worldwide numbness to nuclear threats—”multiple nations possess enough weapons to end civilization in minutes,” Bigelow writes in press materials. The structure rewinds the clock several times, replaying action from novel perspectives: duplicated dialogue such as “one minute to intercept” increases terror, creating a fluid mosaic.
But this gimmick deflates momentum in subsequent sections. Rewinds come across as formal tricks more than expansions, dampening the panic. Characters are sketches—pregnant wives, fevered children, Gettysburg excursions—preventing emotional investment even with top-shelf actors. Letts and Gbenga Akinnagbe excel in snarky repartee, but the film dissipates focus, yearning for either a tight 90-minute dash or a 3-hour Altman-esque ensemble plunge.
VERDICT
In the end, A House of Dynamite is a tense, desperate wake-up call to the unthinkable, the marriage of horror with bureaucracy. It refuses resolution, leaving audiences uneasy. Bigelow slams the alarm in our faces—we can close our ears, but it’s blaring. A must-see nuclear thriller for enthusiasts of high-stakes drama, though its ambition exceeds execution.