Review

‘A House of Dynamite’ Isn’t Explosive Enough

Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller is terrifying—but falls short of true provocation. October 24, 2025, 2:20 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Two people dressed in military gear in the cockpit of an airplane, flying above cloud cover.

For almost as long as there have been nuclear weapons, there have been movies agonizing about the tortured class of professionals tasked with managing them.

Most famously, 1964 saw the twin-premised films Fail Safe and its more famous cousin, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Both depict U.S. decisionmakers reacting to a fictional nuclear accident in which an unauthorized U.S. missile is headed toward the Soviet Union, unable to be recalled, leaving de

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