7 min read

Spoilers below.

The nuclear missile appears first as a radar blip, then a certainty hurtling toward the U.S. at a blistering speed. In her new film A House of Dynamite , Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow stages the crisis with unrelenting urgency, confronting the terrible burden of decision-making when every choice carries the weight of millions of lives.

In the White House Situation Room, Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) watches the missile’s path shift across the screen, the glow of maps washing every face in the same ghastly hue. She doesn’t flinch. She removes her headset and orders the President (Idris Elba) and Defense Secretary Reid Baker (Jared Harris) to be added to the conference line. When the odds of the missile’s impact flash onscreen—low for

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