Kathryn Bigelow’s new film “A House of Dynamite”, which is being shown in South Korean theaters before being released on Netflix two weeks later, is quite tense and disturbing to say the least. Closely and vividly following how its many different characters respond to an unthinkable crisis for which nobody can possibly be prepared, the movie makes a very chilling point on its fearful main subject without any compromise, and the overall result is both riveting and thought-provoking from the beginning to the end.

Consisting of the three chapters, the movie begins with a sudden unexpected emergency for US. When everyone is going through another usual day at a military base in Alaska, an unidentified Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is suddenly detected in the air, and everyone is quite baffled at first. So far, they have not received any warning or notice about this happening, and the mood becomes more tense once it becomes quite apparent that this unidentified ICBM is heading toward somewhere in US.

Needless to say, this happening has already been reported to the White House Situation Room, and that is followed by an emergency zoom meeting among a number of top-ranking military generals and government officials. While it is quite possible that the missile was launched by one of those enemy countries such as Russia or China, they have no idea on why this is happening, let alone how they should respond right now. When it turns out that the missile is going to strike one of the big major cities in US, they naturally become all the more pressured than before, and time keeps running out for them second by second as before.

In the end, everything depends on the final decision from the US president, but he is also as confused and conflicted as many others serving under him. As some of those top-ranking generals suggest, he may have to authorize an immediate retaliation via those nuclear missiles ready to be launched at any second, but he is also well aware of how tricky the ongoing situation is for his government and country. First, they still do not know anything about which country is really behind this shocking attack, so he must be really careful about the scale of the retaliation, but there is not much time for him and others around him right now, while it only becomes clearer to everyone that he is stuck between two very impossible choices with no possible way out.

Occasionally filling its main characters with some little human details to observe, the movie keeps focusing on how they struggle to do their best for avoiding the worst outcome of their rapidly developing crisis. As some of them bitterly admit, no one has ever imagined such a circumstance like this before, and their reactions and responses may remind you of the chaos and confusion in the US government and its country right after the 9/11 incident in 2001.

And the situation only gets grimmer despite their frantic efforts for getting their situation under control. Their defense system unfortunately fails to stop the incoming missile, and it becomes quite undeniable that their country cannot possibly avoid an unprecedented scale of disaster. Once notified about this, the people at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) instantly follow their protocol as expected, but they are also woefully unprepared just like others, and that adds more confusion and chaos to the ongoing circumstance.

Gradually fleshing out the narrative via its multiple viewpoints, the screenplay by writer/co-producer Noah Oppenheim completes its big sobering picture step by step, and Bigelow, who is no stranger to tension and pressure at all as shown from her Oscar-winning film “The Hurt Locker” (2008), and her crew members including cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and editor Kirk Baxter did a splendid job of generating more suspense and verisimilitude along the story. As Ackroyd’s handheld camera steadily focuses on the amounting suspense and pressure on everyone in the story, Baxter’s taut and efficient editing never allows us to get lost and confused amid the multiple plot lines in the film, and the score by Volker Bertelmann adds extra tension to the screen at times.

Furthermore, Bigelow assembles a bunch of talented performers who can instantly fill their respective roles with detail and nuance. A number of more notable performers such as Rebecca Ferguson, Jares Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Gabriel Basso, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Kaitlyn Dever will surely draw some attention from us right from the start, but they all come to function as the plain but crucial parts of the ensemble in one way or another, and Iris Elba, who incidentally played the British Prime minister in recent Amazon Prime movie “Heads of State” (2025) a few months ago, eventually takes the center as the US president while the story is approaching to its inevitable arrival point.

In conclusion, “A House of Dynamite” is an effective thriller film which can unnerve and then chill us a lot as sharply and devastatingly reminding us of how our world is still stuck inside what can be regarded as, yes, a house of dynamite which can be detonated at any chance even at this point. After watching how even fairly competent professionals and politicians can quickly become quite helplessly confused and pressured under such as a grim and terrifying circumstance like that, you will have a lot of understandable concern considering how our global world has been very unstable and volatile thanks to those evil or incompetent politicians during last several years, and I can only tell you that you are not alone at all.