Kathryn Bigelow, the director of Netflix thriller A House of Dynamite, which depicts government officials responding to a nuclear strike on the US, has responded to criticism by the Pentagon over the accuracy of its defence systems.
Speaking alongside writer Noah Oppenheim to the Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-winning film-maker defended the film, saying: “I just state the truth. In this piece, it’s all about realism and authenticity.”
Bigelow compared the film with her previous dramas Zero Dark Thirty and Hurt Locker, calling them “work[s] of fiction … that lean in hard on realism”.
In the film, ground-based interceptor missiles, launched from Alaska, fail to stop a nuclear strike on Chicago.
In an internal memo dated 16 October, and obtained by Bloomberg, the US’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said: “The fictional interceptors in the movie miss their target and we understand this is intended to be a compelling part of the drama intended for the entertainment of the audience,” but results from real-world testing “tell a vastly different story.”
The memo added that the US’s missile interceptors “have displayed a 100% accuracy rate in testing for more than a decade”.
Yet external agencies have disputed this claim, alongside Bigelow and Oppenheim, a former news journalist, who over the weekend said he “respectfully disagree[s]” with the MDA’s assertion.
Nuclear physicist Laura Grego, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Bloomberg that the threat represented in the film was arguably the most straightforward that the US might have to deal with. “A robust defence should anticipate facing multiple incoming ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] and credible decoys, and direct attacks on missile defense elements, but none of those were part of the story in this film. The fictional threat is arguably about as easy as they come.”
Bigelow reiterated her hope that the film would trigger conversations, both within government and among the public.
“In a perfect world, culture has the potential to drive policy,” she said, “and if there’s dialogue around the proliferation of nuclear weapons, that is music to my ears, certainly.”
The film has topped Netflix’s streaming charts since its release and was watched by more than 20m accounts over its first three days. Bigelow credited its appeal to the secrecy surrounding nuclear weapons.
“It’s grappling with the idea that we’re surrounded by 12,000 weapons. We live in a really combustible environment, hence the title – we live in A House of Dynamite. The unthinkable – it’s time to address it and, in a perfect world, begin discussions about reducing the nuclear stockpile.”
Bigelow told the Guardian that the film did not seek endorsement or cooperation from the Pentagon to ensure its independence, saying: “Our nuclear armoury is a fallible structure. Within it are men and women working thanklessly behind the scenes, whose competence means you and I can sit and have this conversation. But competence doesn’t mean they’re infallible.”
The US currently has 44 ground-based interceptors, based in Alaska and California, and in 2020 the Pentagon awarded a $13.3bn contract to Northrop Grumman for a new generation of ground-based missiles, due for delivery in 2029. In May, Donald Trump proposed a “Golden Dome” missile system, featuring space-based weapons to intercept strikes against the US.
