Review: “A House of Dynamite”

By Morgan Roberts

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writer: Noah Oppenheim
Stars: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jason Clarke, Greta Lee, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Malachi Beasley, Brian Tee, Brittany O’Grady, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Willa Fitzgerald, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kyle Allen, Kaitlyn Dever
Runtime: 113 minutes
Year: 2025

A nuclear missile is headed towards the United States. Government intelligence agencies, military leaders, emergency response sectors, and the administration all must respond. Who is attacking them, why, and is this just the beginning? In a call back to Cold War-era anxieties, Kathryn Bigelow explores the tensions aid today, interrogating the current state of the world in a “what-if” scenario in her latest film, “A House of Dynamite.”

The film has a three-act structure. Each act watches the events unfold from various perspectives. The first act - which was my favorite - saw the initial discovery of missile launch from Fort Greely, Alaska and from the White House situation. At Fort Greely, an Army base, service members including Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) race against the clock to launch anti-ballistic missiles in hopes of saving countless lives in a yet-to-be-determined target. Meanwhile, Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) and her team in the White House Situation Room attempt to coalesce the President, the Defense Secretary, security advisers, and emergency response teams to determine the validity of this attack. It is in this act that the film works best. The tension throughout this portion of the film is palpable. The actors portraying the service members in Fort Greely so effortlessly set the tone of the stakes. This is elevated largely by Ferguson’s performance in the Situation Room and in particular with her main acting partner in the scene Malachi Beasley (who plays SCPO William Davis). Ferguson shifts through calm, cool, and collected to in denial to in survival so seamlessly. By the end of the initial act, there is a visceral reaction to the film.

Rebecca Ferguson in “A House of Dynamite” | Netflix

Sadly, “A House of Dynamite” never reaches Act I’s tone or tension, though later acts certainly divulge further information on the events which transpired. There are standout performances in the later acts with Moses Ingram as Cathy Rogers of FEMA, Tracy Letts as General Anthony Brady, and Jared Harris as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker. Nevertheless, with an ensemble this big, there is great work lost in the mix - Greta Lee as Ana Park, NSA’s North Korea expert, immediately comes to mind.

Given the state of the world geopolitically, “A House of Dynamite” feels like a call to action on the very real anxieties we all hold. In the same vein as Stanley Kubrik’s “Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” or Sidney Lumet’s “Fail Safe,” the film wants to interrogate those fears and explore the possibilities if something such as this did occur. Unlike those Cold War films, “A House of Dynamite” quickly loses steam in the monotony of structure of the film. If there was some retooling to how the film played out, or trimming it into two acts, the film could have retained some of its steam. Moreover, while there is some ambiguity in the film that keeps it intriguing, the ending of the film does a disservice to it. Maybe because it was easy to compare the film to Lumet’s  “Fail Safe,” but if “A House of Dynamite” took some inspiration from the 1964 film’s ending, the film could have concluded on a much stronger note.

There is no denying Bigelow’s prowess as a filmmaker and storyteller. Her career has taken her to investigating themes of intelligence, purpose, the gray areas when trying to do what is “right.” It has been eight years since her last film, “Detroit” which was released in 2017. “A House of Dynamite” felt easier to connect to than her previous endeavor, and felt like a return to her wheelhouse even if it is a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim and not her collaborator on her previous three films, Mark Boal. Bigelow sets the stage for a tense thriller, but falters through the later acts. Luckily for “A House of Dynamite”, Ferguson gives a stunning performance making her work a true standout in the film.

“A House of Dynamite” begins a two-week theatrical run on Friday, 10 October 2025 and premieres on Netflix on Friday, 24 October 2025.

Grade: C
Pair This Film With: “Black Widow” (2021) dir. Cate Shortland; “The Peacemaker” (1997) dir. Mimi Leder