Netflix’s ‘A House of Dynamite’ sparks discussion about nuclear threats

Amna Nawaz:

The top streaming film on Netflix this week tackles a long-running Hollywood theme, the threat of a nuclear attack. And the discourse around this film has struck a nerve, not just with audiences, but with military defense experts and the Pentagon.

Geoff Bennett spoke with Noah Oppenheim, the writer of "A House of Dynamite," for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Actor:

In a little more than seven minutes, we will lose the city of Chicago.

Geoff Bennett:

It's sometime in the near future and an intercontinental ballistic missile of unknown origin is headed toward the U.S.

Rebecca Ferguson, Actor:

Get in the car and just start driving, right?

Actor:

What? Where? What are you talking about?

Rebecca Ferguson:

West. Go west. Go west as fast as you can.

Geoff Bennett:

A ticking clock counting down the minutes until impact looms over several overlapping storylines, as officials in the Situation Room, troops on a military base and the president all scramble to respond to potential nuclear annihilation.

Idris Elba, Actor:

This is insanity. OK?

Actor:

No, sir, this is reality.

Geoff Bennett:

This is the fictional world of "A House of Dynamite" directed by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow. But it's also a scenario that feels eerily timed to this moment, as matters of nuclear brinkmanship dominate the headlines.

Written by former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, the film's striking realism has sparked buzz and even a Pentagon memo disputing its depiction of the U.S. military defense system.

Actress:

Three, two, one.

Geoff Bennett:

But "A House of Dynamite" has clearly tapped into anxiety over nuclear confrontation, leading to the grim question, just how vulnerable are we?

Actor:

If we do not take steps to neutralize our enemies now, we will lose our window to do so.

Geoff Bennett:

And screenwriter Noah Oppenheim joins us now. Thanks for being here.

Noah Oppenheim, Screenwriter:

Thanks for having me.

Geoff Bennett:

So this film, instant hit on Netflix, captures 18 minutes of panic as this nuclear weapon is headed toward Chicago. What did you want audiences to take away about the real-world threat of nuclear catastrophe?

Noah Oppenheim:

I think both Kathryn and I wanted to invite a conversation that we thought had been absent for many years. During the Cold War, there was a large body of films that were made tackling this subject matter. The threat of nuclear war was actively debated and discussed.

The question of who you wanted to be in charge of our nuclear arsenal was a part, big part of presidential campaigns and elections. And that has faded since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the threat of these weapons has not at all subsided. So we wanted to perhaps jolt people back into a conversation about the nuclear threat.

Geoff Bennett:

And you approached writing this film as a journalist would, talking with top experts, defense officials to really ground this film in reality.

What was that process like?

Noah Oppenheim:

The process of writing the film was very similar to the process of reporting out a story. When we first started talking about it, Kathryn was very clear she wanted this to be as authentic and as realistic a portrait of what would happen in a scenario like this.

It's one of the things that makes her such a great filmmaker. And so we got on the phone with experts, people who had worked in the White House Situation Room, people who had worked in Strategic Command. And we said to them, how do these processes work? What would it look like inside these rooms if a threat were incoming?

And then when we got to the end of those conversations, we'd say, who else should we talk to, as you would if you were reporting out a story,.

Geoff Bennett:

What surprised you the most about how a crisis like this would really unfold?

Noah Oppenheim:

A few big surprises. One, it would unfold incredibly quickly. The time it takes for a missile to travel from the Pacific theater is under 30 minutes. If a Russian submarine were to launch at us off our coast, it could be 10 to 12 minutes before impact.

So the decision-making window is incredibly tight. The second thing that was shocking is, we live in a nuclear monarchy. The president of the United States has the sole authority to decide whether these weapons are used or not. And then, third, that monarch, the president, has probably done very little to no preparation for this moment.

The professionals, the folks who work in Strategic Command, for instance, they rehearse a nuclear scenario, they told us, 400 times a year on average. The president gets a single briefing when he's sworn in. He's introduced to the military aid, the football that's carried around with him. And that is likely the last time he thinks about the nuclear question until, God forbid, this is going to be thrust in front of him and he's going to have a clock ticking and he's going to have to make this call.

Geoff Bennett:

And that dynamic certainly came across in the film.

Well, as we mentioned, after the release, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency circulated a memo pushing back on the film's depiction of the failed interceptors. And they say, "Real-world data tells a vastly different story," to which you would say what?

Noah Oppenheim:

I would say this is not a debate between us as filmmakers and the Pentagon. It's a debate between the Pentagon and the wider community of experts on this subject.

Those experts will say the stats that we use in the movie, this idea of it being roughly a coin toss, those stats are accurate. They reflect the results of tests done over the course of many, many years. And, again, this is not for lack of trying. This is not to say we have no missile defense capacity.

It's just an incredibly hard problem to solve. And we're not quite there yet.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, how do you navigate authenticity versus the creative freedom to tell a story to keep audiences engaged?

Noah Oppenheim:

Well, I think you have to make creative choices, of course, but you don't want to make creative choices that fly in the face of reality.

You want to choose — you want to decisions that are, if not probable, then certainly possible. You don't want to depict events that are impossible. You don't want to malign people or institutions. You want to show proper respect. And I think we worked hard to do that. We have an enormous amount of reverence for the people who work in places like the Situation Room, STRATCOM, Fort Greely, where our missile defense, some of our missile defense capacity is based.

These are hardworking professionals who come in every day doing their job to keep us all safe. And we wanted to depict their worlds with as much realism as possible.

Geoff Bennett:

Working with Kathryn Bigelow, how did your writing process adapt to her style of high-intensity realism?

Noah Oppenheim:

It was a perfect match from the moment we first began speaking. I mean, one of the many things that make her such a legend and such a phenomenal filmmaker is her commitment to authenticity, is her desire to respect the reality of what goes on behind those closed doors.

She says, if we're going to take people into a place like the battle deck in STRATCOM, we better depict it realistically. And, as you mentioned, I'm a former journalist, so our sensibilities were very much aligned from day one.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, I think the prevailing question watching that film is, how close to the truth is what we see on screen?

Noah Oppenheim:

Well, thank God we have never seen a scenario in which a missile has been launched AT us. But that is probably the biggest creative leap that we take.

From the moment that missile is lobbed into the sky, the processes that you see the characters go through, the steps that the Situation Room takes to convene a national security conference call, the effort that FEMA makes to evacuate government officials as part of their continuity of government protocols, the wheels that get set in motion at STRATCOM, AT Fort Greely, again, these are all based on conversations that we had with folks who worked in those places and experts who've covered them for many, many years.

Geoff Bennett:

"A House of Dynamite" streaming now on Netflix.

Noah Oppenheim, it's great to see you.

Noah Oppenheim:

Nice to see you too.