[CONTAINS SPOILERS!]
Although a work of fiction, A House of Dynamite depicts how U.S. national security organizations interact with accuracy. While there has never been a crisis along the lines of the attack on the United States portrayed in the movie, the screenwriter and director present a reasonable version of how U.S. government officials might react to such a contingency. Certain details, such as the use of cell phones for classified conversations, are less accurate, but the overall picture of public officials responding to a possible nuclear attack is plausible.
- The attack scenario itself, an unknown aggressor launching a single missile at the Midwest, is unlikely, though not quite impossible.
- In real life, the origin of any such attack, assuming proper functioning of the radar system, would be known instantly and factored into both diplomatic and military responses.
- In real life, we wouldn’t know whether the payload was nuclear or conventional.
- In real life, there should be more people pushing for diplomacy — the trope of military leaders being warmongers in A House of Dynamite and parodied in Dr. Strangelove is not consistent with most actual military officers.
- In real life, the State Department — which was not featured in the film — would attempt to be in contact with Russia, China and North Korea immediately and consult with NATO allies.
What A House of Dynamite gets right is the sense of urgency it conveys. Everything would be happening all at once, on a very tight timetable.
In order to maintain a dramatic, high-pressure atmosphere, the screenwriter relies on a series of improbabilities to further the plot. However, the focus of the movie is on human reactions to a crisis, not on providing a blueprint for how to attack the United States, so the viewer is able to suspend disbelief regarding the plot and focus instead on the human dynamics at play.
Is ‘A House of Dynamite’ based on real events?
No, the movie is a work of fiction. That said, the filmmakers took pains, including consulting with former national security officials, to provide a realistic view of how those institutions would function in a crisis. Although the scenario driving the movie’s plot is an invention, there have been several actual close calls in which the use of nuclear weapons could have occurred, such as during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1962, in 1969 during the Sino-Soviet border dispute, in 1973 during the Yom Kippur war and in 1983 during Able Archer 83 military exercises.
