Kathryn Bigelow is the director behind intense geopolitical thrillers like 2010’s Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker, and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Her latest is A House of Dynamite, which premiered in September at the Venice Film Festival and also played the New York Film Festival before its release to the wider public via Netflix on October 24, 2025. Like her other efforts, A House of Dynamite is an edge-of-your-seat experience, whether it’s in procedural or action movie mode. But this time, Bigelow’s film isn’t ripped from the headlines. It’s pulled from her own mind, and more specifically, her worst fears after what she learned about nuclear politics and America’s readiness.
With a script by Noah Oppenheim, A House of Dynamite is a forward-looking, high-stakes thought experiment set in an alternate present day, rather than a recreation of events. With Bigelow’s bona fides and a stacked cast, Netflix surely saw the film as a draw for subscribers and an awards contender. Reviews from the festivals praised her efforts, but some critics and audience members were frustrated by the ending… or lack thereof.
‘A House of Dynamite’s Ending, Explained
An Effective Triptych Builds Momentum
In A House of Dynamite, an unknown enemy has launched an attack on the United States, and the powers that be have less than 20 minutes to figure out what to do about it. The story of those 20 minutes is retold three times over. It’s a technique that’s been deployed most famously by Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (from which the trope gets its name) and more recently by movies like Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. The Rashomon effect can feel redundant, even when it’s put to good use. Here, though the clock is technically starting over, the action feels propulsive and fresh because we’re seeing concurrent, related, but largely different events unfold. Save for a few lines of dialogue uttered over screens and phones, the characters are in different rooms, different states, and have different roles and responsibilities.
In the first third, Major Gonzales (Anthony Ramos) and his team at Fort Greely in Alaska realize that an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that’s headed toward the United States is, indeed, the real thing. Meanwhile, Captain Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), holed up in the White House Situation Room, heads the operation to counter the missile with two ground-based interceptors. The first malfunctions. The second misses its target. We learn that the ICBM is headed for Chicago, and there is no plan B. Meanwhile, a new-to-the-job FEMA official (Moses Ingram) is escorted to the Raven Rock as angry long-time staffers protest.
The middle portion sees Deputy National Security Advisor Baerington (Gabriel Basso), late to work, having to advise Secretary of Defense Baker (Jared Harris). He relies on the expertise of Ana Park (Greta Lee), a North Korea specialist, who confirms that it’s possible they could’ve launched the ICBM. Chaos builds around the world once the news gets out. Baerington connects with Russia and argues for restraint. But General Brady (Tracy Letts) and his Major at STRATCOM can make the case that Russia, China, or even a single rogue actor is to blame. He urges the President (Idris Elba) to strike as a show of strength. It becomes increasingly clear that, unless the ICBM is a dud, Chicago — and more than 10 million people — will be obliterated. We learn that Baker’s daughter lives in Chicago, and when the President needs him, he’s nowhere to be found.
The final segment is told largely from the President’s perspective. He’s at a youth basketball event when he’s rushed to transport. He learns about the incoming ICBM and the failure to stop it while on the move. The unnamed President seems more suited to campaigning than to war games, and is obviously less well-prepared to make the fateful decision than even the 32-year-old assigned to follow him around with the nuclear football. He considers both Brady’s and Baerington’s counsel. We see that, as the President is trying to reach him, Secretary Baker throws himself from the roof, distraught that he’s unable to save his daughter.
All three sections of A House of Dynamite end with Brady asking, “Your orders, Mr. President?” In the final third, we see characters from previous segments rushed into Raven Rock, and Major Gonzales falls to his knees. Then the movie cuts to black, and a title card appears.
There Isn’t Really an Ending… Just an Open Question
We don’t know whether the President retaliated against a foreign entity, and if so, which country. It’s strongly implied that the ICBM will hit Chicago within seconds and that millions will die. Still, even though the near-100% probability is that an American city has been nuked, audiences don’t actually get to see it. The lack of an answer about where the ICBM came from, the lack of a resolution from the President, the lack of a conclusion for Chicago, and the lack of a “what happens next” are all by design.
Bigelow explained during a panel at the New York Film Festival that she hoped the film would serve as a “conversation starter” and “cautionary tale” about nuclear proliferation. She pointed out that, currently, nine nations are nuclear powers, but only three are members of NATO, which she said made her feel “vulnerable.” Her lingering questions about what would happen in a scenario in which an ICBM was aimed at the U.S., combined with the information she learned about the state of nuclear politics, ultimately led to the film’s plot and structure. Oppenheim added that he and Bigelow decided not to reveal which nation launched the missile because, “rather than ascribe blame to one bad guy,” they wanted to “really interrogate the larger reality.”
In a potentially accidentally funny scene near the film’s end, the President says that he heard on a podcast that a world with nuclear weapons is like a house full of dynamite that we all just keep living in, knowing the risks. A House of Dynamite is ultimately about how fragile peace is at any moment, and how dependent our safety is on the competence of those up and down the chain of command.
Major Gonzales, Captain Walker, General Brady, and Ana Park are all shown to be cool-headed professionals, while Ingram’s FEMA official, Baerington, Baker, and the President are, perhaps, out of their depths. But, as a soldier stationed at Fort Greely points out, even when competent people do everything right, it doesn’t always save the day. That’s the unsettling feeling Bigelow wants to leave us with. The ending of A House of Dynamite might not be satisfying, but it is appropriate. A House of Dynamite is streaming on Netflix.
- Release Date
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October 3, 2025
- Runtime
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113 minutes
- Director
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Kathryn Bigelow
- Producers
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Brian Bell, Greg Shapiro