A House of Dynamite had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2025, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion.[2] It was released in select cinemas in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2025, and was released in the United States on October 10, 2025, before streaming debut globally by Netflix on October 24, 2025.
Plot
At Fort Greely, Alaska, Major Daniel Gonzalez and his team notice an unidentified intercontinental ballistic missile in the air, one whose launch has gone undetected. Initially believing it to be a test, they soon realize the missile is a real threat and inbound towards the United States.
Captain Olivia Walker works at the White House monitoring threats to the country. Her team is notified of the ICBM launch and quickly scramble into action. Walker and her team figure out they have roughly 18 minutes until the ICBM makes contact with Chicago, killing millions. While in a video call with the President and other high-ranking officials, Walker fields several calls from other countries while her team rapidly begins to panic. Anti-ballistics are launched by Gonzalez's team, but they miss the ICBM. Meanwhile FEMA official Cathy Rogers is evacuated to a government bunker, much to her colleagues' anger, while Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington joins the video call and urges the president not to retaliate. As the missile is moments away from impact, a White House official asks Walker to gather the names of her team in case Washington, D.C. is hit next.
At another military base, General Anthony Brady and his team also respond to the ICBM launch and join the same call as Walker and the President. Brady urges the President to retaliate against their foes to avoid the country being further attacked. Baerington clashes with Brady as he requests the group contact the NSA's North Korea expert Ana Park, who informs the group that it is possible that North Korea were capable of launching the warhead. Baerington is taken to a bunker with Admiral Mark Miller who assists him in contacting the Russian foreign minister, who claims Russia is not responsible for the launch and threatens retaliation of their own if the United States attacks their subs. With the missile due to hit soon, the President is instructed to pick out retaliation plans.
The President is whisked away from an event at a basketball game upon news of the ICBM launch. Enroute to an evacuation point, he is accompanied by Lieutenant Commander Robert Reeves, a retaliatory strategy advisor who guides him through the retaliation plans. The President is quickly overwhelmed by the stress of the situation and struggles to pick an option. Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Reid Baker learns the missile is inbound to Chicago, where his estranged daughter Caroline lives. Unable to secure an evacuation for her in time, Reid jumps to his death off the roof of the Pentagon. The President and Reeves are evacuated out of D.C. by helicopter as the missile enters U.S. airspace, minutes away from impact. The President reflects on the world and attempts to call his wife, who is visiting Africa, before asking Reeves for help to make a choice. Reeves recommends two options and the President is forced to decide for himself. Meanwhile, high ranking personnel, including Rogers and Park, enter a self-sufficient bunker in Pennsylvania as the ICBM is about to impact.
Anthony Ramos as Major Daniel Gonzalez, commander of a military base responsible for detecting incoming threats and destroying them with ground-based interceptor missiles.
In June 2025, the film's title was revealed to be A House of Dynamite, with the film scheduled to be given a limited theatrical release in the United States sometime in October 2025 before streaming on Netflix on October 24.[16][17] In August 2025, it was announced that the film would be released in select theaters in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2025, and globally on October 10.[18]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 94 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Playing out a nightmare scenario with nerve-wracking plausibility, Kathryn Bigelow's masterfully-constructed A House of Dynamite is an urgent thriller that's as distressing as it is riveting."[19]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[20]
Writing for RogerEbert.com, critic Glenn Kenny gave the film four out of four stars, writing that the film is a "tense, precise, extremely sobering thriller" and that Elba's role within it showcased the range of his acting abilities.[21]
Pete Hammond for Deadline Hollywood wrote that the film "might not fall into the horror movie genre, but it might as well because it is more frightening than any of them."[22]
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