A House of Dynamite: Who Fired the Missile?

In Netflix’s ‘A House of Dynamite,’ panic ensues as a missile from an unidentified source makes its way towards a major American city, threatening to kill millions of people. As the government officials, from army chiefs to bureaucrats, try to contain the situation, things escalate with each passing second. At the end of the day, it becomes clear that America must retaliate, but the question is, who are they retaliating against? The mystery surrounding the identity of the attacker sustains throughout the movie, raising several questions, the answers to which remain rather elusive. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Mystery Surrounding the Origins of the Missile was Intentional and Essential to the Plot

In its first few minutes, ‘A House of Dynamite’ sets up two major questions. The first is where the missile originated, and the second is where the missile is headed. The second question is answered pretty soon, with Chicago revealed as the target, which further paves the way to another question: now what? It’s clear that this attack, which is bound to kill millions, must be retaliated against, which brings us back to the first question. If one doesn’t know who their enemy is, how are they supposed to fight back? This question lingers till the last minute, becoming even prominent as pressure increases on the President to take quick action and launch his own arsenal of nuclear weapons. In the end, his choice remains a mystery as well. The question that the audience still asks is who the President would have targeted, had he agreed to fire missiles of his own?

The answer to this question is intentionally left out of the film’s purview. Director  Kathryn Bigelow and writer Noah Oppenheim revealed that their true intent behind the movie was to consider the “what if” scenario of a nuclear war. With more and more nuclear weapons being acquired by countries and the arms race seemingly getting out of hand, the likelihood of a nuclear war seems relatively high, especially in the current political climate. The filmmakers were interested in exploring the reactions of the country’s leaders and how they would respond in such situations, as well as how the growing sense of impending doom in the country and the world would inform their decisions.

In the midst of this, giving up the identity of the attacker would have given an easy villain who could have been distracted from the true heart of the matter. Had the film given a concrete identity to the source of the missile, the audience would become more invested in finding out how the said villain is defeated and whether America gets its revenge on them. But once the identity of the enemy is removed from the equation, the situation becomes even more urgent, as the sole focus now lies on reacting to the missile that is on its way to obliterate one of the major cities in the country.

Pinning the Source of the Missile Remains Unfruitful

While the movie doesn’t give a resolution for the identity of the enemy behind the missile, it does offer a few options as explanations. Because the source of the missile was not located, it is difficult to identify who the missile belongs to. However, it is known that it came from somewhere in the Pacific, which means it could have originated from a submarine, and that puts the suspicion on the usual suspects: Russia, China, and North Korea. The problem is that there is no way to know which one of them did it. Moreover, it turns out that as the missile charts its way towards Chicago, the three countries, along with others, like Pakistan, start sounding their own alarms and have put their forces on high alert. Eventually, the American government is able to establish contact with its Russian counterparts.

The Russians claim that they are not behind the attack, but they know that they will be suspected, and so, their preparation is just a preemptive measure to prevent them from being blindsided as American missiles come flying towards them. Deputy NSA Jake Baerington tries to convince them that America will not attack the unprovoked, but he is able to confirm that they will not use Russia’s airspace if they need to attack China. This ends the conversation as the counterpart says he will have to talk to his President first. While Jake says he believes the Russians, there is a possibility that they could be lying. Again, there is nothing to prove their complicity in the matter, so the Americans find themselves back at square one. The same would hold true for China and North Korea as well.

The Attack May Have Nothing to do With America’s Enemies

The events of the movie focus on an unprecedented circumstance, but in real life, a nuclear attack wouldn’t be so out of the blue. America would need to be in a long-term conflict with its enemy, with tensions heightened over the course of a long time, where the repeated failure to de-escalate the situation might eventually lead to an armed conflict, which is when the nuclear attack would come into the picture. Even then, the attacking country would have had to exhaust all scenarios before launching an attack like this, knowing that it would trigger WWIII and could possibly spell the end of the world as we know it. Since the movie does not confirm whether the country has had tensions with any enemy in recent times, it is fair to believe that no one would be incentivized to take such a drastic step, knowing that a retaliatory strike would decimate their country as well.

Once the idea of an intended act of war goes out of the picture, the possibilities that remain point towards an error, human or otherwise. While discussing the possible causes behind the attack, the characters wonder whether it could be a false alarm, a test missile that has lost its way, or a glitch in the AI testing that China had been indulging in. Since the missile remains a dot on their screens, there is also a possibility that someone hacked into the defense system and made it look like the missile was on its way when there was no real missile in the air. Or, perhaps, the missile is real, but it is fired by someone who has had their heart broken and has decided that they don’t like the world anymore. Considering all possibilities, it is most likely that the missile was a fluke. It happened by mistake, and now, the whole world must pay a price for it.

Read More: A House of Dynamite Ending Explained: Does the President Order a Nuclear Strike?