Who is the Guy in White? What’s in His Briefcase in A House of Dynamite?

Netflix’s ‘A House of Dynamite’ takes the audience into the heart of the US government, where the top officials convene to address a critical matter. It begins with the launch of a nuclear missile that is headed towards Chicago. If not stopped, it will cause the loss of millions of lives, but that would just be the beginning. As the President is apprised of the situation, he must carefully and quickly consider his options and decide what the next step should be. Since he is on the move, he connects with his team, like the Situation Room and the Secretary of Defense, through a video call. The only person to stay by his side during this time is a man in a white room who follows him around with a suitcase. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Man in White and His Suitcase Play a Critical Role in the President’s Decision

The man in the white uniform appears in the third section of the movie. At first, he seems to do nothing. He sits outside the President’s office but doesn’t seem to be waiting for any meeting. Then, when the President goes to the basketball event, the man follows him there as well. It isn’t until the alert is sounded and the country’s leader is put on a helicopter while being updated on the trajectory of the missile that the man comes into play. He is Lieutenant Commander Robert Reeves, who is assigned as the Presidential Military Aide, or MILAIDE. As seen in the movie, his job is to follow around the President and do nothing but carry the suitcase. He jumps into action only in the worst-case scenario, and with the missile headed towards Chicago, the situation couldn’t get any worse. In the real world as well, the President has a MILAIDE, who is one of six military aides from different armed forces.

The officer’s job is to keep what’s called “the nuclear football” within the President’s reach. In the movie, Reeves is a Lieutenant Commander of the Navy. The Football is officially called the Presidential Emergency Satchel and, reportedly, contains codes and other things that allow the President to remotely communicate with the Pentagon and give orders regarding the authorization and use of the country’s nuclear weapons. The Aide’s job is to keep the Football close, in case it needs to be used while the leader is on the move. The practice of carrying the football has been carried out since the late 1950s, since the time of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, with the idea of being prepared for a surprise attack from nuclear-powered enemies. Over the decades, the true nature of the contents within the satchel remains unknown, though some minor information has trickled over the years.

According to the research carried out by William Burr, a senior analyst at the nonprofit National Security Archive at George Washington University, the satchel was known to have included Presidential Emergency Action Documents, aka PEADS, which were the proclamations that would be made to enforce national emergency or to increase the extent of executive power. However, during the Carter administration, it was found that the proclamations had not been updated, and concerns were raised about the legality of some of the directives mentioned in the document. The said proclamations were also believed to have been redundant in a situation where a nuclear war did take place. Reportedly, changes were made to the document, but the exact nature of those changes remains unknown to the public. The Netflix film, however, does not concern itself with other contents of the Football, focusing solely on the nuclear codes and the mystery surrounding the decision that the President eventually makes.

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