{"id":337204,"date":"2025-10-28T00:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/337204\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T00:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:34:11","slug":"house-of-dynamite-pentagon-disputes-accuracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/337204\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Dynamite: Pentagon Disputes Accuracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Netflix<\/a> feature film \u201cA House of Dynamite<\/a>\u201d tells \u201ca vastly different story\u201d about the U.S. government\u2019s capability of repelling a nuclear attack than real-world testing suggests, according to an internal government memo obtained by Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie, directed by Kathryn Bigelow (\u201cThe Hurt Locker\u201d) and written by former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim (\u201cJackie\u201d), depicts how the U.S. government might respond to an incoming nuclear ballistic missile headed for Chicago. The secretary of defense (Jared Harris) expresses shock that the missile defense system, which cost $50 billion, has just a 50% chance at successfully shooting down the missile\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and, indeed, in the film, the system fails to do its job.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Missile Defense Agency memo, reportedly dated Oct. 16, however, states that current interception technology has \u201cdisplayed a 100% accuracy rate in testing for more than a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe memo was generated to \u201caddress false assumptions, provide correct facts and a better understanding\u201d of the current system, according to the Bloomberg report, so that leadership at the agency \u201chas situational awareness and is not \u2018surprised\u2019 by the topic, which may come up in conversations or meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo the credit of whoever authored the memo, it does account for dramatic license, stating that \u201cthe fictional interceptors in the movie miss their target and we understand this is intended to be a compelling part of the drama intended for the entertainment of the audience.\u201d But it goes on to assert that current testing tells \u201ca vastly different story\u201d than what is depicted in the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tRepresentatives for Netflix, Bigelow and the U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On the Oct. 12 episode<\/a> of \u201cCBS Sunday Morning,\u201d Bigelow said that the filmmaking team did not work with the military in a desire to be \u201cmore independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut that being said, we had multiple tech advisers who have worked in the Pentagon,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were with me every day we shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview with MSNBC<\/a> on Oct. 26, Oppenheim responded to the memo, saying the filmmakers \u201crespectfully disagree\u201d with the Pentagon\u2019s assessment of \u201cA House of Dynamite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not a missile defense expert, but I did talk to many missile defense experts who were all on the record,\u201d Oppenheim said, noting that he and Bigelow spoke with former White House and Pentagon officials to \u201creport out\u201d the screenplay. \u201cWe just asked them a ton of questions. How does it work? What are the processes? What are the procedures? So what you see on screen is hopefully a fairly accurate portrait of the reality that exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cUnfortunately, our missile defense system is highly imperfect. If the Pentagon wants to have a conversation about improving it or what the next step might be in keeping all of us safer, that\u2019s the conversation we want to have. But what we show in the movie is accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the \u201cHouse of Dynamite\u201d Los Angeles premiere in early October, Bigelow told Variety that she was hoping the film would \u201ccertainly begin a conversation\u201d about nuclear threats and attacks.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe live in a very combustible world and bringing awareness to that is a very positive step forward,\u201d she said. \u201cMy hope is that we begin to move into a world toward non-proliferation and reducing the nuclear stockpile. These are lofty aspirations, I know, but nonetheless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMarc Malkin contributed to this story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Netflix feature film \u201cA House of Dynamite\u201d tells \u201ca vastly different story\u201d about the U.S. government\u2019s capability…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":337205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[108702,171,4659,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-337204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-a-house-of-dynamite","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-netflix","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115448988859037523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}