How Real Is ‘A House of Dynamite’? What the Movie Got Wrong

A House of Dynamite puts plans into action when a missile is detected heading toward the United States.

The new Netflix thriller from director Kathryn Bigelow depicts — almost in real time — how the United States Military and political leaders would react if a nuclear missile were launched.

“I grew up at a time when we were asked to hide under our desks in the event of a nuclear blast, which of course would do nothing,” Bigelow told Tudum. “But between then and now, it feels like the nuclear issue has been normalized. It’s gone quiet. And yet we’re still living in a world filled with dynamite.”

According to the Associated Press, nine countries have nuclear weapons, or are believed to have them: the U.S., Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. While other world issues have taken center stage recently, the creators behind A House of Dynamite aim to restart a dialogue around the possibility.

Despite the scenario appearing extreme and far-fetched, the U.S. government has spoken out about the movie’s details, including one they said was inaccurately portrayed.

Here’s everything to know about what is fact and what is fiction in A House of Dynamite.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for A House of Dynamite!

How accurate is A House of Dynamite?

A House of Dynamite is fairly accurate, according to screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, who is also a former president of NBC News.

“We did an extraordinary amount of research when we were preparing this film,” he told Tudum. “I spoke to as many people as I could who’ve worked in these rooms, who’ve had these jobs.”

One of the experts was Dan Karbler, who was previously the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) chief of staff, a role he also plays in the movie. According to Karbler, STRATCOM and other agencies like the Pentagon practice hundreds of different scenarios every year, to prepare them for a situation like A House of Dynamite.

“[The film] does such a good job of capturing a piece that we never really capture when we are running through these exercises — being able to see the human reaction, which we don’t practice,” Karbler told Tudum.

He continued, “So what the movie really drives home, in addition to the authenticity about the process and all that, is just the human element and how different folks are affected, whether it’s those young soldiers at Fort Greely to the STRATCOM staff all the way up to the President of the United States.”

Can the U.S. stop a nuclear attack unlike in A House of Dynamite?

In A House of Dynamite, government leaders learn that their chance of intercepting an incoming missile is just above 50% and their effort ultimately fails.

Off-screen, the Missile Defense Agency responded with a memo to “address false assumptions, provide correct facts and a better understanding” of their real systems,” per Bloomberg (via Variety).

The note, dated Oct. 16, states that despite how its technology might be depicted on-screen for entertainment purposes, the current interception technology has a “100% accuracy rate in testing for more than a decade.”

While director Bigelow and writer Oppenheim worked independently from the military, they used the knowledge of experts, and the latter disagreed with the memo about the movie’s accuracy.

“Unfortunately, our missile defense system is highly imperfect,” Oppenheim told MSNBC. “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’s the conversation we want to have. But what we show in the movie is accurate.”

Would Americans really only have 19 minutes before a nuclear attack impact?

A House of Dynamite is divided into three 19-minute chapters, each happening in near real time and showing a different perspective on the news of the incoming missile.

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a nuclear missile “can reach the United States from the other side of the world in about 30 minutes.”

It would take even less time if the weapon was launched from a submarine, which appeared to be the scenario in A House of Dynamite.

As the NTI notes, once a nuclear missile is launched, there is no way to change its target, so people “would not have time to prepare or evacuate.”

Does the 49th Missile Defense Battalion in Alaska exist?

Yes, the 49th Missile Defense Battalion in Fort Greely, Alaska, does exist.

Per the Alaska National Guard website, the “49th MDB conducts intercontinental ballistic missile defense of the homeland.”

The team at Fort Greely routinely trains to detect and intercept missiles launched at the U.S.

“It’s like a bullet hitting a bullet. But this isn’t guesswork, and our technology is proven in preparing us to succeed,” said Captain Justus Neumann, who works at Fort Greely’s Fire Direction Center. “Every Soldier knows the stakes are high. With a limited inventory of interceptors, there is no room for error.”

Can the U.S. president order a nuclear attack?

Yes, the president of the U.S. has the full authority to launch a nuclear attack.

“It depends on the scenario, but it’s true that the president doesn’t have to have his order OK’d by another person,” Duke University’s Peter Feaver told PBS News Hour. “That there’s not a two-man rule at the very top. The president alone makes the decision.”

“But the president alone cannot carry out the decision,” he continued. “That decision has to be carried out be many, many people further down in the chain of command.”

The president’s nuclear football contains the information needed to launch an attack. It is “carried by a military aide, and never more than an arm’s length away,” wrote Annie Jacobsen, author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, per TIME.

According to The New York Times, the president must read a code known as the “nuclear biscuit” from a laminated card they always keep with them.

Idris Elba, who plays the president in A House of Dynamite, reads the series of codes in the final minutes of the movie, but his actual commands are never shown.

“You have such a short period of time to react, and this decision rests on the shoulders ultimately of one man,” Oppenheim told USA Today. “He does not have to build any kind of consensus; there’s not a vote. The president has the singular ability and sole authority to use nuclear weapons.”

Is the Raven Rock Mountain Complex a real place?

Yes, the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, shown at the end of A House of Dynamite, is a real place in Pennsylvania.

The Raven Rock Mountain Complex is an sizable bunker called the “underground Pentagon.”

“It’s a free-standing city … built inside of this mountain,” Garrett Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die, told NPR in 2017.

He continued, “It has everything that a small city would — there’s a fire department there, there’s a police department, medical facilities, dining halls.”