By sheer coincidence, I watched the 1964 movie Fail-Safe just a few weeks ago, and it’s extraordinary how closely it resembles Kathryn Bigelow’s House of Dynamite. I’m not talking about plagiarism. The 51-year-old film is very much of its time, along with Seven Days in May and Dr. Strangelove. Americans were hyper-aware of a possible doomsday scenario and wondered what would happen if the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. played brinkmanship with the Hot Line as their communication tool.
What the two films have most in common is their primary setting in Washington, D.C. The Situation Room at the White House is where our country’s military leaders gather along with State Department specialists and strategists who are in continual voice contact with our President. They face a wall-sized screen which displays a map of the world and identifies specific aircraft and, it turns out, missiles carrying deadly nuclear cargo.
The people who inhabit this room have lives away from work and deal with everyday problems and responsibilities. They talk about sports, spouses, and their kids—until they learn that a nuclear warhead is airborne and about to reach its target. That’s when they become laser-focused on the wrenching choices that must be made and debate how to inform and advise the President. (In 1964 it was Henry Fonda; today it’s Idris Elba.)
As the digital countdown clock runs backward the tension mounts to an almost unbearable level. Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Jason Clarke, and Gabriel Basso lead a strong cast, enabling us to accept what we’re watching is real, not make-believe. Bigelow must have encouraged her actors to underplay because the results are so genuine. I would single out Idris Elba, Tracy Letts, and Greta Lae, who all contribute to the movie’s vital feeling of verisimilitude.
But at the three-quarter mark Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim attempt to pull off a structural coup—and almost succeed. Just when you think the story is reaching its apex, they stop and replay the events we have just witnessed from different points of view. It’s jarring at first but because they have painted these characters so well they nearly get away with it. Bigelow has a firm grip on us from the very start, and if the ending isn’t entirely satisfying I don’t know what the alternative would be. I feel as helpless as the movers and shakers on screen who are faced with making nearly impossible choices.
