Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) is unflappable in the face of nuclear catastrophe in Kathryn Bigelow's "A House of Dynamite."
Anthony Ramos plays a military officer in charge of taking out a nuclear missile before it hits America in "A House of Dynamite."
The president (Idris Elba) is under fire to figure out how to respond when a nuclear missile is launched at America in the thriller "A House of Dynamite."

Kathryn Bigelow’s nail-chewing political thriller “A House of Dynamite” isn’t the greatest escape from cable news or the fraught state of the world, honestly. Instead, it's the kind of movie that will make you think once you emerge from a fetal position.

The intense character-driven drama (★★★ out of four; rated R; streaming Oct. 24 on Netflix) is a throwback to the 1980s days of “WarGames” and “The Day After." The film centers on a single nuclear missile headed straight at an American metropolis and the emotional chaos it causes as power players in the government scramble to respond. “Dynamite” happens roughly in real time, to add some stress to your cinematic experience, but writer Noah Oppenheim’s three-act structure both helps and hurts the film’s efficacy.

The movie starts with government workers, national security officers and soldiers going to their jobs for a normal workday, including a senior duty officer (Rebecca Ferguson) in the White House Situation Room and a crew commander (Anthony Ramos) at an Alaskan military facility. Soon enough, word gets around that a mysterious missile has been launched from the Pacific Ocean and the realization of the consequences set in, especially when it’s determined that the thing is hitting a city in a matter of 18 minutes.

Tensions rise, defensive measures fail and the scenario grows more dire by the minute until that ticking clock runs out. Then the whole sequence essentially rewinds and is told again from the perspective of different characters, and repeats for a third time in the same manner.

From an emotional standpoint, Bigelow crafts an affecting narrative through the eyes of different people. The president (Idris Elba) has to bolt from a WNBA event when the news hits and he’s mentally stuck trying to figure out what to choose among a number of potentially apocalyptic choices. Jared Harris is the defense secretary concerned about his daughter being in the line of fire. Greta Lee is an intelligence officer pulled from a Gettysburg trip with her kid to deliver some important North Korean intel. Gabriel Basso is a frazzled deputy national security adviser, while a scenery-chewing Tracy Letts is an impatient general running U.S. Strategic Command.

Bigelow inserts a quasi-whodunit aspect into an already white-knuckle affair. Over nerve-wracking cell phone calls, video chats and in-person conversations, the various players desperately try to figure out who fired and how, and some even question if there’s a missile at all. The Oscar-winning filmmaker makes the viewer as torn and confused and at wits’ end as the people trying to avoid doomsday.

What undermines “House of Dynamite,” especially insofar as maintaining its tense momentum, is that unconventional story structure. The first 20 minutes or so are stellar at shredding your nerves, but each subsequent iteration of the scenario – often replaying the same interactions, just from a different point of view – feels less urgent. And the film’s finale will end up polarizing and unsatisfactory for some because of the resolution it chooses.

The result of such harrowing circumstances, whatever they might be, is beside Bigelow’s real point. Even with an administration full of smart, capable people, no one is properly prepared when nuclear weaponry is triggered, and “A House of Dynamite” puts an extremely human spin on that particular no-win situation.

How to watch 'A House of Dynamite'

The political thriller "A House of Dynamite," starring Rebecca Ferguson and Idris Elba, is streaming Oct. 24 on Netflix. The movie is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'A House of Dynamite' isn't an easy watch but an important one – Review

Reporting by Brian Truitt, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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