When the president in A House of Dynamite , played by Idris Elba, is weighing the future of all mankind as a nuclear missile hurtles toward Chicago, it’s made clear that he’s been thrust into a scenario he’s never rehearsed.

In fact, as screenwriter Noah Oppenheim and director Kathryn Bigelow found out in researching the movie, the lack of a presidential drill is based in reality: The last president to participate in a nuclear-decision making exercise was Ronald Reagan, even though other parts of the chain of command, through the U.S. Strategic Command, practice hundreds of times a year.

The movie, which debuted on Netflix last month, depicts the harrowing moments as the U.S. government weighs a response to an incoming missile heading to Chicago, despite a scarcity of facts and

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