Trailer For Kathryn Bigelow’s Political Thriller A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE Starring Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) is back with a new political thriller, and it looks absolutely intense. Her latest film, A House of Dynamite, stars Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson in a story that plays out minute by minute as the U.S. government faces the unthinkable, a nuclear attack on American soil.
The film just had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it screened in competition and earned a nearly 13-minute standing ovation. Critics were quick to weigh in. Time Out called it a “nuclear thriller [that] will take your stress levels to DEFCON 1,” while Indiewire summed it up as “a movie that will ruin your day. You’re welcome.”
THR praised the film’s score, writing, “The tightly wound tension is maintained also by Volker Bertelmann’s propulsive score, which starts with ominous juddering groans and keeps shapeshifting throughout.”
Bigelow has been very open about the inspiration behind A House of Dynamite, and why this story feels so urgent:
“I grew up in an era when hiding under your school desk was considered the go-to protocol for surviving an atomic bomb. It seems absurd now — and it was — but at the time, the threat felt so immediate that such measures were taken seriously.
“Today, the danger has only escalated. Multiple nations possess enough nuclear weapons to end civilization within minutes. And yet, there’s a kind of collective numbness — a quiet normalization of the unthinkable.
“How can we call this ‘defense’ when the inevitable outcome is total destruction?"
“I wanted to make a film that confronts this paradox — to explore the madness of a world that lives under the constant shadow of annihilation, yet rarely speaks of it.”
Alongside Elba and Ferguson, the ensemble cast includes Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Jonah Hauer-King, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Malachi Beasley, Brian Tee, Brittany O’Grady, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Willa Fitzgerald, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kyle Allen, and Kaitlyn Dever.
A House of Dynamite hits select UK theaters on October 3, expands globally October 10, and arrives on Netflix October 24. If the early reactions are anything to go by, Bigelow has delivered a gripping and terrifying ride.