A House of Dynamite

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

[mr_rating_result]

In 1981, as a young boy of 15, the frisson and fear of nuclear war was very much in my mind. I joined Greenpeace and dressed as Dr. Strangelove in the Fantasy Fest parade. The Key West Naval Air Station was not thrilled to see the float. I also had a book in my possession: The Nuclear War Fun Book by Victor Langer and Walter Thomas, and I colored in the pages detailing the stages of nuclear radiation upon the Earth and the human body, creating an animated comic strip of what happens during a bomb blast. It was my own way to come to grips with the unimaginable fear of the event that seems like science fiction, using art and images in motion.

Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” details the very real unreality of a nuclear missile attack launched from an unknown nation and headed to Chicago on an unwavering course to pulverize the city and the communities around it.

Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, India, and Iran are mobilizing their nuclear forces, anticipating a hostile American response. The US military cannot find a solid report on the perpetrator of the detected launch that becomes increasingly incredibly very real. However diligent The Situation Room, the Army Core of Engineers, The Pentagon, and the President of the United States is in striving to find a cause, the location and intent of the missile is unknown.

Russia, anxious and fearful, demands a promise of safety from the United States. No nation takes responsibility for the rogue launch: It might be a mistake via artificial intelligence or a system glitch.

One thing is horridly clear: the superpowers want a response from the United States. The missile is minutes away from destroying Chicago and the entire Midwest. The attempted antidote of two interceptor missiles has failed.

At the time of the strange errant launch, neon messages on TV screens and city buses flash HAVE A NICE DAY. Kids are giggling on their way to school, people are jogging and eating at cafés and the President (Idris Elba) is giving a speech at a school basketball game. Abruptly in shock, he is whisked away by the Secret Service. Presented with a black folder of nuclear plans detailing survival and strike options, the President grows increasingly wary and indecisive. There are no reasonably “safe” outcomes regarding nuclear war.
An overwhelmed General Anthony Brody (wonderfully played by playwright Tracy Letts) calls his estranged daughter but she is late for work, unable to talk. Brody affirms his love for her, hangs up the phone, and then jumps off the balcony to his death, unable to bear the impending missile.

This is a difficult film, and it makes for some masochism upon the mind. However, Kathryn Bigelow is to be commended for her painstaking realism and objectivist approach.

Nuclear war seems in the realm of fiction precisely because it is so lethal and annihilating. Many do not talk about it because we cannot comprehend it as mortal beings simply because by most scientific accounts, it dictates the end of life as we know it. Such a fatal condition short circuits the brain.

There are over 12,241 nuclear warheads held by the nine nuclear powers. It usually takes an ICBM warhead less than 30 minutes to strike. Once a missile is launched, it cannot (under any natural or physical circumstances) be redirected or called back.

The question I had when I was a youngster in 1981, still vexes in 2025: When does the existence of escalating deterrents become something of ego and aggression, overriding our logic and rationale of an unwinnable and unthinkable nuclear war?

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com