A House of Dynamite - Suicide or Surrender
By Kayvan Kaboli
The story begins with a missile carrying a nuclear warhead traveling over the Pacific Ocean toward the United States. A House of Dynamite is a portrayal of dread, displaying anxiety in every second of the film, a narrative that is repeated three times throughout the movie, each from a different perspective.
The first telling comes from the viewpoint of lower-ranking officers whose mission under such circumstances is to shoot down the missile mid-air. The same thrilling account is then retold from the perspective of high-ranking officers and the Secretary of Defense, and finally from the vantage point of the President, the ultimate decision-maker in issuing a retaliatory order to destroy whoever has committed such madness, a culprit that remains unknown throughout the film.
In critiques and analyses of this movie, much has been said about technical aspects and real-world military conditions. But what most of these reviews overlook are the two words uttered in the third retelling of the story, when the camera follows the President and the officer carrying the nuclear football as they enter the launch codes into the device: suicide or surrender.
The film’s message clearly suggests that it does not matter which side has the upper hand in nuclear military capability or whose arsenal is more heavily stocked with missiles and warheads. Ultimately, when the situation has moved beyond deterrence and missiles are already in the air, there will be no winners; all sides will lose. In other words, the decision becomes one between suicide and surrender.
