Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film just launched on Netflix, and already the Pentagon isn’t a fan.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) wrote up an internal memo, shared Oct. 16, addressing “A House of Dynamite,” a new nuclear thriller from Bigelow. Written by Noah Oppenheim, the film follows members of the U.S. government as they attempt to respond to a lone nuclear missile en route to Chicago.
In the film, Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (played by Jared Harris) laments that, despite costing $50 billion, the current U.S. nuclear missile deterrent systems only have a 50% chance of effectively blocking a launched assault.
It’s a claim that real-life Pentagon officials disagree with. In the memo, obtained by Bloomberg, it is noted that these U.S. defense systems “have displayed a 100% accuracy rate in testing for more than a decade” rather than the coin flip displayed in “A House of Dynamite.”
“The fictional interceptors in the movie miss their target, and we understand this is intended to be a compelling part of the drama intended for the entertainment of the audience,” the memo reads.
Bloomberg cited Union of Concerned Scientists and missile defense critic Laura Grego, who called the threat faced in the movie “arguably about as easy as they come.” She noted that, in the film, the U.S. is merely facing a single missile on a single path rather than a volley with an unknown target. While this makes the attack facing Idris Elba’s White House in the film easier to defend against, it is also similar, according to Grego, to the limited testing scenarios enacted by the military.
“A robust defense should anticipate facing multiple incoming ICBMs and credible decoys, and direct attacks on missile defense elements,” Grego told Bloomberg. “But none of those were part of the story in this film.”
Strangely, this isn’t the only time in October that the Pentagon addressed Netflix programming. Earlier in the month, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson released a statement to Entertainment Weekly expressing her distaste for the queer military Netflix drama “Boots.”
“We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children,” Wilson said.
Bigelow did not directly involve the White House in the creation of her film — though, the Pentagon told Bloomberg that any participation would “not reflect the views or priorities of this administration.” While Bigelow said this was intentional, the Oscar-winning director also noted that she had people familiar with the Pentagon on her crew.
“I felt that we needed to be more independent,” she said on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “But that being said, we had multiple tech advisers who have worked in the Pentagon. I mean, they were with me every day we shot.”’
First Appeared on
Source link
