A House of Dynamite ending explained: Who launched the missile and did it hit Chicago?

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Noah Oppenheim, A House of Dynamite is an American political thriller film, where its plot revolves around key government officials and how they deal with a major threat heading toward the U.S. — a nuclear missile. Well, who launched the missile, how did the officials deal with it, and how are they going to respond to the country that planned such a horrific move, was the major focus of the entire film. 

A strong line-up of actors in A House of Dynamite includes Idris Elba (President of the United States), Rebecca Ferguson (Olivia Walker), Gabriel Basso as Deputy National Security Advisor (Jake Baerington), and Jared Harris as Secretary of Defense (Reid Baker). Along with them, other cast members are Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, and  Malachi Beasley, among others. 

A House of Dynamite ending explained: Who attacked Chicago, and did the President give orders to retaliate

The question does not have a simple yes or no answer, as the movie was open-ended, leaving viewers to think about what could have happened. The two major countries that were suspected of being involved in launching the attack were Russia and North Korea. Captain Olivia Walker takes up the responsibility to deal with the missile threat at the White House Situation Room and assumes the missile detected on the radar to be a missile test by North Korea, but soon they realize that it has reached the suborbital portal and is heading straight to hit Chicago. They had just 19 minutes to make a decision, whether to retaliate with a strike or to get into the safe bunkers and later investigate. 

The reason not to retaliate was simple: they didn’t have confirmed reports of who launched the missile. It could be a trap by any country to make them begin a global nuclear war. However, to save the 2.5 million population in Chicago, they launched two Ground-Based Interceptors to stop it from hitting Chicago, of which one completely failed, and the other one was missed. 

As Russia denied its involvement, the doubt shifted to North Korea, but it was never confirmed, and it even creates trust issues within the two countries as to how one can truly believe when it comes to a nuclear attack that could destroy the city and leave an impact for generations. The movie’s major message was to convey how the lack of trust could put innocent lives in danger and how these newly designed, dangerous weapons are used so casually, shattering the lives of innocents. 

The disaster that happened in Chicago was never shown as the screen cut to black, where President Elba is asked for his orders to retaliate. Although he did share the nuclear launch authorization code with General Brady, he never gave a green light to launch the attack. 

Speaking about this open-ended ending, leaving a room for discussion, Bigelow told Netflix, 

‘’I want audiences to leave theaters thinking, ‘OK, what do we do now?' We really are living in a house of dynamite. I felt it was so important to get that information out there, so we could start a conversation. That’s the explosion we’re interested in. The conversation people have about the film afterward."
Oppenheim said that the ending was a “call to attention and an invitation to a conversation.’’

He told Decider, 

‘’No matter what final outcome you imagine, you’ve already seen a horror unfold. And in the real world, these weapons and all the processes you’ve just seen are still lurking in the background of our lives. Are we comfortable with that reality or should we do something about it?”

The motto was never to show nuclear missiles as the real weapon; it was how the government’s decision, countries' misunderstanding, lack of trust, and the power science and technology holds to scatter humanity is getting out of hand. The movie ends with officials rushing to the Raven Rock bunkers as the wailing sirens echo in the distance. Kathryn Bigelow wanted the ending to leave viewers thinking about nuclear weapons, the dangers of escalation, and the fragility of global peace.

During the screening for A House of Dynamite at the New York Film Festival, Oppenheim told (via People),

"I think that if we were to identify who launched the missile, it kind of gives us all an easy out because then there's a clear villain and they're responsible and then we can kind of go back to our lives. I think we're trying to ask a bigger question, which is to say, is this a global reality that we want to continue living in? Because it could be any one of those nine countries that does this," he continued. "It could be a country we don't know about yet that has one of these weapons."

He added, 

"How fragile the system is, and so rather than ascribe blame to one bad guy, we wanted to really interrogate the larger reality."

The film shows how nuclear weapons put the world on a hair-trigger, how leaders must make impossible decisions, and leaves the ending open to make us reflect on the risks of living in a “house of dynamite.” 

A House of Dynamite is now available to watch on Netflix.