A House of Dynamite [Netflix]

Anti climatic ending but I don't know how else they could have ended it in a sensible non-protracted fashion.
I know nothing of missiles but how does th ICBM speed compare to a jet? Couldn't someone have kamikaze over it once the first counter measure failed? There was a bomber on standby, wasn't there? Perhaps a stupid question.
 
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DB_SamX said:
Anti climatic ending but I don't know how else they could have ended it in a sensible non-protracted fashion.
I know nothing of missiles but how does th ICBM speed compare to a jet? Couldn't someone have kamikaze over it once the first counter measure failed? There was a bomber on standby, wasn't there? Perhaps a stupid question.
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ICBMs can fly in excess of 10x the speed of a fighter jet, those bombers are quite slow - about half the speed of a fighter jet. But they don't have to catch it up if they are already ahead of it - but an ICBM generally flies into low earth orbit, about 10x the max altitude of an aircraft and then releases a re-entry vehicle (or multiples) which are near impossible to intercept without a specialized system designed for that purpose - an aircraft trying to shoot it down conventionally or kamikaze style has like 0.0001% chance of success.
 
Watched it last night, wife switched off into the first 10 mins but I found the first 2 episodes? really gripping, watched the last with bated breath and it just sort limped to the end!
 
rp2000 said:
Problem is the other two thirds were the same story told 2 more times, with barely any extra details added in imo.
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I think this format can work well but the repeated phases need to be adding new information that make you reassess the way you saw the earlier perspectives and the actions/choices those characters were making, otherwise it does just feel a bit like the same thing over and over.

DB_SamX said:
Anti climatic ending but I don't know how else they could have ended it in a sensible non-protracted fashion.
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I do think the end is about the only way they could end it - as much as it felt anti-climatic

I think it removes a massive element of ongoing thought from the viewer (what if he did that? what if this happened?) if they showed a particular outcome and significantly detracts from potential discussion points.

It could make for a good 'What If?' style follow up series though

What if he didn't retaliate at all and it was actually the Russians/Chinese/North Koreans etc.?
What if he didn't retaliate at all and it was actually lone wolf terrorists?
What if he implemented Plan X and wiped out Russia/China/North Korea and it was actually the Russians/Chinese/North Koreans?
What if he implemented Plan X and wiped out Russia and it was actually lone wolf terrorists?
What if any of the above and the incoming ICBM was a dud/fake?
What if any of the above and the incoming ICBM obliterated the entire city?
 
Poor script, or just poor delivery, but 3/10.

I get the flower style of story telling, but as someone above mentioned, it wasn't really exploited or executed that well.. considering the director, I was a bit surprised, so all in all, the mediocre story did not justify the (predictable) ending.

I kept going to the end, but with a tepid script and the ending oh so predictable it was probably the a bit of DEI fatigue thrown in on top that just put that veneer of mediocrity on it..
 
Kenai said:
I think it removes a massive element of ongoing thought from the viewer (what if he did that? what if this happened?) if they showed a particular outcome and significantly detracts from potential discussion points.

It could make for a good 'What If?' style follow up series though

What if he didn't retaliate at all and it was actually the Russians/Chinese/North Koreans etc.?
What if he didn't retaliate at all and it was actually lone wolf terrorists?
What if he implemented Plan X and wiped out Russia/China/North Korea and it was actually the Russians/Chinese/North Koreans?
What if he implemented Plan X and wiped out Russia and it was actually lone wolf terrorists?
What if any of the above and the incoming ICBM was a dud/fake?
What if any of the above and the incoming ICBM obliterated the entire city?
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The missile profile suggests a Trident, unless I'm getting things mixed up though their casualty estimates are a bit off - at a minimum it would require optimal use of 8x W88s at full yield to come close or for other nations a max MIRV configuration to get those kind of casualties - NK don't have anything capable of anything close to that level of causalities even assuming they have a working ICBM. I don't think, at least based on public information the UK configuration of the Trident or French M51 have the range for the scenario or the MIRV configuration and yield but there are some hints in the show that the incident involved infiltration of the US early warning system, likely not by foreign actors, and would likely have required a Vanguard or Ohio class launch platform for the scenario - pretty much anything else wouldn't have enabled the level of ambiguity.
 
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The main thing I took away from this was how unprofessional everyone was. They have all this tech, all the money all the weapons and bluster to tell everyone who will listen how amazing they are (the USA), then the first hint of danger and everyone is falling apart, crying, sobbing into their phones, out for number one, passing the buck, it was embarrassing to watch. It was like there was 20 nukes in the air not one, and not even heading for where they were.
 
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Building Candy said:
and not even heading for where they were.
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In this respect though a lot of them were in positions to know what the consequences likely were i.e. standard procedure on paper would be to pre-emptively retaliate with the high chance of that turning into a full scale tit for tat, if not the single nuke being part of a larger attack.

The level of hysteria over a single missile of unknown origin and unknown, if any, warhead was way overdone though.
 
It's entertainment, it would have been boring as **** if they simply diligently went about implementing agreed response plans in a calm and collected manner :p
 
I watched it last night and it was a film of two halves. I was looked at the start and really until the first change perspective/character. Given the ending, I'd rate it 6/10.
 
Well that was a waste of time. Boring. Give me Sum of all fears any day over this. Can't believe I stuck it out until the end.
 
I quite enjoyed the build up and tension but like most, was expecting some payoff at the end. If you want to experience this through to it's conclusion, read Nuclear War: A Scenario.
 
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