Posted on 10/28/2025 12:05:04 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The film dispels the comforting illusion that technology can shield us from a nuclear attack.
Director Kathryn Bigelow’s new thriller, “A House of Dynamite,” is not simply a gripping film — it is a wake-up call. The movie dramatizes, in real time, the terrifying 30-minute window between the launch of a nuclear missile bound for the U.S. and its impact. In doing so, the film exposes a brutal truth that too many decision-makers and policy experts in Washington refuse to admit: Long-range missile defense will not protect us. Our only real path to escape nuclear catastrophe lies in reducing global arsenals.
From the film’s first frames, Bigelow dispels the comforting illusion that technology can shield us from a nuclear attack. “A House of Dynamite” depicts U.S. ground-based interceptors launching and failing to stop the incoming missile. “So it’s a f---ing coin toss? That’s what $50 billion buys us?!” exclaims the frustrated secretary of defense, played by Jared Harris. The answer, in fact, is yes. In scripted tests, U.S. missile defenses against intercontinental weapons have succeeded only about 55 percent of the time — under ideal conditions, with known targets, no decoys and perfectly timed launches. Real war introduces deception, saturation attacks and human failures. The system is brittle. A “silver bullet” defense is a fantasy.
Long-range defenses don’t work, and they make it harder to reduce the nuclear threats we face.
The U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars chasing long-range missile defense systems. Not one has delivered dependable protection. The bloated contracts persist, the well-connected lobbyists benefit and the public clings to hope. But the underlying logic is flawed: Long-range defenses don’t work, and they make it harder to reduce the nuclear threats we face. As...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
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Jim
Some of the reviews are brutal, and hilarious.
That's the nice way of telling us that he hasn't had a real job in 50 years.
Nike-Zeus, developed in the late 1950s, would have been effective.
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