Kathryn Bigelow’s first film since 2017 is coming, and in it, the U.S. faces imminent danger from a nuclear missile attack.
The Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker will return from her eight-year hiatus with a new thriller, A House of Dynamite, which follows a team of government officials as they attempt to navigate the assault on Chicago. As the deadly missile approaches, they must race to determine who is behind it and how to save the city.
Eros Hoagland/Netflix
The brief teaser gives viewers short flashes of what to except in the nail-biter as a voiceover lays it all out on the table.
“Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of lived out their lives on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” the voice intones. “Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.”
It continues, “In our obscurity… there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is where we make our stand. It underscores our responsibility… to preserve and cherish… the only home we’ve ever known.”
The film, written by Noah Oppenheim, is stacked with a star-studded cast led by Idris Elba, who plays the U.S. president, and Rebecca Ferguson as military communications lead Capt. Olivia Walker. Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, and Jason Clarke round out the ensemble.
Kaitlyn Dever — fresh off her acclaimed performance in The Last of Us season 2 — also stars, with Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kyle Allen, Brittany O’Grady, Brian Tee, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Willa Fitzgerald, and Malachi Beasley joining her.
A House of Dynamite premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival on Tuesday, where it received an 11-minute standing ovation.
At a press conference earlier that day, Bigelow told reporters that the political thriller addresses the continued dangers of nuclear warfare.
Eros Hoagland/Netflix
“How can we call this ‘defense’ when the inevitable outcome is total destruction?” she asked, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to make a film that confronts this paradox — to explore the madness of a world that lives under the constant shadow of annihilation yet rarely speaks of it.”
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A House of Dynamite will have a limited theatrical release in the U.K. starting Oct. 3. It premieres in the U.S. on Oct. 10 before it begins streaming on Netflix on Oct. 24.
Watch the new trailer above.
