18 Minutes From Nuclear Annihilation

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Kathryn Bigelow’s new movie, A House of Dynamite, the clock is ticking. The film’s fictional president of the United States has less than 20 minutes and very little information to decide whether or not to retaliate against a nuclear missile, launched at the United States, from an unknown source. As with Bigelow’s other war movies, the story is disturbingly plausible. During the Cold War, the likely scenario was a war with the Soviet Union. Now there are nine nuclear powers, which makes the possibility of error, rogue actors, or a total information vacuum more likely. We talk with “A House of Dynamite” screenwriter Noah Oppenheim and Tom Nichols, a national-security writer at the Atlantic, who consulted on the movie. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at theAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:44.3	SEC tariff.
0:49.5	The new movie, A House of Dynamite, directed by Catherine Bigelow, begins with some banal chatting between two military personnel at a base office.
1:03.3	Like, it could be an S&L skit about your corny, annoying colleague.
1:08.3	And then all of a sudden, the movie takes a sharp turn. The office is Fort Greeley,
1:14.7	a U.S. missile defense site in Alaska. And the military personnel there notice that this
1:20.5	ICBM they've been tracking on their screens, its arc is flattening. In fact, it's headed straight towards the U.S., and they have no idea who launched it.
1:32.2	The missile has about 20 minutes until it hits a major American city.
1:37.5	And they have just one chance to shoot it down.
1:42.0	Three, two, one.
1:50.8	Confirm impact.
2:00.3	Standbock, confirm impact. The movie maintains... Confirm that back.
2:01.2	Stand by.
	...

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