Pentagon Disputes Netflix Missile-Defense Portrayal

Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix thriller A House of Dynamite dramatizes an 18‑minute scramble after a single nuclear missile is launched at the United States, depicting interceptor failures and characters saying the system has roughly a 50–61% chance of success. The Missile Defense Agency sent an internal memo and the Pentagon publicly disputed the film’s portrayal, saying real-world ground‑based interceptors have shown a 100% success rate in testing for more than a decade and that the movie downplays U.S. capabilities. The memo urged agency personnel to correct misconceptions, noted the film’s cited $50 billion price tag and other dramatic choices are for entertainment, and said the department was not consulted. Bigelow says she remained independent of formal Pentagon approval while working with technical advisers with defense experience, and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim defended the film’s figures as based on controlled‑test data while noting the small number of interceptors in the arsenal. The dispute highlights tensions between dramatic license in fiction and government officials’ concerns about public perceptions of national defense readiness.