"Give me a shout if the world is going to end..."
The addictive doom of the 24-hour news cycle is matched by this political thriller from The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow - in cinemas now, on Netflix from 24 October, and best avoided of a Sunday evening.
Anyone who grew up in the 1980s and is still shook from seeing the BBC's Armageddon drama Threads will find that A House of Dynamite makes them feel like a kid again for all the wrong reasons.
In bedrooms, aboard buses, and on bases, the day begins like any other with people saying, "I love you", looking at their phones, gently ribbing colleagues, etc, etc, etc.
Suddenly, the soldiers of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion at Fort Greely, Alaska, track an object that seems to have been launched in the Pacific.
There are 19 minutes to impact - and over an hour and a half in which you have to keep reminding yourself to breathe.
Telling the same story from multiple perspectives - a face on a screen in one scene becomes the focus in another - A House of Dynamite brings together an excellent ensemble cast for a whodunit and what if? masterclass. You might think from the poster that the whole story follows Rebecca Ferguson in the White House Situation Room as Captain Olivia Walker and Idris Elba as the on-the-move President of the United States - it doesn't.
Written by former NBC News President Noah Oppenheim and filmed by cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (United 93, The Hurt Locker, Captain Phillips), this is Bigelow working with the urgency of a first-time director, almost 50 years into her career, delivering a wake-up call that guarantees sleepless nights.
The film the world needs now.
