‘A House Of Dynamite’ Explosive Ending Explained—Did The Missile Hit Chicago?

A House of Dynamite. Rebecca Ferguson as Captain Olivia Walker in A House of Dynamite.

Eros Hoagland/Netflix

Netflix’s new doomsday thriller, A House of Dynamite, will keep you on edge until the very end. The film is divided into three parts, each following a different government official as they respond to an escalating missile threat. Here’s a breakdown of the movie’s ambiguous ending, including whether the missile detonated and what the final moments really mean.

From Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), A House of Dynamite follows the U.S. government as it races against time after a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, as officials work to determine who is responsible and how to respond.

The film opens with a grave warning that the era of “fewer nuclear weapons” following the Cold War is “now over.” Inside government facilities across the country, from the White House Situation Room to U.S. Army command centers, officials begin their day — including Captain Olivia Walker, stationed in the Situation Room.

Around 9:30 a.m. ET, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) detects an unidentified intercontinental ballistic missile flying over the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The military initially believes it’s just a routine North Korean missile test; however, that changes after the trajectory goes suborbital. Now, it’s estimated to impact somewhere in the Midwest, and there is only 19 minutes until impact.

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The President of the United States is added to the national security conference call, as they are the only person with the authority to authorize the use of nuclear weapons. When Ground-Based Interceptors are launched to intercept the missile, one fails to deploy while the other misses its target. The DEFCON level is then raised to 1, which is the highest state of military readiness, indicating that nuclear war is imminent.

With new projections showing a 100% chance of impact on Chicago, the lives of 2.5 million people are suddenly at risk. FEMA is alerted to the situation and begins evacuating high-level officials to nuclear fallout shelters. Olivia breaks protocol to call her husband, urging him to drive west. The President is then asked whether he wants to authorize a retaliatory nuclear strike, but the screen cuts to black just before impact.

What Happens In The Second Part Of A House of Dynamite?

The second part of A House of Dynamite starts the day over again. This time, viewers see the threat unfold from the perspectives of other officials on the national security conference call, including the military generals at Stratcom, the home of America’s nuclear force, and senior White House members.

Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso) is forced to sprint toward the White House while joining the conference via FaceTime after stepping in for his boss. There is growing suspicion among military officials that North Korea or Russia could be behind the missile — and that one unattributed strike might be a test to gauge how the U.S. responds and whether its adversaries could get away with something far worse.

Meanwhile, Jake tells the officials on the conference call the harsh reality: that, since the GBI’s launch and separation, there’s only a 61% success rate in intercepting the missile, so basically it’s hitting a bullet with a bullet. North Korean NSA expert Ana Park (Greta Lee), who is attending a battle of Gettysburg reenactment with her son, gets a call from the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.

She explains that North Korea has been developing a sea-based launch capability, having deployed a modified Romeo-class submarine two years ago equipped with 10 short-range cruise missiles. When asked why they would pursue this, she responds that the regime’s primary motivation is self-preservation — they can afford to risk a strike because of their defensive systems, effectively using them as leverage for blackmail.

Meanwhile, the Russians have become more aggressive. The blinding of DSP satellites could indicate they have been compromised, suggesting a possible cyberattack on U.S. command-and-control systems,” Ana says.

After the GBI fails to intercept the missile, STRATCOM’s General Anthony Brady wants the president to launch an aggressive strike, as the enemies of the U.S. begin to mobilize their own forces in response to the U.S. missile intercept failure and DEFCON 1

The president wants to slow down, and Jake agrees, telling the general there’s no way he can make an informed decision under these circumstances. Jake then speaks with the Russians, who insist it isn’t the source of the launch. Jake believes them.

With time quickly running out, the president asks for a moment to think as the general urges him to initiate a full-scale war. Nuclear forces are placed on alert, and the president gives his authorization code. When the general asks for his final orders, the screen cuts to black once again.

A House of Dynamite Ending Explained

In the third part of A House of Dynamite, we see the day unfold again, but this time from the perspective of the President of the United States (Elba) and Secretary of Defense Baker (Harris).

POTUS is at a speaking engagement with a youth basketball team when he’s informed of the threat. The Secret Service rushes him out of the game and into a car, where he’s told that the United States is under attack. He joins the secure conference call to learn the latest on the missile while en route to Air Force One.

Baker, who is still grieving the loss of his wife, tragically learns that Chicago is in the blast zone, where his daughter currently lives. At the end of Part 3, Baker mutes the conference call, calls his daughter and says goodbye. She’s seeing someone, and she tells her dad it’s serious and that they’re both headed to work. He says he loves her, and she hangs up.

While heading to a rooftop landing pad to board the helicopter to Raven Rock, the nuclear bunker in Pennsylvania, he walks off the edge of the roof, killing himself. “He’s barely recovering from the loss of his wife,” Harris told Netflix’s Tudum. “He doesn’t want to live in a world where neither she nor his daughter’s alive.”

On Air Force One, the Presidential Military Aide (Jonah Hauer-King) informs the President of his options. He shows him the “nuclear football,” which allows him to remotely communicate and authorize the nation’s nuclear capabilities. He’s handed a menu with responses labeled “rare,” “medium” and “well done.”

POTUS gets word from Jake that the Russian foreign minister denies they are behind the attack, and they don’t believe it was Beijing either. If they can guarantee that the U.S. won’t retaliate, they can convince their adversaries not to launch against anyone — for now. That means they might have to let Chicago be destroyed.

The President tries to call his wife (Renée Elise Goldsberry) but loses the signal. He returns to the phone and reads his verification code. He’s asked by the general for his final orders, but viewers once again don’t hear what he says.

Meanwhile, officials, including the FEMA director, are evacuated from Washington to the Raven Rock bunker in Pennsylvania as fighter jets fly overhead and air raid sirens sound. The final scene shows Major Daniel Gonzalez (Ramos) on the ground in Alaska one last time before the screen cuts to the credits.

Does The Missile Hit Chicago In A House of Dynamite?

Unfortunately, A House of Dynamite ends before we can see the impact of the nuclear missile on Chicago or whether it detonated. As Jake mentions to POTUS in the final seconds of the film, there’s always a chance that the warhead could malfunction upon impact. However, the more likely outcome is that the missile struck the city, killing millions in and around the blast zone, potentially triggering World War III.

Bigelow, the film’s director, said that A House of Dynamite’s unresolved ending is meant for the audience to react and say, “‘OK, what do we do now?’”

“This is a global issue, and of course I hope against hope that maybe we reduce the nuclear stockpile someday,” the director explained to Tudum. “But in the meantime, we really are living in a house of dynamite. I felt it was so important to get that information out there, so we could start a conversation. That’s the explosion we’re interested in — the conversation people have about the film afterward.”

In an interview with Decider, screenwriter Noah Oppenheim said that he does know the answer to the two biggest questions lingering at the cliffhanger — did the bomb go off in Chicago, and did the president decide to retaliate with another nuclear strike?

“I do have answers in my head to both, but it’s not relevant to the issues we’re trying to raise,” Oppenheim told the site via email. “The first [issue] being—should one person have the power to decide the fate of all mankind, with little preparation and only minutes to decide, while simultaneously running for his (or her) life? That should already be terrifying enough, regardless of what happens next.”

Ultimately, Oppenheim said that the ending of the film is a “call to attention and an invitation to a conversation.”

He continued, “No matter what final outcome you imagine, you’ve already seen a horror unfold. And in the real world, these weapons and all the processes you’ve just seen are still lurking in the background of our lives. Are we comfortable with that reality or should we do something about it?”

A House of Dynamite is streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.