Long shrouded in mystery, the untitled Kathryn Bigelow war movie at Netflix has finally got an official title and release date. Titled A House of Dynamite, the film will be available globally on Netflix starting October 24, 2025, and features a stacked cast. It’s also scheduled for a limited theatrical run following its global premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival.
Filmed in late 2024 between September and December across multiple locations, including Kearny in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., as well as in Pennsylvania, the movie was initially described as “a harrowing ticking-clock thriller, centered on a group of White House officials scrambling to deal with an incoming missile attack on the U.S.”
A newly updated synopsis based on a script by Noah Oppenheim expands, reading, “When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.” The movie has a runtime of 1 hour and 52 minutes and has been rated R for language.
An expanded synopsis, courtesy of the film’s page on the New York Film Festival page, reads:
“At a remote military outpost, an unidentified incoming missile is detected, setting in motion an escalating series of actions and reactions across all levels of the United States government. With her trademark dynamic kineticism, Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, NYFF33 Centerpiece) puts the viewer in the center of a crisis in which decisions must be made in limited time, based on incomplete and evolving information and untested protocols. Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim construct a frighteningly plausible scenario in which a multitude of dilemmas—practical and personal, bureaucratic and existential—overlap in real time and at a mounting rate. The film’s prismatic structure allows for a broad-scale thriller that entangles intimate dramas with an unfolding world-historic event, and the terrific ensemble cast, which includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, and Tracy Letts, conjures vivid characters with muscular efficiency, bringing emotional depth to this taut, thought-provoking exploration of an all-too-believable nightmare.”
The cast for the film includes:
- Idris Elba (The Wire)
- Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation)
- Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy, The Night Agent)
- Jared Harris (Chernobyl)
- Tracy Letts (The Big Short)
- Anthony Ramos (In the Heights)
- Moses Ingram (The Queen’s Gambit)
- Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid)
- Greta Lee (Past Lives)
- Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty)
- Malachi Beasley (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story)
- Brian Tee (Chicago Med)
- Brittany O’Grady (Little Voice)
- Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire)
- Willa Fitzgerald (Scream: The TV Series) as Abby Jansing
- Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton)
- Kyle Allen (The Shannara Chronicles)
- Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart)
This is one of two projects that famed director Kathryn Bigelow had at Netflix, alongside Aurora. This horror thriller had been in development for several years until it was announced to be scrapped in early 2024. Bigelow is best known for films like The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and Detroit.
The movie will make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival sometime between August and early September, ahead of its Netflix release. The movie will also make its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival.
Executive Producers: Brian Bell, Sarah Bremner
Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd, BSC
Production Designer: Jeremy Hindle
Costume Designer: Sarah Edwards
Editor: Kirk Baxter, A.C.E.
Music By: Volker Bertelmann
Sound Design By: Paul N. J. Ottosson
Co-Producers: Jeremy Hindle, Sumaiya Kaveh
Casting By: Susanne Scheel
We’ll have more on A House of Dynamite in the coming weeks and months leading up to its release. For more on what’s still to come to Netflix throughout the remainder of 2025 and all the movies confirmed for Fall 2025, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix.
