In this scene from “A House of Dynamite,” the communication isn’t always clear, but the imminent threat is.
As a ballistic missile heads for the United States, various response teams in the government must figure out what to do, quickly. The movie is the latest from the director Kathryn Bigelow, and here, she narrates a moment in which the deputy national security adviser, Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso), who is on his cellphone in a rush to the White House, discusses an approach with Gen. Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts) at the U.S. Strategic Command. They are on a conference call with other government officials and military leaders, determining next steps.
“What’s interesting about this scene is, of course, the movement and the urgency of it,” Bigelow said, “but the fact that you have different philosophies. You have a more hawkish approach that the general is providing. And then you have a more dovish approach, a wait, and let’s try to analyze this in a more careful fashion, that Jake Baerington is putting forward.”
A sense of accuracy was important in the feel and look of the film. Bigelow said that the movie was shot primarily at a studio in New Jersey called Cinelease.
“We had three of their stages, and each stage was a different set,” she said. “One was Fort Greely interior, one was Stratcom interior and one was White House Situation Room interior. And our production designer, Jeremy Hindle, was truly brilliant in his replication of these locations. He and I visited the White House Situation Room and Stratcom, only for minutes. We couldn’t take pictures, but even based on having been there a few minutes, he was able to replicate it to such a great extent that military personnel that were familiar with those locations, they thought we had shot there.”
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