An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is about to hit Chicago. Officials in the White House Situation Room and the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) are scrambling to address this nuclear crisis, the origin of which is unknown. They have only 18 minutes to intercept the missile. Can the U.S. missile defense system intercept this nuclear-armed ICBM—like “hitting a bullet with a bullet”? Officials evacuate to nuclear bunkers, and the military is placed on DEFCON 1 alert, ready to launch retaliatory nuclear attacks. The President alone must decide whether to attack Russia and other adversaries’ nuclear installations. While the Head of the Strategic Command urges the president to act before it is too late, officials continue diplomatic efforts to prevent Russia from launching pre-emptive nuclear attacks on the U.S. Can the two nuclear powers prevent nuclear Armageddon? The president, secretary of defense, and other high-level officials panic.
The fast-paced Netflix thriller A House of Dynamite (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), released in October, offers a glimpse into a realistic scenario in which the accidental launch of a nuclear weapon, the threat of using a nuclear weapon, or even a miscalculation about a nuclear threat could lead to catastrophic global nuclear war. It exposes our collective unpreparedness to address one of the existential threats of our time. If national leaders, security experts, and missile defense systems are not fully prepared to protect our cities and our planet from nuclear war, what can ordinary citizens do? The movie serves as a wake-up call to address this consequential question.
“It is now 89 seconds to midnight,” according to the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. A House of Dynamite drives this point home. The nuclear threat is real, and we must pay attention to it. It is not an easy movie to watch, especially for those of us who live in Chicagoland.
Although A House of Dynamite is likely to create a lingering fear in viewers, there is still hope. Chicago, one of the birthplaces of nuclear weapons, has leaders, experts, and ordinary people who are well aware of the threats and risks nuclear weapons pose. Many of our local political and spiritual leaders continue to speak out both locally and internationally, calling on world leaders to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons being used and create a world without nuclear weapons.
In March of this year, Chicago Alderwoman Maria Hadden addressed an international audience at the third meeting of the states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a new UN treaty that entered into force in January 2021. Recognizing the unique responsibility of cities with historical links to nuclear weapons development, such as Chicago, she urged city leaders and their citizens to “raise their voices and use what power they have” at an event held at the UN headquarters. Alderwoman Hadden’s decision to participate in the UN meeting followed the 2021 Chicago City Council resolution she introduced. The resolution endorsed the Back from the Brink national campaign, which urges the federal government to reduce nuclear threats and risks and prioritize nuclear disarmament.
Back from the Brink’s recommendations include pursuing global elimination of nuclear weapons, renouncing pre-emptive nuclear strikes, ending the President’s sole authority to order a nuclear attack, removing nuclear missiles from hair-trigger alert, and suspending plans to replace all U.S. nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and support infrastructure, which are projected to cost $946 billion over the next decade. The campaign has been endorsed by over 80 U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Boston, and Los Angeles, as well as six state legislatures and 45 members of Congress.
Likewise, in August, Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, traveled to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, accompanied by university leaders, faculty, and students from Catholic universities, including Loyola University Chicago, Marquette University, and the University of Notre Dame. Alongside Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, and Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle, Cardinal Cupich said: “The use of threats, which is the essence of the strategy of nuclear deterrence, can never bring about the peaceful coexistence between nations… Genuine peace is more than a fearful truce. The human race must commit itself to the end of the nuclear arms race, for it is a race which none can truly win but countless millions can truly lose.”
A House of Dynamite is a must-watch film that amplifies these concerns. It is a poignant reminder of the urgent nuclear threat and the risk that cities like Chicago face as potential targets. It urges viewers to join our local political and spiritual leaders to demand an end to the intensifying nuclear arms race and renewed commitment to multilateral, verifiable arms control from world leaders. The film is sure to fuel Chicagoans’ longstanding determination to demand nuclear disarmament and world peace.
Hirokazu Miyazaki is the Kay Davis Professor and Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. Miyazaki has published widely on exchange, hope, and peace based on research in Fiji, Japan, and the U.S. He also serves as a Nagasaki Peace Correspondent. Miyazaki’s current research, supported with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, focuses on the role of cities in the politics of nuclear weapons.