It’s crap. You should avoid it.
The Imdb summary
When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.
I saw the movie blind. That is to say - all I knew about it was the Imdb summary. To explain why it’s crap - I need to put everything else in a spoiler tag. I give the plot of the movie away.
Spoiler
The movie has three chapters. Each chapter is the 18 minutes from the time the nuclear missile is detected over the Pacific until seconds before the assumed detonation above Chicago. Assumed detonation? Yeap. The Netflix PR page describes it this way. “For Bigelow, the film’s unresolved ending is an invitation.”
I watched what I later learned was the first chapter. Seconds before the assumed detonation the screen went black. Minus the end credits - there were ~65 minutes left. Where could the story go? I knew nothing of the structure of plot and the three chapters but I knew in my bones that there would be a 99% chance I’d hate it.
What happens in chapters two and three? I have no idea. After the screen went black. Chapter two started with a shot of a single Civil War reenactor in the woods. He twirled his revolver. What the fucking fuck. I watched another ~3 minutes of chapter two and then paused the movie. I googled and I checked Wikipedia. I learned of the movie’s dog shit structure. I didn’t watch any more.
In chapter one it’s strongly suggested that everybody is certain the missile is about to kill at least 10 million people after it hits Chicago. And there’s massive panic at the White House. A low-level guy functions as a plot device. He asks an elite natsec guy the question “Where’s everybody going?” The elite guy answers by saying “They’re going home.” This obviously implies Washington will be destroyed.
I like ambiguity. What I don’t like is being led down the garden path for 60+ minutes to a tedious and very annoying non-ending.
I was myself in doubt if this wasn’t an AI written movie of how bad it was, as netflix started rolling AI tools and content this week. It’s almost like if you don’t read what’s about the first half an hour the characters introduced are empty of content, suddenly doing a super important job with crazy names for technology presented with a PowerPoint style so that the viewer can even understand what’s going on. The characters reaction to the tragedy feel robotic/empty despite IMDb describing it as “real as possible” ( the general leaving the defcon room not saying anything and leaving to go puke and then casually calling someone that probably is in Chicago and just nonchalantely just having a normal conversation with someone that’s going to get obliterated in 19 min was fantastic) and then the one of the White House operation just immediately calling the husband to leave is really weird. One of the worst movies that i saw this last years imo.