The Most Shocking Moment in ‘A House of Dynamite’ Isn’t the Missile Heading toward the United States

ahsan65@gmail.comNovember 3, 2025

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The Most Shocking Moment in ‘A House of Dynamite’ Isn’t the Missile Heading toward the United States

Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for “A House of Dynamite”Catherine BigelowIt is A house of dynamite has been making waves in the world of cinema since its release on Netflix. Even the Pentagon had a say! With films like The injury record, Zero dark ThirtyAnd DetroitBigelow is a master at creating tension in depictions of real events. Although what happens in A house of dynamitewith a nuclear missile heading towards Chicago, thankfully never happened in reality, it almost feels like you’re watching a documentary or found footage. Yet, as horrific as it is to witness, a scene involving Jared Harris is even more shocking than the potential destruction of millions of people.

Jared Harris plays Secretary of Defense in ‘A House of Dynamite’

A house of dynamite could have the large-scale hypothesis of a nuclear missile aimed at America, but its objective is more narrow. Rather than the predictable disaster movie tropes of citizens screaming as they run through the streets, stereotypical villains and tough heroes, we are placed in small confines around members of the US government. This includes Idris Elba as president, Tracey Letts as a general, and Rebecca Ferguson as captain in the White House Situation Room.

Jared Harris arrives as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker. With the National Security Advisor absent and POTUS absent for a video, many eyes are on Baker as the minutes tick by. He is not described as a robust soldier, but Baker appears overwhelmed and frightened, especially when he learns that the missile is heading directly towards Chicago.where his daughter, Caroline (Kaitlyn Dever), lives.

Secretary Baker Ends His Life After Phone Call With Daughter

Reid Baker suffers greatly long before a nuclear attack appears on the radar. He is a widower, having recently lost his wife, and there are unresolved tensions between him and Caroline. With Chicago’s destruction imminent, Secretary Baker calls his daughter who, not knowing what is happening, suggests they stay apart.

Rather than warning her about the bomb and her need to flee, Baker says nothing because she doesn’t have time to escape. He doesn’t want Caroline’s final minutes to be filled with terror, so Reid talks about life instead. When he hears a man talking in the background and Caroline reveals that it’s a serious new boyfriend, his father smiles with pride.. He is a broken man, but his child managed to overcome the loss of his mother and find love. She doesn’t know she’s about to die, but when she does, Caroline won’t be alone.

But that’s not enough to continue. In fact, it signals its end. When a helicopter lands on the roof to take him to a bunker, Reid Baker heads towards it, but without stopping, without even slowing down or hesitating, he walks straight from the roof to his death.

In an interview with The Wrap, Jared Harris spoke about his character’s death scene, saying:

“He didn’t want to live in a world where he had lost his wife and daughter. The idea of that was just too painful. My particular storyline is the most explicit, thematically, about the idea that it’s just about individual human beings who are put in the position of making choices that will affect millions of lives.”

This scene captures despair better than a mushroom cloud

Image via Netflix

Harris also shared his thoughts on Baker’s death scene with The Wrap, adding, “We just heard there was a commotion, someone screaming, ‘Oh, my God.’ But we don’t know what’s going on. » His last call with his daughter and his suicide scene work so well because Bigelow does so much with so little. By denying us scenes of fights between father and child, it is the unsaid that says everything. The same goes for Baker’s disappearance. Other films may have shown Baker clenching his fists and crying dramatically. Maybe he would walk to the edge of the roof and stop, watching while others begged him to step back, before saying something profound and jumping. Instead, we get the slightest look of determination on his face and an upright walk. Someone sees it and screams, but then it’s over, without having time to understand what we just witnessed.. It’s a moment so quick that the president himself doesn’t even realize it.

This is not the first, or even the second time, Jared Harris plays a character who committed suicide. This has already happened twice, when he played Lane Pryce in Mad Men and Valery Legasov in Chernobyl. Harris told The Wrap:

“Legasov was making a statement. It was his way of provoking and protesting. And his radiation poisoning was so bad that he was going to die soon anyway. Lane Pryce did it as revenge. He wanted to make life really uncomfortable for his colleagues, because they had kind of abandoned him.”

Secretary Baker dies in A house of dynamite made his own statement. This is not a body count film in which people are shown being burned alive and dying in a graphic manner. Instead, the film stops before the bomb explodes, leaving us wondering what will happen next. The scene of mass carnage hasn’t happened yet, but we don’t need to see it. It already started with Reid Baker. If one of the most powerful men in the world could leave a building without hesitation because he couldn’t bear to live without the person he loveswhat does this mean for the rest of us? In A house of dynamitewe don’t need to witness the impact to see a catastrophe before our eyes.

A house of dynamite is now available to stream on Netflix in the US