“A House of Dynamite” screenwriter Noah Oppenheim continued his defense tour against the Pentagon Tuesday evening on “The Lead” with Jake Tapper on CNN, saying that criticism of the political thriller’s accuracy are “preposterous.” Still, he added that he and director Kathryn Bigelow “welcome” the dialogue.
The Netflix feature dramatizes the Capitol’s response after a nuclear missile is launched at the United States and those in power must decide how to act. Assertions within the film that striking such a missile successfully down happen at only 61% of the time and that doing so is like “a bullet hitting a bullet” were denounced by the Pentagon after its Friday premiere.
“The fictional interceptors in the movie miss their target and we understand this is intended to be a compelling part of the drama intended for the entertainment of the audience,” a spokesperson said. “However, the following facts and results from real-world testing tell a vastly different story about the actual GMD system currently on alert.”
Oppenheim and missile defense experts consulted for the film have since publicly disagreed with the Pentagon’s argument that military tech is 100% accurate.
“I’d say we first and foremost, we welcome it,” Oppenheim told Tapper of the Pentagon’s response. “Kathryn and I made the movie to invite a conversation about an issue which we think is tremendously important and doesn’t get enough attention, which is the fact that we have all these nuclear weapons that exist in the world and that pose a great threat to all mankind.”
“With all due respect to the Pentagon, they assert in that memo that our current missile defense system is 100% effective,” he continued. “This is not a debate between the Pentagon and us as filmmakers, it’s become a debate between the Pentagon and subject matter experts in missile defense.”
Watch the interview segment below:
Why is the Pentagon complaining about the top movie on Netflix? Noah Oppenheim, the screenwriter of “A House of Dynamite," joins .@jaketapper pic.twitter.com/vpOao7pS3h
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 28, 2025
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), retired Gen. Douglas Lute, the Atlantic’s Tom Nichols and Slate’s Fred Kaplan — all subject matter experts in their own right who weighed in on “A House of Dynamite’s” accuracy — stepped up to bat for Oppenheim and Bigelow.
“They’ve all come out since the Pentagon memo’s release and said, ‘This is preposterous. Our missile defense system is nowhere close to 100%,’” Oppenheim said, to which Tapper added: “Always question anyone claiming anything is 100%.”
It’s not the first time Oppenheim spoke in defense of his work on “A House of Dynamite.” On MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” he argued, “Unfortunately our missile defense system is highly imperfect, and if the Pentagon wants to have a conversation about improving it or what the next step might be in keeping all of us safer, that’s exactly the conversation we want to have. But what we show in the movie is accurate.”
Watch Oppenheim’s full interview with Jake Tapper and CNN’s “The Lead” here.
