Beyond the costume and production design, many of the film’s most astounding details are true. Yes, there is an individual who follows the president around at all times with a briefcase full of nuclear retaliation options. Yes, the US’s main line of defensive anti-ballistic missiles only have a 50% success rate in tests. Yes, there really is a highly classified, self-sufficient underground city built for nuclear fallout at the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania.
Karbler, who had a small acting role in the film as Stratcom’s chief of staff, was very focused on the language in the film; he encouraged Bigelow to add a line about “dual phenomenology,” the requirement that both satellite and radar must confirm the existence of a missile before the US can launch a retaliatory strike. “That’s very important to get that little phrase in there, because that’s an important part of determining that truly is a missile coming in,” he says.
Bigelow’s movie focuses most on the human element—how normal people, even the most highly trained, might react to a catastrophic event. “We make sure our processes are done correctly. We make sure our reporting, our communications, procedures, weapons, employment, is [all] done correctly. It’s very sterile, but very process-oriented,” says Karbler. “This movie brings in the human element in spades.”
Watching this story from the vantage point of 2025, the unsettling fact Oppenheim pointed out is especially striking: The president of the US has final decision-making power in a theoretical retaliation effort. Elba’s president in the film is well-meaning, and the decision weighs heavily on him. Oppenheim—who began writing the script before Donald Trump took office for his second term—says that, in many ways, the movie presents a best-case scenario. “If everyone in authority is responsible, smart, prepared, and well-intentioned—even in that scenario, this is the outcome,” says Oppenheim. “We’ll leave it to everyone to contemplate how bad things could be, or are, if the folks in those chairs are not smart, prepared experts, and well intended.”
