The core premise of the film is that the US has no idea who launched the missile (singular) from where, and despite being explicitly set only in the 18 minutes from launch to impact the retaliatory option is depicted as coming from a bomber
Replies
I suspect I will be shouting at the screen when I get to see this. It sounds like they are half arsed remaking By Dawn's Early Light.
sep 2, 2025, 6:01 pm • 1 0 • view
(I kid, of course. LeMay would never retaliate with only one bomber.)
sep 2, 2025, 5:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Idris Elba is not-Obama (he gets word the missile is inbound while he's shooting hoops, come ON)
sep 2, 2025, 5:47 pm • 22 0 • view
lol “President Darky Funkman! Put down your chitlins and grape drink! There’s an emergency!”
sep 2, 2025, 5:54 pm • 0 0 • view
They apparently portray the PEOC as this impenetrable nuclear proof bunker where the President and everyone spends the crisis, instead of, I don't know, trying to get him and the rest of the NCA to an airborne survivable platform
sep 2, 2025, 5:50 pm • 19 0 • view
This was always something I felt was pretty unrealistic about a nuclear war scenario. Scrambling a helo to the white house, then from the white house to Andrews, then to get AF1 into the air, is simply too long a time in a first strike attack scenario. POTUS is already dead. Retaliate and then die.
sep 2, 2025, 5:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Depends on world tensions and the alert posture, but as long as it's not a depressed trajectory SLBM shot from off the coast you might be surprised how quickly the process can work
sep 2, 2025, 5:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Straight-line flying time at 180mph from Quantico-White House-Andrews is 12.4 minutes but you have air traffic, startup time on the helos and plane, taxi time, physically getting people onto the lawn and into the chopper then back off the chopper onto AF1, it just doesn't seem very plausible.
sep 2, 2025, 5:57 pm • 0 0 • view
It's not perfect in every detail but hands down the movie that gets all this stuff reasonably correct and builds dramatic tension and plot points around true-enough aspects of it is By Dawn's Early Light. Great cast, too.
sep 2, 2025, 5:57 pm • 4 0 • view
By Dawn's Early Light is without a fault and is the best portrayal both of nuclear war generally and EAM procedures specifically, period lol The episode of Madam Secretary where we almost accidentally nuke Russia because of a drill is pretty good too
sep 2, 2025, 6:00 pm • 5 0 • view
I'd love to get an actually good adaptation of Sum of All Fears at some point, too. But even that takes some flights of fancy. Main nitpick about BDEL is the "automated" initial Russian attack after a single false flag launch from Turkey. But you gotta get the whole shebang started somehow.
sep 2, 2025, 6:07 pm • 2 0 • view
iirc in the book it was a deliberate Russian first strike which isn't necessarily more plausible but I could see why you'd want to tweak that in the movie for something more all-around accidental, it fits better.
sep 2, 2025, 6:09 pm • 1 0 • view
If all I have to do is believe the worst case about Perimeter, I'll take it
sep 2, 2025, 6:12 pm • 2 0 • view
CC @forbesmm.bsky.social, I had to see this and so do you
sep 2, 2025, 5:54 pm • 10 0 • view
oh god damn it
sep 2, 2025, 6:00 pm • 3 0 • view
It is absolutely incredible they are going to try to spin this NAIL BITING CRISIS HOW CAN YOU END THE WORLD IMPOSSIBLE CHOICES on the basis of one (1) missile "Well now guess we all have to hand it to MDA after all, salvo the GMD interceptors and then we can figure out what the hell happened"
sep 2, 2025, 6:04 pm • 5 0 • view
I’m gonna hate watch this and be like those insufferable EOD guys watching the hurt locker
sep 2, 2025, 6:43 pm • 8 0 • view
Case in point: this is a pretty good command center set, looks a lot like N2C2 at Peterson … except it’s supposed to be the WHSR (not even close).
sep 2, 2025, 6:54 pm • 4 0 • view
You don’t have to be EOD to hate Hurt Locker; it’s a game the whole Army can play!
sep 2, 2025, 9:48 pm • 0 0 • view