A few weeks ago, after the release of A House of Dynamite on the 2025 movie schedule, a colleague recommended Annie Jacobson’s 2024 non-fiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario and explained how Denis Villeneuve was attached to direct an adaptation. I immediately turned on the audiobook version (narrated by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist) to see what the fuss was about. What followed was an intense, harrowing, and unforgettable experience like no other.
With Vileneuve attached to direct the upcoming book-to-screen adaptation at some point (he has a lot on his plate right now), I’m both excited and absolutely terrified by the prospect of one of the great filmmakers of our time bringing nuclear war to the big screen. Here are a few things I cannot wait to see when Nuclear War comes out.
I’m Both Excited And Terrified To See How Villenueve Escalates The Tension Before The First Explosion
Like a lot of older Cold War dramas and more recent movies dealing with devastating attacks, Nuclear War: A Scenario spends a great deal of time escalating the tension before the first of many warheads explodes. Going minute-by-minute (and second-by-second at times), the book wastes no time getting things going, and that intensity just builds and builds and builds over the course of many pages, but only a few minutes in the story.
This is something Kathryn Bigelow did quite well with A House of Dynamite, as pointed out by several critics, and I’m honestly eager and terrified to see how Denis Villeneuve takes Annie Jacobson’s timeline from page to screen. It’s going to be harrowing for sure, but also a bit exciting, which honestly has me more horrified than anything.
The Nuclear Attack On Washington, D.C. Is Going To Be Insane, And I Don’t Know If I’m Ready
Unlike A House of Dynamite, which ends before the bomb explodes over Chicago, the initial attack by North Korea is just the beginning of Nuclear War: A Scenario. While we were left wondering about the fate of the “Windy City,” and the world in general, in the 2025 Netflix movie, Abbie Jacobson’s book spares no detail regarding the death, destruction, and chaos of nuclear war. Partway through the book, a nuclear warhead explodes above the Pentagon, instantly killing hundreds of thousands of people, destroying iconic landmarks, and vaporizing centuries of history in a flash.
With Denis Villeneuve’s track record and attention to detail when it comes to massive action sequences, this has the potential to be one of the greatest explosions in cinematic history. I can only imagine how he’ll handle things like roads being turned into molten rock, people being turned to small piles of ash, or those unlucky enough to survive the initial blast trying to make sense of Hell on Earth.
This Is Especially True For The Description Of What Happens At The National Zoo
I don’t want to go into too graphic of detail, but there’s a chapter taking place after the first bomb drops where Annie Jacobson describes what happens to the animals at the National Zoo, some seven miles from the Pentagon as the crow flies. While the book is filled from top to bottom with death, destruction, chaos, and realized fears, this section was the one that impacted me the most and honestly made me sick to my stomach.
Like the humans in the scenario, the lucky animals died instantly in the flash of heat, energy, and nuclear power, leaving behind the not-so-lucky to either suffocate or be burned to death in the seconds, minutes, and hours following the attack. The way the book explains the desperate situation of elephants, monkeys, zebras, and all other types of creatures trapped in cages and enclosures, unable to escape, is just so harrowing and heartbreaking. I think this would be necessary to show the unrelenting power and devastation of nuclear bombs, but yeah, it’s going to be hard to watch.
The Communication Breakdown That Turns A Single Attack Into A Global Extinction Is Something I’m Dreading
Another aspect of Nuclear War: A Scenario that was explored in A House of Dynamite, at least to a certain degree, was the breakdown of communication and losing contact with members of the government, military officials, and foreign leaders can lead to disaster. However, if Denis Villeneuve makes a faithful adaptation of the nonfiction book, he’ll need to go deeper and harder when pressing the point.
There’s one chapter in the book where the United States fires retaliatory nuclear missiles at North Korea, which have to fly over Russia to hit their targets. However, due to an error with Russian radars, the nuclear superpower is under the impression that the warheads are headed to them. Not able to reach the U.S. President (who is either MIA or dying), his Russian counterpart fires no one, not 20, but 1,000 missiles. And that’s just a small part of the story…
I’m Also Terrified To See How Villeneuve Handles The Fallout Of Nuclear War
Nuclear War: A Scenario goes millennia into the future, long after the final nuclear bomb has exploded and nearly all traces of society have been wiped away. Before the promise of a new tomorrow tens of thousands of years into the future, there’s the immediate and intermediate fallout of nuclear war. No, not like from the Fallout TV show or other sci-fi stories dealing with similar end-of-the-world events, but instead an unflinching and sobering exploration of what life would be like after the mushroom clouds settled, and those unlucky enough to survive the attacks tried to survive.
In some of Denis Villeneuve’s best movies, the filmmaker has found ways to tell devastating, emotional, and impactful stories that touch on everything from death to ruin to salvation, and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles this scenario. Oh, I’m sure it will be unsettling and hard to watch without feeling absolutely gutted, but I’ll be there.
Outside of the final chapters of the book (and a few history lessons along the way), Nuclear War: A Scenario plays out over the course of 72 minutes, 72 minutes that turn a normal day of the week into the end of the world. The fate of billions of lives changing in a little over an hour is utterly terrifying. Now we get to see how Denis Villeneuve handles that…