STARTLINGLY REALISTIC, BUT NOT VERY PLAUSIBLE
Having stated all that, the central premise of the film isn’t very believable. Solely a small variety of international locations have an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) functionality. Deterrence 101 applies – in the event that they have been to make use of them, they might be annihilated.
Let’s fake, for the sake of argument, that they managed to hide the origin of the missile by means of cyberattack, as implied in A Home Of Dynamite. There may be nearly no probability that the US wouldn’t discover out within the hours, days and weeks after the assault, that means that their destruction is likely to be delayed however it will not be averted.
The larger downside although is on the timing of the US response. Within the film, the implication is that the president is on a clock. If he doesn’t reply earlier than the missile hits Chicago, which emerges because the goal, he would possibly lose his alternative to retaliate and invite an additional assault.
This was a problem within the early years of the Chilly Battle, when administrations nervous a few decapitating first strike, however this doesn’t apply in a state of affairs of a single launch or in a world of submarine launched nuclear missiles (SLBMs), which is able to survive a missile assault on the US. The president has time to reply after the detonation, permitting him to collect extra details about who’s accountable slightly than attacking all adversaries pre-emptively earlier than Chicago is destroyed.
