Overview
- An internal Missile Defense Agency memo dated Oct. 16, obtained by Bloomberg, asserts U.S. interceptors have shown a 100% testing accuracy for more than a decade and was circulated to ensure leaders were prepared for questions about the movie.
- Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Noah Oppenheim reject the memo’s assessment, emphasizing they avoided formal Pentagon cooperation to remain independent but relied on multiple technical advisers and ex-officials throughout production.
- Independent analysts and officials dispute the MDA’s testing claim, with nuclear physicist Laura Grego and journalists such as Fred Kaplan citing lower real-world success rates, and Sen. Edward J. Markey calling the film a wake-up call for renewed arms-control efforts.
- Netflix reports the film has topped its charts since the Oct. 24 streaming debut, with more than 20 million accounts watching in its first three days, fueling broader public and policy discussion.
- Coverage notes the U.S. fields 44 ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, with land-based missile defense costs reported around $50–53 billion, as the Pentagon maintains the system remains a critical element of national defense.