Overview
- An internal Missile Defense Agency memo dated Oct. 16, obtained by Bloomberg, rejects the movie’s assumptions and claims U.S. interceptors have shown 100% accuracy in testing for more than a decade.
- Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Noah Oppenheim say they relied on open‑source research and former Pentagon advisers and chose not to seek official Defense Department cooperation.
- Sen. Edward Markey and analysts including Fred Kaplan and physicist Laura Grego cite publicly reported results near 55–61% in scripted tests and warn that controlled conditions don’t reflect wartime reality.
- Netflix data show the thriller topped the platform’s weekly rankings, drawing about 22.1 million views in its first week after streaming release.
- The clash has widened to policy questions about the roughly 44 ground‑based interceptors based in Alaska and California, multibillion‑dollar program costs around $50–53 billion, and new proposals such as a national “Golden Dome.”