James Cameron has defended the most controversial movie ending of 2025.
The Titanic and Avatar director, 71, has defended the ending of A House of Dynamite, the Netflix political thriller directed by his ex-wife.
The Kathryn Bigelow-directed apocalyptic flick boasts an impressive ensemble cast, including Sir Idris Elba as the president and Rebecca Ferguson as a White House Situation Room official. The story follows the minutes after an unidentified nuclear missile is launched at Chicago, from different governmental perspectives.
Reviews tipped A House of Dynamite as one of the most gripping films of the year, with Metro‘s Film Expert Tori Brazier even declaring it ‘the best and most thought-provoking movie of 2025’.
However, the ending received a huge amount of criticism as the movie ended ambiguously, with many feeling the story was not properly concluded.
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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron defended the film, explaining: ‘I said to her, “I utterly defend that ending.” It’s really the only possible ending. You don’t get to the end of [the classic short story] ‘The Lady or the Tiger?‘ and know what’s behind which door.”
He added: ‘But that’s not even really the point. The point is: From the moment the scenario began at minute zero, when the missile was launched and detected, the outcome already sucked.’
‘There was no good outcome, and the movie spent two hours showing you there is no good outcome. We cannot countenance these weapons existing at all.
‘And it all boils down to one guy in the American system, the president, who is the only person allowed to launch a nuclear strike, either offensively or defensively, and the lives of every person on the planet revolve around that one person. That’s the world we live in, and we need to remember that when we vote next time.’
He concluded: ‘So the end of that movie was the only way that movie could have ended because — as the computer says at the end of War Games — “the only way to win is not to play.”‘
How does A House of Dynamite end?
A House of Dynamite plays out from three perspectives, but each conveniently cuts just as a bomb is about to impact Chicago and before the president confirms his retaliation tactics.
The final moments then show a stampede of government workers, including National Security advisers, heading towards a secure bunker in Pennsylvania, while the leader is still weighing up his two options: let the missile hit Chicago or authorise a counterattack, risking a nuclear war.
Situated on the Marine One helicopter, the president reads out a verification code required to launch a missile. However, whether he goes through with the plan will remain a mystery.
While it is confirmed that the missile originated somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, that’s about as specific as the details get, as we’re never told who launched the threat or from which country.
Cameron and Bigelow were married from 1989 to 1991, and worked together on films including 1991’s Point Break and 1995’s Strange Days.
She has gone on to direct K19: The Widowmaker, The Hurt Locker, and Detroit.
Just last week, the director reflected on the jokes made about his marriageby Amy Poehler at the Golden Globe awards in 2013.
That year, Bigelow was nominated as director for her film Zero Dark Thirty. In their opening monologue at the ceremony, Tina Fey and Poehler joked about the film’s controversial depiction of torture.
‘When it comes to torture, I trust the lady who spent three years married to James Cameron,’ Poehler joked.
In an interview with The New York Times, Cameron said: ‘Amy Poehler’s remark was an ignorant dig, at an event which is supposed to be a celebration of cinema and filmmakers, not a roast. I’m pretty thick-skinned and happy to be the butt of a good-natured joke, but that went too far.
‘The fact that people found it funny shows exactly what they think of me, even though they have no idea who I am or how I work.’
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