- Larry Pfeiffer, a signer of the 2020 letter dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinfo, served as technical adviser on Netflix’s A House of Dynamite.
- The film portrays U.S. missile defenses as failing, sparking Pentagon pushback and political debate amid Trump’s missile-defense expansion.
In a stunning revelation that’s raising eyebrows across Washington and Hollywood, one of the key figures behind the controversial 2020 letter dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop as potential Russian disinformation served as a top technical adviser on Netflix’s hit nuclear war film A House of Dynamite.
The movie, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Idris Elba, has sparked fierce backlash from the Pentagon for portraying U.S. missile defenses as hopelessly inadequate—just as President Trump pushes for a massive upgrade to America’s shield against incoming threats.
Larry Pfeiffer, a former White House Situation Room director and ex-chief of staff to CIA Director Michael Hayden, was brought on board to ensure the film’s depiction of a chaotic White House response to an mystery ICBM launch felt authentic.
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Pfeiffer, who proudly touted his role on social media, saying he’s “proud to have played a part” as a technical advisor on the film’s White House scenes, isn’t just any consultant—he’s one of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed that now-infamous open letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop story bore “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Remember that letter? It dropped like a bombshell in October 2020, right as the New York Post was exposing emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop detailing his lucrative deals in China and Ukraine.
The signers, including heavy hitters like Hayden, insisted there was something fishy about it all, with no hard evidence of Russian involvement ever materializing.
In fact, the laptop’s contents have since been authenticated, and Pfeiffer himself has doubled down, telling a podcast earlier this year that he still believes “the Russians played some role”—even as recent declassifications pour cold water on those claims.
The letter wasn’t some spontaneous outburst of concern; it was crafted to hand Joe Biden a debating point against Donald Trump. And it worked—Biden waved it around during their showdown, brushing off questions about his son’s overseas cash grabs.
Details of A House of Dynamite
Fast-forward to 2025, and Pfeiffer’s fingerprints are all over A House of Dynamite, a tense thriller where an undetected nuclear missile barrels toward Chicago, U.S. interceptors flop spectacularly, and panicked leaders weigh a full-scale counterstrike on Russia, China, and North Korea.
In one jaw-dropping scene, the defense secretary gripes that $50 billion in missile defense buys just a “coin toss” chance of success. Another has military brass pressuring the president (Elba) with options like “rare, medium, and well done” for nuclear retaliation.
Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, made no bones about her intentions.
She skipped Pentagon cooperation altogether, saying, “We did not seek that out… I felt that we needed to be more independent.”
In interviews, she’s hammered home the message: nuclear weapons have become “normalized,” and we’re all sleepwalking toward disaster.
“We are our own villain,” she told The Guardian, tying it to everything from climate change to voting responsibly.
US Boasts 100% Accuracy Rate in Missile Defense
But the Pentagon isn’t laughing. Their Missile Defense Agency fired back with an internal memo boasting a “100% accuracy rate” in tests over the past decade, calling the film’s failures pure dramatic license.
One military official told reporters the portrayals underestimate U.S. capabilities big time, especially as Trump rolls out his “Golden Dome” plan to supercharge defenses and even resume nuclear testing.
Critics piled on too. Bradley Bowman from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies ripped the film as great entertainment but lousy policy, arguing it unwittingly bolsters the case for stronger missile shields—like Trump’s proposals—while pushing unilateral disarmament that adversaries like China and Russia would love.
Producer Noah Oppenheim, ex-NBC News boss, defended ditching official Pentagon input for “folks who are not currently serving in government” who can “speak their minds.”
He insisted the movie’s scary inaccuracies are spot-on reflections of real vulnerabilities.
Pfeiffer and Netflix didn’t respond to requests for comment on his dual roles.
But the irony is thick: a guy who helped cry “Russian disinfo” on damning evidence against the Bidens is now shaping a blockbuster that downplays America’s defensive prowess amid rising global tensions.
Related: Clintons Now Under Fire Amid Latest ‘Corruption’ Files
What Happens Next?
This isn’t Pfeiffer’s first brush with controversy. As head of George Mason University’s Hayden Center, he’s kept peddling the Russia angle on the laptop, even as the FBI and others confirmed its legitimacy years ago.
And Hayden himself, Pfeiffer’s old boss, co-signed that 2020 letter.
With Trump back in the White House expanding missile defenses and the world on edge over nukes, A House of Dynamite—and Pfeiffer’s involvement—feels less like fiction and more like a political statement.
Is this just Hollywood alarmism, or something more calculated?
As one expert put it, the film “delivers all the tension of nuclear war – just none of the understanding that might stop it.”
One thing’s clear: in the intersection of spooks, scandals, and silver screens, the plot keeps thickening.
Also Read: A DOJ Whistleblower Now Makes Revelation That Undermines the Judicial System’s Integrity
