Deterrence

There are ships visible at the base of the mushroom cloud that is supposed to be at Bahgdad.

Katie comes out from behind the counter carrying a supposedly hot coffee pot, intending to "warm up" the coffee of the people around the counter.

Unfortunately, she carries the coffee pot by both the handle and with her right hand on the glass bottom and side.

The President sends a B-2 Spirit bomber, however when shown the bomber is definitely a F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter The crew of the B-2 that the President wants to speak directly to are identified as "commanders", a US Navy rank; only the US Air Force operates the B-2, and the USAF does not have a rank of "commander".

The National Security Advisor, Gayle Redford, argued against the dropping of an "Atomic Bomb".

A person in her position would never have used the term "Atomic Bomb" in 2007.

The US nuclear arsenal was converted entirely from Atomic to Hydrogen Bombs in the 1960s.

The president stated that a 100 megaton bomb was dropped on Baghdad, but this impossible.

The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated was 50 megatons, the famous Tsar bomb.

The are no weapons in the US arsenal even close to 100 megatons.

The largest detonation of a nuclear weapon by the US was the Castle Bravo test, with a yield of 15 megatons.

This detonation was not intentional however, but the result of a runaway reaction.

The fact that the president in the movie had reduced the US arsenal further makes this scenario unlikely.

President Emerson speculates whether the retinal scanning device has been updated with his retinal pattern, replacing that of his predecessor.

However, in order to do so he would have had to have his retinal pattern recorded, which is an unusual event which most people do not routinely experience, and logically he would be likely to remember whether it had happened or not.

In 2008, the first Jewish president of the United States launches a nuclear strike on Baghdad. From a diner in rural Colorado.

Far from being an irrelevant glimpse of an alternate history that never materialized, the fictional re-invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in "Deterrence" provides a highly relevant alternative to the U.S.

Often you have to suspend disbelief in order for a cinematic story to work and I think I'm right in saying all screen writing gurus agree you're allowed to get away with one implausibility/coincidence in your story . In DETTERENCE this would probably mean that the Iraqis would be able to mobilize their entire armed forces without the Americans noticing , allowing the president to trapped in a diner during a snowstorm .

A separate reviewer of this film said it had parallels with real life events in iraq and Korea. That is simply absurd, sure it is about going to war with iraq but that is where the similarities end.

I enjoyed the drama much more than the pedantry. It can be argued that only the certifiable would favor starting a nuclear war.

Today, this film feels incredibly untimely due to 9/11. This movie was however made in the Lewinsky-stained days of the 90's.

In order for a techno-thriller to work, it must at least be plausible enough for us to be willing to suspend belief. This film has absolutely no feel or understanding of even the most basic features of its subject matter.

This was definitely an entertaining film, but the pacing dragged at times and the overall feel was more like that of a TV movie than a "provocative political thriller." Pollack made a valiant, though miscast, effort as President, and Timothy Hutton played his part as chief of staff beautifully.

What happens when the US President on the campaign trail is caught in a Colorado snow storm and holes up in a diner with his entourage only to learn from a t.v.