Why Audiences Love The New Reagan Movie
Angel Studios appears to have another audience favorite on its hands with “The Brink of War,” a Cold War drama centered on one of the most consequential meetings of the 1980s. The film follows President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during their October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the two men wrestled […]
Angel Studios appears to have another audience favorite on its hands with “The Brink of War,” a Cold War drama centered on one of the most consequential meetings of the 1980s.
The film follows President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during their October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the two men wrestled with the possibility of dramatically reducing their countries’ nuclear arsenals.
Jeff Daniels plays Reagan, Jared Harris portrays Gorbachev, and J.K. Simmons appears as Secretary of State George Shultz.
“The Brink of War” opened to strong audience reception. Moviegoers gave it an A CinemaScore during its debut weekend, while Rotten Tomatoes showed a high approval rating among viewers. Critics were also generally positive, giving the film a stronger reception than many politically themed historical dramas receive.
John Logan Pierson, a co-producer on the film, said the response was especially encouraging because “The Brink of War” is built more around conversation, negotiation and political tension than traditional action.
“Opening a dialogue-driven diplomatic thriller nationwide is never something we take for granted, and we’re enormously grateful to everyone who came out during opening weekend,” Pierson said in a statement to The Western Journal.
He said the audience response suggested that viewers were connecting with one of the film’s main themes: that political strength and diplomacy do not necessarily have to be in conflict with each other.
Pierson also noted that the movie was continuing its theatrical run in more than 1,300 theaters, with the filmmakers hoping positive word of mouth would keep building.
Interest in the film was already strong before its release. Its trailer has attracted more than 17 million views on YouTube, giving Angel Studios another high-profile historical release after the success of “Young Washington” earlier in the summer.
Director and co-producer Michael Russell Gunn previously worked as a producer on the first season of “Designated Survivor,” the political drama starring Kiefer Sutherland.
For Gunn, the Reykjavik summit offered a chance to explore a conflict that went far beyond ordinary American partisan politics. Reagan and Gorbachev represented two fundamentally different systems at the height of the Cold War.
Gunn said that contrast was a major reason he wanted to tell the story.
“What immediately drew me to the idea was that this wasn’t just a right or left domestic issue, but an even farther extreme: a complete systematic divide between Democracy and Communism,” he said.
He added that the challenge was to make the story personal while still dealing with enormous questions involving nuclear weapons, ideology and the possibility of war.
At the time of the Reykjavik meeting, the United States and Soviet Union possessed tens of thousands of nuclear weapons between them. Both leaders entered the summit looking for ways to reduce that danger, but major disagreements remained.
One of the biggest sticking points was Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as “Star Wars.” The proposed missile defense system was intended to protect the United States against nuclear attack, but Gorbachev wanted Reagan to limit or abandon the program as part of a larger arms agreement.
Reagan refused.
Although the Reykjavik summit ended without the sweeping agreement both sides had discussed, the meeting is widely remembered as an important step toward later arms-control negotiations. The discussions helped lay the groundwork for future agreements between the United States and Soviet Union, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed the following year.
“The Brink of War” comes just two years after another Reagan-centered film, “Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid. But while that movie took a sweeping look at Reagan’s life and presidency—including his efforts to confront the Soviet Union—this film takes a much tighter approach.
Instead of trying to cover decades of history, “The Brink of War” zeroes in on one high-stakes diplomatic encounter.
And that narrower focus may actually work in its favor. The tension comes from watching two world leaders sit across from one another, knowing that the decisions they make could have enormous consequences. There are no massive battle scenes needed—the stakes are already high enough.
Judging by the strong early audience response, viewers seem more than willing to go along for the ride. It’s proof that, when the story is compelling enough, a tense conversation can be just as gripping as a big-screen spectacle.