Interceptor is the newest action movie on Netflix and it’s filled with badass antics from the movie’s lead heroine Captain JJ Collins, played expertly by Spanish actress Elsa Pataky. JJ has to outsmart a former intelligence officer played by Luke Bracey who is intent on a hostile takeover to enact a horrifying plan.
Whether you’ve watched the film already or not, you might be curious about the film’s central plot revolving around a lone nuclear missile interceptor base. Does something like that exist in real life? Do we have a real interceptor base somewhere that deploys missiles that can protect us from a potential nuclear threat?
Is the nuclear missile interceptor base in Interceptor real?
Yes, there are actual systems in place to intercept ballistic missiles. Ballistic missiles are designed to deliver nuclear (and chemical, biological, etc.) warheads. The purpose of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) to intercept and destroy the ballistic missiles before they wreak havoc. There are also intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which are designed almost entirely to deliver nuclear weapons from 5,000 kilometers away.
Now, despite how the movie makes it look as simple as hitting a button and launching the interceptor missiles to save the world, in real life it is much more complicated. According to Salon, the US does have an ICBM defense system called the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) and “it’s the only system currently deployed to defend the continental U.S., with 44 interceptors based in Alaska and California. Unfortunately, it probably doesn’t work.”
While it is possible, theoretically, to intercept a nuclear missile, it is very difficult and scientists have still not figured out the best way to create a foolproof method.
So, in short, what happens in Interceptor is based on a real idea, but it doesn’t work exactly like what we see depicted on-screen.
