We don't just see arguing over points between a few talking heads, but a nuclear mushroom cloud, a nuclear holocaust and a vaporized city. This feat is not accomplished by the talkative script, or the direction, but simply held up by a great performance by Timothy Hutton as Marshall Thompson. He plays a domineering and manipulative advisor, who manages to steal the film with one particular scene where he explains the devastation of a nuclear bomb to the President. As good as some of the acting was, some performances were clearly lacking and dead ends. Both characters are laughably bad and it hurts the films credibility in the long run.
Deterrence is a an interesting suspenseful political film.