Warfare [2025]

August 27, 2026

Exactly because I knew this was an Alex Garland (Ex Machina) movie, I lowered my expectations significantly before hitting that play button. All because I thought Warfare was going to be something like his previous movie, Civil War. Perhaps this is why I was absolutely floored after just forty minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that what I was about to witness was going to be good after the first minute. I just didn’t know how good. Mostly because there’s a huge gap between “a good war movie” and an absolute fucking masterpiece. A movie that’s going to hit all the things I love about this specific genre without glorifying the warfare itself.

You know what I’m talking about: that thing when a movie almost has a QR code at the end for you to join the army. Warfare is a horrifyingly realistic, gripping, and exceptionally well-made war movie based on true events. The story takes us to war-torn Iraq, just days after the end of the Battle of Ramadi. To be more precise, it’s November 19th, 2006, and things are about to get messy. We are following Navy SEAL platoon Alpha One in real-time as their mission to take control of a building becomes more and more complicated. That’s all I’m going to tell you because I want you to feel that tension in the air. Before we go any further, I think it’s important to note how this movie came about.

Funnily enough, during the filming of Civil War, Garland decided to create “a war movie that’s as realistic as possible and also unfolding in real time“. He asked his military advisor Ray Mendoza, a former SEAL, if he had any stories he would like to tell, and oh boy, did he have a story. Mendoza already worked on a number of war movies like Act of Valor, Lone Survivor, and The Outpost. All three of those are good movies, not delving too deep into the stories behind them. Especially when it comes to Marcus Luttrel’s account of his “survival”. However, Warfare is probably the best war movie I have ever seen. Think Black Hawk Down or Jarhead, and you’ll have some idea of the quality I’m talking about here.

It’s like if somebody asked me what I would like from a movie like this and then over-fucking-delivered. Big time over-fucking-delivered. I mean, not only is Warfare based on true events, but it’s also as authentic as they come. Even the opening scene featuring Eric Prydz – Call On Me was something that actually happened. Secondly, the entire movie unfolds in real time. Thirdly, it happens in a single fucking location. Well, mostly a single location, but that’s beside the point. From the first moment Alpha One hits the streets of Ramada, the tension just increases.

It increases and increases, further pulling you into that precarious building where young men are put to the ultimate test. You have an unprecedented opportunity to see not only how this mission was envisioned but how it was executed. What’s the strategy here, and how does Alpha One, along with those high-ups, adapt to the evolving situation? It’s not Restrepo or Korengal, but remember that this is a movie and not a documentary. And yet it’s almost as immersive and fucked up as the best of them. No one is telling the audience how to feel or react. There is no soundtrack or character arcs.

There’s no overarching narrative, just hell on Earth that asshole powers to be created. And a bunch of guys right in the middle of it. To quote Dutch: “So you cooked up a story and dropped the six of us in a meat grinder?” Or, more aptly, to quote one of the Iraqi hostages: “Why, why?” Well, I think I calmed down a bit, and I haven’t even really dug into Warfare. Actually, I’m not going to dwell too long on the technical aspects because they’re fucking flawless. Everything, from cinematography over set design to sound editing, was just the way it should be.

Not to mention the editing, complete with a picture of that damn building before the mission, with a young Iraqi boy smiling and pointing at it. And I strongly urge you to watch the behind-the-scenes footage at the end. It’s illuminating. Even the color palette is vividly appropriate, without any modern gimmicks. This movie is an experience you’re not going to forget, especially if you like the genre. The actors made damn sure of that. D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, and Cosmo Jarvis led the charge, but we shouldn’t forget about the others. Joseph Quinn and Michael Gandolfini were just as good, along with the rest of the cast.

As a gamer, over the years, I slowly became more and more interested in what type of firearms I was seeing both in games and movies. Truth be told, things escalated quite quickly after I found Gun Jesus. So, let’s briefly go over the guns we see in the movie Warfare. Most of the team, including Ray, Erik, and others, are sporting an M4A1 Carbine, a fully automatic version of the standard M4 Carbine. Support staff, Mikey, Tommy, Brian, and others are using LMGs M249 SAW in various variants (Mk 48 Mod 0, Mk 46 Mod 0). Finally, the only sniper in the movie, Elliot, is using the Knight’s Armament SR-25. The more you know.

I also want to talk about the script. The script consists of a lot of military jargon that I’m sure will be quoted in ordinary situations by fans in decades to come. Just like Black Hawk Down had its own, like “somebody mount that fifty” to “we just lost the initiative”. Here we have Manchu, Frogman, Profane, OP-1, and other nicknames along with the classic MAM (Military Age Male). “We need a show of force on our location” and “two mikes out, two mikes out” are two of the most memorable. At least for me.

Finally, I want you to think about just how oddly abstract the movie Warfare is. I mean, you’re just dropped into this one building with people taking it, and then other people attacking them. There’s no context given, and for a good reason too. To illustrate the inhuman and contradictory nature of warfare. To get back to that one question the family living in the building asked: why? Why did this happen, and why does it continue to happen? I am writing these lines during the fifth year of the Russia-Ukraine war, with the escalation looming around the corner. Only the dead will see the end of the war.