Alex Garland doesn't really care about your political party. That’s the first thing you have to wrap your head around if you want to understand Civil War. When the trailers first dropped, everyone was ready to fight. People were scouring the frames for red hats or blue ties, trying to figure out which side of the aisle Garland was skewering. But when the movie actually hit theaters, it did something way more uncomfortable. It just stayed quiet about the "why."
It’s a movie about the "how." How a country falls apart. How a journalist survives. How we become numb to the sight of our own neighbors in a mass grave.
The film follows a group of journalists—led by a weary Kirsten Dunst as Lee and a hungry Cailee Spaeny as Jessie—on a hellish road trip from New York City to Washington, D.C. Their goal? To interview the President (Nick Offerman) before the Western Forces, an unlikely alliance between Texas and California, take the capital. It's a brutal, $50 million gamble by A24 that paid off, becoming the studio's biggest opening ever. But it left a lot of people scratching their heads.
The Western Forces and the "Apolitical" Problem
Honestly, the most controversial thing about Civil War wasn't the violence. It was the map. Garland decided that in his version of a collapsed America, Texas and California are best friends. On paper, it sounds ridiculous. They’re political opposites.
But that’s exactly the point Garland was making. He wasn't trying to write a documentary about 2024 or 2026. He was creating a sci-fi allegory about what happens when the "other side" stops being human to you. By linking Texas and California, he stripped away the easy labels. He forced the audience to stop looking for a "hero" party and start looking at the mechanics of the conflict itself.
The President in the film is a three-term authoritarian who has disbanded the FBI and orders air strikes on American citizens. You’d think that makes him the clear villain, right? Maybe. But the Western Forces aren't exactly portrayed as a bunch of Boy Scouts. They're just the ones winning.
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What Everyone Gets Wrong About the Journalists
A lot of critics complained that the journalists in the movie seem cold. They're right. They are.
Kirsten Dunst plays Lee with a thousand-yard stare that feels like it was etched into her face with acid. She’s not there to save anyone. She’s there to record. There’s a specific scene involving a gas station and two guys being tortured that makes this crystal clear. Instead of intervening, Lee takes a photo. It’s a transaction.
- Lee (Kirsten Dunst): The veteran who has seen too much and is losing her soul.
- Jessie (Cailee Spaeny): The rookie who finds her soul... and then trades it for the perfect shot.
- Joel (Wagner Moura): The adrenaline junkie who realizes too late that the rush has a price.
- Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson): The old-school reporter who still believes the story matters more than the image.
The film is basically a coming-of-age story, but a dark one. We watch Jessie transform from a terrified kid into a mirror image of Lee. By the end, she isn’t even flinching at the sound of gunfire. She’s just adjusting her shutter speed.
The Jesse Plemons Scene: A Masterclass in Terror
We have to talk about the scene with the pink sunglasses. You know the one.
Jesse Plemons—who is Kirsten Dunst’s real-life husband—showed up for one day of filming as an uncredited militia soldier. He didn’t interact with the cast beforehand. He just walked onto the set in those terrifying glasses and started asking, "What kind of American are you?"
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It is the most bone-chilling ten minutes of cinema in recent memory. Why? Because it isn't about policy. It isn't about the "Florida Alliance" or the "New People’s Army." It’s about pure, unfiltered tribalism. Plemons’ character doesn't care about your voting record; he cares about your accent and your zip code. It's the moment where the "adventure" of the road trip dies and the reality of a failed state sinks in.
Why the Sound Design Will Ruin Your Week
If you saw this in IMAX, your ears probably haven't recovered. Garland and his sound team, led by Glenn Freemantle, did something very specific with the audio. Most war movies use a "cinematic" sound—orchestral swells, bass-heavy explosions that feel powerful.
Civil War doesn't do that. The gunshots are dry. They're loud, sharp, and they cut through the silence like a physical slap. There is no heroic music playing when the Western Forces breach the White House. It just sounds like metal hitting concrete and people screaming.
It’s meant to be repulsive. Garland has spoken at length about how we've "fetishized" violence in movies. He wanted to make a movie where the violence felt like a mistake. Every time a character dies, the camera lingers just a second too long. It makes you want to look away, but the frame is so well-composed you can’t.
Breaking Down the Box Office Success
A24 took a massive risk here. Before this, their biggest opening was Hereditary at about $13.6 million. Civil War blew that out of the water with a $25.7 million debut.
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People were hungry for a movie that reflected their anxieties. Even if they didn't get the "red vs. blue" showdown they expected, the "B-" CinemaScore suggests a divided audience. Some people felt cheated by the lack of backstory. Others, though, saw it as a Rorschach test. Your reaction to the movie probably says more about you than it does about Alex Garland.
How to Process the Ending (Without Spoilers)
The final act in D.C. is a chaotic, sensory-overload nightmare. It’s the culmination of everything the journalists have been chasing. But as the credits roll over those grainy, black-and-white stills, you’re left with a heavy question.
Was it worth it?
The journalists got their "kill shot." The story was told. But the country is still a smoking ruin. Garland isn't offering a solution or a way out. He’s just holding up a mirror and asking if we like what we see.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the world of Alex Garland and the themes of this film, here is what you should do next:
- Watch "Men" and "Ex Machina": These are Garland's previous directorial efforts. While they aren't about war, they share the same DNA of "humanity under extreme pressure" and "the loss of objective truth."
- Research the photography of Lee Miller: Kirsten Dunst’s character is a direct nod to the legendary WWII photojournalist. Looking at Miller’s real-world photos of the liberation of Buchenwald gives you a chilling context for the "distance" Dunst portrays.
- Listen to the soundtrack: Composed by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow (of Portishead), the score is intentionally jarring. Use it to revisit the film’s atmosphere, but maybe not while you're driving.
- Read "On Photography" by Susan Sontag: This essay is a huge influence on how Garland views the camera. It deals with the ethics of looking at pain and whether or not images actually help us understand the world or just make us more cynical.
The conversation around this movie isn't going anywhere. Whether you loved it or hated it, Civil War succeeded in making us look at the cracks in the foundation before they become canyons.