Civil War

Civil War is a 2024 dystopian war film written and directed by Alex Garland. It follows a team of journalists traveling across the United States during a civil war fought between an authoritarian federal government and several regional factions. The cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, and Jesse Plemons.
Principal photography began in Atlanta, Georgia in 2022, with production moving to London later in the year. Civil War premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024, and was wide theatrically released in the United States by A24 and in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film Distributors on April 12, 2024. With a budget of $50 million, Civil War is A24's most expensive film to date. The film has grossed over $110 million worldwide (becoming A24's second highest-grossing film) and has received positive reviews from critics.
== Plot ==
A civil war has erupted between the United States government and regional factions. The president, in his third term, claims victory is close at hand. Renowned war photographer Lee Smith saves aspiring photojournalist Jessie Cullen from a suicide bombing in Brooklyn. 
Lee and colleague Joel intend to travel to Washington, D.C., to interview the president before the city falls. Lee's mentor Sammy asks to accompany them as far as Charlottesville, where the Western Forces ("WF") of Texas and California are assembling. Despite Lee's hesitance, she and Joel agree. Lee is unaware that Jessie convinces Joel to take her with them. 
After departing the city, the group stops at a rural gas station protected by armed men, and buys gas with Canadian dollars, as the US dollar has crashed. Jessie wanders off to a nearby car wash, where she finds two men being tortured by the owners, who claim that the men are looters. One owner follows Jessie, but Lee defuses the situation by taking a photo of the man posing with his victims. After they leave, Jessie berates herself for being too scared to take photos. 
Following an overnight stop near ongoing fighting, the group documents the combat the next day as rebel militiamen assault a building held by loyalists. Lee sees Jessie's potential as a war photographer, while Jessie photographs the militia executing captured loyalist soldiers. Continuing, the group spends the night at a refugee camp before passing through a small town where, under watchful guard, residents attempt to live in blissful ignorance. Lee and Jessie grow closer, trying on clothes at a local shop. 
Later, they are pinned down in a sniper battle amid the remains of a Christmas fair. Nearby snipers mock Joel's questioning what side they are on, telling Joel that they and the sniper in a nearby house are simply trying to survive. Jessie's nerve and photography skills improve as she witnesses several deaths, and develops a mentorship under Lee. Jessie asks if Lee would photograph Jessie being killed, and Lee responds "What do you think?".
While driving, the four encounter two other reporters they know, Tony and Bohai. Tony and Jessie playfully switch vehicles, only for Bohai and Jessie to be captured by loyalist death squads dumping civilian corpses in a mass grave. The group tries to intervene, but a militant kills Bohai and asks where the others are from, killing Tony when he says Hong Kong. Sammy saves the group by running over two of the militants, but is shot by a third and dies as they flee. 
Arriving at the WF Charlottesville military camp, the group grieves. Lee takes a photo of Sammy's corpse but deletes it shortly after. Jessie explores the campsite. Two fellow reporters report that the government's top generals have mostly surrendered, leaving Washington DC largely unprotected, and a WF invasion is imminent. Joel is drunk and hysterical, saying Sammy "died for nothing". Lee, Joel, and Jessie follow the WF into Washington as Jessie's photography becomes increasingly risky. Meanwhile, Lee has a brief post-traumatic stress disorder episode and is unable to take pictures. It is later revealed that the WF intend to kill, not capture, the president.
The presidential limousine unsuccessfully attempts to flee the White House, but when the limousine crashes, Lee intuits that the president is still in the building and leads her group inside (while other journalists focus on the limousine). A WF squad notices and follows. After ordering Lee's group to stay away, the squad encounters the remaining Secret Service agents, killing one in the pressroom, who unsuccessfully tries to negotiate the president's safe passage to Greenland or Alaska. When Jessie exposes herself to gunfire, Lee pushes her to safety. Jessie photographs Lee as she is shot dead in the crossfire. Joel grabs Jessie and follows the WF squad to where the president is hiding.
The Western soldiers capture the president in the Oval Office. Joel tells them to wait so he can get a quote. The disheveled president begs him for mercy, saying, "Don't let them kill me". Joel replies, "Yeah. That'll do." Jessie takes a photo of the president's summary execution; smiling WF soldiers pose with his corpse. 
== Cast ==
== Release ==
Civil War had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024, with favourable reactions from the audience and to positive reviews from the critics.
The film was previously scheduled to be released on April 26, 2024. It was released on April 12, 2024, in the United States by A24 and in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film, with engagements in IMAX and Dolby Cinema.
=== Marketing and AI controversy===
On April 17, 2024, A24 promoted the film on Instagram by posting five images created by artificial intelligence (AI), each showing a different American city in postapocalyptic disarray.
The images were criticized for inaccurately depicting certain cityscapes: The AI-generated image of Chicago wrongfully depicted the Marina City apartment complex, with the buildings depicted as being separated by a non-existent island on the Chicago River. In real life, the buildings are located directly next to each other.
Given that the use of AI has continued to be a controversial topic in the film community, and following calls earlier in the year for a boycott of Late Night with the Devil for its use of AI-generated stills, the promotional images received online backlash.
A source connected to the film confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that they were "AI images inspired by the movie. The entire movie is a big 'what if' and so we wanted to continue that thought on social — powerful imagery of iconic landmarks with that dystopian realism."
== Reception ==
===Box office===
, Civil War has grossed $56.2 million in the United States and Canada and $15.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $71.6 million.
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $18–24 million from 3,838 theaters (the widest-ever R-rated release by an independent studio) in its opening weekend. The film made $10.8 million on its first day, including $2.9 million from Thursday night previews (a record for an A24 release). It went on to debut to $25.7 million, surpassing Hereditary as the biggest opening weekend in A24's history as well as the studio's first film to top the box office. The opening weekend audience skewed male at 63%, while 57% of attendees were between ages 18–34. IMAX contributed over 16% of the opening weekend gross, with the main reasons given for seeing the film being its subject matter, the action, and a general interest in indie films (each grouping made up a third of the audience, with the former narrowly higher).
In its sophomore weekend the film made $11.2 million (a 56% drop), remaining in first place, before falling to fourth place in its third weekend with $7 million.
====Ideological composition of viewership====
Regarding ideological composition of the audience in the Unied States,The Hollywood Reporter reported that ticket buyers were equally conservative and liberal according to exit poll data. Deadline Hollywood wrote that 41% were left-wing (22% Liberal, 19% Democrats), 17% were right-wing (6% Republicans, 6% Evangelical Christians, and 5% Conservative) and 11% were moderate. The film remained in first place the following weekend, grossing $11.1 million.
====Performance outside North America====
Commentators noted that, despite the film's inherently U.S.-centric subject matter, Civil War performed well in several markets outside the United States. This includes the United Kingdom, where it grossed $4.8 million as of April 23, as well as the Netherlands, where it reached ticket sales of $750,000. The film additionally opened in first place at the box office in Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Finland, and Portugal.
===Critical response===
Following the SXSW premiere, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes noted that critics called the film "a gorgeously shot cautionary tale full of big ideas and a fantastic performance by Kirsten Dunst, but it may surprise some viewers". Critics praised the "beauty and intensity of the dystopian drama", while noting its "potential for controversy and disappointment" due to the effectiveness of its messages. On the site, 81% of 336 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Tough and unsettling by design, Civil War is a gripping close-up look at the violent uncertainty of life in a nation in crisis." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 76% overall positive score, with 53% saying they would definitely recommend it.
In a positive review, Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "Garland's the last person to suggest a group hug. As statements go, his powerful vision leaves us shaken, effectively repeating the question that quelled the L.A. riots: Can we all get along?" Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph awarded the movie five stars out of five, writing: "The Ex Machina director's vision of an imploding America is neither anti-Trump nor anti-woke. Instead it's as riveting as cinema gets." Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for RogerEbert.com, compared Civil War to films about "Western journalists covering the collapse of foreign countries", such as The Year of Living Dangerously and Welcome to Sarajevo, ultimately praising the film as "furiously convincing and disturbing".
Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, writing: "With the precision and length of its violent battle sequences, it's clear Civil War operates as a clarion call. Garland wrote the film in 2020 as he watched cogs on America's self-mythologizing exceptionalist machine turn, propelling the nation into a nightmare. With this latest film, he sounds the alarm, wondering less about how a country walks blindly into its own destruction and more about what happens when it does." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times echoed the sentiment, writing "rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor's face that, like Dunst's, expressed a nation's soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray."
Some critics had mixed reactions. The Washington Posts Amy Nicholson described the film as "coldly, deliberately incurious about the combatants and the victims", but also said "the film feels poetically, deeply true, even when it’s suggesting that humans are more apt to tear one another apart for petty grievances than over a sincere defense of some kind of principles."
Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood offered negative comments, saying: "The script's utilization of characters of color as conduits for brutality needed to be explored further. ... Ultimately, Civil War feels like a missed opportunity. The director's vision of a fractured America, embroiled in conflict, holds the potential for introspection on our current societal divisions. However, the film's execution, hampered by thin characterization, a lackluster narrative and an overreliance on spectacle over substance, left me disengaged."
Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post observed: "Civil Wars shtick is that it's not specifically political. For instance, as the US devolves into enemy groups of secessionist states, Texas and California have banded together to form the Western Forces. That such an alliance could ever occur is about as likely as [a] Sweetgreen/Kentucky Fried Chicken combo restaurant." Eisa Nefertari Ulen, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, also found that the film, despite being "otherwise solid," was partially missing its point, stating, "Casablanca endures because it spoke to a moment as 'crazy and mixed-up' as this one, and nudged the country away from its isolationist inaction. Civil War does not resonate like that classic, because it does not explicitly address this moment. We as a people cannot fix a problem we cannot name.""Critic’s Notebook: The Compellingly Packaged Cowardice of ‘Civil War,’" from The Hollywood Reporter, 4/18/2024 (accessed 4/21/2024)
Stephanie Zacharek of Time observed: "Civil War has the vibe of your standard desolate zombie movie with a modern American backdrop, but it's far less effective than your average George A. Romero project: sometimes a B movie with a sense of humor about itself says more about a nation's despair than an overserious, breast-beating one. ... Do we really need a movie to invent, and rub our noses in, the possibility of a bleaker future?"
== External links ==
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== References ==
Category:2024 films
Category:British dystopian films
Category:American dystopian films
Category:A24 films
Category:DNA Films films
Category:Films directed by Alex Garland
Category:Films about fictional presidents of the United States
Category:Films about journalists
Category:Films set in the future
Category:Films shot in Atlanta
Category:Films shot in London
Category:Films with screenplays by Alex Garland
Category:Independence Day (United States) films
Category:Second American Civil War speculative fiction
Category:Films about war crimes
Category:IMAX films
Category:4DX films
Category:Films starring Kirsten Dunst
Category:Films starring Wagner Moura
Category:Films starring Cailee Spaeny
Category:Films starring Stephen McKinley Henderson
Category:Films starring Nick Offerman
Category:Films starring Sonoya Mizuno
Category:Films starring Jefferson White
Category:Films starring Nelson Lee
Category:Films starring Evan Lai
Category:Films starring Jesse Plemons
Category:Films starring Karl Glusman
Category:Films starring Jin Ha
Category:Films starring Juani Feliz
Category:Films
Category:Pages containing Mature Content