Civil War/Trivia

== Trivia ==
* To immerse the actors, the production used full blanks for the gunfire, as opposed to half or quarter blanks, resulting in a discharge as loud as real gunfire. 
* In an interview with The New York Times, director Alex Garland revealed that the "Christmas Wonderland" decorations in the sniper scene were not designed for the movie. Someone had built it as an attraction and decided to leave it up after the attraction was a financial failure. Alex decided to incorporate it into the movie to symbolize the chaos in the country. "If you haven't put away the Christmas decorations, clearly something isn't right." 
* Jesse Plemons joined the cast just days before his scene was supposed to be shot due to the original actor dropping out. Kirsten Dunst, Jesse's wife, recommended Plemons to director Alex Garland. 
* Alex Garland told a reporter at the premiere that the pairing of California and Texas was, in part, to obfuscate the politics but more importantly that these two states put aside political differences to challenge an unconstitutional, fascistic, and corrupt president who is killing American civilians. He said, "Are you saying extremist politics would always remain more important than a president of this sort? That sounds crazy to me." 
* Grossed $26 million domestically in its opening weekend, more than any other A24 film, surpassing Hereditary (2018), which made $14 million. It was also the first A24 film to open at #1 at the box office. 
* Costing $50 million, this is the most expensive A24 film, surpassing Beau Is Afraid (2023), which cost $35 million. 
* Actors Nick Offerman and Jesse Plemons weren't known to be a part of the project until the first trailer dropped in December 2023. Plemons even denied the rumor that he was in the film earlier that year. 
* In May 2022, Alex Garland described the film as a companion piece to his 2022 film Men, and said it is "set at an indeterminate point in the future just far enough ahead for me to add a conceit and serves as a sci-fi allegory for our currently polarized predicament." 
* On his single day of filming for his one scene in the movie, Jesse Plemons intentionally avoided interacting with the rest of the cast beforehand and stayed in character the entire time they were on location. 
* The film's American release date was April 12, 2024. The real American Civil War began exactly 163 years before that. 
* The neon colors of yellow/green, blue, and pink are subtly featured multiple times in the film: on the sniper's fingernails and his partner's hair at the manor, splashed onto the wall where Jessie sits following the first major firefight, etc. Distinctive colors, like a slogan, can play extremely important roles as symbols in revolutionary / insurgent movements. E.g., Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, blue and red with the Viet Cong movement during the Vietnam War, the Red Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974. The frequency of these colors appearing on soldiers and at battlefields is likely a nod to this phenomenon, and a designation that these places and people represent a revolutionary/insurgent movement. 
* Garland, whose family has ties to modern journalism, seems to point out the rivalries between "print/digitial" media and "television" media. The print journalists seem less supported and have a better eye for reporting escalating events, while the television media has better financial backing but is more enthralled by visual spectacle rather than instinct. Hence the TV crew is embedded with the Western Forces and has top notch equipment, while the print media is largely portrayed as rag tag. 
* In a March 2024 interview with The Guardian, Garland stated that after Civil War, he intends to step back from directing and focus only on writing. 
* Neither the President's name nor his political party are ever stated in the film. 
* Kirsten Dunst says she struggled with PTSD after she finished production on the film. "I felt really empty," she said. 
* Many of the soldiers on either side of the conflict were played by actual former military veterans to give a sense of added realism. 
* Cailee Spaeny is a massive fan of Kirsten Dunst, citing her as one of her chief influences as an actress and having followed Dunst's career since the Raimi Spider-Man movies. This film gave her the chance to work with Dunst onscreen, and Spaeny's admiration of her very much mirrors Jessie's own idolization of Lee. 
* The four lead actors spent most of their time in a car that had been rigged with hidden cameras and received as little interference from the camera crew as possible, meaning that they were forced to get to know each other and form a camaraderie very quickly. As a result, the dynamic between the central four journalists is very much real and shared by their actors as well. 
* Writer and director Alex Garland comes from a family of journalists, with his grandfather having been a foreign correspondent, while his father was a political cartoonist, and made the film in part to harken back to the old-school style of journalism that he observed growing up. 
* As of this movie, Kirsten Dunst has appeared in a movie that reached #1 at the US box office for 4 decades in a row. 
* Wagner Moura studied journalism in college and briefly worked for a local newspaper in his hometown after he graduated. 
* The last black and white photo in the film, seen at the beginning of the end credits, slowly fades in from pure white as if it was a traditional black and white print being developed in a darkroom. 
* The two female protagonists undergo a significant, symbolic wardrobe shift through the movie. The world-weary, cynical Lee starts with a gray shirt; in the last scenes, after she has bonded with Jessie and is starting to crack under the pressure of the dramatic events she witnesses, she wears a white shirt. Jessie on the other hand starts the movie as a naive, idealistic newcomer wearing a white shirt and in the last act, after she has become more experienced and accustomed to facing violence, she is wearing darker clothes. 
* In May 2022 Sonoya Mizuno was revealed as part of the cast, having appeared in all of Garland's previous films. 
* Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons are married in real life. They previously co-starred in The Power of the Dog (2021) and the second season of Fargo (2014). 
* In his sole scene, Jesse Plemons is wearing grading glasses, which are designed to eliminate all visible wavelengths entering the eyes except for red, at different shades or luminance values. This makes it very easy to tell if an object (or skin tone, in his case) is darker or lighter than another at a glance. 
* Principal photography began in Atlanta on March 15, 2022 and ran for 10 weeks. By May, production had moved to London. 
* The film is set in New York city, Washington DC, and the several hundreds of miles between the two cities, but was primarily filmed in Atlanta. 
* Marks A24 first outright action movie and their first foray into Blockbuster filmmaking. It's also writer and director Alex Garland's first action movie, whose work has previously been supernatural and science fiction. 
* An armed force wears Hawaiian shirts. Hawaiian shirts (open, with a tee underneath) are optimal clothing for concealing sidearms and are often used by law enforcement and intelligence services. It would seem that this was a group of one or the other that has been drawn into conventional conflict. 
* Jesse Plemons appears uncredited. 
* Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Sonoya Mizuno, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Karl Glusman all appeared in Devs (2020). 
* Wagner Moura who is Brazilian, plays Joel an American who stated to be from Florida. 
* In January 2022, it was reported that Alex Garland had signed on to write and direct the film for A24, with Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cailee Spaeny to star. 
* When Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) is asked by the soldier (Jesse Plemons) where she's from, she says Missouri. Actress Cailee Spaeny was born and raised in Missouri. 
* The first on-screen graphic for the distance the characters must travel-- 857 miles-- is the width of Texas at its widest point, from El Paso to the Louisiana border (the number is visible on road signs along I-10 when entering the state from either end). In the world of the film, Texas is part of the coalition united to defend against a fascist regime. 
* Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Nick Offerman all appeared in the second season of Fargo. 
* Hong Kong is actually a "special administrative region of China" following a 1997 agreement with the British government, which had governed Hong Kong since the mid-19th century. Still, the country maintains its own governance and currency, and under the treaty, will do so until at least 2047. This is the "one country, two systems" rule in Hong Kong. The 2014 Umbrella Revolution is a clear example of how Hong Kong sees itself as separate and apart from Chinese central authority. Jesse Plemmons's character's reflexive regard of Hong Kong as simply "China" highlights his lack of understanding of this nuance, which subtly demonstrates his nationalistic ignorance. 
* When discussing what the President will be like if he gets to interview him, Sammy tells Joel all tyrants like him are lesser men than you would expect when you meet them in person. When Joel finally meets the President after he is captured by the WF, he is dishevelled, unshaven, hyperventilating and terrified, begging for his life on the floor of the Oval Office. 
== Goofs ==
=== Continuity ===
* The front license plate falls off when they are run off the road by the military vehicle. Later scenes show the license plate back on.
* Windshield is shot during the standoff at winter wonderland. Remainder of the movie it is intact.
=== Factual errors ===
* The president makes his last stand in the Oval Office instead of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a highly secure bunker where high ranking officials are taken during emergencies such as the September 11th attacks.
=== Incorrectly regarded as goofs ===
* Although set sometime in the future, Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) takes photos with a manual wind film SLR camera. Seemingly having an inexhaustible supply of film canisters, which traditionally only have either 24 or sometimes 36 frames on the roll, she snaps away with abandon, never once stopping to reload or run out of film.
=== Revealing mistakes ===
* When Lee is lying on the floor in the White House, some of the shell casings next to her are 7.62mm blank casings. Identified by an elongated brass case in place of where the projectile would be.
=== Miscellaneous ===
* While being pinned down under sniper fire, you hear the sound of the snipers gun before the bullets arrive to camera / characters.
* A military helicopter will not turn on its navigation lights during combat.
* The Apache helicopter is equipped with a 30mm chain gun, yet the tracers and sound is indicative of a Gatling-style minigun.
* When the journalists are getting gas, their SUV is parked on the wrong side of the gas station. When Jessie gets out of the car you can see where the gas is filled and they parked incorrectly.
* After being run off the road, reversing, and driving away, the engine sound is of a 4 cylinder manual gearbox, while the vehicle has an auto V8 or V10 engine.
* A military helicopter will never turn on its navigation lights during combat.
* Early in their trip, they drive across the median of the highway, leaving deep tracks across the grass. Although it is clearly the only way to get through, before they drive across there are no tracks or ruts at all.
=== Audio/visual unsynchronised ===
* The sprinklers in the safe town have the tock-tock-tock sound of impact sprinklers, even though they are continuous flow sprinklers.
Category:Trivia facts