Civil War is Alex Garland’s latest movie to hit theaters, with the last one being Men in 2022. He’s made a tight relationship with A24 which makes sense since the studio puts out rather weird and provocative movies. That said, Civil War may be Alex’s most strait-laced movie without many twists.
There are plenty of unsettling things in Civil War though but not as much as the scenes in a movie like the aforementioned horror movie Men. The one downside is that this movie leaves a lot of things left unanswered. Will they get answered in a sequel?
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
6 How Did The War Start?
The President Has Crimes To Answer For
The movie starts with a scene of the President rehearsing a speech to himself. While this is going on the movie intercuts some real footage from the world to implicate this President was doing some heinous acts. It’s as if say this President is a joke and a criminal for the war atrocities he has committed.
Nick Offerman plays this nameless President well in this scene, deceiving the people with fake news. It’s a much more dastardly character than Bill in The Last of Us TV adaptation, who game fans may recognize from. How the war starts is never truly said in Civil War though. What exactly did the President do to incite a civil war and break up the country?
5 Who Are The Good Guys?
There Are Many Sides To A Coin
Another thing that isn’t explicitly explained is who is fighting whom. The President is controlling the American military which is fighting against a rebel faction known as the WF or Western Front. The largest states in the WF are California and Texas, which seem to be leading the charge in the very last scene which is the siege on the White House.
What other states are defending the country with the WF and which states are with the President? Are some states neutral? By what Jessie and Lee say, it seems like Colorado is staying out of things. It would have been nice if there was more backstory to the war, to clearly give viewers an idea of who is good and who is bad. However, wars rarely have black and white sides to a conflict which may be why these questions weren’t answered directly.
4 Will The Country Reunite Or Continue To Rebel?
Civil War Part Two Could Be Coming
Civil War has one of the most brutal scenes in a political movie or an action movie in recent memory. After the WF kills everyone else in the White House, they make it to the President. After a brief exchange between Joel and the President, the WF soldiers light the President up like a Christmas tree of that tree were decorated with bullets. The movie then cuts to the credits, leaving a lot of these questions unanswered.
One of them deals with the state of the U.S. after the President is executed. Will rebels of the Presidentially-backed military fight against this new WF society, or will everyone fall in line now? After the first civil war in the 1860s, there was a bit of resistance but not much. It would be nice if everything was peaceful after the President got shot, but it’s left up to interpretation ultimately in Civil War.
3 What’s Next For Joel And Jessie?
The Only Survivors Of The Movie
The movie is ultimately about four journalists on their way to Washington D.C. Joel wants to get inside the White House and interview the President while Lee follows him to photograph this moment. The pair meet a fellow journalist, Sammy, at a journalist-ridden hotel along with a budding young photographer, Jessie. Of those four, only two survive the trials of Civil War.
The first one to die is Sammy who gets shot after a rescue attempt to save the others during an intense hostage negotiation. Lee dies after taking a bullet for Jessie in the White House. Both of these deaths rank among the best noble sacrifices in movies. What’s left then for Jessie and Joel? Will Jessie become his new photographer? Will they hook up as it is somewhat implied earlier?
2 Why Greenland Or Alaska?
The State Of The World Is A Mystery
While the WF makes their way through the White House, they encounter a press secretary for the President in the journalist press room. She tries to negotiate with the WF to get the President to safety. Her team wants to get him to a neutral zone like Alaska or Greenland which opens up a lot of questions.
Did Alaska remove itself from the United States or did the President do this early on? Also, Greenland makes sense since it isn’t associated with the U.S. However, this also brings to question the rest of the world. Did any country step in to help the Presidential forces or the WF in this conflict? Are other countries experiencing their own civil wars?
1 Why Didn’t Anyone Save Those Soldiers?
The Journalism Code
It might be hard for viewers to buy how cold Lee, and the other journalists are in the movie. In a flashback, there is a scene showing a soldier lighting a man on fire. Lee captures this moment on film but she doesn’t jump in to save him. Later, another man gets lit on fire and no one does anything either.
Journalists in Civil War, it seems, are supposed to be passive observers. That is what they are supposed to be in reality too, passive and impartial observers. However, as humans, one may think someone like Jessie would have tried to save a soldier’s life at some point. It’s a theme of the movie but it’s hard to swallow how cold and dead inside these journalists are.
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