Boots are On the Ground in Chaotic First Trailer for Alex Garland Iraq War Thriller Warfare

It seems like writer-director Alex Garland is remaining fully submerged in a combat mindset, following the release of A24’s Civil War earlier this year. The Annihilation and Ex Machina director has increasingly turned his attention in the direction of real-world-type conflict recently–not counting the upcoming zombie trilogy of 28 Years Later, of course–and this is especially the case for the upcoming Warfare, the first trailer for which you can see below. The film is based directly on the experiences and memories of American military personnel, to the point that Garland actually shares screenwriting and directorial credit with one of the soldiers-turned-filmmakers, Ray Mendoza. As the official synopsis puts it:

Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.

If the film actually does take place in real time, that could make for an exciting, ticking clock-type thriller as the squad of SEALs becomes embroiled in a firefight and then waits for relief or rescue. The film is set in Iraq during the year 2006 as the U.S. is increasingly being drawn into the quagmire of fighting an Iraqi insurgency after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It stars an ensemble cast, with D’pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman and Henrique Zaga. The goal here is clearly maximum verisimilitude, to actually drop audience members into the camaraderie and brotherhood of the SEALs serving together, and the utter chaos of watching a plan blow to bits in real time. Of course, as always with these types of stories, one has to wonder how sanitized the actual actions of those “heroic” soldiers have been, and which parts of their stories they elected to leave behind rather than share with the world.

Warfare was filmed in May of 2024 and is scheduled for a 2025 release, although this first trailer doesn’t yet specify a date. You can check it out below.