The tagline of Warfare, the latest film from Civil War filmmaker Alex Garland and co-directed by real-life veteran Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, reads as “Everything is based on memory.” That’s because Warfare isn’t your average adaptation of a true story. Instead of being adapted page-by-page from a book, the newest A24 feature is based almost entirely on first-hand accounts from actual U.S. veterans, including Mendoza himself.
The Iraq War will always be remembered as one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern history, with guerrilla warfare turning any quiet moment into a deafeningly loud one. Much like Civil War, Warfare doesn’t necessarily aim to explain, justify, or condemn the origins of these wartime conflicts. Instead, the film aims to depict a combat scenario as accurately as humanly possible, which Warfare succeeds in doing in more ways than one.
What Is ‘Warfare’ About?

Warfare follows a small contingent of Navy SEALs stationed in Iraq during the early 2000s, where the escalating conflict in the “War on Terror” was at an all-time high. While they may represent a relatively small number of soldiers among the many thousands that served in the war, the SEALs are among the best and tasked with the most dangerous of missions. On what should have been a routine operation, Ray Mendoza’s (D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai) squad takes shelter in a sniper’s nest located right in the middle of enemy territory. It’s a mission that will push Mendoza to battle for survival in the harshest of conditions, especially when they become targeted on all fronts.
There’s certainly no shortage of gritty, grounded war films out there, but what sets Warfare apart from the large majority of the pack is one simple yet important detail. At a runtime of about an hour and a half, the events of Warfare are depicted almost entirely in real-time, meaning that the film’s events are intended to take place over that exact timeframe. Using time and memory in such a way is far more than a simple gimmick to make a war film feel more unique. It adds a sense of unparalleled realism that makes every second feel like an unexpected turning point.
The realistic depiction of Warfare’s timeline of events is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. It’s a strength because you’ll be hard-pressed to find a war film that even remotely approaches every second with the level of realism that Garland and Mendoza’s film does. That said, it can also be a weakness for some as it doesn’t have too much going on, plot or theme-wise. In another comparison to Civil War, Warfare is much less concerned with the real-world politics behind a conflict like this, but is more laser-focused on its depiction of a realistic combat setting. That’s great for those looking for an extremely tense thrill ride, though those looking for a more weighty thematic tale may not find it here. That’s not a knock against the film, seeing as how its not necessarily trying to be a thematic tale. It’s just a sign that the movie may be an acquired taste for some.
‘Warfare’ Is a Masterclass in Building Tension

Before any bullets are shot or any explosives are set off, Warfare is almost immediately drenched in tension and suspense. The film’s opening minutes are almost dead silent, eerily so as the U.S. soldiers clock in at the office for another death-defying mission. With virtually no music, lots of military jargon, and some occasional and effective moments of levity, audiences will feel as if they are sitting in this dead-silent home alongside the Navy SEALs. Garland and Mendoza also make the very wise decision to rarely show the people that the soldiers are fighting, making things all the more difficult to predict.
Once the shooting does start, Warfare goes from dead silent to overwhelmingly deafening within a mere instant. Primarily through some absolutely top-notch sound design, every bullet crack, IED explosion, and blood-curdling scream will be ringing through one’s ears for days. Alex Garland has always shown an impressive knack for building suspense with his past work like Annihilation and Civil War, but Warfare’s most impressive feat is how it maintains that high level of tension for almost an hour despite taking place almost entirely in a single location. Really, the only times when that tension struggles are when the film aims to do something more big-budget, like an air strike, which aren’t nearly as convincing as the film’s other strong elements.
Speaking of those SEALs, Warfare also boasts a pretty stunning ensemble cast that includes some of the biggest young actors in the industry today. Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Michael Gandolfini, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, and Noah Centineo are just some of the recognizable names we follow throughout the film, and they really do feel like an ensemble, as no one character could be considered the main protagonist even when one of them is portraying the film’s co-director. This decision also has some pros and some cons. The real-time format doesn’t offer a lot of moments to develop all of these distinct characters. Every actor does a fantastic job, particularly Cosmo Jarvis in a part that once again shows the rising newcomer’s incredible range. It admittedly just feels like these subjects could have been portrayed by anyone instead of big-name actors.
What ‘Warfare’ Lacks in Character Development, It Makes Up for in Raw Humanity

Image via A24

Ultimately, the underdeveloped characters in Warfare are practically a non-issue, as that’s not the point of Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s film. Once again, Warfare is not setting out to hook audiences in on a thematic story with deep characters. It’s also not so much focused on the events that led up to this conflict nor does it concern itself with the future. This is a movie that is focused on right here, right now, and the snap judgments and decisions that come with that.
Seeing how Alex Garland has made films about zombie apocalypses, advances in robot technology, and full-scale guerrilla domestic conflict, Warfare is his simplest film by far. It has a basic premise with a to-the-point execution, a minimal set, and straightforward execution. It shouldn’t be one of the best works in his filmography, and yet, it is, and it’s hard to think that the input of a real-life combat veteran like Ray Mendoza didn’t add to that spark.
It would have been so easy for Warfare to be a grand, glossy, cheesy tribute to the United States military. In treating the film as a realistic sequence of events, Warfare not only becomes the best tribute to U.S. veterans that it could possibly be, but it also gives viewers a slight sense of what these brave individuals went through to go above and beyond the call of duty. The result is one of the best films of 2025 so far, successfully capturing the grim, brutal, and unpredictable nature of warfare that only a handful of feature films truly have.
Warfare comes to theaters on April 11.

Warfare

‘Warfare’ is a masterful demonstration of tension and suspense that even the best thrillers have a difficult time authentically capturing.

Release Date

April 11, 2025

Director

Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland

Writers

Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland

Pros & Cons

Packed with tension from start to finish.
Top notch sound design that’s both dead quiet and deafeningly loud.
Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza perfectly balance each other as co=directors.
Great performances from the cast make up for standard character development.

Some larger-scale sequences don’t feel as authentic.