Why the Apolitical Nature of 'Civil War' Makes It No Less Terrifying

By Dustin Rowles | Film | April 18, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Film | April 18, 2024 |

Alex Garland’s Civil War premiered over the weekend, and weeks ahead of its release, I told Jason — who wrote our review of the film — that I’d probably want to take a crack at its politics afterward. Those who have seen Civil War, however, understand that — for a movie pitting the country against itself — it is surprisingly free of politics. There’s a vague notion that the President is serving a third term, executing journalists, disbanding the FBI, and attacking American citizens. Still, Garland does not take a left, right, liberal, conservative, or MAGA position.

It really is about ethics in journalism. But it’s also a war movie about the breakdown of society and the consequences of unchecked power.

I understand why that upsets some people, many of whom would have preferred to see a film that reinforced their political opinions during an election year. It’s a war film from the indie darling A24 and the director of Men and the writer of Ex Machina: Where’s our liberal, anti-Trump red meat? Where is the movie we were hoping for about the dangers of a Trump presidency and how his authoritarian streak can lead us down the path to civil war?

Civil War is not that movie, and yet, counterintuitively, I left the theater worrying that the kind of events depicted in the film were just as likely regardless of who wins the presidency in 2024. If Trump is elected again, the left will almost certainly raise hell. There will be massive protests akin to the Women’s March. There will probably be another four-year resistance campaign. There will be efforts to use the courts to curtail Trump’s power. In some ways, it may end up being a more extreme version of Trump’s first term. Importantly, however, the left is unlikely to resort to widescale violence, call the results of the election into question, or attempt to storm the Capitol. That does not, however, mean that a Trump White House won’t use the police or the National Guard to silence protests, purge the government of anyone who is not loyal to him, or engage in an even more extreme form of bullying the press by siccing his supporters on them and — as he plans to do with the January 6th protestors — pardon them for their crimes. The idea that acts of violence committed in the name of the President could go unpunished is terrifying and undermines the very foundation of our justice system.

But what happens in a second Biden presidency when a delusional, unhinged MAGA party untethered from reality snaps? For reasons that make no sense, they already believe Biden is authoritarian. Many genuinely believe that Biden stole the election, that he is in charge of a police state controlled by the FBI, and that Democrats drink the blood of children. They legitimately believe that; they have a lot of weapons, and police communities are largely aligned with MAGA.

The dangerous delusions held by the MAGA base, combined with their violent tendencies, create a potentially volatile situation. If Biden wins in 2024, there is a real risk that these delusions could boil over into widespread unrest and violence fueled by spite, anger, revenge, and more claims of a stolen election. There could be January 6th-style violence all over the country: People killing for what they believe is a righteous cause.

That makes the apolitical nature of Civil War its most terrifying aspect. It doesn’t matter who is in the White House or what party is in control. By depicting a breakdown of society and the eruption of violence without tying it to a specific political ideology, the film forces us to confront the fragility of our democracy and the ease with which it could unravel. It is not the comforting liberal fantasy we had hoped for about good triumphing over Trumpian evil. It’s a warning (probably unintentional) about the powder keg we’re all sitting on regardless of November’s election outcome.