War is A24's upcoming 2025 war film, and it feels like the perfect spiritual prequel to A24's $122 million hit earlier this year. Acclaimed director and writer Alex Garland is teaming up with real-life Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza to tell a story based on Mendoza's real experiences in war, with the pair directing and writing the film together. The first trailer for War is out now and looks to be one of A24's most exciting films in 2025.
While War is unique due to Ray Mendoza's involvement in the film, it's actually not the first time Alex Garland has delved into the war genre. In truth, Alex Garland directed A24 Civil Waran acclaimed war film released in early 2024. Many parallels have already been drawn between War and Civil Warwith Alex Garland's new war film acting as the perfect spiritual prequel for its 2024 release.
The war is showing a different side of war than the civil war
The war is based on a real war
One of the reasons why Civil War So great was his perspective, exploring a rarely seen point of view that is an integral part of the war experience. Instead of focusing on the soldiers, Civil War focused on war journalists, with Civil WarThe cast of main characters use cameras as weapons rather than weapons. Civil War explored the ethics and politics of war journalism, with the film's fictional civil war being designed to give this message a platform.
Alex Garland is now looking at the other side of the war with his new film, with War focusing on soldiers rather than war journalists. The first trailer for War shows that the film will follow a small group of soldiers trying to escape some kind of town in the Iraq War, with the scope of War apparently not much bigger than that. War will now allow audiences to learn Alex Garland's take on another facet of war, with the film dealing with those who actually fight.
War is a continuation of the Civil War's portrayal of war
Both use similar lenses
One of the most controversial parts of the A24 Civil War it was the way he dealt with the politics of the film. Despite Civil War Being about a fictional war, the film gave very little context about what led to the war, leaving viewers in the middle of things. Some audience members were not fans of this approach, with many wanting Civil War have a much broader scope that explores how the world of the film got to this point.
War appears to be taking a similar approach, focusing only on a few soldiers and not those in power who make decisions regarding war. While this may end up being more controversial due to the Iraq War being real, it does signal that Alex Garland may be trying this trick once again in War.