A brand new film, “Civil War,” produced by the A24 film studio released a trailer for the film this week that will absolutely chill you to the bone, especially if you really grasp the depth of division that has taken place in this country over the last two decades. The movie, directed by Alex Garland, is a dystopian nightmare vision that features the strange pairing of Texas and California going against the East Coast of the United States. Not sure how in the world they managed to justify that pairing, given these two states could not be further apart ideologically speaking, but hey that’s why it’s fiction, right?
According to the Daily Wire:
In the opening scene from two-minute-plus trailer, smoke can be seen rising in a metropolitan city and a voiceover says that “19 states have seceded” and that the United States Army” has ramped up activity.” The viewer is told the White House has issued a warning to “Western forces as well as the Florida Alliance,” before we learn about a “third-term president” who has assured the populace that any uprisings will be “dealt with swiftly.”
“In the near future, a team of journalists travel across the United States during a rapidly escalating civil war that has engulfed the entire nation,” a description on IMDb read.
Text that was shown between images of war and chaos said “All Empires Fall,” as the film follows journalists, played by Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura, making their way across the country, Mashable reported.
In one scene featured in the trailer, a reporter has a confrontation with the president, who is being played by actor Nick Offerman — most well known for his role as Ron Swanson in “Parks and Rec” — about how he feels after using airstrikes on other American citizens. There are plenty of images showing tanks rolling through city streets, helicopters in battle, American flags with only two stars, the destruction of the Lincoln Memorial, and all sorts of stuff.
Folks have been taking to social media and providing their reactions to the trailer, which have been fairly mixed, especially about the partnership of California and Texas.
“Trying to think of what shared political principle could estrange Texas and California from the rest of the United States, and my only conclusion is they go to war over the difference between Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr,” one person stated in a post on X.
Another user said, “I’m gonna need elaborate context on this one, like explaining how and why Texas and California somehow banded together to secede.”
The film is scheduled to hit movie theaters on April 26, 2024.
Now, I’m not going to jump the gun and automatically assume this film has a leftist political agenda based on the first trailer alone. The chances are pretty high that it does. However, it could be a centrist piece with a message about unity and the importance of having tolerance for one another’s views, no matter how different they might be. I hope that’s the case. If that’s the direction the film takes, it’s a great warning for what could potentially happen later on down the road if we don’t find some common ground and reconnect with one another.
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