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A scene from the film 'Civil War,' written and directed by Alex Garland and coming to theaters in the Spring of 2024.
"What kind of American are you?"
Described by producers as an "adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor's edge," the promotion of a life-like dystopian film called "Civil War" dropped this week, feeding on the very real fears of increasing social fractures in the United States undergirded by Donald Trump's far-right fascism and a Republican Party increasingly hostile to democratic norms.
Written and directed by filmmaker Alex Garland and set for release in April 2024, the movie's trailer opens by informing audiences that 19 U.S. states have seceded as a military confrontation erupts between a standing U.S. government based in Washington, D.C. and the so-called "Western Forces" that are somehow a coalition army based out of California and Texas.
While the exact politics of the film are not made clear, the trailer certainly evokes a sense of chaos and menace reminiscent of the rhetoric and violence on display during the January 6th insurrection attempt by Trump's MAGA mob in 2021.
As The Verge notes in its review, "It's hard to glean too many story details from the trailer, but it features a small group attempting to infiltrate a heavily fortified Washington, D.C. It also features the tagline 'all empires fall,' so you know things aren't going so well."
Watch the trailer:
Civil War | Official Trailer HD | A24
"This is not at all how it would happen," said Jim Stewartson, a podcaster who frequently critiques the far-right Trump movement, "but a lot of cult members, preppers, boogaloos, & ammosexuals who have been fantasizing about civil war for years are very excited about this movie."
"Dropping this a few months before an existentially important election," Stewartson added, "seems… cynical."
In one scene featured in the trailer, a small group of people on a barren road—including one young woman on her knees—are being questioned by a pair of soldiers with military assault weapons.
"There's some kind of misunderstanding here," says one unarmed member of the group being questioned, "We're Americans, OK?"
"Ok," says the soldier, played by noted actor Jesse Plemmons, before adding: "What kind of American are you?"
And then the guns are raised.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Described by producers as an "adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor's edge," the promotion of a life-like dystopian film called "Civil War" dropped this week, feeding on the very real fears of increasing social fractures in the United States undergirded by Donald Trump's far-right fascism and a Republican Party increasingly hostile to democratic norms.
Written and directed by filmmaker Alex Garland and set for release in April 2024, the movie's trailer opens by informing audiences that 19 U.S. states have seceded as a military confrontation erupts between a standing U.S. government based in Washington, D.C. and the so-called "Western Forces" that are somehow a coalition army based out of California and Texas.
While the exact politics of the film are not made clear, the trailer certainly evokes a sense of chaos and menace reminiscent of the rhetoric and violence on display during the January 6th insurrection attempt by Trump's MAGA mob in 2021.
As The Verge notes in its review, "It's hard to glean too many story details from the trailer, but it features a small group attempting to infiltrate a heavily fortified Washington, D.C. It also features the tagline 'all empires fall,' so you know things aren't going so well."
Watch the trailer:
Civil War | Official Trailer HD | A24
"This is not at all how it would happen," said Jim Stewartson, a podcaster who frequently critiques the far-right Trump movement, "but a lot of cult members, preppers, boogaloos, & ammosexuals who have been fantasizing about civil war for years are very excited about this movie."
"Dropping this a few months before an existentially important election," Stewartson added, "seems… cynical."
In one scene featured in the trailer, a small group of people on a barren road—including one young woman on her knees—are being questioned by a pair of soldiers with military assault weapons.
"There's some kind of misunderstanding here," says one unarmed member of the group being questioned, "We're Americans, OK?"
"Ok," says the soldier, played by noted actor Jesse Plemmons, before adding: "What kind of American are you?"
And then the guns are raised.
Described by producers as an "adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor's edge," the promotion of a life-like dystopian film called "Civil War" dropped this week, feeding on the very real fears of increasing social fractures in the United States undergirded by Donald Trump's far-right fascism and a Republican Party increasingly hostile to democratic norms.
Written and directed by filmmaker Alex Garland and set for release in April 2024, the movie's trailer opens by informing audiences that 19 U.S. states have seceded as a military confrontation erupts between a standing U.S. government based in Washington, D.C. and the so-called "Western Forces" that are somehow a coalition army based out of California and Texas.
While the exact politics of the film are not made clear, the trailer certainly evokes a sense of chaos and menace reminiscent of the rhetoric and violence on display during the January 6th insurrection attempt by Trump's MAGA mob in 2021.
As The Verge notes in its review, "It's hard to glean too many story details from the trailer, but it features a small group attempting to infiltrate a heavily fortified Washington, D.C. It also features the tagline 'all empires fall,' so you know things aren't going so well."
Watch the trailer:
Civil War | Official Trailer HD | A24
"This is not at all how it would happen," said Jim Stewartson, a podcaster who frequently critiques the far-right Trump movement, "but a lot of cult members, preppers, boogaloos, & ammosexuals who have been fantasizing about civil war for years are very excited about this movie."
"Dropping this a few months before an existentially important election," Stewartson added, "seems… cynical."
In one scene featured in the trailer, a small group of people on a barren road—including one young woman on her knees—are being questioned by a pair of soldiers with military assault weapons.
"There's some kind of misunderstanding here," says one unarmed member of the group being questioned, "We're Americans, OK?"
"Ok," says the soldier, played by noted actor Jesse Plemmons, before adding: "What kind of American are you?"
And then the guns are raised.