Civil War (2024) was incredible

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 03:14:00 GMT

Earlier this week I watched Civil War (2024), directed and written by Alex Garland. I wanted to watch this movie since I noticed it on Alex Garland’s resume, Alex Garland being the director, writer, or screenplay writer of movies and shows including:

Ex Machina (2014),
Devs (2020),
Annihilation (2018),
Sunshine (2007),
28 Days Later (2002), and
28 Years Later (2025).

These are all motion pictures that I either like, really like, or are among my all time favorites^[1]. Naturally, I need to check this movie out.

Below is the unedited form of my post-watch writing; they present my thinking as it unfolded. They aren’t all the thoughts I have, but they are the ones I had during and immediately after watching.

Mid-movie impressions §

40 min in: I already love this movie. Love the brutal tone they went for. And love the concept: we’re seeing on-the-ground journalism of our own country during a hypothetical civil war. It is a forecast of where we could be if we’re not careful.

It reckons. It forces us to think about how things would be—then realize that in a way things are already like it (just not as bad). And in that way, the viewer is re-thrown into the present equipped with a new way to decipher it that was always already there.

Immediate post-watch impressions §

WOW. An incredible film. Almost speechless. It was perfectly, superbly candid. Exposing.

What a feeling to see what in real life are the forces meant to defend our leaders and country be attacked by the “other forces” of our country (secessionist forces). To see the White House and Lincoln Memorial bombarded. The rawness of the final act in the White House…

And that ending—gives one a ton to chew on. What was the Jessie feeling? What was Joel feeling? Why didn’t he mourn, or lash out like he did when Sammy (the older journalist) died? What did he say to the Jessie? Why did the girl take photos of Lee? Will she delete them? What does it mean when she does or doesn’t, especially in light of the fact that Lee deleted the photos of Sammy’s corpse? What were the soldiers and Joel thinking when they looked back at Jessie taking the photos?

I really did think, up until the ending, Jessie was the one that was going to die. And that this was a story that digests Jessie’s death. I was surprised when Lee was the one who died, though I thought that was the second (and only other, really, especially to save Jessie) most likely option. And naively, I thought they would get an interview with the President somehow—really fitting that all that we got was a primal, harrowing, desperate plea to survive, and that that the journalists (specifically Joel, who we saw early on in the car was the one they planned to do the talking^[2] to the President) knew that this was enough. War isn’t glamorous and doesn’t wait; so neither did the soldiers nor the journalists. (And, thinking about it now, that all that they had done, sacrificed, risked, and experienced up till then was in service for that singular, final sentence. Final words are part of what makes this film’s portrayal so raw: Sammy had no final speech, nor did Lee, and we don’t even get to hear what Joel and Jessie said or thought after Lee’s death.)

The movie did one thing exceedingly well: evoke emotion. Which is an exceptionally well-crafted experience.

In a way, this is journalism on journalism. To see the behind-the-scenes of the people who give us a look into the behind-the-scenes.

Further thoughts §

One §

Thinking about it now and reading a bit of others’ thoughts on Reddit for a few minutes I now see: Lee “had no life left in her.” In the sense of: she didn’t have the will to continue on being a journalist. She herself, in her professional advice to Jessie, said that to be a professional photojournalist you have to distance yourself from the horror, you have to accept that you’re there to record history, not change its course.

But that’s precisely what we see absent in Lee through the film.

Thinking back, we get hints of this from the very beginning: she cares for Jessie. She saves her from danger in the opening scene. She protests against her joining their group (though she inevitably accepts, though I think that came more from her outward identity as a professional journalist; her interior struggle was the source of protest). Then, I generally didn’t see Lee taking many photos “in the action.” IIRC, almost all the instances where I noticed Jessie taking photos were outside of action, like in the car. She didn’t really take any photos midst brutality. And the biggest hint to the viewer of all this is that she deletes the photo of Sammy’s corpse. I think earlier she implied to Jessie that yes, if she did get shot she would in fact take a photo of her body. All indications of Lee drifting from the distance and ruthlessness, in a way, of her photojournalist passion. Even in the small, quaint town they find, she entertains the idea of wearing then buying a dress, something she outwardly (her identity as a journalists) protests despite her (interior uncertainty) eventually seceding.

This peaks in the final act where the group goes into D.C. Lee can’t hold herself together. During gunfights she just stands there or breaks down in a panic attack. She can’t handle it. Only in the quieter moments, does her cunningness as professional photojournalist come out: she identifies that the lead they want is in the White House, before even the soldiers realize it.

And, of course, the very act of saving Jessie epitomizes the fact that Jessie no longer has what kept her going as a journalist. Because of the prior dialogue with Jessie, where it’s implied that she would take a photo of Jessie’s body getting shot, and the fact that Lee deleted photo’s of Sammy’s dead body, we should know that Lee-as-a-journalist would’ve let Jessie die, capturing that “glorious” shot. But she dives into the line of fire to save Jessie.

Lee was done as a journalist. Her experiences through wars and chaos broke her. And it’s also precisely why Jessie (and even Joel, I think) could act cold in the face of her death: they weren’t done as journalists. They could temporarily steel themselves and shrug it off for the sake of capturing the moment. It’s why Jessie’s first instinct is to take photos of Lee getting shot—which is precisely the advice Lee gave to her in order for her to be a good journalist—and why Joel marches forward into the Oval Office to catch the President’s last words before the soldiers execute.

So for this reason: I think Jessie keeps the photos of Lee’s death (and probably why we, as the viewer, see those photos taken to begin with, as opposed to us never seeing Lee take the photo of Sammy that she deleted).

Maybe this was a story about the human toll it journalism demands, in the form of the passing on of the torch from Lee to Jessie.

Two §

I also now appreciate that Lee’s “breaking point” was Sammy’s death. After that is truly when she’s almost incapable of doing the duty of a photojournalist. It’s when she starts blankly staring and standing midst the war with an empty look (while Jessie and Joel still get off on the thrill of the hunt, so to speak).

And recall what Lee says to Jessie regarding Sammy’s death: “He could’ve gone out in many more worse ways” (roughly put). The same is exactly true of Lee: she could’ve gone out in many other, worse ways (during the film and of course before): she was diving into lines of fire during the final act. It’s when she’s confronted with Jessie’s possible death does she commit to the “non-journalistic” leap: don’t document Jessie, save her.