Warfare (2025)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Civil War, 28 Days Later), Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare and brotherhood, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.
- Actors:
- Michael Gandolfini, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Noah Centineo, Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Henry Zaga, Adain Bradley, Evan Holtzman, Alex Brock, Jorge Leon Martinez, Aaron Deakins, Joe Macaulay, Heider Ali, Laurie Duncan, Tom Dunne
- Directors:
- Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza
- Producers:
- Andrew MacDonald, Matthew Penry-Davey, Allon Reich, Peter Rice
- Writers:
- Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Documentary, Drama
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Reviews (2) of Warfare
Cold, Clinical and Weirdly Hypnotic - Warfare review by griggs
Absolutely brutal and unlike any war film I’ve ever seen. Warfare doesn’t bother with camaraderie or character arcs—it just drags you headfirst through chaos and collapse. No speeches, no lessons, no hope. Just the sick churn of violence on repeat. Garland strips it all back, showing war not as a test of character but a complete annihilation of it. It’s cold, clinical, and weirdly hypnotic. The sound design is incredible—relentless and immersive, like the world’s ending one explosion at a time. I was gripped. It’s the kind of film that doesn’t want you to feel anything noble—just to sit there and reckon with the horror. Honestly, it’s a testament to the film’s power that most who see this will leave shaken, if not genuinely traumatised
Graphic War Film - Warfare review by GI
Here is another viscerally immersive modern combat film that continues the trend to depict war in the most graphic way possible especially here the sheer volume of noise from gunfire, explosions and screams. Warfare is a recreation of a pointless battle in a pointless war where young men are faced with extreme violence without questioning why or indeed understanding why. This film is set during the Gulf war in 2006 and shows an episode during the battle of Ramada. A US Navy Seal team infiltrates a house and sets up an observation and sniper position to support other troops nearby. Detected by the local insurgents they find themselves under heavy attack. The film runtime almost coincides with the incidents timeline and as the wounded begin to occur we get to see and hear the awful reality of war. It's certainly a film that shocks the senses especially if you watch this in a cinema and the film does move at a fast pace after the build up of the boredom of the soldiers as they wait around. But unlike other films that have attempted to show war at it's most horrific like The Hurt Locker (2008), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Cross Of Iron (1977) and a host of others, there is no narrative here that grounds the film and hooks the viewer into the characters. For example the teams' leader Erik (Will Poulter) gets rattled and is unable to command effectively but we just have to accept this point without any attempt to grip his ordeal. Equally the Iraqi family whose house is taken over are mere bystanders and are hardly seen, nor are the 'enemy' who are reduced to computer images from drones. In this warfare is a somewhat empty experience and I have to say the decision to use credit pictures of the actors with the real participants renders the film as another flag waver.