Reliving a nightmare in real-time
ALEX GARLAND AND THE TEAM BEHIND WARFARE ON CAPTURING THE MINUTE-BY-MINUTE HORRORS OF CONFLICT
WORDS KEVIN EG PERRY
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai plays real-life Navy SEAL — and Warfare co-director — Ray Mendoza.
Murray Close, A24
Bonding times for the SEALs
Will Poulter also stars
Mendoza and co-director Alex Gardland on set
The platoon in action.
ALL THE ESSENTIAL INTEL, FROM HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND
MAY 2025 | EDITED BY BETH WERE
IN ALEX GARLAND’S Civil War, a journalistic road trip across a war-torn America climaxes with a military assault through the corridors of the White House. While creating the sequence, Garland sought the advice of former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, and after the pair hit it off, they began plotting whether they could use the same filmmaking techniques to take audiences inside a real-life battle. The result is Warfare, an intense 90-minute recreation of a harrowing firefight in Iraq in 2006 that Mendoza survived. Here, the co-directors reunite with star D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs), who plays Mendoza, to discuss bringing a hyper-realistic depiction of modern warfare to the screen.