'Warfare' captures the terrifying intensity of modern combat

Warfare offers an unfiltered, visceral look at war’s chaos, stripping away Hollywood spectacle.

A scene from "Warfare." (c) A24

By Anna Fadiah and Hayu Andini

Warfare captures the terrifying intensity of modern combat with unflinching precision. The film plunges viewers into a 2006 military operation in Ramadi, Iraq, where a Navy SEAL team occupies a civilian home being used as an observation post. At first, the assignment appears uneventful—ten minutes of stillness, then fifteen. But when the bullets start flying and walls are ripped apart by rifle fire, the calm turns into chaos. In that moment, everything shifts. The viewer is no longer watching a movie—they're living it.

Directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, Warfare is a gut-wrenching, claustrophobic portrait of what it’s like to be on the ground in real combat. With a runtime just over 90 minutes, the film feels like an eternity—in the best and worst ways. It stretches time, mirroring the way actual combatants experience firefights: every second expands with danger, uncertainty, and fear.

There’s no music to guide your emotions, no voice-over to explain what's happening, no visual indulgence or dramatic embellishment. What you get instead is an immersive, minute-by-minute depiction of soldiers under siege. Warfare captures the terrifying intensity of modern combat not through spectacle but through precision and realism. It’s a film that forces you to confront war as it is, not as Hollywood typically portrays it.

A setting as ordinary as it is deadly

The entire film takes place in and around a modest Iraqi home—a structure barely distinguishable from countless others across the region. Yet within these plain walls, the story becomes an unforgettable experience. As al Qaeda forces descend on their position, the SEALs must adapt. One by one, they take sniper positions, scanning the surrounding area for any sign of threat. The tension mounts not from action-packed sequences but from the sickening stillness in between. You're never sure when the next shot will be fired.

And when it is, the violence is merciless. This isn’t the balletic combat of John Wick or the heroics of Saving Private Ryan. In Warfare, when someone is shot, they don’t fall cleanly to the ground. They scream. They bleed out. Guts are spilled—literally. Blood and smoke mark the terrain, and bodies become both obstacles and tragic symbols. One SEAL, summoning reinforcements, simply tells them to “look for the blood and the smoke.”

Brutally authentic, from the inside out

Ray Mendoza, a former Navy SEAL and longtime military consultant in Hollywood, brings his firsthand knowledge to every frame. Alex Garland, known more for cerebral sci-fi fare like Ex Machina and Annihilation, steps into the background here, letting Mendoza’s experience and authenticity take the lead. Together, they craft a war film that refuses to take sides politically and instead focuses on the emotional and physical toll exacted by combat.

From the ringing in the ears after a close-range explosion to the blinding dust that clouds the vision, the details feel painfully real. You feel the phosphorus burn on a man’s leg. You hear the panicked scream of even the most seasoned warrior. Warfare captures the terrifying intensity of modern combat through these small, agonizing moments, offering a rare look at how chaos strips a soldier to their core instincts.

There’s no effort to glamorize these men or their mission. Even the casting reflects this ethos. While D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini, and Cosmo Jarvis all deliver restrained and believable performances, none are pushed into the spotlight. This isn’t an actor’s showcase. Instead, the ensemble works as a unit, their faces often obscured by helmets or smeared with blood and dirt. Their actions matter more than their words or backstories.

Real time, real consequences

The film unfolds in what feels like real time, with almost no cuts or time jumps. The camera lingers uncomfortably long during quiet moments, capturing the unbearable weight of anticipation. When the silence is broken, it happens without warning, forcing the viewer into the same disoriented state as the characters. This sense of immediacy is relentless. There's no escape, no reprieve. Even when nothing is happening, Warfare is happening.

When Will Poulter’s character freezes near a stairwell and mutters, “I’m f— up,” the moment isn’t dramatized. It just is. There’s no rousing score or inspirational speech. Just fear, confusion, and paralysis. The same goes for the gruesome scenes that follow—injuries that aren't sanitized or edited down but linger, uncomfortably, as comrades try to save one another with nothing but tourniquets and willpower.

What Warfare dares to leave out

Perhaps most impressive about Warfare is what it omits. There are no slow-motion sequences, no rousing dialogue, no speeches about duty or valor. The film never stoops to sentimentality. Unlike The Hurt Locker, which often felt stylized and self-aware, or Lone Survivor, which leaned into heroic tropes, Warfare avoids those traps completely. It refuses to romanticize or politicize.

The war genre often struggles to maintain neutrality. Filmmakers tend to lean toward patriotic flag-waving or cynical anti-war screeds. Warfare walks a rare middle path. It neither glorifies nor condemns—it simply observes. This neutrality makes the film more powerful because it leaves interpretation to the audience. Is this what war should be? Is it necessary? Is it worth it? The film never says. It just shows.

A necessary evolution of the war film

In many ways, Warfare is the natural evolution of films like Black Hawk Down and American Sniper, but it goes even further in its commitment to realism. It strips away the scaffolding of traditional narrative cinema—character arcs, theme music, editing rhythms—and delivers a raw nerve of a film.

It’s not a movie for everyone. Some may find its lack of story or structure frustrating. Others may recoil from the violence and unrelenting tension. But for those who want to understand, even in the smallest way, what modern warfare really feels like—not from the news, not from a pundit, not from a video game, but from the inside—this is essential viewing.

Warfare captures the terrifying intensity of modern combat by refusing to look away from the most harrowing realities of war. It’s not just one of the best war films in recent memory—it’s one of the most important.