War Game Film Review: Engaging Warning Shot

Following a scenario that simulates another insurrection, War Game is an engaging and tense documentary that acts as a warning shot for US democracy.

It is a documentary partly about the attempted insurrection of January 6th 2021, and partly about an unscripted war game scenario designed to tackle the growing threat of the next one.

Inspired by three retired generals who called on the Department of Defense to prepare for “the next potential post-election insurrection or coup attempt,” the scenario we see has gathered a group of US officials from the last five presidential administrations. The former Governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, has been chosen to play the incumbent President Hotham, who has just won a second term. But it was by the barest of margins – and as January 6th 2025 rolls around, his opponent, Governor Strickland (Chris Coffey), has refused to concede the election. He is backed by the Order of Columbus, a militia that claims to be a church immune from the current government. More worryingly, Strickland is also supported by soldiers and generals from the army.

As protestors try to enter the Capitol Building, Bullock/Hotham and his ‘Blue Cell’ team (including advisors played by ex-senators Heidi Heitkamp and Doug Jones) have six hours to quell this military-backed coup, certify the election results and avert a second civil war. However, they will have to contend with nationwide protests, hostile takeovers of army bases and hostage situations in Arizona. Meanwhile, the ‘Red Cell’ – led by veteran Kris Goldsmith – looks to disrupt and plant seeds of doubt through social media. As the marketing materials for War Game make clear, the President has six hours to save democracy. And the clock is ticking.

This roleplaying premise is nothing new for Moss and Gerber. Their 2008 film Full Battle Rattle was about an Iraq War simulation in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Here, the focus is on a simulation playing out an all-too-possible event. An event that has already happened before – an insurrection on the day that the electoral college results are certified – but now with an added military angle. The latter is important for this scenario’s operators, the Vet Voice Foundation, which aims to help veterans become civic leaders. Whilst the film fails to completely shake the feeling it is an ad for Vet Voice, it luckily goes in enough interesting directions once the action commences.

The game has players with a wealth of experience – former Senators, generals, Marine Corps, FBI and CIA agents. The ‘Blue Cell’ is meant to represent the bipartisanship that should guide these vital political decisions (though it is worth noting Bullock, Heitkamp and Jones are all Democrats, and the rest of the field seems to be liberal-leaning). And they all must navigate a difficult balance. Underreact to this situation, and you allow insurrectionists too much ground. Overreact with force, and you risk creating martyrs out of these insurgents (the film enforces this with references ranging from Ashli Babbitt to the Kent State massacre). Yet one of the most striking things is how ill-prepared they are to confront online misinformation, as Goldsmith and his team quickly spread fake news through social media.

Left to make the big decisions is Bullock/Hotham, a contemplative, tentative and perhaps hesitant figure whose strategy is to listen and draw on the expertise of others. But will that lead to weak responses? How will he and the ‘Blue Cell’ cope with a rapidly changing coup? And will he invoke the Insurrection Act, which game designer Ben Radd calls “the nuclear option?”

As these problems are deliberated, the film cuts to the backstories of the game’s operators. VetVoice CEO Janessa Goldbeck has seen a family member join QAnon. Consultant Alexander Vindman was one of the key figures in Trump’s impeachment trial. Goldsmith fought in the Iraq War and then testified against it. Radd was two during the Iranian Revolution. What they all have in common is an up-close and personal knowledge of violence and extremism and a passion for preventing those things from happening.

In their press notes, Moss and Gerber speak of influences ranging from Dr. Strangelove to the British verité documentarian Peter Watkins. These sources infer a want to highlight a doomsday scenario for America. Both are present in War Game, which immediately establishes itself almost like a political thriller. The darkened War Room highlights the accurate settings, whilst Pawel Mykietyn (EO) provides a suitably tense score. Plus, the access-all-areas footage from five DPs (some of whom just worked on Moss’ Girls State) is complemented by quickly-paced editing from Jeff Gilbert that also incorporates footage from January 6th 2021. All this provides a foreboding tone as we watch this existentially and constitutionally frightening scenario play out.

Overall, War Game is an engaging and tense (if not wholly immersive) documentary about a test of national security and military extremism. It is a timely watch, reminding its viewers that the threat of insurrection is still palpable. “Our Founding Fathers predicted that should our Republic fall, it would be from a threat within,” Goldsmith says in what becomes the film’s most telling line. The idea that America is immune from the political insurrection we see in this film – that “it can’t happen here” – is a myth. And Moss and Gerber’s film is a warning shot for the country’s democracy.

War Game will open in New York on August 2, 2024 and in additional markets, including Los Angeles and Chicago, on August 9, 2024.