Warfare: A24 leaves a sneak peek into Alex Garland's upcoming war film; first look revealed

A24 has just released a first-look featurette for Warfare, their upcoming war film co-written and co-directed by Civil War director Alex Garland. Joining him in the creative duties is Ray Mendoza, an Iraq war veteran, who worked closely on Civil War as the military adviser. The 2024 film followed a dystopian future of the United States. Now, their latest collaboration follows real-life incidents from Mendoza's life during his time in 2006 Iraq.

Warfare's first-look video mentions that "everything is based on memory," as Mendoza reveals,

"It's about a group of young SEALs in Iraq conducting an OverWatch mission. In doing so, they came upon contact. [The film is about] them having to come together and figure out a plan to get to safety."

Previously, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mendoza revealed the reason he wanted to bring this project to life.

“The story is not solely about me. I was one of the guys there, and some of it is being told from my perspective initially, but one of the guys named Elliot got severely wounded upon extraction. He’s had some [traumatic brain injury] issues and extremely bad damage to his extremities. He’s in a wheelchair and he doesn't recall what happened."

Mendoza spoke further about his reason behind making this film based on his memories of lived experiences.

"We’ve tried to write it out for him [Elliot] in literary form, but even that's really confusing. I think he understood what happened, but for us who were there and remember it, we have visual memories of it. He's lacking that, and I've always wanted to do that for him. I felt it would be easier for him to watch something than to read 12 individuals’ differing perspectives on it.”

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Warfare first look: Here's what the cast and crew say about A24's upcoming project

Warfare is A24's next film project that stars D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservoir Dogs), Cosmo Jarvis (Shogun), Joseph Quinn (Gladiator II), Will Poulter (The Bear), Charles Melton (May December), Kit Connor (Heartstopper), Michael Gandolfini (The Many Saints of Newark), and Noah Centineo (To All the Boys I've Loved Before) among others. The story hinges around Ray and Elliot, played by Woon-A-Tai and Jarvis.

The first-look featurette offers a look behind the scenes of Warfare as the cast share their insights about the filming process. Charles Melton notes that the film is "a love letter from [co-director] Ray to Elliot." He also mentions that their 3 weeks of boot camp helped them form a Navy Seal culture, leading up to filming.

"The energy everyone's bringing...you're entrapped. Step-by-step, beat-by-beat, you experience it in real-time"

Melton mentions while Alex Garland adds how their filming approach reflects the wartime experience.

"Reality doesn't let people off the hook."

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Warfare: Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's collaborative history explored

Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland previously collaborated on Garland's Civil War. The Kirsten Dunst-led film followed a group of journalists (Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny) traveling through a dystopian United States amid a war. They cover stories across the country to document the intellectual divide among its population.

While filming the ending of Civil War, Mendoza and Garland discussed the idea of covering a wartime situation in real time. It led to the idea of Warfare. When speaking with EW about it, Alex Garland revealed,

“There was a particular section towards the end of Civil War in a corridor where we shot it and edited it to be in real-time. So I approached Ray [Mendoza] and asked if he had a story or true-life event that he would be interested in telling in real-time".

Garland further added,

"He started talking about this film [Warfare], which is something that Ray, unbeknownst to me, had been wanting to make for a long, long time. My role then was just to facilitate Ray telling this story that he already wanted to tell.”

Warfare is set for an April 11 theatrical release from A24.