The movie, starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Wagner Moura and more is in theaters now.
A politically charged new thriller in theaters now, Civil War is a film that's been courting some controversy since its South by Southwest premiere in March 2024.
From writer-director Alex Garland, known for 28 Days Later and Never Let Me Go, comes another look at dystopia -- this time set amid the chaos and conflict of a second American Civil War.
Kirsten Dunst plays Lee, a photojournalist who is traversing the embattled country, from which California and Texas have seceded and united to form the "Western Forces" in an attempt to overthrow the established government. While documenting the inhumane horrors of American infighting and the reality of citizens becoming refugees in their own country, she seeks to tell the truth, a mission that feels inexplicably controversial even amid the real-life divisive state of U.S. politics.
While it's no wonder that such a film would provoke some type of controversy, Garland promised following Civil War's SXSW screening that his story is "intended as a conversation."
"It is not asserting things — I mean I guess it's asserting some things," he clarified. "But it's a conversation, and that means it's not a lecture."
The English director also said that, above all, his film is "a sort of love letter to journalism and how important it is."
"There's two kinds of filmmakers. There's filmmakers who sort of, in a weird way, they make films about the films they love, which is a perfectly good thing to do. And there's others that are in some way reacting to the world around them," Garland explained. "And I'm in the second category. And so is it connected to the world? Yeah, it's connected to the world. That's more than just this country. Some of the things being discussed in Civil War exist globally. They're not distinct to America. They might be contained here, but they're not solely here."
Here's everything we know so far about the film.
THE CAST
Kirsten Dunst
In perhaps her grittiest role yet, Dunst plays Lee, a renowned photojournalist attempting to make her way across the embattled country to reach the Capitol.
"When I read the script, I thought, I've never done anything like this," the actress said of the film in an interview with Marie Claire. "I think it's a cautionary tale. A fable of what happens when people don't communicate with each other and stop seeing each other as human beings."
"The film does such a good job of not polarizing its audience," she added while speaking to ET's Kevin Frazier ahead of Civil War's April 12 premiere date. "It really allows you to bring your own beliefs, political beliefs, to your experience watching this film. And I think that it is an anti-war film at the end of the day, and it's very much a [study in] humanity, in what happens when people stop talking to each other."
Wagner Moura
The Brazilian actor and filmmaker plays Joel, Lee's colleague and fellow journalist who joins her on her mission.
"I read a lot about war journalism which is a completely different kind of journalism," Moura told ET of preparing for the role. "I myself, I graduated as a journalist, worked as a journalist for a while but it's nothing like what these guys go through, right?"
"I reached out to some journalists, I spoke with them," he added. "It was more about the feeling of being in a war zone as a civilian than anything, like, how are you doing your job, less intellectually and more like, what do you feel?"
Cailee Spaeny
The Priscilla star plays Jessie, an aspiring young photographer who is saved by Lee during a deadly riot and ends up accompanying Lee and Joel on their journey.
"It was very intense in the way that Alex directed it," Spaeny told ET. "The cameras were never in our face, he sort of did it in a non-traditional way and to make sure that he wasn't breaking up the momentum. He didn't do it the sort of traditional close ups ."
"it almost felt like a play on the road," she added. "A lot of the time, it didn’t feel like we were really acting -- especially in the third act it it almost felt like your survival instincts just kicked in. Because the level of noise you hear in the third act, all the gunfire going on, that’s really what we were hearing -- so it was a real gift to us as actors, I think."
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Known for scene-stealing supporting roles in films like Lady Bird and Beau Is Afraid, Henderson plays Sammy, a fellow journalist who has mentored Lee and Joel throughout their careers.
Nick Offerman
A stark contrast to his anarchistic, government-loathing Parks and Recreation character, Ron Swanson, Offerman stars as a power-hungry POTUS, who has somehow skirted the rules to preside over the warring country for a third term.
Jesse Plemons
Dunst's real-life husband makes a cameo in the film as a soldier who has a tense encounter with the traveling journalists -- in the trailer we seem him ominously ask the trio, "What kind of American are you?"
"He wouldn't play a part like this if I wasn't in the film," Dunst shared with ET. "That is a really disturbing role to play, so it's not like he was jumping at the chance to play the role ... It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. When we rolled up to set, it was just very, very tense and emotional for everybody filming that scene."
Other Cast
Civil War also stars Sonoya Mizuno as Anya, Jefferson White as Dave, Juani Feliz as Joy Butler, Nelson Lee as Tony, Edmund Donovan as Eddie, Karl Glusman as a spotter, Jin Ha as a sniper, Jojo T. Gibbs as a White House sergeant, and Jess Matney as another soldier.
THE TRAILERS
THE CONTROVERSY
While undeniably a political film, Civil War does its best to mask any partisan bias. Garland avoids detailing exactly how the nation split in two, and the California-Texas-Florida alliance leaves the door open to any blue state vs. red state messaging.
"The movie isn't partisan though, in any way. It's not, it's not about right or left," Dunst explained at SXSW. "That's the total opposite message of this film. It's really about humanity and what a civil war does to a country and the horrors of it. So it's more of a warning than anything else. And I feel like it does shake you because it's very intense, it feels very real to film. And I think that's why it's affecting everybody so much."
"I think that the thing I would say is that democracy is an important thing," Moura agreed. "You know, not only voting is an important thing, but supporting the institutions - you can criticize them, you can work for them to become better institutions, but the wave of discredit in the democratic institutions is a very dangerous thing."
As for Garland, he remains steadfast in his messaging that the film is not a "lecture," but a commentary designed to provoke thought and conversation about the state of both American and global politics.
"I always hope I'm leaving space for people to think and have their own opinion," he noted. "I'm not interested in trying to assert my opinion particularly, but I am interested in asking questions and being involved in a conversation."
Civil War is in theaters now.
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