Alex Garland’s 2024 film Civil War is attracting renewed attention after Democrats won the Texas governor’s mansion and a U.S. Senate seat, victories described in the original report as the party’s first in those contests in decades. Online, some viewers are revisiting the film’s depiction of Texas and California joining forces during a national conflict.
In the near-future thriller, the two states form part of a group called the “Western Forces,” resisting a president accused of tyranny as a civil war divides the country. The film does not spell out why the traditionally Republican Texas and Democratic California are allies, a choice that drew confusion and criticism from some viewers.
Following the Texas results, one user on X shared the film’s map of a divided United States and wrote, “You all owe Alex Garland an apology.” An editor for The Bulwark also joked that Garland had foreseen the states uniting against what the editor called a “populist fraud in the White House.”
Garland previously said at South by Southwest that the story offered enough information for audiences to understand the alliance. He pointed to the film’s depiction of a president who had broken the Constitution and attacked American citizens, saying the reason for Texas and California to set aside their political differences was implicit in that premise.
Garland also said he wanted to make a film that moved beyond political polarization, arguing that warnings about the country’s breakdown were not gaining traction. Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Sonoya Mizuno, and follows journalists covering the final days of a second civil war.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter.