Warning: This article contains spoilers for Civil War.
Alex Garland’s newest film Civil War picks up at the height of a modern-day civil war taking place in America. But much like Garland’s other hits like Ex Machina and 28 Days Later, the plot of Civil War serves mainly as a vehicle for emotional provocation and character building. The film follows a group of war reporters – veteran photojournalists Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Joel (Wagner Moura) and the novice Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) – as they make their way to Washington DC, sensing that an epic conclusion to the war is about to reshape America. .. and make for an award-winning story.
Throughout the movie, the group travels across America toward Washington, where the Western Forces (an allegiance between California and Texas) are trying to besiege the capital and force the President of the United States (Nick Offerman) to surrender. But along the way, the group encounters bloodshed, rogue killers, and a country that has devolved into madness. The climax of Civil War shows the group finally arriving in DC just in time to document the Western Forces’ invasion.
In Civil War‘s finale, Lee, Joel, and Jessie follow the Western Forces troops into Washington DC, documenting their invasion. During a shootout, Lee is killed saving Jessie, who documents her idol’s demise by taking a photograph. In the last few minutes of the movie, the Forces finally manage to enter the White House, with only a dozen or so Secret Service members left to protect the president. Initially, they find the Press Secretary, who demands that the two sides reach a deal before she hands over the president: in exchange for his surrender, the Western Forces must promise not to harm him.
The Western Forces refuse the deal and kill her before finding the president cowering under a desk in the next room. Soldiers grab him before he can escape, but before he’s killed, Joel demands that they let the president give a final quote, hoping it will make a great addition to his story. But instead of delivering a history-making speech, the president only begs for his life before being shot. The film then comes to an abrupt end, purposefully avoiding any kind of denouement or epilogue that would show what becomes of America.
One of the most unique aspects of Civil War is that there really are no “good” or “bad” guys in the movie. In fact, throughout the entire film, politics is rarely touched upon. The Western Forces is created by an allegiance between Texas and California, two states that politically would never align on anything in the real world. But Civil War has no interest in explaining why or how the country descended into warfare, it simply shows the aftermath of America’s decline.
Instead of being a gritty political thriller, Civil War only wants to show the reality of what war on American soil would look like – societal collapse, dead bodies in the streets, and a constant feeling of fear and dread. Audiences are never given a reason to root for either side because neither side is presented as the hero.
Even the protagonists in the movie have attributes that are somewhat unlikable. Lee and Joel have been numbed from their decades of covering wars around the globe, and they teach Jessie not to get attached to the surrounding conflict and to simply view it as an outsider. Instead of caring about the future of their own country, the group merely wants to get a great story that will help their careers. But as the bodies of their fellow Americans pile up around them, even Lee and Joel begin to feel a sense of ennui regarding the dire state of their country.
At the film’s SXSW premiere, Garland told the audience his purpose for making Civil War was to do the opposite of what some war movies do. He didn’t want to unintentionally glamorize war, commenting to the crowd about how movies like Apocalypse Now can unintentionally become “seductive” and make war seem like some kind of noble quest. Instead, he wanted to show the brutal, cruel reality that war brings. He reiterated that he wanted to project the idea of a second American Civil War as a “bad idea.”
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.