The trailer for Warfare has been released. Warfare is Alex Garland's first film after directing A24's Civil War earlier this year. He co-writes and co-directs with real-life Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza, on whose life the events of the film are based. Warfare features a leading cast including D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Joseph Quinn, Finn Bennett, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Noah Centineo, Charles Melton, and Michael Gandolfini.

Now, A24 has released the trailer for Warfare. The trailer shows a group of United States military in Iraq in 2006, hiding out in a house while they look at their enemies. Sonically, the soundscape is filled with the sound of breathing and dialogue that establishes their plans for their mission. After an explosion disrupts a more serene moment, the trailer devolves into a warfare-filled scene. The Warfare trailer is ripe with yelling, injuries, and bombs detonating.

What This Means For Warfare

Warfare Is As Grim As The Poster

The Warfare trailer displays the grim nature of the movie. The real-time, based-on-a-true story war narrative will not sugarcoat what it means to be in the middle of combat. People are getting seriously injured, traumatic events are happening left and right, and there is plenty of blood. Even from the trailer alone, it looks like the real-time telling translates into a film that is both thrilling and disturbing.

It is also interesting to hear how Warfare is playing with sound. The trailer uses sound to portray both the internalized and externalized experiences of its characters. At one moment, sound is used subjectively to capture the kind of muffled sound that one hears when experiencing shell shock. The way that the breathing overlaps conversation and action emphasizes how even moments of seeming serenity bring chaos, and it is the mayhem that is punctuated by the suddenness of bombs going off.

Our Take On The Warfare Trailer

Warfare Looks Expensive

In addition to its grimness and sonic elements, I find one of the more notable elements of the trailer to be its scale. With an estimated budget of $50 million, Garland's previous film Civil War was the most costly A24 production to date. The budget for Warfare has yet to be released, but the presence of huge explosions and other necessary war elements suggest the film has a similarly large scale. These Garland movies help demonstrate A24's transition into higher-budget projects, a turn whose success will be interesting to trace over the coming years.

Source: A24