War Game (2024)
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Director: Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber Run Time: 94 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2024
Starring: Alexander Vindman, Heidi Heitkamp, Linda Singh, Steve Bullock, Wesley Clark
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
World Premiere, 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
War Game sweeps audiences into an elaborate future-set simulation that dramatically escalates the threat posed by the January 6, 2021 insurrection. The film follows a bipartisan group of US defense, intelligence, and elected policymakers spanning five presidential administrations as they participate in an unscripted role-play exercise. Portraying a fictional President of the United States and his advisors, they confront a political coup backed by rogue members of the US military in the wake of a contested 2024 presidential election.
“‘War Game’ serves as a warning that if history repeats itself, the difference between doing so as farce or tragedy rests on a knife’s edge.”
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety
Like actors in a thriller, but with profound real-world stakes, the players have only six hours to save American democracy. The simulation’s outcome hinges on several inflection points, from the government’s capacity to counter the disinformation that’s effectively spread by the insurgent side to the potential invocation of the Insurrection Act (i.e., the “nuclear option”). While the exercise served to stress test our institutions, the film is a critical wake-up call, underscoring the urgent need for bipartisanship in safeguarding American democracy.
About the filmmakers:
Jesse Moss is a Primetime Emmy Award and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning director and cinematographer. He has directed number of documentary films and series including the Primetime Emmy Award-winning Boys State (2020), Gay Chorus Deep South (2019), The Overnighters (2014), and an episode of Netflix’s Dirty Money. Two of his projects premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival: Girls State (2024)—which was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards—and War Game (2024).
Tony Gerber is an Emmy and PGA Award-winning filmmaker who has directed over a dozen films for National Geographic, including Kingdom of the White Wolf (2019), a series shot in the Arctic. His feature docs include Full Battle Rattle (2008) with Jesse Moss and The Notorious Mr. Bout. He also produced Jane (2017) and the Oscar-shortlisted Takeover (2021).
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