Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber’s chilling and engrossing documentary “War Game” begins ominously, moves with urgency, and never lets up. The film begins with two suspicious men surveilling the capitol building in Washington D.C. and the surrounding era, taking photos, recording videos, and gaming out a plan for what sounds like another threatening insurrection plot. An authoritarian figure we vaguely recognize, but not as a politician, delivers a portentous speech about election results, but as the tension coils, we soon realize he’s an actor. This isn’t real, even if it feels all too alarming (Lt. Colonel (Ret.) Alexander Vindman, is obviously someone you should if you paid half a moment of attention to the Trump presidency).
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Moss and Gerber’s documentary does take place on January 6, but not on the fateful violent day of 2021. Instead, it’s Jan 6, 2023, and Vet Voice—a non-partisan Veterans organization—is staging a secret national security exercise steps away from the U.S. Capitol, and the filmmakers’ cameras are there to capture the exercise in real-time as it unfolds.
Essentially, they’re staging a mock insurrection; the two men from the beginning are two veteran soldiers playing a fictional group of shadowy right-wing para-military dissidents loosely inspired by the Oath Keepers called The Order of Columbus.
But Vet Voice— a bipartisan group filled with U.S. defense, intelligence, and elected policymakers spanning five presidential administrations and people you may recognize—and this “War Game” exercise aren’t just concerned with being prepared for another act of violent sedition during the next election. Specifically, they’re worried about another growing danger: members of the active-duty military and current law enforcement, a threat from within.
A 2021 Washington Post op-ed is the clarion call that sounds the alarm: Three retired generals pen an article warning that the U.S. military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection. The three write how they are increasingly concerned about the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election and “the potential for lethal chaos inside our military, which would put all Americans at severe risk. In short: We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time.”
But extremism from within the ranks of the government is a new, growing concern. It’s a frightening scenario: what happens when those in uniform break their oath to serve and protect their country?
It’s from this alarm that the Vet Voice exercise is launched, and while it’s just real-life policymakers as actors—the former governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, playing the role of Commander-In-Chief—it all feels frighteningly real.
By acclaimed and award-winning filmmakers, Moss and (“Boys State,” “Mayor Pete,” “The Mission”) and Gerber’s doc (“Jane,” “We Will Rise”) has a terrific sense of urgency and apprehension; it’s so engrossing you’re often sucked into the doc, forgetting it’s just an elaborate fiction.
And it’s arguably the closest you’ll ever get at experiencing what the real events of January 6, 2021, were if you were embedded with those trying to stop it and those trying to prevent it (though in 2021, it’s not hard to argue that those in charge and those trying to storm the capitol wanted the same outcome of overturning the election).
“War Game” essentially features three teams: those who have designed the game and are making it unfold, trying to throw obstacles in the way; those who are playing the roles of the government and an incumbent President who has won the election again and the forces of a political coup backed by rogue members of the U.S. military in the wake of a contested presidential election.
One of the more chilling stories within “War Game” comes from Janessa Goldbeck, a veteran and a member of the Vet Voice foundation. She tearfully details the story of slowly losing her father to Q-anon, and it’s a scenario most people can relate to, losing a friend or loved one to the ideas of growing extremism, conspiracy theories, or losing their grip on reality, something that only increased post-Trump and during the COVID-era when trust eroded, and some people reached for the life-raft of false narratives.
Another wrenching story comes from Kristofer Goldsmith, playing the leader of The Order Of Columbus. His story is a cautionary tale that could have gone in the wrong direction, and he’s all too aware of it. As a traumatized and disillusioned Iraq War veteran, he himself personally experienced the idea of a soldier losing faith in his leaders and lying about WMDs and such during the Bush era. His story of trauma, PTSD, and losing much of his military benefits due to a suicide attempt is harrowing, but his story is also a beacon of hope. Rather than turning toward anger and the kind of disenchantment that creates extremism, he leaned into the idea of patriotism and trying to fight radical extremism at all costs.
Polish composer Paweł Mykietyn’s chilling but patient score goes a long way in making “War Game” feel immediate, urgent, and scary, sounding like something like a cross from a classic Errol Morris documentary and a Christopher Nolan pulse-pounder scored by Hans Zimmer, all booming brass that slowly builds and escalates as the doc gets more frightening.
Having to document everything in real time must have been stressful and nerve-wracking for Moss and Gerber and their team of cinematographers, and this feeling of anxiety courses through the entirety of the 94-minute doc, which moves with ruthless precision.
LED clocks tick away at the action as everyone is essentially told they have “six hours to save democracy.” This exercise might be a mock one, but you’d never know it by the people playing this unscripted game, who seem to be engaging with it like their life depends on it.
As the mock Situation Room members and Presidents try and keep the situation under control—similar to the events of 2021, with mobs storming the capitol, but now a growing percentage of law enforcement aiding and abetting them— the members of The Order of Columbus try and flood the zone of propaganda and anger through social media while trying to recruit more military personnel to their cause.
Confronting the idea of the next possible insurrection and “splinter cells” within the U.S. military siding with the losing presidential candidate is an all-too-plausible, all-too-distressing thought, and it’s from this sense of foreboding unease where “War Game” gets its tension and energy. In a way, how could this doc and its subject matter not be tarrying to consider? But the filmmakers knock every intense scenario or moment out of the park.
Sweeping, realistic, and theatrically escalating, “War Game” is a must-watch and really enthralling stuff. As we head into the 2024 election, a year that will surely be a grueling and nail-biting experience, full of worry and stress, “War Game” depicts democracy as fragile as ever. But Moss and Gerber’s doc—practically a cinéma vérité, political thriller— is ultimately heartening, a portrait of collection concern and action, bandying together in preparation. Obviously, what happens next is out of everyone’s hands, including the members of Vet Voice and those playing this simulated training game, but “War Game,” at the very least, puts us all on notice as an unyielding and sobering reminder of what’s at stake. [A-]
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