Civil War: Is the Movie Inspired by Real Events?

Although set in the near (and indefinite) future, Civil War often seems plausible because it is based on images of conflicts that are familiar to us now but out of place in the United States. where a group of photojournalists led by Kirsten Dunst must cross the country.

But its director, Alex Garland, refuses to make any specific reference to the person or the event. Even if the president, played by Nick Offerman, has the faux pas of Donald Trump, some of whose rhetoric he uses in the speech that opens the film. And it’s hard not to think of the attack on the Capitol in January 2021 before certain scenes.

Although he does not deny this influence when discussing it in London, Alex Garland nevertheless downplays the place this event holds in the genesis of his fourth feature film as a director: “It was written before, about four years ago”He answers us. “The first project dates from June 2020.

“The storming of the Capitol was treated as if it were a disgrace, and it was a disgrace.”

“But did it affect the film? Of course! Not the writing, but me. And I know it affected a lot of people who worked on it. One of the real effects of that day was people got angry and saw it as a shame.

“So it was impossible for a group of people not to be affected by it.” From there to say that Civil War isn’t as much of a science fiction movie as one might think, there’s only one step… which Alex Garland takes halfway: “He’s talking about things that aren’t impossible, so I’d say yes and no.” The atmosphere, a few months before the US presidential election.

Comments collected by Maximilien Pierrette in London on 26 March 2024 – Editing by Constance Matthews