War Game depressingly stress tests American democracy

Model United Nations programs and other simulations of cooperation and diplomacy were once a foundational part of civics education for teenagers across the United States. Given the riven state of the country, perhaps more nakedly entertaining, conflict-driven models should be indulged, in the name of preventative care for democracy. That’s one of the feelings one ponders while watching the documentary War Game, which summons forth a knotted-stomach despair and no small amount of sadness, feeling as it does like a dark prophecy, a likely missive from the not-too-distant future.

Directed by Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, War Game tells the story of a secret, unscripted, six-hour fake coup, and the American government’s real-time response. Staged on January 6, 2023, by the nonpartisan organization Vet Voice Foundation, and involving staffers spanning the last five presidential administrations, the thought exercise was designed to provide a rigorous stress test for the country’s national security system. Its filmic presentation serves up an unsettling manifestation of the thick sense of foreboding and political violence in the air.

The project’s genesis was informed by a 2021 Washington Post editorial written by three retired generals which expressed concern over extremism in the military, and that the next insurrection-like activity could well involve active-duty members—either in the form of soldiers “standing down” and refusing to follow lawful orders of their commanding officer, or joining in more active measures of overthrow.

After an unnerving cold open involving the scouting of Washington, D.C. landmarks, War Game sets its scene: January 6, 2025, against the backdrop of Congressional certification of a close and contested national election. As the exercise begins, under the orchestration of game designer Ben Radd, protestors are advancing on the U.S. Capitol, and elements of the military are showing signs of siding with the losing candidate.

As the game further unspools, Army veteran Kris Goldsmith serves as the “red cell” leader, using video statements from losing candidate Robert Strickland (actor Chris Coffey) and a handful of his military backers to whip up the support of a religiously zealous anti-government militia. Ex-Montana governor Steve Bullock portrays re-elected President John Hotham, who is tasked with consulting with his cabinet and formulating a response that (if possible) preserves a safe certification.

It does no good to beat around the bush, attempt to be clever, and “both-sides” the most direct threats of modern-day extremism. One of two major American political parties has cynically chosen, for the purposes of political expediency and power, to actively malign an assortment of institutions and core tenets of democratic governance. That is the backdrop that colors War Game’s exercise.

Still, for what it’s worth, the movie isn’t explicitly political, as difficult on the surface as that may be to believe. Its game participants, to the extent that nonpartisanship and comity still matter, include retired generals (Wesley Clark, Linda Singh, Jeffrey Buchanan), several former politicians (Heidi Heitkamp, Doug Jones), conservative pundit Bill Kristol, and a variety of apolitical security and intelligence veterans.

Furthermore, while out of necessity it employs some edited video content, its staged scenario is informed not by specific actions taken from the January 6, 2021 insurrection, but instead by demagogic rhetoric and direct appeals to religious and racial nationalism. The film uses some of the familiar markers of disunity and grievance, in other words, as building blocks to inform its unscripted narrative.

War Game is in some ways the ultimate cinematic Rorschach test. Those who plainly see the utility of an exercise of this nature, and thus the civic value of its parallel nonfiction presentation, will no doubt comprise the overwhelming majority of its audience; those intent on taking weird cultural offense will dismiss and/or attack the movie without ever seeing it, if they hear about it at all.

That’s a shame, because War Game is in large measure a thought-provoking work that makes one think about their connection to their country. Working with editor Jeff Gilbert, Moss and Gerber locate savvy pivot-points of personal connection that expand the movie’s canvas. Goldsmith tells his own tale of disillusionment (including PTSD and a suicide attempt), tracing back to the lies of the Iraq War. Game producer and fellow veteran Janessa Goldbeck talks about losing her father to QAnon conspiracies.

In unpacking these arcs, and relating just a bit about how service members are being specifically targeted for radicalization with disinformation, the film becomes more forthrightly relatable. Its intuitive editing, and particularly these rugged, lived-in portraits of exceptional patriotism, help make War Game more than just a wonky, one-off political thriller, the imperiled-democracy equivalent of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book.

In a sense, most of the movie’s faults are related to shortcomings of its simulation. To state that War Game, despite the improvisation at its core, unfolds in an eminently predictable manner isn’t so much a knock on its narrative construction as it is an indictment of the built-in limitations of well-intentioned bureaucracy (by nature cautious, and aiming for consensus) to deal swiftly with bad-faith parties intent on wreaking havoc and creating chaos.

War Game relies on certain axioms that put a fence around its conflict, and debate around invoking the Insurrection Act feels more didactic than natural. Also, it would have been nice to have more transparency into the assignment of participants to their specific roles, and whether (in some cases) the actions or viewpoints they express are prescribed or wholly their own.

Filmmakers Moss and Gerber have an extensive list of nonfiction credits. The former helmed the excellent The Overnighters, and co-directed (alongside spouse Amanda McBaine) Girls State and Boys State, as well as last year’s superb The Mission. Two-time Emmy winner Gerber, meanwhile, has worked extensively in the nature and history space, also producing 2017’s Jane, about Dr. Jane Goodall.

The pair previously collaborated on 2008’s Full Battle Rattle, which focused on a sprawling war simulation—set in a fictional Iraqi town and involving hundreds of extras—that the U.S. Army built in the Mojave Desert to attempt to train its units prior to deployment. Somewhat ironically, that movie’s portrayal of purposefully, violently at-odds motivations by its players actually located more levity than War Game, despite the future life-and-death stakes for its combat trainees.

In comparison, War Game feels burdened by hopelessness, something that isn’t the filmmakers’ fault, but also something they neither do much to combat nor amplify as an alarm, a rousing call to action. The result is trapped in an odd middle-ground: gripping but not emotional, depressing but not galvanizing.

The onscreen reminders of the artificiality of the exercise (the names and professional experience of its participants) serve to remind one that these aren’t hapless performers, but seasoned, intelligent people with deeply relevant real-world experience. As the film unfolds, to see them completely overrun in the information space battleground is both unsurprising and unsettling, given the abundant real-world examples of malevolent social media manipulation.

Can a core American identity, and indeed the American experiment, survive the savvy and well-funded machinations of various parties who would vilify and exploit democracy solely for their own gain? While Moss and Gerber’s film ably taps into a gathering darkness present in society, it seems to have no thesis, one way or another, on that subject. War Game engagingly imagines a single, specific, very believable threat, and if not everything in its stress-test goes smoothly, neither is it a complete disaster. (The White House, Congress, and Pentagon were all provided with a confidential analysis of its conclusions.) For viewers, the main takeaway is that there are other well-meaning people who care deeply about our shared democracy. One hopes their warnings don’t fall on deaf ears, even if elements of their gameplay seem sadly unavoidable.

Director: Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber
Writer: Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber
Release Date: August 2, 2024