The True Iraq War Story Behind A24’s ‘Warfare’

“Warfare” is an exceedingly realistic war film. The new A24 thriller from co-directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza depicts in real-time an Iraq War firefight that goes increasingly wrong for a troop of Navy SEALs. Its ensemble cast features up-and-coming Hollywood stars like Joseph Quinn (“The Fantastic Four: First Steps”), Will Poulter (“The Bear”), Charles Melton (“May December”), Cosmo Jarvis (“Shogun”) and Michael Gandolfini (“Daredevil: Born Again”).

The film marks the directorial debut of Mendoza, an Iraq War veteran who met Garland while serving as a military advisor on the latter’s “Civil War.” On the set of that film, Garland was reportedly struck by Mendoza’s knowledge and perspective, and the two teamed up to make “Warfare,” a film that strives to capture what real-world military combat is like more realistically than any other Hollywood production to date.

That said, “Warfare” offers very little context about its story, characters and the purpose of their mission, which may lead viewers to ask…

Is “Warfare” based on a true story?

“Warfare” is based on a real November 2006 mission that Mendoza took part in. The film, which unfolds completely in real-time, is a re-enactment of said mission and its subsequent firefight that is based solely on the memories and testimonies of those who were there with Mendoza that day. It is set in the Iraq city of Ramadi, which is located around 70 miles west of Baghdad.

The film itself offers very little information about its central mission, which involves Mendoza’s SEAL platoon sneaking into a Ramadi household in the middle of the night, covertly posting up inside of it and spending the next day monitoring the actions and activities of the Iraqi insurgents who live in the same neighborhood. This was a standard procedure at the time for Navy SEALs like Mendoza, who were tasked with helping American and British troops try to take control of the region.

“[The action depicted in ‘Warfare’] was part of the counterinsurgency mission, which wasn’t a SEAL-specific mission. It was the overall objective of policy at that time,” Mendoza told Military.com. “It meant taking back sectors of Ramadi and establishing footholds. We would go in as an overwatch element the night before, and we would provide overwatch as they set up a combat outpost.”

“The insurgency would try to prevent the combat engineers from setting that up. And so we just cover them really until they set up concertina wire, sandbag windows and whatnot,” Mendoza further explained. “That’s one footprint. And then out of that, we punch out further into a certain sector, so on and so forth.”

Even the film’s opening scene, in which its central SEALs watch and dance along with the 2004 music video for Eric Prydz’s “Call On Me,” is true to life. “If it didn’t happen on that day, it wasn’t going to be in the film,” Mendoza revealed in an interview with NPR . “In a place like Iraq, where a lot of times you have to entertain yourself, you know, videos get passed around via USB drives, and this is one of many videos.”

“It was just something that stuck with us,” the “Warfare” director added. “We started watching it more and more until it became a kind of a ritual to watch before we went out.”

While the identities of most of Mendoza’s fellow platoon members were changed or kept secret for privacy and security reasons, “Warfare” is dedicated to Elliott Miller, a SEAL who is played in the film by Jarvis. Miller was injured in the movie’s real-life mission and has no memory of the firefight itself. Mendoza decided to make “Warfare” to try to give his friend’s memories back to him.

“It can be hard for veterans to talk about an experience,” Mendoza told Empire Magazine. “Now he can show this to his kids, who have questions all the time. If you don’t remember, it’s hard to explain.”

“Warfare” is now playing in theaters.

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