At one point in War Game, when recounting his eyewitness account of the horrors of January 6, 2021, veteran turned journalist Chris Jones watched as MAGA insurrectionists marching to the U.S. Capitol briefly turned their attention to destroying CNN cameras and threatening the press.

In a moment of bone-chilling honesty, he admits thinking, “I can’t believe I was shooting farmers in Afghanistan while these fu**ers are still breathing back home.” For Jones, January 6 was not a wakeup call -- rather, it served as a confirmation of a successful coup d’état of American Armed Services indoctrinated into a far-right ideology akin to fascism

A few weeks after January 6, NPR compiled a list of 140+ individuals charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol, and found that nearly 20% of them served in the U.S. military. Upon enlisting, every soldier takes an oath to solemnly swear that they “will support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” only to end up enemies of the state. How? War Game, a thrilling documentary that captures a real-life government simulation designed to train leaders on what to do in the case of another attempted insurrection, seeks to answer not only the question of how, but also what now?

The synopsis of the simulation is as follows: On January 6, 2025, a political coup staged by rogue members of the U.S. Military seeks to overthrow the presidential election results and hopes that their treason will lead to the invocation of the Insurrection Act. The role-playing exercise sees a bipartisan group of U.S. defense, intelligence, and policymakers forced to save American democracy in six hours.

Former Democratic Governor of Montana, Stephen Bullock, serves as President, tasked with responding to the insurrection without inciting a civil war. On the other side, Red Cell operatives, played by real-life U.S. veterans and intelligence agencies, are using the tools of disinformation to mobilize and force the President’s hand in over-responding by gunning down the insurrectionists on live television, thus cementing their status as martyr patriots.

War Game, from the team behind Boys State (2020) and Girls State (2024), continues the exploration of the fragile nature of democracy. The documentary uses a ticking clock motif, interwoven with the musical score to underscore the urgency and vulnerability of democratic institutions. This recurring element symbolizes the heartbeat of democracy, each tick reflecting on its near-collapse in 2021 and the grim realization that once again, the threat is physical and somehow more dangerous this time around—our only safeguard: a belief in bipartisan unity. A trust that feels misplaced.

For Jesse Moss, one of the filmmakers behind Boys State and Girls State - War Game marks a clear delineation in tone. While those aforementioned films showcase a startling reality of contemporary American politics and how it has rooted itself in the next generation, there are still moments of optimism in which to take comfort.

War Game does not offer its audience the same luxury. There is a moment near the end of the film where one of the government officials partaking in the simulation says that voting grievances are to be handled by the courts, not through the means of an insurrection. At that moment, it is as if the film stops in its tracks, while the participants continue like nothing happened.

It is a subtle, but daunting acknowledgment from the filmmakers that they too realize the threat is far more reaching than this scenario implies due to Donald Trump’s reshaping of the federal judiciary and Supreme Court, which he might believe will put partisan interests over the country. 

In the film’s final moments, one veteran, Kris Goldsmith, who helped build the simulation, debriefs the exercise with the participants. As the participants laugh and smile for group photos, and discuss the responsibility at hand on January 6, 2025, Goldsmith steps in and states his belief that they still do not understand the threat and scope of far-right ideology that has seeped through the ranks of the armed services. His response is met with one of the participants dismissing his concerns, saying, “I’m worried, but I have a lot of confidence in the leadership we have.”

Author Bio:

Ben Friedman is a contributing writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.

For Highbrow Magazine