Alex Garland’s Next Movie Looks Scarier Than Any of His Sci-Fi Films

Alex Garland has written or directed several excellent, terrifying, disturbing films. Films like 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Ex Machina and Annihilation. Films that show familiar worlds in unfamiliar, and often times unfathomable, circumstances. His new film seems as if it’s going to do that too, but it’s somehow much scarier than all of those combined. Because, well, the dystopia feels a little too real.

The film is called Civil War and—because you aren’t reading this on a historical website, and it’s not a Marvel movie—it’s about a Civil War in the future, but not that distant a future. Civil War depicts a recognizable modern America torn down the middle and certainly brings to mind all manner of terrible futuristic possibilities, especially since it’s being released in a presidential election year. Check out the trailer.

Kirsten Dunst stars along with Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman. Dunst’s real-life husband, Jesse Plemons, is in that trailer too—but since he’s not listed in the official press release, we’re guessing he may not make it out of that scene.

And while the Civil War trailer sets up a world where we assume Americans on opposite ends of the political spectrum are at war, we aren’t so sure it’s simply that. The trailer has a lot of little details in it, but Offerman’s three-term president says that California and Texas have been defeated by the U.S. military. Texas and California are on the same side? That doesn’t seem like a logical team-up. We’re imagining Garland wants us to think this is one thing, when it’s really something else. Even if that something else is just a metaphor for what we think it is.

What did you think of the trailer? Let us know below. Civil War opens April 26, 2024.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Alex Garland has written or directed several excellent, terrifying, disturbing films. Films like 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Ex Machina and Annihilation. Films that show familiar worlds in unfamiliar, and often times unfathomable, circumstances. His new film seems as if it’s going to do that too, but it’s somehow much scarier than all of those combined. Because, well, the dystopia feels a little too real.

The film is called Civil War and—because you aren’t reading this on a historical website, and it’s not a Marvel movie—it’s about a Civil War in the future, but not that distant a future. Civil War depicts a recognizable modern America torn down the middle and certainly brings to mind all manner of terrible futuristic possibilities, especially since it’s being released in a presidential election year. Check out the trailer.

Kirsten Dunst stars along with Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman. Dunst’s real-life husband, Jesse Plemons, is in that trailer too—but since he’s not listed in the official press release, we’re guessing he may not make it out of that scene.

And while the Civil War trailer sets up a world where we assume Americans on opposite ends of the political spectrum are at war, we aren’t so sure it’s simply that. The trailer has a lot of little details in it, but Offerman’s three-term president says that California and Texas have been defeated by the U.S. military. Texas and California are on the same side? That doesn’t seem like a logical team-up. We’re imagining Garland wants us to think this is one thing, when it’s really something else. Even if that something else is just a metaphor for what we think it is.

What did you think of the trailer? Let us know below. Civil War opens April 26, 2024.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.