You’ve seen military films based on real people and events. That’s not what Warfare is.
Warfare is a film brought to you by Iraq War Veteran Ray Mendoza depicting the events of an attack he survived in 2006 reconstructed exactly by the memories of the service members who lived it—for their brother who can’t remember a thing.
WATCH THE TRAILER
Written and directed by Mendoza along with Alex Garland (Civil War, 28 Days Later), Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of U.S. Forces through insurgent territory. It is a visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real-time and based on the memory of the people who were there.
Combat veterans have long reported that time works differently during a firefight. With Warfare, Mendoza takes the audience minute-by-minute through the chaos, the danger, and the snap decisions. Every instant, the stakes are literally life or death. It leaves an impact. “For veterans who are wanting to talk to their loved ones and say, ‘Hey this was my experience,’ or ‘This is what I’m feeling,’ you’re the reason I made this film,” noted Mendoza.
“It’s sensory overload,” described Cosmo Jarvis (Shōgun), an actor in the film. Mendoza called combat “intense, fast.” Clearly, words aren’t enough. Reconstructing it in film isn’t enough. Nothing can be—but with a combat vet at the helm, this is as close as you can get without taking fire yourself.
Unfiltered and experiential, Mendoza didn’t want to make just another war story—he wanted to tell this story for the man in his unit who, to this day, doesn’t remember a thing about it. The story hinges on the relationship between Mendoza and Elliott Miller, a SEAL who served with Mendoza, and who, during the mission, sustained significant injuries and now, cannot remember the attack at all.
“I did this for Elliott Miller,” Mendoza reflected in a behind-the-scenes first look at the film. He put his actors through a three-week boot camp to get them ready to portray the real men Mendoza served with that day. From weapons training to combat tactics to physical fitness, he made sure his actors would get a firsthand taste of what it’s like to endure physical and mental stress with a team by your side.
Mendoza joined the Navy in 1997 and served for over 16 years as a member of SEAL Team 5 and as a Land Warfare Training Detachment and BUD/s instructor. He was introduced to filmmaking while performing in Act of Valor and went on to work as a Military Advisor on Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor. After working with Garland on the 2024 dystopian action thriller Civil War, the two decided to team up to tell the story Mendoza had been thinking about for nearly twenty years.
“It’s about a group of young SEALs in Iraq conducting an overwatch mission. In doing so they came upon contact and they had to come together, come up with a plan, and get to safety,” stated Mendoza. “Elliot doesn’t recall what happened.”
The actors described the film as a love letter from Ray to Elliot and they took their job of portraying these real events seriously. “This will be one of the most important and poignant things we’ll ever do,” observed actor Will Poulter (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3), who plays one of the SEALs in the film. That sentiment was echoed by Mendoza.
“I have one opportunity to tell it right, to get it right, and to honor the people who were there,” shared Mendoza. That intention clearly impacted the rest of his cast and crew, who gave everything to this story.
Starring Poulter, Jarvis, Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things), Michael Gandolfini (Daredevil: Born Again), D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs), Charles Melton (May December), and more, Warfare hits theaters nationwide on April 11, 2025.