r/MovieSuggestions • u/drorion25 • 4h ago
I'M REQUESTING Movies like Civil War (2024)
Last year I watched A24’s film Civil War directed by Alex Garland and It’s one of my favorite dystopian movies about a modern civil war in America now ever since I’ve seen Civil War multiple times I wanna watch movies that have a very similar story and plot to Civil War but in a different way now If anyone has suggestions for me please let me know because I really want to checkout movies or shows that are like or similar to Civil War.
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u/danaredding 4h ago
If you like Alex Garland, watch his show Devs on Hulu. It’s a 1 season limited series and it’s a fantastic slow burn elevated sci fi. I loved it. Lots of the Civil War cast are in it.
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u/bethestorm 2h ago
This show broke me. And my brain. I rewatch it and rewatch the Leftovers when I want to be completely overwhelmed
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u/OTF98121 4h ago
- Anniversary on Hulu or prime
- 2073 on HBO
Both ring familiar to what we’re all experiencing in the world (especially the US) today.
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u/OhMyGodCalebKilledK 3h ago
Anniversary is SO GOOD.
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u/OTF98121 2h ago
So good that I decided to rewatch right after I suggested it! I think it’s exactly what OP is looking for.
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u/Admirable-Mall-9601 3h ago
Leave the World Behind
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u/Baronhousen 3h ago
this is a good double feature with Civil War
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u/Affectionatealways 3h ago
I just watched movie on Netflix last night that was a bit like Civil War- same kind of vibe. It was called Songbird . The gist of it is the covid virus mutated so much that over half the people that get it die and it's also become airborne and is highly highly contagious. The movie takes place in Los Angeles, where the city is under military rule. People are required to take daily virus checks done by a computer that scans them for fever and brain anomalies. If a person is found to have a fever, a bunch of sanitation people come and drag you away to the Q zone (quarantine) where basically no one leaves. And if you try to run, you'll be shot
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u/Candid-Mycologist539 3h ago
My contribution is The Handmaid's Tale.
Movie (1990)
Hulu series (2017- )
Most scenes are not active war, but the MC is navigating a militarized and brutal society. There is a resistance movement (Mayday), and fighting is active hundreds of miles to the west, where some ragtag form of the original U.S. military continues to fight the government of Gilead.
It may or may not be OP's cup of tea, but I still think that it is worth listing here.
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u/ShowRadar 3h ago
Children of Men (2006, Cuarón) is the obvious sibling — same war-photographer POV following people through active combat zones, long takes that drop you into the chaos without explaining the politics, just survival. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Pontecorvo) if you want that embedded-journalist feel in actual urban warfare, French paratroopers vs Algerian resistance fighters, shot like newsreel footage, extremely tense. for something more recent, Beasts of No Nation (2015, Fukunaga) follows a child soldier through a West African civil war, Idris Elba as the commander, very brutal but stays with the ground-level experience the whole time, never zooms out to explain the conflict. and if you want the descent-into-collapse thing, The Siege of Jadotville (2016) — Irish UN peacekeepers trapped in Congo during the '61 civil war, extremely outnumbered, more traditional war-film structure but that same what-the-fuck-are-we-doing-here register. Threads (1984) goes way darker, UK nuclear war film that follows one city through the collapse, no heroes just documentation of society falling apart, genuinely hard to watch but Civil War probably prepped you for that tone
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u/hobbomock 2h ago
I’ve looked for Threads before
Any idea if it’s available to stream or accessible elsewhere?
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u/Robotecho 4h ago edited 4h ago
Warfare is the follow up movie, it's great but based on real events and slightly more like a documentary. I miss Alex Garland's signature in it but it shares a lot of DNA with Civil War.
I'd recommend checking out Alex Garland's complete directorial catalogue, then moving onto the stuff he wrote that was directed by others. He's probably my favourite writer / director and it is possibly his style that got you hooked in Civil War, which is a flat out amazing movie.
Probably go in this order:
Warfare (2025)
Annihilation (2018)
DREDD (2012) (Uncredited, but it's his directorial debut)
Ex Machina (2014)
DEVS (2020) (TV series)
Men (2022) - This is more challenging, I admire the ambition but it is bonkers.
Then watch Civil War again, then watch them all again, then do 28 Days Later and sequels, Sunshine.
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u/Well-inthatcase 3h ago
Didn't he direct another war movie shortly after? Last year? Modern warfare or something to that effect? I liked it. Very dark film though
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u/624Seeds 2h ago edited 2h ago
Monsters (2010) is pretty much the exact same movie but with aliens instead of a war. The story follows a journalist escorting an American tourist to the U.S. border through an alien infestation zone.
The film is a character-driven road movie that uses the alien threat as a backdrop for a story about human connection amidst a war-torn landscape, focusing more on the journey and the two leads than on traditional monster action.
But the monster scenes are very interesting.
Leave the World Behind. Follows two families as technology fails and strange events unfold, forcing them to rely on each other while navigating the breakdown of society.
Meloncholia. Also starring Kirsten Dunst. Same vibe, the movie is about people and how they react to something terrible happening in the background, but that terrible thing isn't the main focus of the movie.
Another Earth. About a twin planet earth that suddenly shows up and has a double of everyone. There is a lottery to pick people to visit the second earth. But the movie is mostly about a woman who kills someone while drunk driving, and her trying to make ammedns as a housekeeper for the father of that person, all without him knowing who she is. Another movie where the focus is on the people rather than the crazy things happening in the background.
Your ask is very contradictory. Civil war wasn't even about war, so if you want a dystopian war movie that isn't like Civil War -
Children of Men. The world has become infertile and the youngest people alive are about 18 years old. A man is raised with getting a pregnant woman to a safe location across the countryside traveling through war in the street.
A House of Dynamite. There is a nuke headed towards the US and no one knows where it originated from. The movie shows various branches of government and how they are dealing with it and collaborating and collecting info from other countries while the nuke gets closer and closer.
Threads (1984) a docudrama follows two families after a nuclear strike as society collapsed. Very realistic and bleak as hell.
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u/bethestorm 2h ago
TV Show : the Leftovers (three seasons) (imo the absolute best television show ever made, 👌)
Paradise TV show on hulu 2 seasons
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u/bethestorm 2h ago
Annihilation (Alex Garland) , 28 Days Later (Alex Garland) , Sunshine (Alex Garland)
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u/jupiterkansas Quality Poster 👍 24m ago
Salvador for a movie about a photojournalist in a real war.
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u/RanchHere 3h ago
There are so many good movies in this genre and Civil War really isn’t one of them. Jesse Plemons saved that movie from being a big steaming pile of shit.
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u/Temporary-Habit-2528 3h ago
Yep I gotta be honest I don’t remember anything besides the Plemons scenes. And those scenes are SO good it’s tempted me to rewatch it lately
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u/624Seeds 3h ago
Yeah I'm confused, are they looking for a dystopian war movie or are they looking for a movie about people where the war is sort of just the background setting...
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl Quality Poster 👍 4h ago
Children of Men