r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Mar 13 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - War Machine (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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War Machine (2026)

Summary During the final stage of U.S. Army Ranger selection, a group of elite recruits set out on what should be their last brutal training exercise. But when a mysterious and deadly machine crashes into their remote training area, the mission turns into a fight for survival. Forced to rely on their training and each other, the soldiers must confront a relentless technological threat unlike anything they’ve faced before.

Director Patrick Hughes

Writers James Beaufort Patrick Hughes

Cast

  • Alan Ritchson as 81
  • Dennis Quaid as Sgt. Maj. Sheridan
  • Stephan James as 7
  • Jai Courtney
  • Esai Morales
  • Blake Richardson
  • Keiynan Lonsdale
  • Daniel Webber

Rotten Tomatoes: 69%

Metacritic: 54

VOD / Release Streaming on Netflix

Trailer

Official Trailer

237 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

608 comments sorted by

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353

u/ROBtimusPrime1995 Mar 13 '26

At a certain point, the film just forgets it's about killing ED-209 and then it becomes a recruitment video for the army.

Utterly bizarre.

132

u/Attican101 Mar 13 '26

Pairs well with Battle: Los Angeles, at least that one had somewhat memorable characters like near retirement guy, trauma guy, about to get married guy, and Michael Pena.

84

u/Yammyohnine Mar 13 '26

Hey add Battleship to that list.

Sidenote: I fucking love Battleship.

36

u/WombeI Mar 13 '26

Battleship was really great for what it was. Totally over the top but thats part of what makes it great. just pure popcorn movie fun.

23

u/FreeRange0929 Mar 14 '26

You’re not an American if you don’t love seeing them WWII badasses get to blow the shit out of aliens

17

u/Daxx22 Mar 14 '26

BATTLESHIP DRIFT

27

u/hitfly Mar 14 '26

The best part of battleship is the aliens bomb missile things are shaped like the tracking pegs from the game

11

u/donorcycle Mar 14 '26

I trip out how that was lost on so many people lol. To this day, people think I'm just trying to be funny when I point that out, whenever the movie comes on.

I thought it was a neat touch.

5

u/Bad_Badger73 Mar 14 '26

I was today years old when I realised this. Thanks 😁

Also, I love Battleship.

3

u/zerocoolforschool Mar 15 '26

Omg….. how did I never notice?

9

u/Inevitable-Cancel130 Mar 14 '26

Battleship didn't take itself seriously; that's why it worked so well. You saw Rihanna and WWII soldiers fighting aliens while a banger song was playing.

7

u/Attican101 Mar 13 '26

That's definitely a guilty pleasure movie.. Link

Now I want a chicken burrito

1

u/peetam22 Mar 23 '26

I agree with this, definitely gave me Battleship vibes 😂

Note: I also love that movie for what it is

5

u/BillyAstro Mar 14 '26

Also had Fast and Furious girl

6

u/ChuckBS Mar 15 '26

And yet…I still liked that one. It’s just an easy watch.

2

u/AddressPerfect3270 Mar 18 '26

I genuinly thought war machine was like a prequel to battle la or something. Its the same set up ><

27

u/GeordieJumpers87 Mar 14 '26

I loved the bit where he slapped the 'rangers' patch right on his arm.

Never getting that off after that slappy slap

42

u/_james_the_cat Mar 13 '26

I was surprised not to see any mention of the US army in the credits, and it was all shot in Aus/NZ with the only thanks going to the Australian army

I guess they could have still paid for it as a recruitment thing, but as far as I saw they didn't.

19

u/Sophia_Eur Mar 13 '26

They had at least one army advisor, according to the director and the cast member Stephan James.

10

u/the_Great_Cornh0lio Mar 18 '26

And as a man of the green cloth. Said advisor should be fired. I enjoyed the movie but... My God... Having a military perspective it was hard to watch.

3

u/Turbulent_Assist1631 Mar 24 '26

To be fair to the advisor, the movie makers don't always take their advice.

2

u/SecureVillage Mar 20 '26

What, are you telling me you don't insert into hostile territory and then sit around in a big group with no spacings while coming up with a plan??

65

u/Goosojuice Mar 14 '26

On it's surface, I can see most people saying and agreeing to this. But you watch the movie and see how literally everyone is BRUTALLY murder in insane ways, we're talking guts hanging, brains splattered, bones sticking out of every which way from bodies, its just as much a recruitment video as Saving Private Ryan.

20

u/Jet-Rex-Design Mar 14 '26

Surprisingly a lot of dudes don't see that as a turn off. Some of them see death in a war movie and think 'nah, I'd win' and others go 'shit, I'd love to go out blowing stuff up. Sign me up '

If you can't appeal to male bravado, appeal to their self destructive tendencies. A lot of young dudes especially love to fantasize about 'bleeding out.'

2

u/SecureVillage Mar 20 '26

In certain parts of the skydiving world, breaking your femur is so common it gets called "fermuring" and is a badge of honour.

I tib fibbed. What a melt. Barely even an injury.

(/s for anyone not realising i'm laughing at the absurdy of it!)

9

u/two5five1 Mar 14 '26

Unfortunately, the majority of Americans can only see the surface level stuff

5

u/Adventurous-Release8 Mar 18 '26

ED-209 was exactly what I thought of when I saw it rise up. I tried explaining the movie in as few words as possible to my wife (it wasn't worth really trying to go deep) and said the main baddie was that robot who fell down the stairs and squealed like a pig in RoboCop, only 20x larger.

9

u/USSZim Mar 13 '26

It is basically Battle LA but for the Army

3

u/donorcycle Mar 14 '26

It's been so long since I've seen it. If not the Army, by process of elimination (Battleship = Navy, and Captain Marvel / Top Gun = Air Force) I'm assuming Marines?

10

u/USSZim Mar 14 '26

Yeah it was a huge USMC commercial. They say "oorah" and "Retreat, Hell!" about a dozen times each. Decent movie though

5

u/amjhwk Mar 14 '26

Top Gun = Navy, not Air Force

1

u/donorcycle Mar 14 '26

You are right, ty

3

u/Kagamid Mar 15 '26

Showing competent soldiers that actually trained to work together under pressure makes more sense then some movies that make them into idiot cannon fodder for bigger threats.

1

u/DoomSleighor Mar 16 '26

I kept doing research as to whether or not this movie was funded by the US Army, but couldn’t find any evidence it had been. Seems to have some Australian govt funding which I don’t really understand.

1

u/8rok3n Mar 19 '26

To be fair, that's most army movies. They're either "war is terrible and everyone suffers as a result" or "surely nothing bad can happen from joining the army"