‘Civil War’ Trailer: New Footage of Alex Garland’s American Apocalypse

The second trailer for the highly anticipated action-drama Civil War has been released.

The A24 film from writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) depicts a near-future United States where 19 states have seceded from the Union, while much of the rest of the country is ruled by a tyrannical three-term president (Nick Offerman), who has ordered air strikes against the rebelling forces. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Sonoya Mizuno also star.

“The Western forces of Texas and California are welcome back to these United States as soon as their illegal secessionist government is deposed,” Offerman’s character declares.

Much has been made of the film’s idea that Texas and California are on the same side, due to the two states having largely different political leanings in real life. (One thing they have in common, however, is they’re both resource-rich, populous states that hypothetically could — during some constitutional crisis — be better equipped than others to resist an out-of-control government.) “That question — why Texas and California — is a question that I want the audience to ask,” Garland previously told Empire. “I’ve seen [the film] described as sci-fi, but I don’t see it as sci-fi at all. There’s no ‘sci’ in it, for a start.”

Garland also gave some thoughts about the central story — which follows a journalist, played by Dunst, who is traveling the country amid the crisis. “Journalists are vilified often by all sorts of different people,” Garland said. “By politicians, by the public. It’s not necessarily a side of a political spectrum. And the truth is that if you want a government with checks and balances, you need journalists. In the inferences within the film, one of them is an inference about journalists and about how important they are.”

The Oscar-nominated Garland has long been in business with A24, dating back to his directorial debut, 2014’s Ex Machina. Some of his other films include 2018’s Annihilation, 2022’s Men and as a writer for 2002’s 28 Days Later.

The indie studio will release Civil War on April 12.