Was Civil War (2024) Realistic?

Civil War (2024) is a drama/action movie about a group of 4 journalists who are traveling through a dystopian America on their way to Washington, DC to interview the president before he is deposed by rebel forces.

The movie is a mix of accuracy with some really accurate moments, some boneheaded decisions and some obvious props.

Was it a good movie? It was a solid movie with some good moments.

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[RyanMcBethProgramming]

Civil War (2024) is a drama/action movie about a group of 4 journalists who are traveling through a dystopian America on their way to Washington, DC to interview the president before he is deposed by rebel forces.

The movie is a mix of accuracy with some really accurate moments, some boneheaded decisions and some obvious props.

Was it a good movie? It was a solid movie with some good moments.

How an M240B works from 3DGunner:

How Air Assault Works:

For uncensored video, check out my substack at:

Like my shirts? Get your own at:

Want a personalized greeting:

Watch all of my long form videos:

Twitter:
@ryanmcbeth
Instagram:
@therealryanmcbeth
BlueSky
@ryanmcbeth
Reddit:
/r/ryanmcbeth

Join the conversation:

Want to send me something?
Ryan McBeth Productions LLC
8705 Colesville Rd.
Suite 249
Silver Spring, MD 20910
USA

[chasethevioletsun]

"The US Army is a logistical organization that dabbles in combat" -- Ryan, and my dad, since forever.

[guiltyspark]

I don't think Jesse Plemmons' character was meant to have been an actual soldier. Before the war, he was probably just a militia LARPer who always fantasized about being part of a death squad and now he gets to live out his dreams.

[_gungrave_]

Fun fact about that scene with Jesse Plemmons(guy wearing the bright red/orange glasses). Originally he was never intended to be in this film. His wife is in the movie and he happened to be on set that day to support her. So what happened was the person who was supposed to play the bad guy in that infamous scene was unable to do so though I don't remember why. Plemmon's wife convinced him to take up the role despite his heavy reluctance to do so and it ended up being the most iconic scene from the movie. The only real major change Plemmons had for the character was to allow him to wear those sunglasses that he found in a thrift store near where they were shooting. Frankly the sunglasses kind of added to the crazy surreal nature of that scene.

Now the reason for his reluctance to play the character is that like any actor he doesn't like being typecasted. Unfortunately for Plemmons he just has that look and ability to embody extremely horrible characters that do things even most villains would never do. The guy in real life is supposedly a very amiable and friendly person.

[bencheevers]

"when I lost my left arm I didn't feel a thing"
Good thing you found it later

[Badco]

Trigger discipline? I'm a Marine from wayback. In Vietnam, we didn't do trigger discipline as it is currently taught. It was safety discipline. The acceptable carrying condition of any non-crew served weapon was cocked and locked. Your weapon could definitely be on the trigger during carry, but you would use your thumb to unsafe the weapon in the case of the M-16 and M-79 and the trigger finger itself to unsafe the M-14 or it's predecessor the M-1. I'm not sure what the procedure was for the pig, as I never carried one, only FAM fired them at various times. Accidental discharge was just as big a sin as it is today back then. Maybe bigger in jungle areas, as it alerted any unseen enemy that forces were in the area.

[buckspan]

Helicopter that crashed at the mall is a Sikorsky S-76 typically a VIP transport however the Eagle variant was made for military use

[PMAtreides]

That Apocalypse Now analogy is actually apt, Civil War really isn’t a civil war movie, but about journalism and society

[KingDoomfist]

I worked with some super cool Croatians who told me the average combatant would ACT like they were shooting their old neighbors and high school pals, but would really just shoot the air b/c, like, very few hearts and minds on either side. Twinge of faith in humanity restored.

[sc]

On the last scene you mentioned. I thought the most striking thing was how proud they were of killing, and happy to pose in front of the bodies. They don't view what they did as wrong. I think it shows how in reality any kind of uprising would be filled with absolute horror, and people would be doing things that they were immensely cruel. It reminds me of the documentary "The Act of Killing" which follows former death-squad members of the Indonesian Civil War. They are proud of what they did, and happy to reenact their immense cruelty. If you haven't seen it, you absolutely must watch it - and maybe even do a review of it. It's uniquely horrifying.

[Elong_Musket]

My suspension of disbelief stopped at the DC fight. I didn't even wanna finish the movie. As someone who was in the DC guard and activated during the riots of 2020 and Jan 6 I appreciated the earlier tones and themes the film played with. Those opening shots of soldiers in front of the capitol brought back some emotions I had at the time. But then all that came crashing down with a javelin missile arcing up and hitting the Lincoln Memorial only a second after being shot. Those F22 barrel rolls were foreshadowing for sure...

[differnet]

I absolutely love your comments about logistics. One of the things that I find ridiculous about this kind of movie is that it ignores the utter disruption that would happen to things like food supply, medical equipment, infrastructure including potable water and electricity - never mind gasoline. The closest we've ever seen to this kind of disruption would be the 1918 Flu epidemic. You thought getting toilet paper was hard in COVID, that's child play. The north could probably get supplies from Canada and the Southwest from Mexico, but who is going to bankroll them. Seriously, most people have no idea how important a stable government is to their comforts and life.

[thecommentaryking]

An important question as a non-American that has bugged me is what are the US allies in Asia and Europe doing? And most importantly what are US troops stationed overseas doing?
I can't imagine NATO standing by watching their biggest ally destroy itself without doing something.

[jkbrown]

Surplus military vehicles are nice for civilian police until they have to find the budget for upkeep. The price for a new tire will make the accountants pass out.

[philkipnis]

Ryan, this is one of the best programs you've produced. I and your other supporters appreciate the effort you put into it. This is first-rate stuff and we appreciate it and thank you.

[ToddWBucy-lfyz]

That is pretty much what I took away from my experience with IFOR in Bosnia back in 96 and again in 98 and 99. In total I spent 18 months with IFOR. It was then I realized just how thin the line is and how easy it is to go down that road.

[townsville]

Not looting bodies in films is my pet peeve (and I'm a loot goblin). Especially when in the next scene they run out of bullets and supplies. Gahd ! Pick up all the shiny's !!

[tacticoolrick]

My favorite part of this movie is that Ron Swanson is the president. And since they don't say the president's name in the movie, it's now cannon that Ron Swanson became president.

[Juicejunkie]

YouTube says as long as it’s a movie you could show violence guns machine guns whatever as long as it’s a movie

[bird]

13:38 "if you don't want to geek out about machine guns and movie props .." brother, my gf just broke up with me, there is nothing I'd rather do than geek out about machine guns and movie props.