Is ‘Warfare’ Fact or Fiction? Inside the Movie’s Iraq War Mission

• The new A24 movie Warfare depicts a harrowing Navy SEAL mission in 2006 amid the Iraq War
• Co-director Ray Mendoza authentically recreated onscreen the real-life mission he and his comrades were a part of
• The film is dedicated to Elliott Miller, who was gravely wounded during the incident

Audiences seeing A24’s Warfare this weekend may be surprised by its ending credits, which shows real-life Iraq War soldiers alongside the cast. Are the events and people depicted in the movie based on real life? 

Co-written and co-directed by retired Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza and Civil War helmer Alex Garland, Warfare (in theaters now) stars D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Taylor John Smith, Charles Melton and more. Read on for everything you need to know about the critically acclaimed movie and the true story it’s based on. 

What is Warfare about? 

“Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in insurgent territory” which occurred in November 2006 during the battle between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents in Ramadi Province, per an official synopsis.

The movie recreates the events of that mission in vivid detail, from the SEAL surveillance team taking over a civilian’s home to a brutal escalation involving grenades, an IED and several shootouts before armored tanks successfully evacuated the troops. The synopsis calls it a “visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare and brotherhood, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.”

Who is Ray Mendoza? 

Before he worked as a technical advisor and stunt coordinator on Hollywood movies, Mendoza served over 16 years as a member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 5. For the incident depicted in Warfare, he received a Silver Star Medal “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy.”

Mendoza began discussing innovative ways of depicting warfare onscreen with Garland while working as a consultant on the 2024 film Civil War. The two settled on the Ramadi evacuation mission as the basis for an attempt to recreate combat in almost real time — and for the benefit of another soldier who was there with Mendoza. 

Who is Elliott Miller and why is Warfare dedicated to him? 

Inspiring the creation of Warfare was also the person it’s dedicated to: Elliott Miller, Mendoza’s comrade and friend. A medic and sniper who during the mission was gravely wounded — losing a leg and suffering a traumatic brain injury which wiped out his power of speech and any memory of the incident — Miller now uses a wheelchair and communicates through a text-to-speech program.

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The Navy and its veterans don’t “really spend a lot of time slotting all those [missions] together and making a linear story out of it,” Mendoza tells PEOPLE. “For somebody who doesn’t have that memory, it can be a little bit frustrating.” Once he began a new career in moviemaking around 15 years ago, Mendoza realized it “could potentially be a visual medium” to help Miller understand the near-fatal incident. 

Fellow members of that platoon, he adds, “wanted this story for Elliott.” Writing it based on their firsthand accounts of the mission — and filming it with Miller himself visiting the set — provided Mendoza a cathartic way to process his trauma, he says. “I don’t think I would be where I’m at any other way.”

How did Mendoza recreate his Iraq War mission in Warfare? 

Teaming up with Garland, Mendoza cast actors who were willing to undergo grueling training and long takes to retell his platoon’s story. Warfare production notes reveal that designers Mark Digby and Michelle Day reconstructed the Ramadi street from the ground up in a London suburb. The details of the set, including the sounds and smells around it, were based on the memories many of the SEALs shared with Mendoza and Garland. 

“Long extended takes allowed us to float through spaces where people are doing things concurrently — we could pick up realistic details you cannot script,” says Garland in the movie’s production notes. “The actors were doing 12-minute take after 12-minute take, and wound up yawning, flexing, or scratching the back of their heads.” 

In keeping with its commitment to authenticity, Warfare was shot in chronological order. This also meant many of the explosive effects were practical rather than computer generated. Mendoza and Garland also employed sound and camera work designed to immerse audiences in the effects explosions can have, including temporary deafness and tunnel vision. 

Which actors play the soldiers? 

Woon-A-Tai leads Warfare as Mendoza, while Jarvis plays the injured Miller. Quinn portrays a character based on Joe Hildebrand, who was also gravely injured during the mission. Many of the platoon’s other soldiers have their names changed and faces blurred in the movie’s ending credits; some requested privacy, while others could not be located. 

The movie also stars Michael Gandolfini, Finn Bennett, Noah Centineo and more. The cast has shared that while training together as Navy SEALs, they got matching tattoos — the words “Call on Me,” in reference to their shared brotherhood and the film’s only musical moment — and shaved each other’s heads. 

Warfare is in theaters now.