‘All Empires Fall’: Chilling ‘Civil War’ Trailer Shows Dystopian, Divided America

Independent film studio A24 dropped a chilling trailer about director Alex Garland’s upcoming dystopian movie “Civil War,” which shows an America torn apart and descending into chaos.

In the opening scene from two-minute-plus trailer, smoke can be seen rising in a metropolitan city and a voiceover says that “19 states have seceded” and that the United States Army” has ramped up activity.”

The viewer is told the White House has issued a warning to “Western forces as well as the Florida Alliance,” before we learn about a “third-term president” who has assured the populace that any uprisings will be “dealt with swiftly.”

“In the near future, a team of journalists travel across the United States during a rapidly escalating civil war that has engulfed the entire nation,” a description on IMDb read

Text that was shown between images of war and chaos said “All Empires Fall,” as the film follows journalists, played by Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura, making their way across the country, In one clip, a reporter confronts the president, played by Nick Offerman, about using airstrikes against American citizens. Images of tanks, displaced Americans, an American flag with just two stars, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. being blown up are also featured in the trailer.

Comments on social media reacting to the trailer have been mixed, with many people having trouble understanding how liberal California and conservative Texas entered into an alliance in the world of the film, UPROXX noted.

“Trying to think of what shared political principle could estrange Texas and California from the rest of the United States, and my only conclusion is they go to war over the difference between Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr,” one person wrote on X.

Another person added, “I’m gonna need elaborate context on this one, like explaining how and why Texas and California somehow banded together to secede.”

“Civil War” is scheduled to hit theaters April 26, 2024.