Bracing Doc Tests Readiness for an Attempted Coup

Hearing that Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber’s documentary concerns a war game conducted to test the country’s readiness for a national security crisis, it was easy to imagine a scenario involving an international threat posed by, say, China or Russia. No such luck. It turns out that War Game chronicles an exercise revolving around a threat from within, namely the sort of insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. The film, receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at NYC’s Film Forum, serves as a bracing reminder that such an event could occur again, and indeed seems even more likely should a certain Republican nominee for president decide to incite more violence.

The filmmakers have experience dealing with such concepts. Moss co-directed the acclaimed Boys State and Girls State, in which groups of young people attempted to form democratic governments; and Gerber and Moss made Full Battle Rattle, about the U.S. Army’s simulation in California’s Mojave Desert of battle conditions in Iraq.

The directors’ new collaboration looks at a war game conducted by veterans’ advocacy group Vet Voice, imagining the government’s response to a potential coup following a contested presidential election. In other words, an upheaval very similar to Jan. 6, except with the added danger of members of the military abetting the insurrectionists’ efforts. One of the participants, former North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamp, sums up the exercise as “Coup Prevention 101.”

Heitkamp is one of many current and former political and military figures performing in the exercise, which, as chronicled in the film, resembles the 2000 live-television version of Fail Safe. Among the many other recognizable personages taking part are former Montana governor Steve Bullock, who plays “President John Hotham”; former Alabama senator Doug Jones as the Attorney General; former NATO commander Wesley Clark as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former FBI agent Peter Strzok — you may recall something about his texts — as the FBI director (the irony is delicious); and Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera as the secretary of defense.

The “Game Consultants” include neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol and retired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, who has had direct experience dealing with would-be authoritarians.

All of them play their roles so convincingly you begin to wonder if they’ve been moonlighting as thespians. There are a few ringers in the mix, such as actor Chris Coffey as the failed presidential candidate Robert Strickland, who doesn’t take his razor-thin loss at all well. Strickland calls upon the (fictional) organization the Order of Columbus (think the Oath Keepers) to rise up and take control of both the U.S. Capitol and various state capitols, with many members of the military treasonously supporting them.

“What we are here to do is stress-test our national security system,” says one of the designers of the game, which takes place in a realistic recreation of the Situation Room. As the president and his cabinet members and advisers strategize over how to respond, we see fake newscasts reporting the events and incendiary videos and social media messages from the leaders of the Order of Columbus and losing candidate Strickland, who tells his followers, “Together, we will restore the greatness of the American people and this great nation.” (Sound familiar?)

As the events depicted in the exercise threaten to spiral out of control, a chief topic of conversation among the president and his advisers is whether to invoke the Insurrection Act, which one participant describes as the “nuclear option.” The president is reluctant to take such a drastic step. Some, including a senior adviser played by Heitkamp, urge him to consider it — BTW, who knew Heitkamp was such a badass? — while others urge caution, saying the power can be abused in the wrong hands. “We’re advising this guy. This ain’t Trump,” someone comments.

There’s an obvious meta quality to the whole enterprise that sometimes makes the proceedings feel slightly silly. (“I gotta say, DOD and DHS are playing their roles with intensity,” one of the offscreen game designers comments approvingly at one point.) But however stilted War Game may feel cinematically, it registers with full force as a realistic depiction of a nightmarish scenario that could easily occur just a few months from now. Particularly sobering is the notation during the end credits that nearly one in five of the Jan. 6 defendants were military veterans.