Warfare 2025 Parents Guide

Warfare is rated R by the Motion Picture Rating (MP) for intense war violence and bloody/grisly images, and language throughout.

Review: Warfare – A Relentless, Unflinching Glimpse into Modern Combat

Warfare doesn’t ease you in—it jolts you to attention. The film opens with a brief, testosterone-charged preamble: a group of servicemen gathered around a small TV, hollering over a high-energy aerobics video. It’s a moment of levity, one that humanizes these men before the veil drops. Within minutes, the tone shifts completely. The date stamp—November 19, 2006—locks in, and the real mission begins.

What follows is a lean, brutal, and riveting real-time depiction of a covert Navy SEAL operation in Iraq, drawn directly from co-director Ray Mendoza’s own firsthand experience. Mendoza, a former JTAC communicator, ensures every beat of Warfare feels lived-in—because it was. There’s no glossy patriotism, no artificial heroics. Just tension, teamwork, and tactical precision.

At the center of the film is a young SEAL played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs), whose quiet intensity anchors the viewer in the fog of war. Alongside him, Cosmo Jarvis as sniper Elliot Miller and Joseph Quinn (poised to break out in Fantastic Four: First Steps) bring raw physicality and emotional vulnerability to the chaos. Their mission is clear: support nearby Marines from a neighborhood rooftop. But the ground shifts quickly—enemy forces probe, organize, and eventually descend in a coordinated assault.

Once the SEALs’ position is compromised, the film spirals into visceral survival. A failed extraction triggers a harrowing turn: a house-turned-battleground, wounded comrades screaming in pain, and an Iraqi family caught in the middle. It’s claustrophobic, unrelenting, and nerve-shredding. Yet never once does it feel like action for action’s sake. There’s no Hollywood spectacle here—only grim, authentic consequences.

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One of the film’s most compelling aspects is what it chooses not to do. The SEALs don’t fire until fired upon. There’s no grandstanding or inflated sense of martyrdom. Mendoza and co-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War) opt for stark realism, stripping the narrative of conventional war film flourishes. This isn’t about ideology. It’s about immediacy, decisions under fire, and the unbreakable trust forged under the worst of circumstances.

Will Poulter and Charles Melton deliver standout performances as commanding officers keeping the unit together. There’s no time for monologues—only action, adaptation, and survival. Every glance, gesture, and order carries weight, and the cast nails the military cadence and composure with unnerving authenticity.

Technically, Warfare is a masterclass. David J. Thompson’s cinematography traps the viewer inside the house, creating a kinetic yet coherent visual experience. There’s no shaky cam gimmickry—just immersive, fluid movement that mirrors the soldiers’ calculated calm. And perhaps even more impactful is the film’s use of sound—or rather, its restraint. There is no score. Just the sharp, echoing snap of gunfire, the piercing cries of the injured, and the tense silence between attacks. Supervising sound editors Ben Barker and Oscar-winner Glenn Freemantle (Gravity) engineer an auditory onslaught that refuses to let go.

Some will ask whether Warfare has a “stance” on the Iraq War. But that question, frankly, misses the point. This isn’t a polemic. It’s not interested in the politics of war—only the reality of it. For those expecting a message, a moral, or a tidy resolution, Mendoza and Garland offer only the cold, hard facts: men followed orders, things went sideways, lives were lost, and others barely made it out. Sometimes, that’s the story. And it deserves to be told.

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In the closing credits, we see real Navy SEALs whose identities remain redacted—faces blurred, names withheld. These are the men Warfare honors, not with dramatization, but with sobering accuracy. Mendoza himself put it best at the film’s premiere: romanticism has its place in cinema, but this film’s power lies in legitimacy. In remembering, exactly as it happened. In making sure we never mistake truth for fiction, or spectacle for sacrifice.

Warfare is not for the faint of heart. But for those willing to look war in the face—without the cushion of ideology or Hollywood embellishment—it’s a gut-wrenching, unforgettable experience.

Warfare 2025 Parents Guide

Violence & Gore:  The movie paints a very realistic picture of the contemporary warfare, especially from the view of the working-class soldiers. Intense fire fight sequences include sharp and abrupt shooting accompanied by effects such as muzzle flashes, blood spatter, and impacts of bullets. The violence is not glamorized; it is typical, vicious, and can make the skin crawl.

Amputations, fractures, open wounds, and blood are clearly depicted in the movie. Even though the movie may not be excessively violent, there are several powerful scenes depicting soldiers in pain and many of them die on screen either in the hands of medics or fellow soldiers. Some shows us slow and painful deaths of the characters.

Some of the soldiers are violently thrown and some are found burnt or critically injured. The aftermath is smoke, falling ash, cries of the tormented, and bloody descriptions of others.

Many of the scenes occur indoors and there are also non-combatants in the show. The close combat scenes are very effectively disturbing and create an atmosphere of threat and ambiguity.

An Iraqi family is confined to their house for their protection and as a form of imprisonment hence the addition of emotional depth. They are not actually abused, but the fear of the evil spirits and their inability to protect themselves jumps off the page.

Language: The language used in the movie is utterly vulgar and riddled with profanity such as the F word, and st, a , b**ch, g*ddamn.

The dialogue is realistic and is written in a manner that the characters are clearly in a stressful, life-or-death situation. Men in uniform under pressure use language full of fear, anguish, and desperation.

Sex & Nudity: In the introductory sequence, soldiers observe a sex-stereotyped exercise video in which women wear little clothing. Some of the comedies include sexualized dancing and there are scenes with brief subtle sexual innuendos.

One soldier tries to imitate some of the moves that are in the video, most likely as a funny scene.

This is the only scene that can be considered to have any sexual connotations at all and it is very brief and not overly provocative.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: This is a war-themed movie with no scene depicting the use of substances.

There are no elements connected to the main character’s personal life, and the story unfolds only in a combat zone.