Civil War Ending Explained: Got The Shot

Living in a country where people's basic human rights are being stripped down or removed on a regular basis, where hate and prejudice are alive and well, where violence can erupt at any moment in almost any location — it feels increasingly strange to call being an American a privileged and lucky thing, but the fact remains that it is (for now, at least). In comparison to the many war-torn countries that have suffered open conflict in their streets at various points in time (including, yes, this very moment), Americans haven't had to endure the horror of invasion, occupation, or open warfare as a way of life for many generations, basically since the American Civil War of the 1860s.

This is not to say that Americans are ignorant, but rather especially privileged. Being a part of a country that has generally maintained political, cultural, and military dominance over the world for the last century, America's more thoughtful cinema in relation to war has tended to either look inward at mistakes and injustices we've committed elsewhere or create an external fantasy of "it could happen here," whether that be post-apocalyptic films (zombies or otherwise) or movies like "Red Dawn."

"Civil War," the latest movie from the English filmmaker Alex Garland, essentially falls into the latter category. Yet, as its marketing campaign and button-pushing bits of dialogue and images indicate, the prospect of another, actual civil war breaking out in this country feels dangerously possible, especially given the events of the last decade and change. However, for better or worse, "Civil War" is not a directly political film, nor is it apolitical, given the theory of cinema-as-politics in terms of creative choices made or not made. Instead, the movie is the latest in Garland's cinema of reality transformed into liminal spaces. Just as "Ex Machina," "Annihilation," and "Men" ventured into literal uncanny valleys, "Civil War" explores the horror of America transformed into a place its characters — and its audience — do not recognize, and yet must reckon with. It's a film of observation, with people whose job it is to observe as its protagonists.

Later, at Lee's hotel, she and her journalist colleague, Joel (Wagner Moura), discuss their plans to make their way to Washington, DC in order to hopefully take a photo of and interview the President, respectively. When another old friend of theirs, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), overhears their plans, he initially tries to talk Lee out of going, knowing the literal and figurative danger zone they'll be driving into. However, during his protestations, Sammy (who Joel describes as working for "whatever's left of the New York Times") realizes what Lee and Joel know: this is the only big story left to file, even if, as he warns, there may no longer be anyone left to file it with once it's obtained.

Like a moth to a flame, Jessie — a self-confessed fan of Lee and her work — turns up at the hotel, thanking Lee for saving her life earlier and trying to insinuate herself into the photographer's life a little more. She's ultimately successful, as Lee discovers the next morning that Joel is letting her tag along since Lee said the older, infirm Sammy could come with them earlier. Like the soldiers in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (or, perhaps more pointedly, Garland's "Annihilation"), the foursome take off in their "PRESS"-labeled van into the once-familiar, now-strange American landscape.

As if to prove that uncanny, threatening strangeness, the group stops off at a gas station where Lee has to offer the proprietor $300 Canadian in order for them to get half a tank and one additional carton of gas. Exploring the station's now-defunct car wash, Jessie discovers the station owners have strung up two alleged looters, one of whom used to be an old high school classmate of his captor. Jessie is stricken numb with shock and fear; Lee coldly asks the man to take a photo with his victims.

After Jessie has a small breakdown following the incident, Lee has Joel pull over to a destroyed shopping mall where a helicopter had crashed long ago, teaching Jessie that it'll make a good image. The two women reconcile their differences, even as Jessie learns about Lee's hardened approach to morality born through years of field experience. When Jessie asks if, should she be shot and killed during their journey as Lee seems to think that she will, Lee would take a picture of her body, Lee says she would without hesitation.

Speaking of cognitive dissonance and citizens pretending the civil war isn't happening, the Press van rolls into a small town in which no semblance of decay appears, a doubly strange phenomenon given that so much of America in the film so far feels akin to a George A. Romero (or, to reference another prior Garland script, "28 Days Later") landscape.

Pulling up to a shop on the town's main street, Joel briefly interrogates the shop clerk, wondering if she and the townspeople know that there's a war going on. She confirms, but shrugs, explaining that the town has made a decision to pretty much "stay out of it." Jessie convinces a reluctant Lee to try on a dress, and the woman looks at herself wearing the garment in the mirror; it's the first time in a long time she's seen herself wearing anything but comfortable, on-the-go clothes.

Perhaps seeing that Lee is slightly succumbing to the town's siren song, Sammy calls her over while the two share a cigarette. Indicating that she should slyly sneak a look at the roofs of the surrounding buildings, Lee sees snipers posted on every roof, revealing just how this town is free to be so lackadaisical. "We wouldn't have liked it here, anyway," Sammy says knowingly.

Unfortunately, as fair and balanced as the journalists are attempting to be while doing their jobs, that doesn't mean others with far more radicalized outlooks aren't an active threat, as the group comes to learn the hard way. When another van rapidly approaches the group's, it turns out that the passenger is a good buddy of Joel's, Tony (Nelson Lee), who instructed his driver pal, Bohai (Evan Lai), to follow the group to DC in order to potentially beat them to the story. For a few moments, the two groups enjoy some frivolity, with Tony jumping into our heroes' van while both are still driving at top speed (something Jessie exuberantly tries out by jumping into the other van).

After Bohai and Jessie take off down the road, they suddenly seem to disappear, leading Lee to initially suspect some foul play. Her instincts are right, even if her suspicions turn out to be worse, as the group finds Bohai's van forced over and abandoned near a lakeside farm. They approach some soldiers dumping a load of corpses into a mass grave, and it becomes apparent that these soldiers do not belong to any particular army. Despite Sammy's protests, the three approach the leader (Jesse Plemons), explaining that they're American journalists and asking that their colleagues, who are being held at gunpoint, be set free.

"What kind of American are you?" asks the leader, and it soon becomes clear that Lee and Jessie's answers of Colorado and Wyoming are acceptable, while Tony's answer of Hong Kong is not. Just as it seems the leader is about to murder Joel for being from Florida, Sammy arrives in the van, running the man down and rescuing the group, though unfortunately not before Jessie spends a horrifying moment in the middle of the mass grave, and not before Sammy is hit by a stray bullet while they flee the scene.

As the WF Army tears through the White House, taking down various secret servicemen and aides, Lee, Jessie, and Joel are right beside them, documenting as much as they can despite the danger. Lee, in particular, seems reinvigorated after her earlier breakdown, remembering her role in the world and seemingly renewed in her belief in it. She has also, of course, become a mentor and surrogate mother to Jessie, who seems to be quickly following in Lee's footsteps.

Eventually, the fate Lee once predicted for Jessie comes for her instead, even though it's partially her choice — when Jessie is left momentarily in the line of fire, Lee pushes her out of the way, only to catch the bullet herself. Jessie, now a professional photojournalist, captures the moment of her mentor's death on camera. The fact that Lee has been killed by a bullet fired by a White House official only makes the incident that much more strange and tragic.

Journalists do occupy a strange place in society, albeit a necessary one. After all, it was Lee's instincts that led the WF Army into the White House where the President was secretly hiding. Yet Lee, Jessie, and Joel represent the citizenry of the nation on-site; if nothing else, they're witnesses to history so that the events can be known and interpreted later. As the Army captures the President at gunpoint, Joel screams at the soldiers to wait a moment: "I need a quote," he explains, not wanting this incident to pass unobserved, not wanting his colleagues to have died for nothing. The President weakly mewls, "Don't let them kill me." Joel is satisfied: "That'll do."