Insurrection Response Exercise ‘War Game’ Became So Real, Government Officials Forgot It Was a Documentary

When the truth becomes stranger than fiction, it’s time to prepare for the worst case scenario. The documentary “War Game” follows 35 members of the past five presidencies participating in a six-hour war game to stage a response to a government insurrection.

In case anyone forgot, we’ve already had one of those: January 6th infamously saw the occupant of the White House and the public alike try to overthrow the Capitol. Now, “War Game” is staging a simulation of an even more serious insurrection that would involve members of the military.

During the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox, the documentary’s co-directors Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber told IndieWire’s Chris O’Falt that the film was all about “leaning into that unknown” of actual possible political attacks.

“We had no idea what was going to happen,” Gerber said of how the war game would unfold. “For us as doc makers, leaning into that unknown and leaning into that fear is what drives us. Our responsibility was to create cinema, to create a beautiful cinematic bundle that engaged an audience not just with ideas but through the heart. This is a film that is really intended to spark dialogue and to remind folks of what it is we could lose if we don’t collectively stand up and throw down for democracy, for our institutions. To me, this is the social justice issue of our age.”

Executive producer Warren Littlefield, simply said that he believed the project to be a necessary answer to mounting threats against the American government and democracy as a whole.

“I love democracy and I love America,” Littlefield said, citing that originally the concept was to pitch a “60 Minutes” episode before the team realized the message was “a lot bigger than that.”

“This felt like a story that needed to be told and illuminated to as many people as possible,” Littlefield said.

Co-director Moss added that the aesthetics of “War Game” were inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.” But there was nothing fictional about how the actual war game proceeded.

Military member and documentary subject Janessa Goldbeck explained the very real threat behind the need to even form a war game response to an insurrection.

“The military is a microcosm of our society at large. We’ve seen that there are increasingly more and more extreme elements of our society willing to sacrifice the Constitution and our democracy for power,” Goldbeck said. “When we saw this rising threat across our society and the military, we wanted to do something about it. Doing this exercise was a way of examining some of the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our society, and also sparking a larger conversation in America.”

She added of the purpose of war games in general, “In the military, it’s very common to do war games to try to game out what might happen in a particular scenario, whether that’s a deployment overseas or a training exercise. It’s very standard for us to do that. It’s a way of testing our strengths and weaknesses.”

Former governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, said that while filming “War Game,” many officials forgot it was even a documentary.

“When the lights came on, no one was paying attention to the cameras,” Bullock said. “This was an exercise where we weren’t pretending to be anybody other than who we were that dealt with the real challenges of this situation. During that, I think no one would know if you were Democrat or Republican. What they knew is that you cared deeply about this country. As we sit here today, a fourth of Americans think the FBI is actually behind January 6th. As we sit here today, a third of the members of Congress, are still denying the last election.”

Bullock continued, “I think we were all there not with concern about what happened in the past, but about what could happen in the future.”

Check out the full interview above and see the IndieWire review of “War Game” here.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival runs January 18 to 28, with festival talks taking place January 19 to 26. See all the videos published so far from the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox.

Dropbox supports and champions independent makers, crews, and teams behind the camera who bring their unique perspectives to life at the Sundance Film Festival. We’re proud that over 60% of films at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival leveraged Dropbox in their filmmaking process.It takes a monumental effort for film projects to go from ideation to completion, and Dropbox is dedicated to helping filmmakers get their projects across the finish line faster. Filmmakers used Dropbox as one organized homebase to keep video files secure, to remotely collaborate with teams around the world, and to get real-time video feedback with Dropbox Replay.