WAR GAME : A review
by Karen Pecota

Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber | USA | Canada | 2024

An unscripted role-play exercise set for one year in the future on January 6, 2025, to confront a potential political coup supported by radical members of the US military if a contested presidential election reoccurs, is the real-time simulation which filmmakers Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber showcase in WAR GAME.

The exercise draws the audience into a dramatic hypothetical scenario where the Congress is convening to certify a re-election of the qualified incumbent US President. At stake is the peaceful transfer of power and preservation of American democracy.

At the same time, in the White House Situation Room, President-elect John Hotham (Steve Bullock, former Governor of Montana) meets with his closest political and military advisors, and key members of his Cabinet to monitor the process. The atmosphere is heavy because what looms is a violent mob intent on disrupting the country in support of Hotham’s political challenger.

A six-hour countdown of the situation creates for an intense atmosphere. Dissecting all options to avoid a coup in order to save democracy is the challenge met by all members invited into the White House Situation Room to deal with this hypothetical reality.

Out of the thirty featured characters in the film only three are professional actors. The other roles are played by either current or former government employees (military, senators, FBI agents, CIA officers, Pentagon deputies, governors, journalists, etc.). These are real people who have significantly given their lives to serving and representing the United States and the American people. They stand up now to speak out about what we (the American people) need to do in order to save our democracy at a very crucial juncture in our American history; and what it would look like if a person who is unfit to lead the country is at the helm.

Our country was caught off-guard on January 6, 2021. It was a wake-up call to view the ease of an insurrection plot to transpire. To avoid it from reoccurring, WAR GAME is set before the audience to imagine what horrific atrocities could be unleashed if a future threat is not taken seriously.

The filmmakers explain, “The inspiration for the exercise was the publication of an editorial in the Washington Post on December 7, 2021, written by three generals, calling on the Defense Department to ‘war game’ the next potential post-election insurrection or coup attempt.” Continuing, “The generals identified the threat presented by a small number of active-duty military who might refuse to obey the orders of the lawfully elected commander-in-chief and they wrote: the potential for a military breakdown mirroring societal or political breakdown is very real.”

A non-profit, non-partisan military veteran organization, called Vet Voice, decided to take up the challenge. They took the generals’ advice seriously and designed an exercise, “to assess weakness and vulnerabilities with our political system, to harden our democratic institutions, and to better prepare our political and military leaders to confront and manage such a crisis.” Former US Senator Heidi Heitkamp (the film’s Senior Advisor to President Hotham), describes the exercise as “coup prevention 101.”

The Vet Voice organization was willing to collaborate with Moss and Gerber on a documentary everyone could screen, due to their previous documentary on a war game in 2008, FULL BATTLE RATTLE. Confident that all parties were on the same page, WAR GAME began its mission.

Moss and Gerber conclude, “On January 6, 2023, at a hotel in Washington, DC, after months of meticulous planning, furious fundraising, set design and construction, we convened a core of eighty, a cast of forty, and six cameras, to document this unique and totally unscripted glimpse into our potential future. No one knew what would happen as our cameras rolled. Six hours later, we had our answer.”