WAR MACHINE Director Says Practical FX Were “Paramount,” Reveals Massive 550-Foot Explosion for Netflix Sci-Fi Action Film
Netflix’s sci-fi action thriller War Machine delivers a brutal survival story packed with intense action and large-scale practical effects.
Director and co-writer Patrick Hughes wanted the film to feel as real as possible, grounding the chaos in authentic locations, real stunts, and even massive real-world explosions.
According to Hughes, that commitment to practical filmmaking played a huge role in shaping the film’s gritty tone.
"To me, it was paramount, and that was part of the push. Obviously, we have a visual effects VFX component to the film, but everything else was just 100% real, which meant it was real world locations in the real world wilderness, with real world actors doing real world stunts, and then being able to combine that then, we had a lot of gags on set where we'd be knocking trees over in camera and sort of dust machines and gravel and rocks and stuff that that interaction."
The movie follows a U.S. Army Ranger known only as ‘81’, played by Alan Ritchson, who leads a group of trainees during what’s supposed to be the final exercise of their grueling training program.
Instead of a routine mission, the squad finds itself fighting for survival against a mysterious and seemingly alien killing machine that refuses to die.
The film opens in a desert environment before shifting to a brutal training camp and eventually the deep wilderness, where the soldiers encounter the towering metallic threat. The movie has a vibe that feel like a mix of War of the Worlds and Predator.
Ritchson previously explained that the role pushed him harder than anything he’s done before physically, which says a lot considering the kind of action projects he’s known for.
Hughes also explained that the production went big when it came to practical effects, including detonating enormous real explosions to sell the scale of the conflict.
"So there's just a lot of layers that go into it. Even the explosions were real. We set a bomb off in the quarry that was 550 feet high. There's a mushroom cloud.
“We had three of them, too. Essentially, because, at the end of the day, it's a big action sci-fi, but it's also fundamentally a survival film, and that, to me, was just really important that we go out into the wilderness."
That survival element seems to be the core of the movie. Rather than leaning completely on digital effects, the filmmakers dropped their actors into harsh natural environments and let the action play out with as much physical realism as possible.
The cast surrounding Ritchson includes Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Blake Richardson, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Daniel Webber.
One more interesting detail about the film’s origin is that Hughes came up with the idea after waking from a nightmare, which honestly makes a lot of sense once you see the giant metal monster hunting soldiers through the forest.
Between the grounded survival story, practical explosions, and the terrifying machine at the center of it all, War Machine delivers a raw and intense sci-fi action experience.
War Machine is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: GamesRadar+