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War Game, Submarine Deluxe

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 1, 2024

January 6, 2021 probably should have been a day that changed a lot of minds about the security of systems we take for granted, as well as what has become of one of the two major political parties in this country under the leadership of a figure who has raised cult-like thinking and behavior among some of his supporters. Instead, the intrusion of and attack on the United States Capitol by a couple thousand of those supporters has become yet another wedge issue in an increasingly divided country. The lessons that should have been learned from the event have mostly been brushed aside or ignored.

That's the general impression one gets listening to any discussion or debate about January 6, and if there's some hope in War Game, it's that at least some people do recognize the deeper threats to fundamental institutions of government that the attack on the Capitol represented. They want to do something to address those risks, too, although directors Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss' documentary doesn't exactly engender a lot of confidence, either.

If that's the main lesson of the movie, it's not exactly communicated here. Instead, the documentary follows a simulation of what a similar but larger attack on the Capitol and throughout the country might look like. People who currently or at one time did hold some position within the various branches of the assorted governmental institutions within the federal and state systems are put to the test. They're given six hours to stop an attempted insurrection, allow the official counting of the electoral votes in the 2024 election to proceed, and do so without overexerting any of official powers granted to the President of the United States.

The idea, organized by the non-profit and non-partisan Vet Voice Foundation, is fascinating. The basic gist has the organization putting together a bipartisan group of military officials (mostly retired), federal law enforcement agents, policy wonks, and politicians from either the executive or legislative branch of national or state governments. As they sit around a table, a fictional but potential coup attempt arises on the event of Congress certifying the 2024 Presidential election.

No real names are used in the simulation. No political affiliations, for either the participants or the roles they play, are mentioned. The only teams here are the Blue Team—the fictitious President, who just won re-election, and those working as his advisors—and the Red Cell—a group of extremists called the Order of Columbus, which is modeled after assorted self-proclaimed militias in existence today.

The two teams are in the same building but in separate rooms during the simulation. At the head of it all is the game master, who doles out pre-recorded news updates and on-the-ground information to the two teams, showing how the situation escalates at the Capitol and begins to spread to state legislatures across the country.

He has win-loss scenarios in mind. If the Capitol is completely overtaken and the vote-counting fails to happen, the Red Cell wins. If the votes are counted, the Blue Team wins. What the latter doesn't know, though, is that, if the President proclaims the use of the Insurrection Act, his team loses, as well, because that's exactly what the extremists want to happen.

In practice, the movie plays out like a political thriller, which kind of undermines the severity of the possible future being workshopped here. No one, except for the game master and others in the booth, has a script in this simulation, by the way. They're acting and reacting based on what each one believes is the correct course of action to take and making arguments based on policy, optics, the law, and other practical concerns.

The President, whose re-election is openly questioned by his political opponent and sitting officers in the military, is played by Steve Bullock, who was the governor of Montana until 2021 and has campaigned for national offices, including the presidency, as his second state term came to an end. That's only worth noting, perhaps, because it soon becomes clear that Bullock is playing both this role and himself as a possible future candidate for higher office. It's a decent performance in that second role. How much of that thinking, though, actually affects how his character responds to an imagined coup, the likes of which this country has never seen?

Such a question is important, if only because the Blue Team seems hindered by something—mostly a failure to react in a timely manner. The Red Cell notes this and takes full advantage of it, using social media to spread rallying cries and phony videos meant to rile up those upset by the election results. The fictional extremist group, by the way, is led by Kris Goldsmith, an Army veteran who understands the thinking and tactics of such organizations—primarily because he knows they're a very real threat and wants people to comprehend that. His dumbfounded responses to the lack of action in confronting propaganda and how content everyone is at the end of the simulation speak volumes.

In fact, it's difficult to determine if anyone has learned anything from this exercise by its end. War Game informs us the foundation has prepared a classified analysis of the simulation, which would be shared with those who need it. Let's hope it points out the obvious and isn't as broadly optimistic as this documentary.

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