The movie begins with unnerving footage of Army veteran Kris Goldsmith and Marine Corps member Chris Jones traveling through Washington, D.C., openly clocking landmarks as potential targets and plotting a series of attacks. “This is going to be the most high-vis area,” one says as they cruise past a high-profile target, “so this is where we’re going to want people seeing U.S. troops gunning down patriotic Americans.” It’s chilling because of how real it feels — how real it was in 2021, and how real it could easily be again next January. Here, it’s just an exercise: In the eponymous war game, Goldsmith and Jones are acting as key members of the fictional insurrectionist group known as the Order of Columbus, a far-right Christofascist organization who supports the losing presidential candidate and are leading the fictional insurrection.
As the clock begins to tick down, their team floods the social media zone with calculated disinformation, recruiting more members to their nefarious cause and completely controlling the narrative. Meanwhile, the team consisting of the “President” and his advisors sift through their options and try to figure out how to respond to this treasonous attack. There are no jump scares here, no ghosts or ghouls or zombies — just a frightening real scenario, and people doing their best to try to figure out how to handle it.