War Machine is an exciting military science-fiction thriller, which tells about the brutal adventure of a soldier, Staff Sergeant 81, tormented with his past and full of strong patriotism. The film begins with his hideous experiences in Afghanistan where he loses and gets injured in efforts to rescue the convoy of his brother. With a traumatic past and PTSD, 81 joins the elite 75 th Ranger Regiment and in spite of his mental illness he turns out to be highly competent and strong. His battle within is captured with the rude honesty, which adds to the film a poignant emotional vein in the middle of its frantic action sequences. The novel underlines that trauma and sacrifice form an identity of a soldier and precondition the emergence of a hero who must combat not only human but also alien evil that threatens not only an individual person but the entire planet as well.
The story finally makes a sharp turn in to science fiction as the team finds a mysterious alien machine on a training situation. This apparently invincible mechanism, capable of annihilating them, with mortal power, begins to hunt them in the wilderness, and the soldiers are in a desperate fight to survive. The film is exemplary in the development of tension, the scenes of the action are visceral, and the scenes are full of fright and wonder. The alien threat is transformed into the powerful metaphor of the unknown enemy, internal and external, which threatens the human strength. The themes of ingenuity, collaboration, and the indomitable spirit that is needed to meet the unknown evolve as the team finds out the vulnerabilities of the machine and challenges them.
Ultimately, it is a message of hope, sacrifice and perseverance in War Machine. It emphasizes the strength of trauma and how even the shattered army representatives are able to emerge to fight the bigger forces. The account of the way in which the main character becomes an unwilling conscript and an officer who finds out the hidden weaknesses of the alien threat is very interesting and thrilling to read. The mix of realism and science fiction in the film forms a strong narrative of how humanity is fighting against not only alien robots, but also the devil within us.
