Netflix Knows You Want to See Reacher Fight a Cybertruck

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Spoilers ahead for War Machine, now streaming on Netflix.

The upcoming 2026 Netflix film War Machine, starring Alan Ritchson, is generating a lot of excitement – it’s different from the 2017 film of the same name starring Brad Pitt. Judging by how many people are watching the trailer, there’s a huge audience eager to see Ritchson’s character, Reacher, battle a Transformer that often takes the form of a Cybertruck. This excitement is thanks to the popular Amazon series Reacher, which has made Ritchson a well-known actor. After the show’s third season featured Reacher facing a large and powerful opponent, giving him a formidable robotic enemy to fight feels like a natural next step.

The story behind the movie War Machine supposedly began with the writers of Predator imagining Rocky Balboa fighting an alien. Replace the creature from Predator with a robotic enemy, and you get a sense of this film. However, the group of soldiers – participating in a tough final training exercise when aliens attack – aren’t as compelling as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team in Predator. Stephan James, known from If Beale Street Could Talk, stands out as a wounded soldier who must be carried by the dwindling group, leading to a surprisingly comedic scene reminiscent of Weekend at Bernie’s. The film doesn’t focus on developing memorable characters, and fittingly, most of the soldiers are only referred to by numbers – Ritchson is No. 81, James is No. 7. Millie Bobby Brown isn’t involved in this Netflix production. Dennis Quaid and Esai Morales briefly appear as military leaders trying to convince Ritchson’s character to drop out of the program.

Action movies have changed a lot since the original Predator. Back then, heroes could be quiet and mysterious. Now, War Machine openly jokes about its main character’s refusal to give inspiring speeches or connect with his team. But we quickly learn his entire life story through a detailed opening sequence and flashbacks. The movie takes place two years after that opening, which is set in Afghanistan. Considering the U.S. military left Afghanistan in 2021, does this mean the alien invasion hinted at in the film’s ending happens around the summer of 2023? And if so, will we even get to enjoy the Barbenheimer phenomenon? The film starts by showing us 81’s younger brother, also a soldier, who is killed in an ambush while both dream of becoming Army Rangers. This brother’s death becomes the reason 81 relentlessly tries to join the Rangers, even though he’s older and has a bad knee injury.

Alan Ritchson, known for his role in Reacher, takes on another military character in War Machine. This time, he plays an ambitious Army Ranger driven by the memory of his brother. Ritchson has demonstrated his range – he even adopted a Danish accent and wore glasses for The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – but War Machine lets him do what he excels at: portraying intense action and warfare. He’s a big guy, and this role fits him perfectly!

The show is full of typical ‘dad’ moments. Actor No. 81 plays a mechanic who immediately shows off his knowledge, both generally and about vehicle maintenance, by scolding his brother for using a quick fix called Stop-Leak – he explains this will inevitably lead to breakdowns due to the laws of physics. Courtney previously appeared in some poorly received films like Die Hard, Terminator, and Suicide Squad, so he’s due for a better role. I actually first noticed him in the enjoyable 2012 action movie Jack Reacher, which helped launch the successful partnership between Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie. However, unlike the other actors, Courtney doesn’t have the acting skills or charm to make up for the character’s lack of depth in the script, co-written by Hughes and Beaufort.

Hughes tries to make up for the film’s weaknesses with excessive violence. The original War of the Worlds famously showed victims instantly vaporized by alien heat rays, leaving behind only ash. In War Machine, however, the heat ray is set to a lower intensity, resulting in soldiers being graphically reduced to bloody, mushy remains. If you enjoy your action movies with the extreme gore of Saving Private Ryan, this film might be for you. The character 81 even shouts, “Thermodynamics, motherfucker!” when he finally lets out his emotions, highlighting the film’s over-the-top nature.

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2026-03-07 02:54