Civil War’s Sniper Scene Explained & What It Reveals About The War

Civil War’s sniper scene is one of the most intense moments in the movie, and despite its haunting ambiguity, it contains all the clues to figure out what’s going on with the war itself. Alex Garland’s Civil War script is deliberately ambiguous about the politics behind the actual war and how the conflict came to be. He never reveals the political party of the dictatorial president, the secession is an alliance between a red state and a blue state (Texas and California), and in all the battle scenes, it’s unclear who’s on which side.

During their deadly road trip from New York to Washington, the photojournalists encounter a couple of snipers pinned down in the remains of a Christmas fair. The snipers are taking cover and shooting at a fellow sniper who’s shooting at them from a nearby building. This scene hammers home the ambiguity of the film’s politics as the journalists try to determine which side the snipers are on. The sardonic conversation that follows has all the clues to figure out how the movie’s fictional civil war came to be and what the movie is trying to say about political divisions.

Civil War’s Sniper Scene Is A Microcosm Of The War

There are two sides simply trying to kill each other

The standoff between the snipers at the Christmas fair acts as a microcosm of the entire war. It shows two factions on opposing sides – or, at least, they think they’re on opposing sides; they’re not even 100% sure about that – shooting at each other with intent to kill. They have no idea who they’re shooting at or which side they’re on. No one is giving them orders and it’s unclear who the “good guys” are, since the photojournalists (and, by extension, the audience) just see two people mindlessly trying to kill each other.

Joel asks the snipers which side they’re on in Civil War’s Texas-California alliance, but they can’t provide a solid answer. He asks them who’s giving them their orders and they tell him no one is giving them orders. They lay it out in absurdly oversimplified fashion. They say that someone is trying to kill them, so they’re trying to kill them. The snipers mock Joel for continually asking questions about the different sides of the war and the particular political affiliations of the soldiers. They commend Jessie for grappling the concept a lot quicker than Joel does.

The Sniper Scene Is About Survival, Not Sides Of War

It doesn’t really matter who the snipers are

It doesn’t really matter who the snipers are, why they’re fighting, or what they want to get out of the war. The whole purpose for them is just to survive the heat of battle. The politics of the war only matter to the warmongering generals controlling the troops from the safety of their cushy bunkers. To the individuals on the battlefield, it’s just a matter of survival. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation; if a soldier is trying to kill them, then they have to fight back in order to stay alive.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which side everyone is on or which side of the political fence they stand for; all that matters is who is trying to kill whom. This extends to the politics of Civil War itself. The movie is purposefully evasive in its depiction of the politics of the war. It makes a much broader political statement than simply blaming the war on the left or the right. It’s all about the pointlessness of war itself and how the original intentions don’t matter too much once the bodies start piling up.

The Christmas Decorations At The Sniper Shootout Reveals A Key Civil War Detail

It means the war has been going on since last Christmas

The setting of Civil War’s sniper scene is just as significant as its politically ambiguous dialogue. The snipers are surrounded by dilapidated Christmas decorations as the battle is taking place at a rundown Christmas festival. The Christmas decorations create an unnerving visual juxtaposition, but they also provide subtle, unspoken exposition. Garland doesn’t specify when exactly in the near-future Civil War takes place, and he doesn’t say how long ago the war began. But the presence of Christmas decorations at the sniper battle gives the audience an idea of when the war started.

The fact that a Christmas festival has been dressed up and subsequently abandoned suggests that the war has been going on since at least the previous Christmas season. Civil War seems to take place in the summer, with bright sunlight enveloping almost every scene, so the war has been going on for a while. Everything to know about Civil War is buried in this one nail-biting sequence.