{"id":84529,"date":"2026-03-07T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/03\/07\/war-machine-review-finally-a-training-scenario-with-aliens\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:40:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:40:52","slug":"war-machine-review-finally-a-training-scenario-with-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2026\/03\/07\/war-machine-review-finally-a-training-scenario-with-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018War Machine\u2019 review: Finally, a training scenario with aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Netflix released \u201cWar Machine\u201d<\/a> on Friday, a science fiction action film starring Alan Ritchson that raises an oddly believable military premise: What if the final phase of U.S. Army Ranger selection suddenly involved fighting a giant alien robot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directed by Patrick Hughes, \u201cWar Machine\u201d follows a group of Ranger candidates grinding through the final stretch of selection when their training scenario collides with something far stranger than sleep deprivation and land navigation. The soldiers discover what appears to be a crashed aircraft deep in the woods. It turns out to be an alien vessel that transforms into a towering mechanical hunter and begins stalking them through the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For veterans watching the film, the most unrealistic part may not be the extraterrestrial robot \u2014 it is the fact that nobody immediately assumes the alien is still part of the training scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who has spent time in the military knows that after enough time in the field, every disaster begins to feel suspiciously like a test. Lost? Training. Hungry? Training. Cold, wet, exhausted and hallucinating? Definitely training. If a giant alien machine emerged from a crash site during Ranger selection, at least one candidate would absolutely ask, \u201cIs this graded?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ritchson plays a soldier known only as \u201c81,\u201d which feels exactly like the kind of nickname that would replace an actual name during a miserable training cycle. The character is built like a tank and carries the quiet intensity that helped turn Ritchson into a breakout star in the series \u201cReacher.\u201d Here, his opponent is not organized crime or a corrupt businessman-turned-warlord, but a massive extraterrestrial war machine with the personality of a bulldozer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n