During the final stage of U.S. Army Ranger selection, a routine training exercise mutates into something far more dangerous in War Machine – a survival thriller that hits the ground running and never lets up. Speaking with director Patrick Hughes and star Alan Ritchson, our Peter Gray unpacked the film’s pulse-pounding rhythm, from meticulously engineered action beats to the decision to open with a stunt so brutal it instantly set the tone.
But beyond the explosions and endurance-testing set pieces, they also touched on the deeper idea lurking beneath the metal: whether the film’s unstoppable threat is more than just a machine or perhaps something far more personal.
I had the pleasure of seeing War Machine in the cinema, and it was just incredible. I wanted to ask you first, Patrick, about the rhythm of chaos here. I feel you have a real instinct when to let a scene breathe and when to let it detonate. Is that something you feel in the edit? Or something engineered on set?
Patrick Hughes: It’s something you engineer in the script, and obviously you fill out the exact sort of timings in the edit. I think the best action sequences are, to me, the exact same as storytelling. It’s (asking) “How does this scene end?” Is it positive charged? Is it negative charged? And it’s how you craft the journey – the roller coaster – the audiences that go on. I like putting a lot of time and effort into those action sequences. What are we building towards at a frenetic, visceral pace? And then we go, “Oh, it’s a positive charge.” And that then enables us to turn (the scene) on its head. My favourite sequence is the Guardian chase. We put a hell of a lot of work into that, and it’s just non-stop. It’s edge-of-your-seat breathtaking, and it really hammers home these positive and negative charges. Just when you think it’s over, it gears up again.
It looks incredible! And Alan, this could be me completely overthinking it, but did you ever think of the machine as something psychological, like guilt, trauma, the past haunting you? Or is it just something that wants to kill people?
Alan Ritchson: That’s a pretty great question. It’s something we talked about all the time. We had thousands of conversations about it.
Patrick Hughes: It’s the embodiment of his shame. The shadow he can’t escape until he faces it.
Was there a point during filming when you both looked at each other, like, “All right, we’re doing this! We’re committing to this epicness!”
Patrick Hughes: Day one, take one. I remember Alan and I locked horns, and we said, “We’re going through this together,” and we got across that finish line together. As a director and a lead star, we set the tone together. We were just all in at that point. Day one, take one, shot one. We blew 12 people off a cliff with wire gags and explosions, and I sat down with Alan, and I knew we were setting the tone.
Alan Ritchson: “You are gonna suffer!” (laughs). The very shot was the one where we’re at the end of the mountain. They get blasted off the side of the mountain, and 81 (my character) wakes up and his fingers are broken, and blood is dripping. It was like peak suffering. “So you start with the hardest scenes first?” “Always.” Always gotta set the tone.
War Machine will be available to stream on Netflix from March 6th, 2026.
