Social Media Users Rip A24 Over Upcoming Veteran-Directed Iraq War Movie 'Based on Memory': 'Is This a Sick Joke?'

Social media users have been lambasting A24 since it shared a trailer Monday for its forthcoming movie "WARFARE" about the Iraq War.

"Everything is based on memory," A24, a New York-based entertainment and film distribution company, said in an X post, accompanied by a 2-minute trailer that depicts a squad attempting to save two injured combatants while under attack by "the bad guys."

The movie was written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza, who joined the Navy SEALS in 1997 and served for 16 years, and Alex Garland, who directed "Civil War," another A24 film released earlier this year.

Within 24 hours, the trailer was viewed more than 32 million times, accumulating thousands of overwhelmingly negative comments and reposts.

"very funny how these movies will portray the world's most heavily-funded, technologically advanced soldiers as the scrappy underdogs against a bunch of poorly equipped local militias," X user @ycsm1n shared.

"Is this a movie about the ~1 million Iraqis that were killed?" X user @JoeGallantSoul prompted in a top-liked comment.

Although it is difficult to pinpoint an exact death toll from the Iraq War, a Lancet study placed the number at 654,965 Iraqi people, or one in 40 of the country's population, who died due to the war between 2003 and 2006, according to Lancet surveys.

"Is this a sick joke?" another X user asked.

"Funny, destroyed a country based on a lie, terrorized its people and now you're romanticizing your terrorism," an X user shared.

"By the way, this is what the US military was actually doing in Iraq," X user @tastefullysaucy said in a post accompanied by a screenshot from the New Yorker, showing Ayda Yassin Ahmed, an Iraqi mother surrounded by five of her dead children in the family's bedroom.

They were killed in the Haditha massacre on Nov. 19, 2005, when a group of US marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians at close-range, the youngest of whom was a 3-year-old child, in retaliation to the killing of a lance corporal.

"What they won't show you in this movie about Iraq is the Haditha massacre, where US marines killed dozens of Iraqi civilians. It wasn't until this year that FOIA released the photo of all these 5, 6, and 7 year olds with headshots. The U.S. killing machine persists," X user @labattami added.

Many social media users characterized the war film as propaganda.

"Everyone involved in this blatant military propaganda while the same country is enacting a genocide TODAY needs to reexamine their life choices. Didn't expect this from A24.

"Warfare? More like WARCRIMES," X user @sustheories stated.

"One thing is certain, the Pentagon not only participated in this film but had editorial control," one X user surmised.

"When american corporations start pushing out war on terror movies it's because the department of defense is contracting them to manufacture consent for their next 10-20 years of resource theft and wreaking havoc on the lives of arabs," X user @taraxrh declared.

"Iraq War propaganda in 2025 is crazy," another X user added.

"they said oh that's y'all fave? and recruited him," X user @zedonarrival shared, accompanied by a screenshot of the movie's cast list, which includes popular Hollywood actors Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Will Poulter and Charles Melton.

"the DoD makes them put the same scene in all of these movies where the squad hesitates to kill an unarmed man and it causes trouble for them later," another X user posted.

"you see the SEALs had to kill this 13 year old because he was going to go home and grab his gun and his boys. They also had to make a necklace out of his family's ears for the same reason," the X user added in a sardonic follow-up comment.