What Kind of American Are You? The Civil War Scene That Feels Too Real

Why the “What kind of American are you” scene in Civil War feels disturbingly real and why it may be one of the most important scenes of the decade.

Civil War is less than two years old, but I already think it contains one of the most poignant and important scenes in film history. I am talking about the “What kind of American are you?” scene from Alex Garland’s 2024 film, which I consider a modern masterpiece.

If you have seen it, you know exactly the moment I mean. If you have not, the setup is deceptively simple. Jesse Plemons plays a soldier. We do not know what side he is on. We do not even know if he is a real soldier. He is standing in front of what appears to be a mass grave, filled with people we assume he has already rounded up and killed. Our protagonists are captured and lined up in front of him. One by one, he asks them questions while holding a military-grade rifle.

What kind of American are you?
Where are you from?
What state were you born in?

What makes the scene so horrifying is not just the threat of violence. It is the way those questions function. He does not actually care if they are citizens. He does not care where they were born. He has already decided, in his own head, what value these people have and what he is going to do to them based on their answers. The questions are not an investigation. They are justification.

That is what makes the scene so chilling.

Because that same question is being asked every day in America right now.

I have watched videos of ICE agents stopping people who say they are U.S. citizens. That is not enough. The follow-up is always the same. Where were you born? Where are you actually from? There are so many parallels between that reality and this scene that it is almost unbearable. Civil War was the scariest movie of 2024 to me not because of explosions or violence, but because of how realistic it felt. It did not feel like a warning about some distant future. It felt obvious that something like this could happen here, now.

And we are already seeing the baby steps toward it.

I saw someone on Threads say that watching Civil War in 2024 felt like watching Contagion in 2020, as COVID was shutting the world down. I completely agree. Alex Garland did not need a crystal ball. He just paid attention to the writing on the wall, the way all great science fiction writers do.

Some people will say movies are not political, or that they only watch movies to be entertained. To those people, I honestly say be thankful. You are lucky. You get to live in a bubble where these things do not affect you personally. You do not have to think about other people when you watch a movie like this. If you did, these stories would hit whether you wanted them to or not.

If you are part of a minority group, a child of immigrants, or an immigrant yourself, it is almost impossible to watch a scene like this and not feel its weight. The underlying message is unavoidable.

That is why movies matter.

For over a hundred years, film has been one of the most powerful art forms for expressing ideas, challenging systems, and pushing for change. Artists make things to express their worldview, whether it is Star Wars or Schindler’s List, Captain America or Malcolm X. The message is always there. Characters have purpose. They have motivations. If they did not, what kind of movie would that even be?

This is why we should watch movies that make us uncomfortable. We should let them do that. Living in a bubble does not make reality go away. It just makes us less prepared to confront it.

This scene in Civil War works because it feels so real. These are unarmed, helpless people being held at gunpoint by a man in a uniform. They are journalists, chasing a story, trying to report the truth. And that is exactly what threatens Plemons’ character.

On some level, he knows what he is doing is wrong. Just like the masked men in the streets today know what they are doing is wrong. But they do it anyway. Blind hatred and a hunger for power make it easy to shut that voice out. And when that power is challenged, when transparency enters the picture, they lash out.

What kind of American are you?

Why do you think they hate being filmed? It is not because it impedes investigations. It is because it exposes the truth. Transparency threatens them. When small men feel threatened, they respond with violence. They cannot regulate their emotions. Eventually, they turn themselves into emotionless killers. That is exactly what Plemons’ soldier has become.

Civil War is a warning. It shows a future that is avoidable, even if parts of it already feel familiar. It is a reminder that lines do not get crossed all at once. They get tested, step by step, to see how far they can go.

But it does not have to end that way.

Things can change. And I hope they do. So what kind of American are you?