Shocking Film Secrets: Real Soldiers, Explosive IED Scenes & Military Flyovers Exposed!

WARNING: SPOILERS: This article contains spoilers for the film “Warfare,” directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, currently showing in cinemas.

Achieving authenticity in “Warfare,” the recent military drama by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, hinged on integrating true experiences from Mendoza and his former Navy SEALs team during a perilous mission in Iraq in 2006.

This approach is exemplified in a particularly intense and emotional scene involving an IED explosion, where soldiers desperately battle for survival after a blast near their base. To realistically capture the audio of this scene, the production crew went to the Czech Republic to record genuine sounds of gunfire and explosions.

Oscar-winning sound designer Glenn Freemantle explains to The Bangin Beats how they crafted the explosion sounds. “Ray provided insights into the varying sounds of explosions—from sharp cracks to deep booms—and the sensation of the air moving, which we aimed to replicate powerfully in the sound design, not merely by increasing volume but by layering the right elements together,” he said.

In the film, as the explosion occurs, Garland employs shifting perspectives to show soldiers being thrown to the ground, disoriented. “Some heard nothing, others suffered from tinnitus, and some heard their eardrums pop,” Freemantle added.

Even in the chaos, capturing the quiet moments before the disaster was crucial. According to Freemantle, “Ray remembered the silence being so profound that even the sound of scratching heads or pens on paper was audible.”

To recreate the environment authentically, production designer Mark Digby constructed a 360-degree set at Bovingdon Airfield Studios. The set included both the street where the explosion takes place and the interior of a house to which injured soldiers are dragged, using Google Earth images and Mendoza’s memories for reference.

“Normally, we’d build the street exterior on a backlot, then move inside to a studio for house scenes,” Digby explains. “But we built everything as a single structure to facilitate realistic performances and efficient use of resources and time.”

Since the film was shot sequentially, all sets were prepared in advance. Digby describes how they managed the scenes post-explosion: “We made molds of pre-damaged walls, which we could quickly replace with undamaged ones to film multiple angles efficiently. It was akin to assembling a lego set.”

For Tristan Versluis, Oscar-winning prosthetics designer, the IED scene was critical. He highlights the moment when soldier Elliott Miller (played by Cosmo Jarvis) sustains a severe leg injury. “We scanned the actors to create precise 3D models, then crafted silicon prosthetics, incorporating realistic textures and details based on actual injury photos,” Versluis says.

The realism extended to how injuries interacted with the environment. “There’s a point where they need to maneuver around a corner, and Elliott’s leg catches on a brick wall. We engineered the prosthetic to break and bend correctly to appear genuinely twisted. We then dragged the fake body around, which was quite gruesome,” Versluis explains.

Versluis and Digby had previously collaborated with Garland on films like “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation,” which smoothed their joint efforts here. “For the prosthetics, we had to ensure compatibility with the set, like incorporating spaces for the actors’ actual legs beneath the set,” Versluis notes.

Months after filming, the impact of having Mendoza on set and revisiting his experiences resonated deeply with the crew. “When he visited the set, it was nerve-wracking and emotional for everyone, as it was his first confrontation with those memories in such a vivid reenactment. It was a unique and profound experience,” Versluis recalls.