Be it comedy, drama or horror films, entertainment company A24 is known for pushing boundaries. Since its founding in 2012, the company has produced emotionally deep films that tell unique stories with distinctively different styles. “Uncut Gems,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and the instant horror classic “Pearl” are all in our cultural lexicon, thanks to A24.

The company’s military and war movies are no exception. It released a movie about an American civil war when many Americans actually feared the outbreak of a civil war, produced a Holocaust movie that doesn’t show the Holocaust, and is about to release a film about boots-on-the-ground combat in the Iraq War that follows the battle in real time.

If any of those brief descriptions caught your attention, you aren’t alone. The eyes and ears of critics and audiences everywhere perk up just a little bit every time a film trailer starts by showing the distinctive A24 logo. Check out this list of A24’s military and war movies.

‘Civil War’

Alex Garland’s “Civil War” was arguably one of the most anticipated and simultaneously frightening movies in recent memory. Released in 2024 in the earliest days of a contentious election year, it brought back the memories of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and stoked fears of a potential uprising in the case of a Donald Trump loss in November. It turned out to have nothing related to current events, and Trump won the election anyway, but it was all great marketing material nonetheless.

The movie is about a team of photojournalists led by Lee (Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog”) who make their way to Washington, D.C., amid the Second American Civil War. Their goal is an interview with the president of the United States (Nick Offerman, “Parks and Recreation”) before he can be overthrown and executed by rebel forces. Like an actual war, “Civil War” is slow at times, but punctuated with spurts of high-anxiety intensity.

‘The Exception’

It might surprise some people to learn that the big, bad German of World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was still alive when World War II broke out in Europe. He abdicated the throne in 1918 and moved to an estate in the Netherlands, where he spent the rest of his life. When Nazi Germany came to power, he briefly hoped for a restoration of his influence, but it never happened.

“The Exception” is a dramatic (and fictional) story of the kaiser (played by Christopher Plummer) and his last days in the Netherlands, where he is protected by the German Wehrmacht. A new captain (Jai Courtney, “Suicide Squad”) takes command of the guard to prevent a suspected assassination attempt by an Allied agent. He soon falls in love with one of the imperial housemaids (Lily James, “Baby Driver”). Imagine an unconventional romantic spy thriller, where Kaiser Wilhelm II is the wise old man bestowing his advice on the youth.

‘The Inspection’

Filmmaker Elegance Bratton began his career behind the camera as a combat cameraman in the U.S. Marine Corps. But before that, he had spent a decade homeless in New Jersey after he was kicked out of his parents’ house for coming out as gay. “The Inspection” is a film based on his experiences in the Corps as a homosexual.

In the film, a Marine Corps recruit named Ellis French (Jeremy Pope, “Pose”) finds himself at basic training in Parris Island, South Carolina. He has no problems with the physical demands of Marine Corps training, but his sexuality soon gets around and he becomes the subject of harassment and hazing from a drill instructor (Bokeem Woodbine, “Fargo”) and a fellow recruit (McCaul Lombardi, “American Honey”). One German film critic described the movie as a “queer ‘Full Metal Jacket.'”

‘The Kill Team’

In 2011, four soldiers stationed at FOB Ramrod in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province were convicted of the 2010 murders and manslaughter of Afghan civilians and for keeping certain body parts as war trophies. One was given a life sentence, while others were sentenced to anywhere between three and 24 years in prison in a killing spree now known as the “Maywand District Murders.”

“The Kill Team” is a fictionalized retelling of the murders from Academy Award-nominated director Dan Krauss. Starring Alexander Skarsgård (“Generation Kill”), Nat Wolff (“The Fault in Our Stars”), Rob Morrow (“Billions”) and Adam Long (“Masters of the Air”), the film not only revisits one of the most disturbing memories of the war in Afghanistan, but it’s also a stark exploration of battlefield morality.

‘Occupied City’

Unlike the other titles on this list, “Occupied City” is a documentary feature. From Academy Award-winning director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), the film is based on the book “Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945” by Bianca Stigter. Stigter is from Amsterdam and also happens to be a filmmaker. Her book, like McQueen’s movie, draws viewers from occupied Amsterdam during World War II to the present day.

‘The Zone of Interest’

Director Jonathan Glazer, the mind behind the 2000 film “Sexy Beast” and the 1996 music video for Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity,” received two Oscar nominations for “The Zone of Interest,” and it’s not hard to understand why. The movie is about Nazi Germany’s Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family next to the camp with only a wall to separate them from the horrors unfolding nearby.

Based on the 2014 Martin Amis novel of the same name, the movie was filmed around the actual ruins of the concentration camp. On the surface, “The Zone of Interest” is a disturbingly mundane story about family life and career ambition, but like the family itself, viewers never see the horrors of the Holocaust, although it can be distinctly heard behind the wall of the house.

‘Warfare’

Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland, this upcoming film from A24 embeds audiences with a team of Navy SEALs in an Iraqi home as they provide overwatch for American troops in hostile territory. The story is based on Mendoza, a SEAL veteran, and his experiences in Iraq in 2006. What’s truly unique about “Warfare” is that the story is told in real time.

“I had one opportunity to tell it right, get it right and honor the people that were there,” Mendoza said in the movie’s official first-look video.

A24’s “Warfare” hits theaters nationwide on April 11, 2025.

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