War Machine
Release poster
Directed by	Patrick Hughes
Screenplay by	Patrick Hughes James Beaufort
Story by	Patrick Hughes
Produced by	Todd Lieberman Alex Young Patrick Hughes
Starring	Alan Ritchson Dennis Quaid Stephan James Jai Courtney Esai Morales Keiynan Lonsdale Daniel Webber
Cinematography	Aaron Morton
Edited by	Andy Canny
Music by	Dmitri Golovko
Production companies	Lionsgate Hidden Pictures Huge Film Range Media Partners Emu Creek Pictures
Distributed by	Roadshow Films (Australia)[1] Netflix (United States)
Release dates	February 12, 2026 (2026-02-12) (Australia) March 6, 2026 (2026-03-06) (Netflix)
Running time	107 minutes[1]
Countries	Australia United States
Language	English
Box office	$29,156[2]

War Machine is a 2026 science fiction action film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Patrick Hughes. It stars Alan Ritchson, Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Keiynan Lonsdale and Daniel Webber.

The film was released theatrically in Australia on February 12, 2026, before releasing on Netflix on March 6.

In Afghanistan, an unnamed Staff Sergeant arrives to help his brother's broken down convoy. His brother tries to convince him that they should apply to become Army Rangers, when they are attacked by Taliban insurgents. Everyone is killed except the Staff Sergeant, who suffers a knee injury. The Staff Sergeant tries to carry his mortally wounded brother back to base but passes out before making it. When he wakes up in the hospital, he learns that his brother had already died, but he is awarded the Silver Star.

Two years later, the Staff Sergeant attends RASP to join the 75th Ranger Regiment, and is given the candidate number of 81. 81 excels at training but does not bond with his fellow recruits and refuses the role of team leader, despite his record. After he allows himself to nearly drown during an underwater exercise, regiment leaders Sergeant Major Sheridan and First Sergeant Torres question his mental state over his PTSD and insist he step down from the program to recuperate, but 81 refuses. Sheridan and Torres allow him to advance and assign him team leader for the final exercise, a simulated mission in the forest to destroy a classified aircraft and rescue its pilot. Around that time, reports come out of a suspected asteroid revolving around the planet breaking off in pieces.

During the exercise, the team is startled by an unknown blast in the sky, which knocks out communications, and finds a strange looking object by the creek, which the team believes is the classified aircraft. After detonating it with explosives, it remains undamaged and transforms into a walking machine that starts killing the team; they are unable to fight back as they are carrying blank rounds. 81's second-in-command 7's leg is severely wounded, forcing the other recruits to carry him. After the attack, only 81, 7, 15, 44, 109 and 23 are left alive. The machine affects the magnetism of their compasses, allowing them to sense when it is near. After escaping down river, they reach the cadre posing as the enemy force and find they have been eliminated by the machine. Seeing traces of impact from a mountaintop to the valley below, they deduce the machine is extraterrestrial and try to make it back to base in an APC. As the machine gives chase, the team finds live ammunition but discovers its armor is impenetrable. While 81 subdues the machine with a rockslide, the APC is destroyed and most of the team killed except 81 and 7.

Seeing the machine send up a signal into space, 81 takes 7 into the forest. 7 reveals that he knew 81's brother. 81 sees that the machine has a ventilation system and lures it towards a construction site. 81 pours rocks into the ventilation system, causing the machine to overheat and explode. 81 successfully makes it back to base with 7. Sheridan and Torres reveal that the suspected asteroid was actually an army of machines and they have started an attack all over the planet. When 81 reveals the machines' weakness, he is accepted into the Regiment and is assigned to lead the next assault against the machines.

In November 2021, Patrick Hughes had been hired to write and direct an action science fiction film titled War Machine at Lionsgate, with Alan Ritchson cast in the lead role.^[3] In September 2024, Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Daniel Webber rounded out the cast of the film, with Netflix acquiring the distribution rights from Lionsgate.^[4]

Principal photography began on September 16, 2024, in Victoria, Australia and Queenstown, New Zealand with Aaron Morton serving as the cinematographer.^[5] Filming wrapped on December 14, 2024.^{[6][better source needed]}

Dmitri Golovko composed the score for the film.^[7]

War Machine was released theatrically in Australia on February 12, 2026,^[8][9] before releasing on Netflix on March 6.^[10]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 69% of 36 critics' reviews are positive.^[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[12]

Following the release of War Machine, both director Patrick Hughes and actor Alan Ritchson indicated that plans for future installments had already been developed. In an interview with ScreenRant, Ritchson stated that “tons” of sequel material exists and suggested that a follow‑up—informally referred to as War Machines—had been fully mapped out.^[13] He described the prospective continuation as “going to be sick,” implying that the creative team had outlined a broader narrative direction for the character known as 81.

Hughes confirmed that he had conceived a larger arc for the protagonist while writing the first film, noting that he had “sketched out” where the story would go if sequels were approved.^[13] While no official sequel has been announced, both Hughes and Ritchson expressed enthusiasm for expanding the story if given the opportunity.

• War Machine at IMDb