Alex Garland’s Civil War isn’t the movie you might expect from its trailers, which portray the film as an action blockbuster set amid an apocalyptic near-future conflict between a loose confederation of Western states and the federal government in Washington, D.C. Don’t expect massive battles over American cities. The violence is brutal but mostly brief. For much of the film’s hour and 49-minute runtime, the threat of death looms largely off-screen, Jaws-style, rather than in-your-face like Saving Private Ryan.

Nor is it a more cerebral examination of America’s deep social and political polarization that writer-director Garland has decried while promoting the movie. Beyond some brief exposition that the federal government has become tyrannical and the Western Forces composed of California and Texas have embraced secessionism, we’re never given any explanation for why people are fighting each other to the death.