The Machine (War Machine)

War Machine is a 2026 military 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, and follows a staff sergeant who encounters an otherworldly killing machine while on a grueling training exercise.

The film was given a very limited theatrical release in Australia starting on February 12, 2026, before releasing on Netflix on March 6, 2026. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, praising it as a fun, old-school, throwback action movie despite its familiar, formulaic storyline.

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 Sergeant, who suffers a severe knee injury. He tries to carry his mortally wounded brother back to base but passes out before making it.

Two years later, the Sergeant attends RASP to earn assignment to a battalion of the consolidated 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 due to 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 flying past the planet and breaking off in pieces.