Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for War Machine!While the bulk of its action centers around its reveal, Patrick Hughes says his original plan for War Machine was going to keep its sci-fi alien reveal a complete secret.
The action movie serves as the latest collaboration between Hughes and Netflix after 2022’s The Man from Toronto. This time based on an original concept from the filmmaker, War Machine follows a group of U.S. Army soldiers in the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP) who, in the final stage of training on a simulated mission, find themselves confronted by a threat unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Ahead of the film’s Netflix premiere, ScreenRant’s Liam Crowley interviewed Patrick Hughes for the publication’s War Machine cover story. When asked whether there was a consideration to hide the movie’s reveal that Alan Ritchson’s protagonist and his group would be going against an alien machine from the marketing, the co-writer/director confirmed that “I certainly did” and that in the first script he wrote, “it had no mention” of the machine until its “left-hand turn” arrival in the film.
As he explained, “there are decisions that are made inside the marketing machines of studios” that involve whether to hide such information from audiences, or share it in such promotional material as trailers, images and plot descriptions. Recalling his goal of making a “film that was looking at that style” of the invasion genre, Hughes explained wanting to “drop the hammer” on viewers with the sci-fi alien reveal:
Patrick Hughes: I don’t really want to give things away here, but the story form would take a micro, and end on the macro. And to me, I felt like that was really unique, and a kind of film you got to the end and went, “Oh my Lord, this is just an origin story.” There’s something really interesting about that. And then you drop the hammer.
Much to Hughes’ point, there have been a variety of films even before War Machine which had their genre shifts and plot twists revealed in their marketing. The sci-fi genre is one of the more impacted by this trend, with arguably the most infamous one remaining that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-1000 was actually revealed to be the hero after being the villain in the 1984 sci-fi classic.
The co-writer/director’s goal of keeping the sci-fi alien reveal may not have been intact with the marketing, though still plays out true to his desire in War Machine itself. Much like Schwarzenegger’s original Predator before it, the majority of the Netflix film’s first half plays out as a straightforward military drama, with Ritchson’s 81 working to overcome his PTSD to fulfill his and his brother’s dream to become a Ranger.
That is until the simulation mission inadvertently puts them on the path of the titular alien machine, turning War Machine into a sci-fi action movie as the soldiers fight for survival. One thing that does seem to have changed from Hughes’ original draft to the final product is a brief scene at the training camp in which a TV shows NASA tracking an unidentified, asteroid-like object hurtling towards Earth, the only tease of the alien machine’s arrival prior to its introduction scene.
Hughes’ indication that his original plan for War Machine would have seen the movie end on the feeling that it’s “an origin story” for something bigger does largely ring true for how the sci-fi action movie concludes. The majority of the Netflix title sees Ritchson’s character and his team facing off against just one mechanized unit, while its climax ends on the tease of others having landed on Earth, setting up a globe-scaling sequel.
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What will be interesting to see is how this change in plans for a more direct marketing will benefit War Machine going into its opening weekend. Thus far, the Netflix film has garnered generally positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, marking Hughes’ best-received film in 16 years, as well as one of Ritchson’s best films in his career. With the star also at the height of popularity thanks to Prime Video’s Reacher, fans of Ritchson are sure to flock in and give the film a watch, regardless of genre, and potentially give it enough of a streaming boost for a sequel greenlight.
Be sure to dive into some of ScreenRant’s other War Machine coverage with:
Release Date
March 6, 2026
Runtime
107 minutes
Director
Patrick Hughes
Writers
Patrick Hughes, James Beaufort
Producers
Todd Lieberman, Alexander Young, Patrick Hughes, Greg McLean, Rich Cook