Ray Mendoza made Warfare to help a real-life Navy SEAL who lost his memory in Iraq

Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's harrowing new film Warfare takes a realistic look at a platoon of Navy SEALs on a mission gone wrong in Iraq in 2006.

It's based on Mendoza's real-life experiences as a former Navy SEAL, and it's dedicated to his platoon member, Elliott Miller, who lost a leg and suffered a traumatic brain injury that resulted in him forgetting what happened during the mission.

In an interview with Q's Tom Power alongside D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (the Canadian actor who portrays him on-screen), Mendoza says he made the film to help Miller remember exactly what they went through that day.

From the moment Miller woke up in the hospital, Mendoza says he was asking big questions. But over the years, he became more curious about the minute details of the mission.

"We've drawn maps for him. We've run it out so many times," Mendoza says. "[In the navy], we don't take time at all to really slot all those perspectives together to create one linear story. I've always wanted to do that. But even then, I think in literary form, it's still difficult lacking that core memory. And when I got into the movie industry, I quickly discovered that possibly one day I may want to do a recreation."

Warfare begins with a screen of text informing the audience that this story is "based strictly on memories." According to Mendoza, this was an important way to start the film to let viewers know that the story is as true to life as possible.

"It was pulled from multiple memories," he tells Power. "If it didn't happen, it's not in the film."

Mendoza worked closely with Woon-A-Tai and the rest of the cast, taking them through an intense three-and-a-half-week long bootcamp to emulate the sort of closeness that the troops would have had that day.

"I had a very unique experience with that because my true-to-life counterpart, my guy, was the co-director and co-writer," Woon-A-Tai says. "So it was different compared to the other actors who may have just spoken to their true-to-life counterpart on Zoom calls. Or a lot of the veterans who were there that day came to set, maybe for a week or two."

While recreating the mission was extremely challenging both physically and emotionally, Woon-A-Tai emphasizes that his work as an actor "paled in comparison" to what the actual Navy SEALs went through that day.

"It was a surreal moment for me and a lot of pressure," he says. "But in all honesty, as much as I had pressure on my shoulders, Ray had way more pressure on his shoulders than I could have ever had. You know, he's telling a story on behalf of his friend who doesn't remember it. He's telling the story that a lot of people, not just in his platoon, but around the world can relate to, and that's a lot of pressure."

The full interview with Ray Mendoza and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai is available on our YouTube channel and also on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Ray Mendoza and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai produced by Lise Hosein.