Former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza tells his true-to-life story of war in the new Alex Garland movie Warfare.
Mendoza co-wrote and co-directed the upcoming A24 movie along with Garland (of Civil War and Ex Machina fame), recounting his experiences in combat during the Iraq War.
The film stars Will Poulter and Joseph Quinn, with Reservation Dogs' D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai playing Mendoza himself.
Who Is Ray Mendoza? Biography Details on SEAL & Warfare Director
Ray Mendoza Was a Navy SEAL for 16 Years
Before putting pen to paper and writing a movie like Warfare, Ray Mendoza served as a Navy SEAL for 16 years.
Mendoza joined the Navy in 1997 and eventually became a member of renowned SEAL Team 5. During his military service, he also worked in the Land Warfare Training Detachment and as a BUD/s instructor.
Mendoza earned a Silver Star in combat, an award given to U.S. military members for acts of gallantry during their service (via Valor).
This first-hand experience in the U.S. Armed Forces caught the eye of Hollywood, as in the latter half of his service, he became a military consultant on films like Lone Survivor.
After Serving, Ray Worked as a Military Advisor
Following his time in the military, Ray Mendoza dove into the deep end of Hollywood, becoming a military advisor for several major productions.
Mendoza has credits in six blockbuster films, starting with Act of Valor in 2012.
His other work includes Mark Wahlberg's Lone Survivor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and The Terminal List (which is still awaiting its second season).
In an interview with Build Series, Mendoza described what sort of first-hand details he brings to a production like Lone Survivor, going through the feeling of being dropped into a warzone for the first time, something only someone who has experienced it personally can truly know:
"Once you get there, it takes [time]. You gotta acclimate. You have an op tempo, which is the rate in which you conduct operations. But yearh in a place like Ramadi where you hit the ground running, you very much get kind of snapped into what it is like. You get a quick realization that this is real. You can die. Your friends can die. Very quickly, in a place like Ramadi with such a high tempo and being kind of the epicenter of the insurgency, it comes at you pretty fast."
Mendoza even started his own production company, War Office Productions. The start-up provides military expertise to inquiring minds working in Hollywood.
Ray Has Worked With Alex Garland Before
Before helping him direct and write Warfare, Ray Mendoza had a prior relationship with filmmaker Alex Garland.
Garland and Mendoza worked together on 2024's Civil War, a military drama following a fictionalized civil war in the present-day United States. Just like he was with movies like Lone Survivor and Jurassic World, Mendoza was brought in on the film as a Military Consultant.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Mendoza described the visceral action of the U.S.-based war movie (something that is not too often explored in films), saying he "approached it no differently than Transformers or anything [he is] hired to choreograph:"
"I approached it no differently than 'Transformers' or anything I’m hired to choreograph knowing it’s fiction."
While working on this film, Garland connected with Mendoza's story, eventually leading the pair to begin work on Warfare.
Ray Wants To Keep Telling Military Stories After Warfare
Following his work on Warfare, Ray Mendoza would like to continue telling stories on the big and small screen.
He credits his Warfare co-writer and co-director Alex Garland for "[letting him] run" while working together, making him fall even more in love with the movie industry (via Task and Purpose):
"He let me run in my element [in 'Civil War']. Some guys, like Peter Berg [director of Lone Survivor], they’ve let me run a little bit, which helped me grow and learn. Alex was really like 'do your thing.' I did and I think he saw — well it’s more of an organization thing."
"There’s a lot of stories I want to tell, military in nature," Mendoza continued, positing that Warfare is just the beginning of his filmmaking career:
"He saw me communicating it, I was able to get people on the same page and I guess he thought maybe I was ready for the next step. He was constantly mentoring me and having discussions about what I want to do in the industry. There’s a lot of stories I want to tell, military in nature. Stories from the regiment, Special Forces, SEAL teams there’s a lot of military stories I want to tell thatI feel need to be told. We discussed that and there’s a story I picked that he felt would be a good one to tell."
He echoed these sentiments in another interview following the Warfare trailer's release, telling The Wall Street Journal, "One of my passions is to tell as many veteran or military stories as I can:"
"One of my passions is to tell as many veteran or military stories as I can. With 20 years of warfighting, there are so many stories and lessons that need to be shared."
Warfare is set to come to theaters sometime in 2025.
