The most controversial thriller of 2024 is finally free to stream

A lot of movies and TV shows have aged very strangely during the second Trump presidency. Movies where Trump has a cameo — like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — suddenly transform from vaguely silly to a bit ominous compared to back when he was a mere real estate tycoon. The HBO comedy Veep also feels very different. While it's still funny, the unfiltered comments of Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) suddenly seem quaint when compared to a president who just recently promised Iran that their “whole civilization will die tonight.” Yet one recent thriller has only become more relevant during Trump’s second term, and that’s Alex Garland’s 2024 dystopian political thriller Civil War, which is free to stream on Pluto TV and Tubi as of July 1. Civil War is about a team of photojournalists traveling from New York City to Washington D.C. during America’s second Civil War. They must navigate through various warring sections of the country to interview and photograph the president (Nick Offerman), a despot who has refused to leave office and has only deepened the country’s divide by using the military against his own people. The main character in Civil War is Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a ve