So, Wait, There's One Thing I'm Not Clear On With War Machine

Spoiler Warning: The following article contain major spoilers for War Machine. If you’ve yet to watch the new Netflix movie, proceed with caution.

Like a lot of people with a Netflix subscription, I started my weekend watching War Machine, the new Alan Ritchson sci-fi action flick critics are calling “absurd on almost every level.” While I did thoroughly enjoy watching Ritchson’s “Staff Sergeant 81” pull off all kinds of heroic feats in his attempt to save his fellow Army Ranger candidates (and the world) from an impressive piece of alien tech, there’s one thing about the 2026 movie I’m not clear on.

It’s not about 81 pretty much single-handedly taking down a piece of mech that looks like something out of the Metal Gear Solid games. Nor is it about why the staff sergeant was able to get into the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP), though both are valid. However, it instead has to deal with the titular war machine and the mysterious alien race that sent it…

Are The Machines The Aliens, Or Mech Sent Before Their Arrival?

One thing that works really well in War Machine is that the audience is primarily left in the dark and spends much of the movie knowing nothing about the titular alien robots until Alan Ritchson’s character figures things out. Though it is later revealed that the machines are, in fact, part of some global invasion (with tens of thousands more on the way), the movie stops short of revealing one thing: Are the machines the aliens or just instruments of death and destruction sent ahead of their arrival?

We’ve seen it both ways over the years. On one hand, you have great sci-fi movies like Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, having big reveals that the tripods were piloted by aliens hellbent on destroying humanity and taking over the planet. Other times, like in the Transformers movies, the machines are the aliens and are doing their own bidding.

In War Machine, we’re never given the opportunity to figure out if this is some advanced race of bio-mechanical aliens with some level of sentience or if they’re simply following orders by an organic alien race preparing to wipe humanity out and take over the planet. However, there is a scene that could offer a hint.

One Scene Offers Hints, But Is Short On Answers

There is a scene near the end of War Machine where Alan Ritchson’s character watches the alien robot send some kind of communication beam into the sky. Taking place a few minutes before the big reveal, where we learn that this war machine wasn’t alone, the sequence gives us a hint that something larger is at play. However, even after finishing the movie, it’s hard to say if the robots are aliens or sent by some advanced race.

While this sequence does offer some hints about how the machines work and communicate with each other (both on and off the planet), it doesn’t answer the big question that I keep asking. I’ve watched enough alien invasion movies to know that it could go either way.

Not knowing the origin of the machines is a tad bit frustrating, but this big unanswered question does open the door for all kinds of possibilities for a sequel down the road. Now we just need Netflix to make it happen!