Spoiler alert! We’re discussing important details about the ending of “Civil War” (currently in theaters).
Civil War is not the first time Kirsten Dunst has appeared in the White House.
In 1999, she co-starred with Michelle Williams in the offbeat comedy Dick, playing a dim-witted teenager who helps expose Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. The film ends with a dizzying roller disco scene set to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
“All I remember is skating around the Oval Office,” Dunst says with a laugh. But there are no bellbottoms to be found in Civil War, which culminates in a nerve-wracking conclusion in which rebels storm the White House and kill the domineering third-term president (Nick Offerman). Dunst plays Lee, a world-weary photojournalist who travels to Washington with rookie photographer Jesse (Kailie Spaeny) and teammate Joel (Wagner Moura) to photograph the attack.
The deafening gunshots and explosions took a toll on the cast, who spent two weeks filming the scene on an Atlanta soundstage. “During filming, the noise in the theater was very intense,” says Dunst. “My body gets tired when I’m surrounded by that noise.”
“It’s very rickety, but it’s very effective in those kinds of scenes,” Spaney adds. “I don’t really have to act. It’s very shaky.”
“Dark conversations are prohibited!”Kirsten Dunst says her 5-year-old son helped her rewrite her lines in ‘Civil War’
How will “Civil War” end?
After the Lincoln Memorial bombing, militia invade the White House and search for the president, who has barricaded himself in the Oval Office while Washington, D.C., is in flames. Lee, Jesse, and Joel join the rebels and take photos while avoiding gunfire from the President’s soldiers.
One day, while Jessie was furiously taking pictures, Lee noticed a man with a gun targeting her young colleague. Lee jumps and pushes Jesse away, and is hit by her bullet and falls to his death. Jesse continues to take photos of her, capturing her lifeless body as it tumbles onto Mr. Lee’s body.
This is a somber throwback to the scene earlier in the film, when Lee and Jesse watch two men be executed at a gas station. “If I get shot, would you please take a picture of that moment?” Jesse asks tearfully. “What do you think?” Lee replies calmly. As the film progresses, Lee reluctantly becomes Jesse’s mentor, teaching her to separate her feelings from her work.
“For me, it’s a little heartbreaking, but it’s also inevitable,” Spaney says of Jesse recording Lee’s death. “But it’s a mixture. That might be a little bit of a silver lining. Someone else has to take this on. It’s an important job, but it’s also a bittersweet job, right? Most of the time, I felt like… was slightly confused.
Over the course of “Civil War,” we watch Jesse become desensitized to violence. The film was shot chronologically, allowing Spaney to follow Jesse’s arc in real time.
“As we were filming, I thought, ‘Okay, it’s time for her to step up,'” Spaeny recalled. In this final scene, he said, “I knew we were going to pass the baton in some way. There was a lot that came through from Kirsten’s performance and the decisions she made about how to play Lee.” I was just trying to get it to sink in.”
What will happen to Nick Offerman in ‘Civil War’?
In the final scene, Jesse leaves Lee’s corpse and follows Joel into the Oval Office, where the unnamed president lies on the floor with a gun pointed at him by rebels. Joel has been persistently trying to win an interview with the president, who has been completely cut off from journalists for years since the war began.
“Wait! Wait! I need a quote!” Joel says, and the President replies in a muffled voice, “Don’t let them kill me!”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Joel deadpans, as the instigators shoot and kill the commander-in-chief, and the end credits roll.
“Civil War” is Spaney’s third project with Offerman, following the FX series “Devs” and the 2018 thriller “Bad Times at the El Royale.” Playing the dictator is a 180-degree change from his best-known role as the gruff but lovable Ron Swanson on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.
“All you Parks fans don’t know how to make sense of this!” Spaney jokes. Casting Offerman is “a lot of fun. I love seeing comedians play dramatic roles because I think they bring something more real to the character. I think he did a great job, but it’s very strange to see him play this role.”
