War Machine plot recap, spoiler-light
An unnamed Staff Sergeant survives a brutal ambush in Afghanistan that claims his brother's life, leaving him with deep physical injuries and severe trauma. Two years later, he enters the grueling Ranger Assessment and Selection Program in Colorado, taking the candidate number 81. Despite his exceptional skills, his isolation and refusal to lead raise concerns with instructors Sergeant Major Sheridan and First Sergeant Torres, who ultimately assign him as team leader for the final mission known as the Death March.
This simulated exercise requires his squad to locate a classified aircraft and rescue a downed pilot in the forest. Concurrently, strange anomalies occur in the atmosphere as an asteroid breaks apart in the night sky. During the exercise, the recruits encounter what they assume is the target craft near a creek.
When they attempt to detonate it, the object proves indestructible and transforms into a towering, lethal mechanical entity. Armed only with blank rounds, the trainees are quickly decimated as the alien machine hunts them through the rugged terrain, leaving only a small handful of survivors to grapple with a sudden and terrifying extraterrestrial reality.
