War Book

Tom Harper’s film War Book, written by Jack Thorne and starring Shaun Evans, Sophie Okonedo, Ben Chaplin, Kerry Fox and Anthony Sher, tells the story of a chilling war game between a group of government officials, exposing the fragility of our everyday lives and those who govern them. War Book takes place over three days, as nine civil servants gather to take part in a policy-shaping scenario. They are there to take decisions on Britain’s reaction to an international nuclear attack. At first the participants are casual, playing out the scenario against a backdrop of their own petty squabbles and personal ambitions. Only two participants know the truth - that the country is secretly facing a real nuclear threat, and that their theoretical responses may become reality sooner than they can know. As the scenario escalates and the group begins to address the breakdown of civil order, the reality that they are deciding the country’s future dawns. When personal politics crash irrevocably into the room, each is forced to look closely at what they really believe, and how much their decisions are actually worth.