Jesse Plemons' Civil War Role Is A Big Let Down Despite How Great He Is

The following contains spoilers for Civil War, now playing in theaters

Summary Jesse Plemons delivers a haunting performance in a single intense sequence in Civil War.

Plemons' unnamed soldier character adds a heavy thematic weight to the film's themes of danger and division.

Plemons' performance highlights how fellow citizens can turn into monsters, but his role could have been expanded for a more impactful effect.

Civil War's most intense sequence features a truly haunting performance from Jesse Plemons that's fantastic, but could have been expanded on to add more layers of menace to the film. In Civil War, the central quartet of Lee, Joel, Jessie, and Sammy find themselves encountering several kinds of people while making their way through a war-torn version of the United States. The film features plenty of tense sequences where the characters try to survive open warfare and witness acts of barbarism and humanity alike.

Overall, the film is a strong showcase from Writer/Director Alex Garland, with strong performance elevating the solid story and filmmaking from the harrowing beginning to Civil War's ending. One of the best performances in the film is also one of the shortest, as Jesse Plemons plays an unnamed Soldier who only features in a single sequence. However, the strength of the performance and the subtext it adds to the story practically beg for a more expansive impact on the movie.

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Jesse Plemons Surprisingly Only Appears In 1 Civil War Scene

How An Unnamed Soldier Becomes One Of Civil War's Most Memorable Characters

Civil War's most intense sequence features a truly horrifying performance from Jesse Plemons, but it's also the only time the film showcases the character. Appearing more than halfway through the film, Plemons plays an unnamed soldier. Plemons' Soldier is introduced having captured Jessie and Tony. When the rest of the group try to reason with him for their release, the machine gun-toting soldier inquires about their place of origin and the reasons for their journey. Throughout the scene, he gives off a casual sense of menace, his questions punctuated by the nearby open mass grave.

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Even compared to the other film's nail-biting moments, the Soldier's interrogation stands out as perhaps Civil War's most tense sequence. The Soldier reinforces his dangerous qualities early when he mockingly asks Joel if Tony is his colleague before killing the latter. The underlying danger of the character as he openly wonders if the reporters are the "right" kind of Americans gives the scene a heavy thematic racial weight that the deliberately apolitical film typically avoids. The Soldier doesn't survive the scene though, and is killed off as suddenly as he first appeared.

Jesse Plemons' Great Performance Makes His Civil War Role A Shame

The Soldier's Scene Underlines Civil War's Themes In A Haunting Manner

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Jesse Plemons has proven to be one of Hollywood's most deceptively scary performers, with his role in Civil War highlighting the grounded menace he can infuse into a character. The Soldier is so casual in his questions and actions that he seems to barely care that multiple lives are in his hands. He can shift an already intense scene into something even worse with a simple movement of his gun or twitch in his expression. The Soldier speaks to many of the underlying themes of Civil War, highlighting how fellow citizens can turn on one another and become monsters.

Plemons' Soldier being a more prominent factor in the film could have reinforced these themes. Reports about specific extremist characters like the Soldier instead of broad threats could have given the entire journey a heavier sense of personal risk. The abrupt nature of the Soldier's demise makes sense in the film, but could have used more breathing room. Jesse Plemons' Civil War scene is so good, it's practically begging for more screentime — and while it fits well into the framework of the film, it's a shame audiences didn't get more of Plemons being horrifying on-screen.