New 'Civil War' movie trailer causes stir

A trailer for an upcoming movie that take place in a world in which a modern-day civil war breaks out in the United States is creating buzz across the internet.

"Civil War" is directed by filmmaker Alex Garland and follows a plot line in which more than a dozen states seceded from the U.S., sparking a hot war on American soil.

A trailer for the film, which features stars Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, shows one jarring scene during which a group of seemingly innocent people are caught in the fighting and held at gunpoint by a militant fighter in the conflict.

"We're American," one of the characters tells the armed fighter, played by Plemons, to which he smiles and responds, "Okay, what kind of Americans?"

Some observers are pointing to the fact the trailer does not specifically address the politics of why the conflict is taking place.

"Whatever disagreement is at the heart of the conflict, which the first trailer carefully avoids pinning down, puts California and Texas in the same boat, which sounds unthinkable at the present moment," one reviewer wrote in an article for the online news site Polygon.

Another article on Vice.com noted the film's trailer has sparked a conspiracy that the movie is serving as so-called "predictive programming" to condition audiences to prepare for a real-life civil war in the U.S.

Garland's "Civil War," which is produced by independent film company A24, is set to hit theaters next spring.