What Happened To The Real Ray Mendoza After Warfare

A24’s harrowing war drama Warfare is based on the real memories of former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, whose path from the streets of Iraq to the director’s chair for a major Hollywood movie has been fascinating. Warfare acts as a real-time reenactment of a bloody encounter that the real Mendoza and his platoon experienced in November 2006, as part of the fallout of the Battle of Ramadi during the Iraq War. All the film’s story material was taken directly from the accounts of Mendoza and his fellow platoon members for the sake of ensuring accuracy to the highest degree.

Warfare is also the writing and directorial debut for the former SEAL Mendoza, who has worked steadily in Hollywood for more than a decade now. While he and legendary writer/director Alex Garland are listed as co-directors, the seasoned Hollywood director has been very up front that his role was supporting Mendoza’s vision as director. Despite Mendoza’s inexperience as a director, Warfare is breaking Rotten Tomatoes records for its incredible realism and immersive experience. It’s the culmination of Mendoza’s career since the events depicted in Warfare, and certainly bodes well for his future as a filmmaker.

Ray Mendoza Left The Military In 2014, 8 Years After Warfare

The Former Navy SEAL Was A Seasoned Soldier During The Events Of Warfare

Mendoza was actually still a Navy SEAL chief when he first participated in a Hollywood production. He acted in the 2012 action film Act of Valor by directors Mouse McCoy and Scott Waugh, which featured real active-duty Navy SEALs and SWCC personnel. That first movie sparked Mendoza’s interest in filmmaking, and set the stage for his post-active duty career.

Ray Mendoza Has Worked On Several Movies & TV Shows Since 2013

Mendoza Has Acted As A Producer And Military Technical Advisor

D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Michael Gandolfini and Charles Melton as Ray Mendoza, Lt. McDonald and Jake in Warfare

Per Stars and Stripes, Mendoza’s path to the director’s chair was far from simple or easy. Following his exit from the military, Mendoza worked as a technical and military advisor for some major movies, most notably Lone Survivor, the retelling of fellow SEAL veteran Marcus Luttrell’s experience in the mountains of Afghanistan. His experience on that movie and relationship with director Peter Berg helped launch him into more work as an adviser.

Warfare – Key Details
Release Date	Budget	RT Tomatometer Score	RT Popcornmeter Score	Metacritic Metascore	Metacritic User Score
April 11th, 2025	$20 million	94%	93%	76	7.5/10

However, his early work wasn’t necessarily paying the bills, and it was difficult to build a reputation with such a behind-the-scenes role. He continued to focus on branching out and working, and eventually wound up on noteworthy movies and shows, including Jurᴀssic World, Mile 22, and The Outpost. He even did some motion-capture work for the ultra-popular video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Mendoza has also acted in two other projects, with brief roles in the short film Operation Pawn and the Prime Video series The Terminal List, for which he was also a technical advisor.

Ray Mendoza’s Work On Civil War Led To Him Co-Directing Warfare

He Was An Advisor On Alex Garland’s 2024 Dystopian Action Thriller

After a decade of experience with eyes on the next step, Mendoza was invited to work with Alex Garland on Civil War, which wound up being a career turning point. He and Garland meshed well, and in Civil War‘s climactic storming of the White House scene, Garland notes that he stepped aside so that Mendoza could direct the scene. Mendoza’s intentional adherence to the real-time progression of the gun battles truly impressed Garland, which led to him asking if there were any stories from Mendoza’s military career that would work without the typical Hollywood time progression of combat.

The result was Warfare, which plays out in real time from the moment the тιтle screen drops. Just as he did in the climax of Civil War, Garland effectively stepped back into a supporting role as director, allowing Mendoza’s vision and experience to rise to the forefront. Per Mendoza, the feedback he’s gotten from veterans has been overwhelmingly positive, and the ultra-realism on display is what’s contributed to Warfare‘s outstanding critic review scores. It’s clear that Mendoza’s career in Hollywood is only beginning, if the success of Warfare is any indication.

Source: Stripes