Theaters of War

If you've seen Top Gun or Transformers, you might suspect all that military machinery comes with strings attached. This influence is not limited to a handful of movies, though. A vast new trove of internal documents reveals that the Pentagon and CIA have doctored thousands of film and television scripts. Parting the curtains on this world, media professor Roger Stahl engages an array of other stunned scholars, frustrated veterans, PR insiders, and industry producers. Stahl reveals in unsettling detail how the US military-industrial complex pushes a version of history that scrubs the screen of war crimes, corruption, criticism of the nuclear arsenal, racism, sexual assault, assassinations, and torture. From James Bond to Jack Ryan, Captain Marvel to Cake Boss, the creation of this other "cinematic universe" is one of the great PR coups of our time.