The new movie Civil War delivers a sensational story about political polarization spilling into mass violence. If that seems reckless, it’s what apocalyptic films have done forever. The LA Times’s Mark Olsen and Northeastern University’s Nathan Blake explain.

This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Lissa Soep, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Rob Byers, and hosted by Noel King.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

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