‘Men of War’ Trailer: Neon Unveils Explosive Doc on Venezuela’s Failed Coup & America’s Shadow Soldiers

Neon has dropped the official trailer for Men of War, and it’s every bit as jaw-dropping as the true story it tells. Directed by Billy Corben (Cocaine Cowboys) and Jen Gatien, this explosive new documentary pulls back the curtain on Operation Gideon—the botched 2020 coup attempt in Venezuela, led by a rogue former U.S. Green Beret and backed by a bizarre underground network of mercenaries, retired generals, and political schemers.

 

The film follows the arc of a former Special Forces operative, recruited to "liberate" Venezuela by force, who ends up on the run—not just from Venezuela’s government, but from the very U.S. agencies he once served. As the trailer reveals, Men of War isn’t just about one man’s fall from grace—it’s about the shadowy machinery of modern regime change, where ideology takes a back seat to profit, personal ambition, and private warfare.

 

Set against a backdrop of blurred allegiances and global chessboard politics, this documentary plays like a real-life thriller. Think Zero Dark Thirty meets Argo, but way messier—and it really happened. From leaked WhatsApp messages to covert training camps in the Colombian jungle, the story unfolds with a pace and punch that feels straight out of a Hollywood script.

 

But what truly makes Men of War stand out is its moral ambiguity. Was this an act of patriotism? A private military grift? A freelance foreign policy disaster? The film doesn't offer easy answers, but instead forces viewers to confront the uncomfortable gray zone where soldiers become mercenaries, and governments look the other way—until they don't.

 

With its September 9, 2025 release date looming, Men of War looks primed to be one of the year’s most talked-about documentaries—both for its content and for the questions it raises about America’s ongoing entanglement in global conflicts, both official and unofficial.

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