Run, Hide, Fight: Infidels, a new film produced by the Daily Wire, the media company co-founded by American right-wing comentator Ben Shapiro, has drawn backlash online after the trailer was released alongside details of its plot singling out Muslims and pro-Palestine university students.
In the official trailer shared in a post on X on Thursday, an opening montage includes clips that appear to be from Fox News presenters warning of “terror plots”, Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking about "radical Islam", Islamic State (IS) group executions, pro-Palestine encampments, the 9/11 attacks, and the IS flag, before zooming out onto a university campus based in Virginia, where the militant group's flag flies over the building.
As it continues to zoom out, the athan, known as the Islamic call to prayer, plays over the speakers, and students are seen walking and immediately stopping before pulling out mats and prostrating on the ground, in a way seemingly intended to mimic Islamic prayer, albeit incorrectly.
Criticised by one social media user as “one buzzword after another”, the film’s logline reads: “When radical Islamic terrorists hijack a liberal college’s pro-Palestine encampment to enforce barbaric Sharia law on students and execute infidels in a makeshift caliphate, a ragtag band of red-blooded students, a security guard tired of ‘Uncle Tom’ smears and a Delta Force vet must arm up to save their clueless peers and keep America from surrendering to the enemy on its own soil.”
Jonathan Majors, who was found guilty of third-degree assault and second-degree harassment of his ex-girlfriend in 2023, is set to star as the “Delta Force vet” that must rescue the “clueless” liberal students who fall victim to “barbaric Sharia law”.
It marks an attempt at a comeback for the disgraced actor after he was dropped from his leading role in a series of planned Marvel projects due to keep the Disney franchise on its high-grossing streak following the success of Avengers: Endgame.
They went from "we're tired of Hollywood forcing politics in our movies" to making wartime propaganda films on behalf of Israel. Amazing https://t.co/4C7LtHK58L
The film is connected to a 2020 film of a similar title - Run, Hide, Fight - both written and directed by Kyle Rankin.
The setting for the film's action is based on the pro-Palestine encampments that were set up across several universities in the US in the wake of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
Students took to camping in front of campus buildings at colleges such as Columbia University in New York City in protest at financial, academic and political ties between their universities and Israeli-linked companies accused of being complicit in genocide.
Critics took to social media to denounce the film's plot as Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian propaganda..
One user on X wrote: “This is not a brave return to old-school action filmmaking. It is propaganda designed to turn every pro-Palestinian student into a potential terrorist and every Muslim into a threat… They are selling dehumanization as entertainment.” Another user called it a "promo for what looks like a 2010’s Fox News weekend propaganda documentary meant to scare boomers into going along with whatever crazy shit the pentagon and cia want to do".
How to cover up a genocide. Make a cheesy over-the-top 80s style islamophobic movie with bad acting. https://t.co/hQoC3Dpsgj
Film critics appeared equally skeptical about the film, with the Metro’s Brooke Ivey Johnson writing: “The official synopsis reads like someone asked AI to combine every American culture-war talking point into a single paragraph, didn’t proofread, and then pressed send.”
Media journal A.V club described it as “obviously designed to provoke outrage across the political spectrum”, calling it “brazenly propagandistic”.
The film's poster depicted a man holding a knife to a young woman wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab scarf that is frequently worn at pro-Palestine protests against Israeli occupation.
2003 called, they want their propaganda back. https://t.co/sELMRhRRaS
One user said in response to the poster that they did not understand the "giddy desire to relive the hysteria of the GWOT [global war on terror]".
Some more threatening comments reflected the growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, with Islamophobic messaging painting Muslims as a threat becoming more widespread.
Wake the hell up everyone! Especially veterans.. the veterans know what it's about. What they're about. As do I. The time, is now https://t.co/eq2WN9nUp2
