'Civil War' director and writer Alex Garland said the economic hardships people face are among the inspirations for the upcoming blockbuster film.

The film, which releases Friday, follows a team of journalists embedded with the military who are in a race to Washington, D.C. as rebel forces descend on the U.S. capital. The film takes place during a fictional period of war in the U.S. where some states have separated from the country.

Garland told BNN Bloomberg the film, inspired by current political division in the U.S., has economic undertones.

“Economics is politics,” he said in a television interview this week. “So do I think about it? Yes, I do. Where is the success of populism? It’s partly in people who’ve been kept poor for generation after generation after generation and trickle-down economics just not functioning.”

“Wealth (is) essentially just being hoarded. People feel trapped and feel something to break the system because the system is breaking them.”

Among the more light-hearted moments of the film for Canadians comes from the loonie, which has become incredibly valuable as the U.S. dollar tanks in the turmoil.

“It’s just a joke. It’s just a gag, a cheap gag,” Garland said.

“People going to the petrol station try to buy something for $300 and they say: ‘Ok, I’ll get you a sandwich’ and they say: ‘Oh no, it’s Canadian dollars.”

As of Thursday afternoon, the loonie is trading at 73 cents U.S. It has not traded above the U.S. dollar since 2007.

For more from Garland, watch the video at the top of this article.