Two ideologies converge on September 11, 2001, and this film traces both back to their roots. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri had already declared war on the United States, framing it as a clash of civilizations meant to justify attacks on Western soldiers and civilians alike. On the other side, a circle of American neoconservatives had concluded that the United States, as the sole remaining superpower, had a duty to reshape the world in its own image. The film follows how the attacks gave both camps the opening they wanted: the invasion of Afghanistan to remove the Taliban, then the far more contested invasion of Iraq, launched on claims of weapons of mass destruction that were never found. It tallies the cost, more than 7,000 American service members killed and a war bill running toward $6 trillion, and follows the fallout through Abu Ghraib, the rise of anti-American sentiment, and eventually ISIS. Neither prophecy came true as promised; the film asks what did happen instead.