Real-life secessionists call hit movie Civil War '100% plausible,' as a power-hungry federal government has trampled on the US Constitution for too long

For Texas secessionist Daniel Miller, the hit movie Civil War is something of a how-to guide.

Miller has since 1996 pushed for the Lone Star state to exit the union, in what's known as 'Texit.'

A movie about exactly that has proven an unexpected box office hit this month, pulling in $45.7 million across North America.

Miller says writer and director Alex Garland's ominous dystopia has tapped a nerve.

'Texas independence, or the breakup of the union, keeps occurring in popular culture,' says Miller.

Civil War depicts a near-future America in which several states are at war with a dictatorial president in Washington, DC   

Breakaway California and Texas have aligned as the Western Forces against the loyalist states   

'The release of the movie is pouring gasoline on the fire of the conversation around Texit.'

Civil War turns the 'conscious or subconscious' desires of viewers into 109 minutes of fun, he says.

The tense thriller sees a US that has collapsed into full-blown armed conflict.

The military powers of Texas and California have united as Western Forces, which are descending on Washington, DC.

They seek to overthrow an authoritarian US president, played by Nick Offerman.

Meanwhile, fictional Reuters photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and reporter Joel (Wagner Moura) take to the road with the aim of reaching the capital before it falls to rebels.

The movie is vague about how America descended into a second civil conflict.

The president has ripped up the rule book — bombing civilians, cancelling elections and granting himself a third term.

The fictional commander-in-chief is not too far from modern-day reality, says Miller.

He calls the movie a '100 percent plausible' account of America tearing itself apart.

Kirsten Dunst, center left, plays a news photographer trying to reach the capital before it falls to rebels

Daniel Miller, center right, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, says the movie is '100 percent plausible'

'The federal government has clearly shown that it finds the Constitution is absolutely no obstacle to its consolidation of power,' says Miller.

Politicians in the capital always find a 'loophole or wiggle room or some ridiculous Supreme Court precedent' to justify their actions, he added.

Californians and Texans are among the most pro-independence Americans, with nearly a third in each state wanting to split, YouGov polling shows.

California and Texas may seem like unlikely allies against Washington.

But their conservatives and liberals could well team up against the capital if it won each state the bigger prizes of independence and victory, said Miller.

The film shows how the US Army would shed fighters as regions break away, and how the federal government could ultimately lose, he added.

California's real-life separatists are less convinced by studio A24's offering.

Louis Marinelli, the president and founder of Yes California, which wants the Golden State's coastal area to break away, says the US is headed for a different type of conflict.

The movie shows how federal forces could well lose the war, as its fighters desert 

The movie has proven an unexpected box office hit this month, pulling in $45.7 million across North America

'The coming American civil war will be fought between the people of this country based on ideology,' Marinelli told DailyMail.com. 

'We have two diverging and incompatible sets of values in this country that can no longer coexist.'

Marinelli calls for 'drastic measures' to revise the Constitution and reboot politics to avoid a devastating fracture.

John Howe, state chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party, which wants the Last Frontier to pull away from Washington, hasn't yet seen the movie.

The plot excites viewers by challenging their 'normalcy bias' for sticking with the 50-state format they grew up with, he told DailyMail.com.

It plays into the desire of people to 'break up and have more freedom, more independence,' said Howe.

Passions about the film are doubtless elevated thanks to its release in an election year.

President Joe Biden and his rival Donald Trump both present the vote as a high-stakes race with America's future on the line.

For some, this shows how the 247-year-old experiment with democracy has run its course.

Nick Offerman plays an authoritarian president who is hell-bent on keeping the union together 

'The movie is pouring gasoline on the fire of the conversation around Texit,' says Miller

Fully 36 percent of Alaskans want to call it a day and leave the union, according to YouGov's survey of 35,000 people.

That's a more popular movement than the 31 percent of Texans who want out.

Democrat-run California and New York are next in line to abandon ship, with 29 percent and 28 percent of residents favoring secession, respectively.

Oklahomans (28 percent), Nebraskans (25 percent), Georgians (25 percent), Floridians (24 percent) and Washingtonians (24 percent) are also eyeing the door.

At the other end of the spectrum is Connecticut, with just 9 percent of its relatively content residents seeking an out.

Larger states with distinct cultures and stronger go-it-alone economies generally lean toward secession more than others.

For Miller, the polling numbers are likely a major undercount.

The way he tells it, America is fast headed toward the all-out warfare seen in the film.

'This is not some B-movie flash in the pan,' he says.

'It has elicited a tremendous amount of discussion about the future of Independence and the future of the United States as an institution.'