Genre: War/Drama
Director: Martin Campbell
Writer: Harry Wright
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Liam Hemsworth, Edward Norton, Cliff Curtis, Jason Clarke, Manu Bennett, Rosamund Pike, Anthony LaPaglia
Plot: The 2nd New Zealand Division is deployed in the North African Campaign against Mussolini's Italy. Lieutenant Charles Upham's (Liam Hemsworth) unit is deployed in Greece, on the island of Crete. The attack on Maleme is in a couple of hours. He and his two friends, Manuel Thompson (Manu Bennett) and David Kelly (Jason Clarke), know they're probably walking on the battlefield facing certain death, but the love for their beloved country is too strong for them to back down.
Upham's platoon is under heavy fire, dropped in the middle of a field, with barely any cover, against a strong and well organized defense post. They're 3,000 yards away from their objective. They're held up by a machine gun nest, hammering them with all the ammo it can find. After seeing several of his men taken down by the machine gun, Upham takes his pistol and grenades and ran in the machine gun's direction while his section covered him. He managed to be close enough to the pit to kill the occupants with a grenade, allowing his platoon to advance. About a 1,000 yards further, they're once again held up by three machine guns inside a house. He repeated the same routine and managed to throw two grenades through windows, killing two machine gun operators and his unit killed the other. At the objective, the platoon is surprised by a hidden machine gun post, killing several of Upham's men in the process. He crawled on the ground slowly while the massacre continued and when he's 15 feet away from the machine gun, he throws a grenade, killing the enemy and the massacre stop.
Upham's unit is now tasked to hold on to the open position they just took from the enemy. On the first day, their food reserve is destroyed by mortars and it is judges too dangerous for the Allies to bring them another one. Continuously under fire, Upham is injured when he's blown over by a mortar shell and a piece of shrapnel lodged in his left shoulder. After the position was deemed too dangerous, Upham's platoon was tasked to return to Sphakia, home of a Force headquarters to be reassigned. At Galatas, Upham's unit is the target of heavy mortar and machine-gun fire. They stop and hide and Upham gets out of hiding and observes the enemy. He comes back and they all get out, surprising the enemy, killing 40 men and making the other go away. In the encounter, Upham is shot in the foot, but he doesn't tell anyone. On their way to Sphakia, he goes ahead of his colleagues to survey the field and he's fired on by two Germans. He falls and when the Germans approached to see if he was dead, he surprises them and shots both of them with his pistol.
They finally reach Sphakia, where they're ordered to kill a party of enemy, advancing. They climb a rocky hill and with a Bren Gun and two riflemen, he manages to kill 22 and the others fled. When he came back to Sphakia, they heal his shoulder, his foot, his back and they heal his dysentry, which prevented him to eat for the past week. Hearing Upham's impressive feats, General Howard Kippenberger (Anthony LaPaglia) advises the king in a letter to award him the Victoria Cross.
1942
Captain Charles Upham (Chris Hemsworth) runs across an open ground in the German troops direction, when he's shot twice. He falls on the ground and goes back up. He desperately throws a grenade in the German's direction, killed an entire party. Upham's company was ordered to hold on to the position, but when the communication system broke down, Upham crossed the battlefield again to go to the other side to start it up again, killing a dozen of Germans in the process. Just before dawn, Upham's party is attacked by four machine-gun posts and a number of tanks. They decimate Upham's unit, but he doesn't give up. He destroys a tank with grenades, but he's shot in the arm by a machine gun, breaking his arm. He continues the attack, carrying wounded soldiers to a safe position. When backup arrives, they send Upham to the Regimental Aid Post to heal his arm and treat his severe blood loss. He will remain there for an hour, before returning to his men. They're eventually captured, when down to only six survivors, Upham's party gave up.
Upham's taken to Colditz Castle, along with Kelly and Thompson. This is where they meet Andrew Jacobson (Cliff Curtis), another prisoner. Colditz Castle is under the command of Reinhold Eggers (Edward Norton). They soldiers discuss the possibility of escaping, but everyone says there's no way they could. When the Germans transported them through open trucks in Italy, Uphan knocks one of the guards unconscious and tries to escape. He gets about 400 yards away, before being captured. His colleagues continue to tell him he can't escape and they're going to kill him, but when he's on a moving train, he breaks the bathroom's window and jumped down, knocking himself unconscious. When he wakes up, he's inside Colditz Castle. He convinces his friends in helping him escape. They refuse and Upham takes the matter in his own hands, trying to escape in broad daylight, climbing the fence. He's captured again.
After the third incident, Eggers decided to place Upham in solitary confinement, with Eggers keeping an eye on him personally. When he's allowed to exercise alone in a small fenced yard, guarded by Eggers, two armed guards and a machine-gun towering over them, he knocks down Eggers with a dumbbell and climbs over the fence. The guards didn't shoot him, out of respect for the men, and because an entire party of Germans were exercising on the other side. Eggers orders that Upham should see the sunlight until he dies.
Upham is left for dead for a couple of days, until the Americans captured Colditz Castle. He finds out that Eggers killed his friends, after he believed they helped him trying to escape. Upham is taken to the hospital. He lost a ton of weight and badly injured, but he keeps dreaming about killing Eggers. He joins an American unit, tasked to find German officials, but when they find out about his health problems, they send him to a British hospital, where he grows fond of the nurse treating him, Molly McTamney (Rosamund Pike). When the war is over, Upham weds McTamney and goes back to New Zealand, where he receives his two Victoria Crosses from General Howard Kippenberger.
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