''Company of Heroes'' is a 2013 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy w ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Don Michael Paul Donald Michael Paul (born April 17, 1963) is an actor, director, writer, and producer. Biography He starred in the films '' Heart of Dixie'' and '' Rich Girl'' with Jill Schoelen and appeared in ''Aloha Summer''. He wrote the screenplay for ' ...

. The screenplay was co-written by

Danny Bilson Daniel Bilson (born July 26, 1956) is an American writer, director, and producer of movies, television, video games, and comic books. Together with his frequent collaborator, Paul De Meo, he is best known as the writer for the film '' The Rock ...

and

Paul De Meo Paul James De Meo (June 4, 1953 – February 26, 2018) was an American screenwriter and producer for film, television and video games. He frequently worked with Danny Bilson. Together, they wrote '' Eliminators'' (1986), '' The Rocketeer'' (1991) ...

. It was loosely based on the video game of the same name. De Meo would later write ''

Company of Heroes 2 ''Company of Heroes 2'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega for Windows, Linux, and OS X. It is the sequel to the 2006 game '' Company of Heroes''. As with the original ''Company of Heroes'', ...

''.

Plot

With the Germans apparently near defeat in the latter part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, a

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army d ...

of American soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division on a routine mission near Elsenborn in the Belgian

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

encounter a surprisingly strong German tank destroyer and infantry force. After a fierce firefight, the Americans escape and try to make their way back to their own lines to report the German surge. En route, they stumble across a German experimental site, still smoldering with flames from some devastating event. They come across an American

OSS OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...

agent suffering from horrific burn wounds, and learn that the Germans are close to development of a super-bomb which will enable them to turn the tide of war and achieve victory. The OSS agent, knowing that he is near death, asks the soldiers to complete his mission: to find the bomb; disable it; and extract the scientist developing it, who wishes to defect. With their sergeant and other

NCOs A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

dead, the youngest of the soldiers, Nate Burrows Jr. and the more experienced Dean Ransom (a cook who had been demoted from Lieutenant after the D-Day landings) lead them deep into Nazi territory. There, they are joined by escaped British airman Brent Willoughby and

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

soldier Ivan Puzharsky. Discovered and pursued, the Allies make a series of hair-breadth escapes from vastly superior numbers of well-armed Nazi soldiers and finally make contact with a woman named Kestrel, their link to the atomic bomb and to the scientist Dr. Luca Gruenewald. In the end, the squad manages to escape the Nazi facility as the Allied bombers decimate the place. Ivan escaped with the documents of Gruenewald's research. The squad, Doctor Gruenenwald and Kestrel safely reach Allied-controlled territory. Nate and his squad are briefed by his superiors that they will not receive any recognitions or rewards and they must keep the secret of their mission in order to keep the secrets of the atomic bomb.

Cast

Reception

Aaron Peck at home entertainment website ''High-Def Digest'' gave the film three stars and said: "It's a decent little DTV movie about World War II, but it isn't able to crawl out of the self-made trench of its budget".

References

External links

* {{Phillip J. Roth, state=collapsed 2013 films 2013 direct-to-video films Live-action films based on video games American World War II films Company of Heroes Films set in Belgium Films shot in Bulgaria Films directed by Don Michael Paul Films scored by Frederik Wiedmann Ardennes in fiction Films about Nazi Germany Films set in Thuringia World War II films based on actual events 2010s American films