The Bunker (2001 film)

Last updated

The Bunker
The Bunker 2001 film.jpg
UK DVD cover
Directed by Rob Green
Written byClive Dawson
Produced byDaniel Figuero
Starring Jason Flemyng
Andrew Tiernan
Christopher Fairbank
CinematographyJohn Pardue
Edited byRichard Milward
Music byRussell Currie
Production
company
Distributed byHigh Point Film and Television
Release dates
  • 14 September 2001 (2001-09-14)(TIFF)
  • 27 September 2002 (2002-09-27)(United Kingdom)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Bunker is a 2001 war horror film directed by Rob Green, written by Clive Dawson and starring Jason Flemyng.

Contents

Plot

In late 1944, the remnants of a platoon of Panzergrenadiers from the Großdeutschland Division are caught in an ambush by American troops. As they retreat, Private Hugo Engels is killed and the platoon finds a bunker occupied by Privates Heinrich Mirus (John Carlisle) and Michael Neumann (Andrew-Lee Potts) who have orders to defend it. Corporal Otto Schenke confronts Sergeant Theobald Heydrich about not counter-attacking. Mirus relates the history of the area, where victims of the Black Plague were massacred on the orders of a stranger who influenced the townspeople to turn against one another.

During the night, tunnels are discovered beneath the bunker. Corporal Schenke (Andrew Tiernan) wants to explore them but Lieutenant Hercule Krupp (Simon Kunz) refuses. Mirus sneaks into the tunnels and a curious Private First Class Wolfgang Kreuzmann (Eddie Marsan) follows him. When they are discovered missing, Krupp believes they've deserted and orders a pursuit. Neumann is caught and reveals that Mirus had been using the tunnels as private property for several weeks while concealing his specific activities in them. Corporal Bruno Baumann (Jason Flemyng) discovers plans for the complex while Corporal Tobias Ebert (Jack Davenport) finds a warning sign. Ebert also discovers a mine shaft where he is attacked from behind by a silhouetted figure resembling Kreuzmann.

Baumann concludes there are Americans in the tunnels, and uses a generator to turn lights on in the complex. Krupp asks Mirus to explain the mysterious activities but is interrupted by machine gun fire in the bunker. Rejoining the platoon, they discover they had been firing at nothing. Cut phone lines convince them Americans are in the tunnels. The platoon splits up and searches the complex. Mirus reveals his belief that his dead son is talking to him about the tunnels. Schenke and Krupp's search discovers Ebert's body. Another group discovers a mass grave and Kreuzmann is found catatonic and incoherent. Kreuzmann breaks away from the group and runs into Krupp and Schenke as they continue their exploration. Startled, Schenke and Krupp shoot him dead, in the process creating a collapse that kills Krupp.

The gunfire alerts Neumann who enters the tunnel and, running from a shadowy figure, joins Schenke. Mirus attempts to run away and becomes tangled in barbed wire. When Heydrich, Baumann and Helmut Franke try to blow the bunker door with a stick grenade, Schenke and Neumann mistake the noise for an American assault. They set the fuse to a demolition charge to blow the ammunition up and keep it from the Americans.

Heydrich, Baumann and Franke's attempt to open the door fails. While searching for another exit they meet Schenke and Neumann who open fire thinking the trio are Americans. The three are driven back after running out of ammunition. Neumann fires at the trio while Schenke kills Franke and then threatens Neumann. The ammunition detonates and Heydrich, Baumann and Neumann flee with Schenke firing at them. The trio find the main exit blocked, try to escape through the mine shaft, and fire at an approaching figure. When Heydrich shoots Schenke with his flare pistol, he bursts into flames. Neumann manages to break through the wall of the mass grave with his entrenching tool and into open air. Heydrich is stabbed by Schenke who survived the fire, and Baumann assaults Schenke with bare hands. Heydrich is killed during the altercation and Baumann escapes with Neumann, throwing a grenade into the grave with Schenke where it explodes.

Corporal Baumann gives Neumann permission to surrender to the Americans and he sets off, finding Mirus' body in the barbed wire. When he sees American soldiers, he waves a handkerchief to surrender.

The film cuts to a flashback in which Baumann's squad is marching through a field on a sunny day, coming upon a group of deserters about to be executed. Baumann is asked to participate in the firing party. Baumann shoots at a man who is praying, and misses before hitting him twice. An officer delivers the coup de grace and the firing party pose for photographs with the executed man.

Baumann's flashback ends and he staggers off to surrender to the Americans.

Cast

Release

The film was released on DVD by Film 2000 on 21 April 2003. It was re-released a year later by MTI Home Video. [1]

Reception

AllMovie gave the film a mixed review stating, "The Bunker is an admirable horror outing that comes close to delivering the shocks, but ends up on the drab side of things when all is said and done". [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>A Soldiers Story</i> 1984 film by Norman Jewison

A Soldier's Story is a 1984 American mystery drama film directed and produced by Norman Jewison, adapted by Charles Fuller from his Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play. Fuller had said Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd inspired the play. It is a story about racism in a segregated regiment of the U.S Army commanded by White officers and training in the Jim Crow South, in a time and place where a Black officer is unprecedented and bitterly resented by nearly everyone, and follows an African-American JAG officer sent to investigate the murder of an African-American sergeant in Louisiana near the end of World War II.

A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 100–250 soldiers and usually commanded by a major or a captain. Most companies are formed of three to seven platoons, although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure.

<i>Sands of Iwo Jima</i> 1949 film

Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film starring John Wayne that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The film, which also features John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker, was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant, and directed by Allan Dwan. The picture was a Republic Pictures production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squad</span> Military unit size designation

In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while U.S. Army doctrine further defines a squad as a "small military unit typically containing two or more fire teams." In American usage, a squad consists of eight to fourteen soldiers, and may be further subdivided into fireteams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Moerbrugge</span> 1944 battle of WW2 in Belgium

The Battle of Moerbrugge was a three-day battle during the Liberation of Belgium.

<i>Windtalkers</i> 2002 American war film on Navajo radio operators in WW II by John Woo

Windtalkers is a 2002 American war film directed and co-produced by John Woo, starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, and Christian Slater. It is based on the real story of code talkers from the Navajo nation during World War II. The film was theatrically released in the United States on June 14, 2002, receiving mixed reviews and becoming a box-office bomb, grossing just $77.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $115 million.

<i>Heartbreak Ridge</i> 1986 American war film by Clint Eastwood

Heartbreak Ridge is a 1986 American war drama film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. The film also co-stars Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, and Mario Van Peebles, and was released in the United States on December 5, 1986. The story centers on a U.S. Marine nearing retirement who gets a platoon of undisciplined Marines into shape and leads them during the American invasion of Grenada in 1983.

<i>Southern Comfort</i> (1981 film) 1981 film by Walter Hill

Southern Comfort is a 1981 American action thriller film directed by Walter Hill and written by Michael Kane, Hill and his longtime collaborator David Giler. It stars Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, T. K. Carter, Franklyn Seales and Peter Coyote. The film, set in 1973, features a Louisiana Army National Guard squad of nine from an infantry unit on weekend maneuvers in rural bayou country as they antagonize some local Cajun people and become hunted.

<i>The Thin Red Line</i> (1964 film) 1964 film by Andrew Marton

The Thin Red Line is a 1964 American war film directed by Andrew Marton and starring Keir Dullea, Jack Warden, James Philbrook, and Kieron Moore. Based on James Jones's 1962 novel of the same name, the film follows the lives of a number of American soldiers during the battle of Guadalcanal.

<i>Bataan</i> (film) 1943 American film directed by Tay Garnett

Bataan is a 1943 American black-and-white World War II film drama from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Irving Starr, directed by Tay Garnett, that stars Robert Taylor, George Murphy, Lloyd Nolan, Thomas Mitchell, Desi Arnaz and Robert Walker. It follows the fates of a group of men charged with destroying a bridge during the doomed defense of the Bataan Peninsula by American forces in the Philippines against the invading Japanese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack W. Kelso</span>

Jack William Kelso was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions on the night of October 2, 1952, during the First Battle of the Hook in the Korean War. He was killed while covering the escape of fellow Marines from a besieged bunker. He was the 31st Marine to receive the United States's highest military decoration for valor during the Korean War.

<i>S.S. Doomtrooper</i> 2006 television film

S.S. Doomtrooper is a 2006 television science fiction film starring Corin Nemec, in which a mutated Nazi supersoldier, who can generate electrical charges as a weapon, and has greatly enhanced strength, fights against Allied troops during World War II. It was aired from Sci Fi Channel on April 1, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benito Martinez (soldier)</span> Medal of Honor Recipient

Corporal Benito Martinez was a United States Army soldier who posthumously received the Medal of Honor — the United States' highest military decoration — for his actions on the near Satae-ri in Korea during the Korean War. Martinez was mortally wounded while solely defending his outpost. His actions enabled his company to take back the terrain which they had lost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puerto Rican recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross</span>

Puerto Ricans have served as members of the United States Armed Forces and have fought in every major conflict in which the United States has been involved from World War I onward. Many Puerto Ricans, including those of Puerto Rican descent, have distinguished themselves during combat as members of the five branches of the U.S. Military, the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and the Coast Guard.

<i>The Guard Post</i> 2008 South Korean film

The Guard Post is a 2008 Korean horror film written and directed by Kong Su-chang.

<i>Castle Keep</i> 1969 film by Sydney Pollack

Castle Keep is a 1969 American war comedy-drama film combining surrealism with tragic realism. It was directed by Sydney Pollack, and starred Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Bruce Dern and Peter Falk. The film appeared in the summer of 1969, a few months before the premiere of Pollack's smash hit They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

<i>Snipers Ridge</i> 1961 film

Sniper's Ridge is a 1961 Korean War drama film directed by John A. Bushelman and starring Jack Ging and Stanley Clements.

Screaming Eagles is a 1956 American war film directed by Charles F. Haasd starring Tom Tryon, Jan Merlin and, in her film debut, French Miss Universe 1954 runner-up Jacqueline Beer. It was released by Allied Artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor H. Espinoza</span>

Victor Hugo Espinoza was a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War and a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Old Baldy.

George Victor Jmaeff was a highly decorated United States Marine Corps corporal. He was one of the few Canadian-Americans to be killed in action during the Vietnam War and was also a recipient of the Navy Cross.

References

  1. "The Bunker (2001) - Rob Green | Releases | AllMovie". AllMovie.com. AllMovie. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  2. Wheeler, Jeremy. "The Bunker (2001) - Rob Green | Review | AllMovie". AllMovie.com. Jeremy Wheeler. Retrieved 16 September 2015.