10 Incredible War Movies About Doomed Missions
4. 300
A riotously over-the-top outing from Zack Snyder, 300 retains cult classic status to this day. The fan-favorite historical war epic dramatizes one of Ancient Greek history's most famous doomed missions - the Battle of Thermopylae. The 2007 outing follows the last stand of the titular 300 Spartans, going out in a blaze of glory defending their homeland from a gargantuan Persian invasion.
A campy smorgasbord of outrageous costumes, gratuitous slow-motion gore and cheesy one-liners, nothing about 300 should work on paper. It says a lot about the entertainment factor of Snyder's outing that it remains one of the war genre's most beloved outings. Loaded with iconic fight scenes and instantly quotable one-liners, large portions of 300 can best be described as a can of Red Bull given cinematic form and transported back in time to Ancient Greece.
Using a narrow mountain pass to their advantage, Gerard Butler's King Leonidas and his soldiers battle on for an impossibly long time given the hilarious disparity in the size of their enemy's army. Demonstrating the ferocity and bravery associated with these legendary warriors in sharp relief, it's only after the Spartans are betrayed and surrounded that their heroic defense is eventually confirmed as a doomed mission.
Fortunately, they take the sting out of their demise by going out in spectacularly badass fashion to round off proceedings, going down swinging until a hail of arrows literally blocks out the sky.