10 Incredible War Movies About Doomed Missions

Focusing on the endgame of the European theater from the perspective of the eponymous M1 Sherman tank's crew, few movies have ever produced such a visceral snapshot of WWII as David Ayer's Fury. Earning positive reviews to match an impressive commercial return, the 2014 war film is notable for being one of the finest genre offerings of the 2010s.

To say that Fury pulls no punches in its depiction of armed conflict doesn't even come close to describing the visual hell that Ayer wastes no time immersing his viewers up to their eyeballs in. In this sense, the film's innate quality comes across as even more impressive - viewers want to avert their gaze, but find themselves transfixed despite the horrors unfolding onscreen.

However, it would be a disservice to dismiss this story as mere suffer porn. Fury's ensemble cast and thrilling battle sequences guide this gritty tale past its more obvious potholes, with Brad Pitt arguably producing his finest bow in the genre to date.

While Ayer's picture doesn't revolve solely around a doomed mission, the acclaimed entry decidedly concludes with one. Befitting of the director's "war is hell" ethos, Fury's final act sees the crew defend the tank to the last man after it is crippled by a German landmine. Despite a valiant final stand against overwhelming forces, Logan Lerman's Norman Ellison is the only man left standing - or more accurately, cowering beneath the burnt out tank - by the time the smoke clears.