10 MORE War Movie Plot Twists Nobody Saw Coming
4. An SS Soldier Doesn't Give Norman's Position Away - Fury
"Ideals are peaceful. History is violent."
Following an American tank crew in the final months of WWII, David Ayer's Fury is unflinching in its depiction of war as hell.
The 2014 offering is unashamedly nihilistic - a theme that extends from Fury's narrative to its visuals. Soldiers from both sides are reduced to bloody shreds, torn limb from limb by machine gun fire or mushed into the blood-soaked mud in horrifically graphic fashion from start to finish.
Ultimately, even the film's core group of characters - the crew of the titular M4 Sherman - aren't safe from this precedent either. Brad Pitt and Co. are all duly - and bloodily - dispatched after the crippled tank is swarmed by an SS battalion. Logan Lerman's Norman Ellison is the only man left standing - or more accurately, cowering in the mud beneath the vehicle in a desperate attempt to avoid a similar fate.
What follows next highlights Ayer's dedication to constructing an atmosphere of merciless hopelessness, underlined by the fact that a simple piece of human goodness constitutes a jarring plot twist in his film. Norman appears to be as good as toast when he is discovered by a Waffen-SS soldier peering under the tank, only for the young German to inexplicably spare him by moving on without alerting his comrades.