10 MORE War Movie Plot Twists Nobody Saw Coming
2. Maritza Is Unveiled As A Partisan - Force 10 From Navarone
"You can get up now."
Featuring Harrison Ford and loosely based upon Alistair MacLean's novel of the same, Force 10 from Navarone contains a delightful assortment of plot twists. While the double-crossing nature of one "Captain Lescovar" constitutes the 1978 outing's most obvious example, the reveal that new viewers never see coming actually occurs amid the movie's first act.
The film's core group of saboteurs is captured by Germans after parachuting into occupied Yugoslavia - an outfit led by the despicable Major Schroeder and his concubine Maritza, played by none other than iconic Bond girl, Barbara Bach. On the surface, Maritza appears to be an implacable extension of her Nazi beau, a merciless collaborationist itching to do away with the new prisoners.
However, appearances can be deceiving. After Ford's Colonel Barnsby and Robert Shaw's Major Mallory construct a ruse concerning a fictitious stash of buried penicillin to stall the Germans, Maritza and a group of Schroeder's Nazi cronies escort the soldiers to where the "revolutionary medicine" is supposedly located. As the pair attempt to lure their captors closer to overpower them, the Germans are suddenly cut down by a hail of machine gun fire.
The smoke clears to reveal the shooter as none other than Maritza, unveiling Bach's character as a Yugoslav Partisan. It speaks volumes to the quality of Bach's performance - the American's turn as a baddie is so convincing that her unmasking as an ally is a complete surprise.