It’s no secret that the World War II genre of movies has produced some of the most popular and powerful hits of all-time, and one of the first that comes to mind is Saving Private Ryan. The film stars Tom Hanks, and it was directed by Steven Spielberg, the same duo who reunited a few years ago to produce a new WWII series for Apple TV, Masters of the Air. Hanks also has another popular WWII movie streaming on Apple TV, Greyhound, which is still one of the platform’s biggest streaming hits despite debuting six years ago. Hanks is also hard at work filming a sequel to Greyhound right now, which likely won’t be released until sometime next year. WWII movies can be hit or miss at the box office, but there’s a new film coming later this month that has all the potential to be a huge fan-favorite.
Brendan Fraser (The Mummy) and Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) have been tapped to star in Pressure, the new WWII thriller coming to theaters later this month on May 29. Fraser is still riding high from his Oscar win a few years ago for his performance in The Whale, and Andrew Scott is a three-time Emmy nominee for his work in projects like Ripley and Black Mirror. Kerry Condon, who recently starred in F1 with Brad Pitt and the Star Wars Disney+ series, Skeleton Crew, has also been recruited for a role in Pressure, along with Chris Messina. Messina will have a role in the next season of The White Lotus, which is now in production in France under creator and director Mike White.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Pressure is set in the 72 hours before D-Day, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) and Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) face the impossible task of launching the most dangerous seaborne invasion in history, or risk losing the war altogether. Pressure is based on the popular stage play by David Haig, who also worked on the script for the film with director Anthony Maras. It likely won’t be long before the first reactions and reviews to Pressure come out of early press screenings, and fans will finally get an idea of how the film is going to resonate with the masses.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Pressure, which is coming to theaters later this month on May 29.
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Marshall Bernard Montgomery