Picturehouse Blog

Few people are aware that this pivotal moment of World War II hung in the balance just hours before the landings in France, and the fate of the world with it. If not for a tiny group of leaders under unimaginable strain, history might have been very different. That group's finest hour now forms the basis for a gripping new thriller that finally brings Britain's obsession with the weather to the big-screen prominence it deserves. 

Working with Working Title, the producers behind the Oscar-winning Darkest Hour, director Anthony Maras' film is a dramatisation of events in 1944, with Brendan Fraser as Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was the commander of the Allied forces in Europe that summer and therefore the man charged with liberating Europe from the Nazis.

With his small inner circle, which includes his loyal aide-de-camp Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon) and long-term meteorologist Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina), he is finalising plans to land in Normandy, France, on 5 June and take the fight to Hitler. However, a new weather chief, Captain James Stagg, played by the ever-excellent Andrew Scott, predicts a turn in the weather that could jeopardise the entire invasion.

With the weight of the world on his shoulders, this gloomy prediction is the last thing Eisenhower needs – especially because he is horribly conscious that his dress rehearsal for D-Day, Operation Tige, was a debacle.

The commander must figure out how much faith he can place in this gruff newcomer, a lone voice warning of disaster amid the gung-ho likes of Field Marshal Montgomery (Damian Lewis) and a general staff raring to start the fight in France. As Stagg and Knick butt heads and Eisenhower rages at the uncertainty, Summersby attempts to build bridges, although her own status is far from secure. 

Maras made his name with the tense terrorist thriller Hotel Mumbai and the Cypriot war drama The Palace, so he knows how to create nail-biting tension. He also co-wrote the script with actor and playwright David Haig, who adapts his own hit play, finding ways to widen out the narrative and show the scale of the war with real footage from the period as well as modern recreation. The result looks set to be one of the British films of 2026, a depiction of a key turning point in global history that demands to be seen on the biggest screen. 

As the minutes tick away until Eisenhower must give the go order, audiences can relive the impossibly high stakes and immense pressure that weighed on all these people at the time, and marvel again at how close the British weather came to ruining everything.

There's a reason it's a perennial hot topic of conversation, and this exciting, immersive experience will make you extremely grateful for weather forecasters in a way you have never been before.  

Helen O'Hara

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