Spoiler alert! The following post contains key details about the plot and ending of The Ungentlemanly Ministry of War.
Are you ready to go shoot some nazis?
In Guy Ritchie’s R-rated action comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) helps lead a top-secret Postmaster operation, bringing together a ragtag group of special agents. He steals and destroys several ships off the coast of England. West Africa transporting supplies to the German army. The World War II mission served as the basis for Damian Lewis’s 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors, starring Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez, Cary Elwes, and Henry Golding in this brutal It was made into a movie as a heist thriller.
USA TODAY speaks with Lewis and co-writer Arash Amer about the real history behind the film.
Was Ian Fleming inspired by Gus March Phillips (Henry Cavill) to write James Bond?
Fleming was essentially a liaison between the Royal Navy and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). “His role in Operation Postmaster was largely to generate ideas as well as train and supervise the teams that were sent into the field,” Lewis says. “Gus March Phillips, as a dashing British gentleman, was one of the inspirations for James Bond.” Due to the sensitive nature of his work, Fleming did not share these World War II figures. He put much of his strategy “into a James Bond novel.”
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Were they really called the “Ungentlemanly Ministry of War”?
yes. In the final scene of the film, Churchill visits his agents in prison and gives them redundant titles. This was one of SOE’s many nicknames, including The Racket, The Firm, and the Baker Street Boys.
“All of these nicknames arose because they were very unpopular and irregular,” Lewis says. “It wasn’t military service, it wasn’t intelligence. It was something dark in the middle, and that’s why the military and intelligence hated it. It was a very unpopular job. , many of the nicknames were derogatory.
Did Winston Churchill really serve them lobsters in prison?
The film ends with the Prime Minister serving a seafood dinner to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “I don’t know if he would have done that, but that’s exactly what Churchill would have done,” Lewis said. “This was his organization. They were his secret warriors and he valued them very much.”
Did Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) really use a bow and arrow to kill Nazis?
Ritchson’s hulking character is an instant scene-stealer, deftly murdering Nazis with everything from axes to bows and arrows. In the movie, Lassen is nicknamed “The Danish Hammer,” but in real life he was called “The Viking.” He was, in his own way, “a psychopath about killing Nazis,” Amell says. “He showed up with a bow and arrow from his hunting days in Denmark. He brought this very primitive method of killing into a very mechanized form of warfare.”
Did that bloody rescue from the Nazi base really happen?
One of the most harrowing action scenes sees Gus and his companions sneak into a Nazi military base, where they gun down dozens of soldiers and save fellow Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer) from torture by the Gestapo. It’s a scene. This scene is an amalgamation of several historical events.
“The true story is that not a single shot was actually fired,” Amell said. “What happened was even more ridiculous. One Nazi passed out. Many of them were in the shower. The commander had a hairnet on. And these four or five guys… As soon as they saw it, they all gave up.”
Is The Suitcase Train Robbery Based on True Events?
In a suspenseful scene on a train, Marjorie and Heron (Babus Olusanmokun) steal a Nazi suitcase filled with classified information using a slightly larger Russian doll-style briefcase. The real-life robbery proceeded almost exactly as depicted in the movie, with a device planted at a weapons facility known as Churchill’s Toy Store, Lewis said. “So they have all these crazy, insane ways to kill people, with exploding suitcases, guns that are designed as pens, even rat droppings that actually become (landmines) when you walk on them. We have developed
Did they really hold a costume party to distract the Germans?
In the film’s third act, Heron holds two elaborate costume parties for Nazi officers and soldiers to distract the Germans while Gus and his men steal the cargo ship Duchessa . The party actually happened. “The real story is actually even better than reality,” Lewis says. “The officers’ party actually took place in a cafe overlooking the harbour. It was the only venue available, so the British agents on shore attended the harbour, along with a large number of[prostitutes]. The terrace was decorated with lanterns, and the party was bathed in light, turning the harbor into a sea of darkness. I tricked them into not knowing what was going on.”
Who is Marjorie Stewart played by Eiza Gonzalez?
Stewart was an actress-turned-shooter in the film, and in real life married March Phillips before she was killed in 1942. In reality, “Marjorie wasn’t on the mission for Operation Postmaster, but she played a key role in planning and putting everything together,” Amell says. “Given that she actually trained a lot of female spies behind enemy lines, we didn’t send her on her mission in her movies to honor and honor her.” That would have been a crime.”
How many Nazis did the department actually kill?
Watching “Ungentleman’s War,” one might think of six operatives fighting off hundreds of Nazis. It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact number, but “it’s quite a lot,” Amell said. “They killed a lot of people! But remember, this unit wasn’t just five or six people. The number grew to 55 (agents) and there were different But the main staff and their pioneers were essentially the people seen in the movie.
