The 2008 Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie is a historical period piece about the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Cruise has a unique filmography for one of the world's biggest movie stars. He has rarely played a real-life figure, as nearly all of his roles have been original creations. One of the few times Cruise portrayed someone from history came in Valkyrie, written by his frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie. In Valkyrie, Cruise plays Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a high-ranking member of the Nazi military apparatus and the chief architect of the 20 July plot.
Von Stauffenberg's growing resentment of Adolf Hitler and the clandestine machinations that went into pulling off the ploy serves as the historical basis for Valkyrie. Tom Cruise is the hero in a villainous regime as von Stauffenberg, and the movie, for the most part, tracks the events leading up to July 20, 1944. The ensemble cast plays out the conspiracy of German military and political officials who plotted to assassinate Hitler and nearly succeeded. Real life can be as cinematic as fiction as the 20 July plot shows in sits depiction in Valkyrie.
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Colonel Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg
The figure of Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was always going to be a fascinating and suitable role for any leading man in Hollywood. Von Stauffenberg was a highly decorated military leader for Germany during World War II whose bravery and charisma led to him becoming the de facto leader of the conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Christopher McQuarrie writes a classic Tom Cruise opening scene in Valkyrie with a desert battle in Northern Africa taken straight from von Stauffenberg's life. While fighting in Tunisia, von Stauffenberg was shot at by an allied aircraft and lost his eye, one hand, and two fingers on the remaining one.
By 1944, some members of the German high command thought the only way to salvage something from defeat was by ridding the country of Hitler while others had reached a tipping point of their morality, according to Time. Von Stauffenberg was an ardent German patriot but had no ties to the Nazi party. As von Stauffenberg, Cruise has an uncanny resemblance to the colonel that helps immerse the audience in Valkyrie. It's one of Tom Cruise's most dramatic movie roles, and his ability to command a scene gives the character of von Stauffenberg the necessary gravitas to convincingly be someone capable of plotting an assassination.
Planning The 20 July Plot
The first half of Valkyrie is primarily focused on the conversations Tom Cruise's von Stauffenberg has with other members of the Nazi military about moving against Hitler. Cruise meets with several venerated actors playing real-life historical figures, some whom bring von Stauffenberg into the conspiracy and others who are brought in themselves. The plotters eventually decided on the 20 July plan. There were several assassination attempts by this German Resistance force, but it was not until von Stauffenberg became attached that serious plans were made. The 20 July plot is shown at the climax of Valkyrie while the lead up is appropriately tense, as most great great Christopher McQuarrie movies are.
According to Time magazine, the plotters of 20 July chose the Wolf's Lair as the location for the assassination. This secret base held a fortified, windowless, underground main bunker. A room like that would amplify the effects of the bomb they planned to detonate. As it was shown in Valkyrie, July 20 proved to be an incredibly hot day, so Hitler's meeting was moved to a larger room not ideal for a detonation. The way Tom Cruise and his co-conspirators act concerned while still keeping their composure in front of the other Nazis is a fascinating look into what was going through the plotters' heads on that day.
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In Valkyrie, as in real life, according to Time, the bomb is rigged inside a suitcase with a set timer. Unfortunately, an attaché of Hitler, Colonel Heinz Brandt (played by Tom Hollander, adding another villainous character to his catalog), is suspicious of von Stauffenberg from the moment he arrives. Von Stauffenberg carefully sets the suitcase bomb under the war table where Hitler is standing, and it seems for a moment that Valkyrie may be turning into alternative history film, like Inglourious Basterds. Just as things appear to be going according to plan, Brandt moves the suitcase bomb out from under Hitler's chair, just to be safe.
There is no evidence for Brandt knowing anything about the conspiracy, and the suitcase was most likely simply shifted during the course of the meeting. Whatever the cause, the explosion of the suitcase bomb killed three officers, including Brandt but only left minor wounds on Hitler, according to History. While in another Tom Cruise movie, the actor might run out of the exploding camp to the next set piece, Valkyrie stays true to the history, and von Stauffenberg calmly slides into an army jeep and talks his way back to Berlin. This is identical to the real life flight of von Stauffenberg, as he and the rest of the conspirators raced to finish their ploy.
Operation Valkyrie
The title of Valkyrie is taken from "Operation Valkyrie," a government sanctioned contingency that laid out the plans for the reserve army to make arrests on behalf of the German government. This operation was the core of the conspirators' plans and the reason it had the best chance of success of any coup since the 1938 plot to kill Hitler in Munich. Von Stauffenberg gets Adolf Hitler to sign an amended version of the plan that puts more power into the hands of the plotters. In Valkyrie, von Stauffenberg meets with Hitler to have the document signed, a piece of film fiction to add more agency to von Stauffenberg's actions.
While the post-assassination events in Valkyrie see the conspirators nearly reaching their goal of having all the Nazi officials arrested, the real story is wrapped up much quicker. In both the movie and history, it quickly becomes clear that Adolf Hitler survived the assassination attempt and ordered all the initiators of Operation Valkyrie arrested. Nearly 200 plotters were captured and brutally executed for their involvement in the plan. Many of the executions are shown in the final scenes of the movie, and von Stauffenberg's death by firing squad is filmed with Tom Cruise's character shouting before he dies, "Long live Germany!" — the true final words of the German patriot.
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