Company of Heroes (film)

Company of Heroes is a 2013 American direct-to-video war thriller film directed by Don Michael Paul. The screenplay was co-written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. It was loosely based on the video game of the same name. De Meo would later write Company of Heroes 2.

Plot
By December 1944, Nazi Germany appears to be nearly defeated. Lt. Joe Conti orders a squad of American soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division, led by Sgt. Matheson, to conduct a routine mission near the Elsenborn Ridge in the Belgian Ardennes. The squad's transport convoy is destroyed by German mortar fire. Escaping the ambush, the squad encounter a German tank column of the 12th SS Panzer Division, supported by a large infantry force.

After a fierce firefight and several casualties, the squad retreats and try to make their way back to their own lines to report the incoming German attack. En route, they stumble across a German experimental site near Leidenfeld, still smoldering with flames due to an unknown devastating accident. They come across an American OSS agent suffering from horrific burn wounds, and learn that the Nazis are developing a nuclear bomb which will enable them to turn the tide of war and achieve victory. Nearing death, the OSS agent asks the soldiers to complete his mission: extract Dr. Luca Gruenewald, the lead scientist of the research program, who is willing to defect.

The squad reaches Leidenfeld and board a cargo train to Stuttgart, but Sgt. Matheson is wounded during a shootout at the station; before dying, he entrusts the young and inexperienced Nathaniel “Nate” Burrows to command the squad in his stead. The train is revealed to carry several Allied POWs, most of whom are killed when the train is intercepted by the guards in Stuttgart; the American squad is nearly wiped out during the ensuing shootout, leaving only Burrows and Dean Ransom, a former Lieutenant demoted after a botched mission near Saint-Lô.

Joined by Ivan Pozarsky of the Red Army and Brent Willoughby of the RAF, Burrows and Ransom meet “Kestrel”, the OSS agent's contact, at the opera house. Revealed to be a young German woman, Kestrel leads the four soldiers to an OSS safehouse for some much-needed rest. She explains that following the failure of the prototype near Leidenfeld, Dr. Gruenewald has finished constructing a functional nuclear bomb, which is to be tested by the Waffen-SS the next day. Having realized that Burrows and Ransom will not hand Gruenewald to the Soviet Union, Pozarsky steals the blueprints of the bomb and leaves.

In the morning, Kestrel helps Burrows, Ransom and Willoughby infiltrate a Nazi nuclear test facility in Haigerloch. Willoughby begins freeing the prisoners, while Kestrel, Burrows and Ransom head for Gruenewald's laboratory. However, when they attempt to disable the bomb, they find it missing. Soon after, they are cornered by Kommandant Beimler, the officer in charge of overseeing the nuclear research program, but before the guards are able to execute them, Pozarsky appears and kills Beimler along with his entourage. As Allied scout planes appear over Haigerloch, signaling an incoming bombing run, the survivors escape the facility aboard the transport truck carrying the nuclear bomb, which Gruenewald manages to disable. During the chaotic car chase, Ransom is shot by Lt. Schott, Beimler's second-in-command, and Burrows loses consciousness.

Burrows comes to at an Allied command post, with Lt. Conti by his side. Conti informs him that Ransom did not pull through, but the mission was a success. However, Burrows is also told that he will not receive any recognition or reward for his actions, as the events of the previous day are to remain secret. After saying goodbye to Willoughby, Burrows starts for the US together with Kestrel. Before leaving for the US, he visits the grave of his father in France.

Reception
Aaron Peck at home entertainment website High-Def Digest gave the film three stars and said: "It's a decent little DTV movie about World War II, but it isn't able to crawl out of the self-made trench of its miniscule [sic] budget. Peewee Herman fought harder in PeeWee’s Playhouse".