Get all the Pressure reviews in one place! Below is a compilation of 18 reviews.
Review #1
by Frank Scheck | Hollywood Reporter | May 26, 2026
A superb Andrew Scott faces off against Brendan Fraser in a tense D-Day drama.
You’d think that every story to be told about World War II would have been told by now. But the new film by Anthony Maras excavates a fascinating, little-known episode involving the preparations for D-Day and the all-important weather forecast that would determine the success or failure of the invasion. Featuring an award-worthy performance by Andrew Scott in the lead role and solid supporting turns by Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon and Chris Messina, Pressure lives up to its title with its expert ratcheting up of sustained tension.
Based on an acclaimed stage play by David Haig, the film is set in the 72 hours leading up to D-Day. The story begins with the arrival to the Allied Headquarters at the historic 19th-century manor Southwick House of Scottish meteorologist Dr. James Stagg (Scott), who had been assigned to head up the weather forecasting team for the invasion. Although proud of his new position, he’s not particularly happy to be here, since his pregnant wife Liz (Tamsin Topolski) is on the verge of giving birth.
He’s also not pleased with what he sees of the operation currently headed by American meteorologist Irving Krick (Messina), who had successfully worked with General Eisenhower (Fraser) before on several military operations. Stagg quickly comes into conflict with Krick, who relies on historical weather patterns gleaned over decades for his forecasts. Stagg considers the data irrelevant and depends on his own science-based technique instead. He also upsets Eisenhower by telling him that long-term forecasts aren’t reliable, and that “anything over 24 hours is a long-term forecast.”
Eisenhower and his team of generals, including the hot-headed British Bernard “Monty” Montgomery (Damian Lewis, leaning into his blustery turn with gusto), have planned the invasion for June 5, 1944, a date to which Krick has given his blessing. But Stagg insists that the weather will be extremely rainy and windy that day and will result in the invasion’s failure. It’s a prospect that Eisenhower dreads, especially since he’s emotionally traumatized by his role in planning Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the invasion that went disastrously and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of soldiers.
Stagg recommends that the invasion be postponed for a couple of weeks, but maintaining secrecy for that long would prove virtually impossible. The resulting clash of wills between Eisenhower, Krick and Stagg forms the heart of the drama, with Ike’s devoted personal aide Kay Somersby (Condon) attempting to bring down the level of anger. The film also depicts the closeness between Ike and Somersby, although without intimating the alleged affair between the two.
The stage origins of the film are evident in the minimal number of settings and long dialogue exchanges, much of it stuffed with dense meteorological jargon. But Maras, working from a screenplay co-written with the playwright, has done a marvelous job of opening up the action to make it feel cinematic, including the judicious use of archival footage from the era. Running a fleet 100 minutes including credits, the film proves compelling throughout even though we obviously know the outcome. As with such films as All the President’s Men and Apollo 13, it’s the depiction of the process involved, never feeling dumbed-down, that holds our attention.
To say that Scott gives a superb performance is by now redundant, but he outdoes himself here, not bothering to render the prickly, officious Stagg likeable but making us fully identify with him nonetheless. The way he subtly reveals deep emotion without resorting to histrionics is a marvel, especially in a scene in which Stagg hears potentially devastating news on the phone. Maras keeps the camera tightly on the actor as he barely seems to react while quietly asking a few brief questions, but the anguish he conveys is palpable.
Fraser at first seems miscast, not bearing much of a resemblance to Eisenhower other than his shaved head. He also comes across as too emotional at times for the Supreme Allied Commander, who was known for his controlled temperament. But he’s effective nonetheless, movingly conveying the pressure that Ike was facing at this key moment in the war.
Condon, projecting the same assured confidence that she did as the racing engineer in F1: The Movie, gives the film a quiet emotional ballast, while Messina does his usual solid work as the meteorologist who eventually comes to accept the fact that he’s been outclassed.
Maras’ previous film, Hotel Mumbai, was a nerve-jangling thriller about a real-life terrorist siege. He’s obviously working in a more cerebral way here, but Pressure is no less riveting.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Review #2
by Nell Minow | Roger Ebert | May 26, 2026
3.5 stars out of 4
In “Pressure,” a tense, sober, powerful WWII drama, the leaders of the Allied military forces gather at a huge, map-covered table with small pieces representing planes and boats, trying to plan the largest and most complex invasion in history. Their previous effort, called Exercise Tiger, was designed to be a rehearsal. But it was a catastrophe, with failures of strategy and communication that led to more than 700 fatalities. Rattled but undaunted, US General (and future US President) Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), British General Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis), and Royal Navy Admiral Bertram Ramsay (Robert Portal) are determined that this time they will be in control of every detail, from decoys used to deceive the enemy to the optimal tides and phase of the moon for the troop landings on Omaha Beach in France’s Normandy region.
But there are always, as two-time Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called them, “known unknowns,” and the biggest known unknown was the weather. Clear weather was fundamental to the success of what the military leaders hoped would be a decisive turning point in the war, and Eisenhower was asking for certainty. It was not just a matter of the military getting wet. The ships and planes would be unable to reach the shore if the waves were too high and visibility was too limited. But meteorological forecasting was primitive in the 1940s in a way that is hard to grasp for those of us who can simply check our phones and get a detailed, reliable reading.
The American head meteorologist assured Eisenhower that he would have clear skies on the scheduled date. But the newly arrived British meteorologist was predicting storms and was willing to say only that they were likely, not certain. The title, “Pressure,” refers to the unimaginable difficulty faced by everyone involved in planning what would come to be known as D-Day, but also to the barometric indicators being tracked by both meteorologists and leading them to opposite conclusions.
Director Anthony Maras co-wrote the first-rate screenplay with David Haig, the playwright who created the theatrical version, and they make the story so urgent that we almost forget that we know what happened. The stakes are starkly clear from the first moment. There’s no “inspired by” or “based on” equivocation about the basis for what we are about to see, just “This is a true story.” And then we see the face of a heartbreakingly young soldier dying in blood-drenched water during Exercise Tiger. The camera pulls back, revealing the devastating aftermath of the battle. And then, a scene of comfortable domesticity as James Stagg (Andrew Scott) makes breakfast for his very pregnant wife, Liz (Tamsin Topolski), before an understated but tender goodbye. Stagg is leaving for an important new job. Winston Churchill told Eisenhower that Stagg is a genius at forecasting the weather, so he has been sent to the Allied headquarters for this crucial forecast.
The American officer who had been handling the forecasts is not happy. He is Irving Krick (Chris Messina), cocky and protective of his territory. He had developed an innovative system for predicting the weather by identifying close analogs from the past. Krick is happy to be playing that role and happy to provide a prediction that makes the top brass confident that they have picked the right day. He brags that, back home, he was brought in by MGM producer David O. Selznick to predict the weather for the filming of the burning-of-Atlanta scene in “Gone With the Wind,” and points out that he accurately predicted the weather for previous battles. Stagg quietly points out that those predictions were for North Africa, where the climate is more stable and predictable than in Northern Europe. The analog system is based on historical data, looking at the factors most similar in the past and then the weather that followed. Stagg collects data from observation posts around the world to track the direction of storms that are currently active, and he has his eye on two that are likely (but not certain) to be headed their way.
Eisenhower wants Krick to be right, but he also wants to know what will happen. Stagg is honest enough to admit that there is no way to be certain. Outside their window, the sun is shining, so it is hard to imagine the weather changing so quickly. A delay would mean weeks before the tides would give them what they need, and it would be close to impossible to keep the plans secret for that long. The tension is agonizing. Stagg is also faced with terrible worry about his wife as England is still being bombed. The reserved and stubborn Stagg could easily have come across as remote or rigid.
Scott, who often specializes in quiet characters, makes us see Stagg as everything we would hope for from a man in that job: dedicated, supremely competent, and utterly decent. Fraser’s expressive eyes give humanity to Eisenhower’s military-trained focus and decisiveness. Kerry Condon brings warmth and intelligence to Eisenhower’s aide Kay Sommersby (though there is no indication of their rumored romantic relationship). Exceptional cinematography by Jamie Ramsay gives the film a muted hint of sepia, evoking the mid-century as we imagine or remember it. This is a serious film in the best sense of the term, a thoughtful film about people facing the direst problems with honor, intelligence, and courage that goes beyond the physical to include fearlessness about pursuing the truth.
Source: Roger Ebert
Review #3
by Guy Lodge | Variety | May 26, 2026
Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser go toe-to-toe in an absorbing tale of how the weather won the war.
Adapted from David Haig’s 2014 play, Anthony Maras’ straightforward, well-mounted WWII drama covers perhaps the one aspect of D-Day that hasn’t yet been made into a movie: its meteorological planning.
The British obsession with the weather goes from an easily mocked national quirk to a world-beating point of pride in “Pressure,” a handsome, efficient WWII drama that doesn’t go quite so far as to say a weatherman won the war, but wouldn’t mind one bit if that’s what you came away believing. The “weatherman,” in fact, is Captain James Stagg, the leading Scottish meteorologist who was appointed the Chief Meteorological Officer for Operation Overlord, reporting to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in determining just what day to make D-Day. If that sounds like less than riveting drama, you underestimate both the eternally unpredictable vagaries of the English summer, and the formidable magnetism of one Andrew Scott as Stagg, staunchly arguing with Brendan Fraser‘s Eisenhower about the rain as if thousands of lives depend on it — because, this time, they do.
Though the marketing for “Pressure” — opening wide Stateside this Friday, somewhat surprisingly months ahead of its U.K. bow — is emphasizing the epic scale of its pretty curtailed D-Day dramatization, Anthony Maras‘ film is mostly a chamber piece, set predominantly in the Allied military headquarters where the operation was planned down to the wire, its drama largely contained in tense verbal conflicts over desks and maps and bulletin boards. If, while watching it, you think it would work well on stage, that’s because it already has: Actor-playwright David Haig’s play of the same title was a West End success in 2014, but was perhaps too clipped, too British or too niche to transfer to Broadway.
It works well on screen too, however, in part because Australian helmer Maras (“Hotel Mumbai”) and Haig — who co-write the adaptation — don’t strain too hard to open it up. Instead, they honor the ironic scope and stakes of the original piece, in which the fate of the free world rests on environmental minutiae that no human can control, and chart the varying ways in which different parties respond to that powerlessness. (Much like the men on screen, they also keep a strict eye on the clock: Here’s a rare period war drama that comes in at a businesslike 100 minutes.)
When Stagg’s calculations lead him to conclude that an almighty storm is set to break on June 5, 1944 — the day originally earmarked for the Normandy landings — after a long period of balmy calm, potentially scuppering the entire vast project, his simple but urgent advice is to wait a day. Raring to go, all the top military brass, including the agitated Eisenhower and his supercilious British counterpart General Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis), act as though the rational, needfully single-minded man of science has personally betrayed the mission.
There’s a dry strain of comedy in watching these mighty men of war not just thwarted by a simple weather report, but reduced to sputtering anger by it: Though everything in “Pressure” from the serious-minded ensemble work to Jamie D. Ramsay’s discreetly varnished lensing to another urgently thrumming score by Volker Bertelmann (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) looks to ennoble the events playing out on screen, the film is lifted by its contrasting streak of absurdity.
It doesn’t help matters that Stagg’s American colleague, the less qualified meteorologist Irving Crick (a perfectly slick, slippery Chris Messina) is willing to selectively manipulate the charts to tell his superiors exactly what they want to hear, facts and stats be damned. Though set more than 80 years ago, “Pressure” quite sharply chimes in with the post-truth political climate of the Trump era, where expertise is distrusted by default, and leadership means unquestioned authority.
Not that Eisenhower, to be fair, is presented here as quite such a tyrant. Fraser’s entertainingly broad, blustery performance still permits some glimpses of humility and uncertainty in the future President, as even his brick-built shoulders buckle under the, well, pressure of the moment. A warmly level-headed presence in the somewhat thankless role of his personal secretary Kay Summersby, Kerry Condon is tasked with an awful lot of machismo-countering and ego-wrangling.
Still, the film belongs to the ever-reliable Scott, who commendably doesn’t take the easily sympathetic route with the anxious, uptight Stagg, playing him with a suitably dour chill to match his grim forecast — but also a stern, stoic integrity that you’d trust with your life. There’s no joy in raining on this particular parade: Scott, and in turn “Pressure,” make an unfashionable but timely stand for planning, listening and taking the sensible option.
Source: Variety
Review #4
by Marshall Shaffer | Slant Magazine | May 26, 2026
2.5 out of 4 stars
Think of this film as the Moneyball of war movies.
Over 80 years after D-Day, the Allied landing in Normandy remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. Pressure wants you to know that there’s more to this turning point in World War II than meets the eye. More specifically, the way Anthony Maras’s film sees it, behind every grand military achievement lies routine workplace drama.
Pressure’s gambit is to treat the behind-the-scenes planning of D-Day not only as equally important to the attack but also just as interesting. The biggest decision in the film comes not from whether to invade but when, specifically factoring in how weather conditions would influence the ability of ships to approach the French coastline. This small, underappreciated component of war planning makes meteorologist Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) as pivotal to turning the war’s tide as Allied General Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser).
But Scott’s wonky weatherman hardly receives a hero’s welcome when Fraser’s supreme commander summons him away from his highly pregnant wife (Tamsin Topolski) to join the Allied Headquarters at Southwick House. Stagg joins a brain trust that resembles Lincoln’s “team of rivals” model, which Eisenhower convenes to consider all angles of an attack. Yet he’s hardly treated like an equal among a group whose conventional wisdom has begun to calcify into stagnation, most notably around the date of D-Day’s launch: June 5.
Hinging the concept of Pressure around aligning calendars places a ceiling on the suspense the film can generate. Maras and co-writer David Haig, the author of the stage play on which the film is based, must recreate the pleasures of a ticking time-bomb thriller for an audience that knows exactly when the detonation will occur. The onus thus lies with Scott’s performance to make how the explosion happens as interesting as when it does. As the irascible but innovative Stagg, the actor skillfully generates sparks through his character’s internecine skirmishes.
When this newcomer drops into the planning deliberations on the precipice of the invasion, he encounters a team whose remove from the frontlines of devastation has dulled their sense of urgency. Eisenhower’s most trusted consultant in meteorology, Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina), is content to model the landing date off historical precedent and general vibes. For an empiricist like Stagg, who insists on incorporating real-time data signals to model weather systems in the volatile skies of Northern Europe, business as usual won’t do.
What follows amounts to something like the Moneyball of war movies, with a disruptive force seeking to modernize operations running into consistent confrontation with a rigid old guard that rests on its laurels. To convince Eisenhower to rethink D-Day’s mission strategy, Stagg must contend with Krick’s bravado—conveyed by Messina in a hammily scene-stealing turn—and Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery’s (Damian Lewis) intense brooding. A little help from the one woman with any substantial speaking role at the base, Lt. Kay Sommersby (Kerry Condon), also goes a long way in his coalition-building effort.
Pressure functions best when Maras reflects his protagonist’s nature: straightforward, unflashy, and mission-driven. The film, unfortunately, betrays the nature of Stagg’s triumph in its closing stretch by recreating the D-Day invasion. Granted, most sequences of filmed combat in war movies since Saving Private Ryan have been unable to capture the visceral intensity of how Steven Spielberg depicted the storming of Omaha Beach, but Pressure especially suffers from doing so, as evidenced by one particular sequence marred by unimaginative aesthetics.
Ending in the register of a standard-issue, guns-blazing war movie undercuts the film’s biggest selling point: its ability to grasp both the mythological and mundane elements present in each scene. With plenty of help from Volker Bertelmann’s dramatic score bellowing throughout, the weight of World War II and the tragic consequences of blowing this invasion are never out of mind. Yet Stagg’s dilemma is one all too familiar to knowledge workers, albeit in far lower-stakes scenarios, as they scramble to put together an impossible deliverable for a demanding boss while uncooperative colleagues decry any deviation from orthodoxy.
Source: Slant Magazine
Review #5
by Odie Henderson | The Boston Globe | May 26, 2026
3 out of 4 stars
Pressure investigates the winds of war.
It’s hard to keep tension in movies where the audience knows the outcome. “Pressure” sidesteps that by implicitly acknowledging that you know what eventually happened on D-Day. The question that drives the film is how the weather affected that outcome, and what part it played in the battle that ensued. By keeping the focus squarely on that facet of storytelling, the script by Haig and Maras is able to pull off some clever tricks. There’s a moment here when I started to doubt my own retention of high school US history class lessons.
As you know, I love movies about process. And the majority of “Pressure” is people doing their jobs and slinging the appropriate lingo. Yet the film is driven by a complex performance by Scott, who plays real-life Scottish meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg. He’s the audience stand-in, an honorable man who must leave his pregnant wife, Liz (Tamsin Topolski) to serve his country during a crucial moment in history. When the hospital Liz is giving birth in is bombed, Stagg has the added trauma of not knowing whether she survived.
Running counter to Stagg’s family worries is the strict, no-nonsense military personality of Brendan Fraser’s General Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower. Ike is caught between a rock and a hard place; the forces overseen by British commander Bernard Montgomery (Lewis) are prepared for what may be the turning point in this war, yet Eisenhower isn’t sure if the climate conditions are right to storm the beaches. Any miscalculation regarding wind or waves will cause the entire endeavor to collapse in horrific fashion.
Eisenhower already has a botched mission on his conscience, a catastrophic failure that occurred six weeks earlier. Plus, he has the added burden of a newcomer under his command whom he knows nothing about besides a sterling recommendation from Winston Churchill. Adding to Ike’s troubles is the vehement disagreement between his most trusted meteorologist, Irving Krick (Chris Messina from “Air”) and that newcomer, Stagg; Krick relies heavily on past patterns, while Stagg believes that the weather is too unpredictable to base predictions on history alone. Krick leans into his certainty, while Stagg frustrates everyone by refusing to commit to absolutes.
Balancing out this boys’ club is Kerry Condon as Kay Summersby, Eisenhower’s right-hand woman. Every request from Stagg to meet with the general must go through her. She understands him better than anyone else, and her character is pulled between expressing genuine emotional concern for Stagg and understanding the hardened stance of her boss. Condon turns what could have been a thankless role into a memorable one.
Maras, who also edited the film, stages the D-Day invasion at the end of the movie. I understand why this was necessary, but I kind of wish he hadn’t. Comparisons to “Saving Private Ryan” are inevitable, and it’s the one time “Pressure” feels like a thousand other war movies we’ve seen before.
As for the actors, Scott is well-cast as a prickly, occasionally unlikable character who faces an uphill battle to prove himself. Messina is also very good as his equally set-in-his-ways adversary. And Lewis is suitably stuffy as Montgomery, a man who reportedly clashed with both Eisenhower and Churchill.
As Eisenhower, Fraser yells a lot, which appears to be a requirement of any actor who has played the role, from Robert Duvall to Tom Selleck. His scenes with Condon provide a slightly warmer window into his character, and when you look in Fraser’s eyes, you can see how subtly he telegraphs Ike’s uncertainty.
It’s a good performance, though I admit the casting still feels odd. I mean, this is the star of “Encino Man” playing a future President of the United States. Every time I saw him interacting with Scott, I wanted him to sing the opening line of Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit “Head Over Heels”: “I wanted to be with you alone/ And talk about the weather.”
Come to think of it, that lyric is a nice one-sentence interpretation of the plot of this entertaining historical drama.
Source: The Boston Globe
Review #6
by Pete Hammond | Deadline | May 26, 2026
Thrilling WWII story of how a weather forecast changed history in the 72 hours before D-Day.
If you have seen Oscar-winning accounts of the June 6, 1944, seaborne invasion in Normandy, known as D-Day, in classic films like Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and 1962’s all-star epic The Longest Day, you probably believe you know all you need to know about that fateful day that changed world history. Think again.
Just when it seems there is no angle of WWII unexplored, along comes Pressure, the story of how conflict over forecasting what the weather would be on those beaches in France in order to pull off this complex and risky Allied invasion against the Nazis. That’s right, the weather! How director Anthony Maras is able to make this moment in the war such a cinematic, edge-of-your-seat thriller about predicting the weather conditions is a bit of a miracle itself, but he has done it. It is not really a story widely known to general audiences, and here it carries remarkable power and a message for world leaders that resonates to this day, making Pressure a crackerjack film detailing a historical event in the lead-up to it, even more than its actual execution, but also a stirring and pertinent lesson that is as relevant today as much as ever.
Based on David Haig’s hit 2012 play of the same name, Haig and Maras have collaborated on scripting this film, which, like the stage version, largely takes place on one very big set. This is where the generals, notably Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), gather to make crucial decisions, live-or-die determinations that can affect millions of lives. With him is trusted aide and very opinionated meteorologist Irving Krick (Chris Messina), who has given him key weather forecasts on several campaigns and is doing so again for perhaps the biggest ever attempted, a seaborne invasion onto the beaches of Normandy in France planned for June 5, 1944. But wait, didn’t D-Day happen on June 6?
This is where the battle first plays out, over 72 hours before the actual event, with the arrival of noted meteorologist Dr. James Stagg (Andrew Scott), a no-nonsense, not-so-friendly man who remains confident of his abilities to correctly call the weather forecast when it counts the most. Instant conflict is created, especially with Krick, when he says the latter’s prediction of perfect conditions for June 5 is heavily disputed by Stagg’s calculations that it would be disastrous to launch on that day. Who do you trust?
That is the conundrum for Eisenhower and others, notably the ever-opinionated General Bernard “Monty” Montgomery (Damian Lewis), who has a way of being lovably obnoxious and is not at a loss for words or ideas. With his longtime relationship with Krick, Eisenhower is skeptical of Stagg’s forecast but is a man who will hear even what he doesn’t necessarily want to hear. He is a leader (and future president) who only wants to get it right, and that means listening to anyone in the room who can help in that regard, even someone who on the surface is seemingly as unlikable as Stagg.
This is what Pressure is all about, and even if we are aware of the outcome and the fact D-Day took place on June 6, not June 5, the suspense level is high and this becomes a story that really pops. Much of that is thanks to this terrific cast, starting with Scott, who invests Stagg with understatement and a duty to serve his country and to deliver the facts, no matter how unpopular his analysis may be or how conflicted it gets with Krick and other doubters. Stagg, in the middle of all this, also is dealing with the most personal of circumstances with his wife (Tamsin Topolski), who is pregnant but who also might be in harm’s way. As Scott so brilliantly plays him, this is a man suffering in silence, caught up in heartbreaking circumstances, but also has a job to do and knows the consequences of failing.
Although at first Fraser might not have come to mind as the perfect Eisenhower, you can rest assured that he is. This actor nails exactly what made Ike the kind of leader you want in this situation, a man with a decision that is everything. The film’s title, Pressure, doesn’t begin to explain the stakes here. Lewis as the ever-colorful Montgomery and Messina playing the surefooted Krick both really liven up the debate. A very fine Kerry Condon contributes much-needed warmth and a female presence as Lt. Kay Summersby, a trusted aide to Ike when he needs it most.
Daniel Taylor’s impressive production design and Volker Bertelmann’s precise score add immensely along with the top-notch camera work of Jamie D. Ramsay, who manages the not-so-simple task of matching actual colorized documentary footage of the invasion into the film’s own template. As editor in addition to director, Maras makes it all look seamless and authentic.
Producers for the Studio Canal and Working Title production are Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Cass Marks and Lucas Webb. Focus Features is releasing just in time for the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, and I can’t think of a better reminder of the greatness and courage of those who made the crucial decisions toward its legendary triumph. If only we had this kind of true leadership in a world that desperately still needs it.
Source: Deadline
Review #7
by Kristy Puchko | Mashable | May 26, 2026
Andrew Scott is low-key hilarious in this World War II drama. Think “Conclave” meets “The Pitt,” set in World War II.
I wasn’t prepared for Pressure. Walking into the World War II drama, which stars Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser, I knew it was about the lead up to D-Day. As such, I braced myself for a serious, stiff-upper-lip drama about soldiers and the cruelty of war. And it’s not that Pressure isn’t about those things. Rather, adapted from David Haig’s 2014 stage play of the same name, Pressure comes from an unexpected angle in exploring war strategy.
Andrew Scott stars as Group Captain James Stagg, a Scottish meteorologist for the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force, who was assigned to aid American ally General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) by figuring out the forecast for the beaches of Normandy for D-Day.
Now, you might be thinking that weather and war don’t sound like rich terrain for laughs. But Pressure‘s humor comes from the crackling cultural conflict between this no-nonsense Scot and the American general in desperate need of a sunny day.
Pressure is as much about social pressure as it is weather and war.
Pressure begins with bloodshed in 1944. Before the Allies carried out the biggest seaborne invasion in history (aka D-Day), there was a test run known as Operation Tiger, which failed miserably. Pressure begins in the immediate aftermath of this disastrous exercise, where a boyish young man in uniform stares blankly into the sky, blood washing around his prone body as the tide comes in.
Up and down the beach, there’s a scramble among the survivors to aid whatever soldiers may be saved. Eisenhower looks on, stricken, cursing under his breath. With one brief yet brutal scene, director Anthony Maras, who adapted the screenplay with playwright David Haig, has succinctly established the life-or-death stakes of planning an invasion.
Six weeks later, Eisenhower is in a remote country estate filled with U.S. and UK military, all planning to launch D-Day in 72 hours. The fatal failure of Operation Tiger hangs over him, whether he’s being barked at by a brash British field marshal (Damian Lewis), cajoled by his Irish aide, Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon), or placated by the American’s lead meteorologist, Irving Krick (Chris Messina).
While the energy of these allies ranges from stern to abrasive, patient to bombastic, they’re all pushing for D-Day to launch on Monday morning. Then, on a Friday arrives Stagg, who warns major storms could sink D-Day out the gate.
Introduced in his home in the midst of a cozy morning ritual, Stagg prepares breakfast for his very pregnant wife (Tamsin Topolski), gently assuring her he has time for this bit of intimacy. He is a man of few words, and this will come to frustrate his colleagues as the pressure builds. No sooner does he reach the estate than he’s making curt commands. He points out errors in his men’s work, dismisses the directives of another meteorologist, and is visibly vexed to discover Summersby in his office.
To borrow from reality TV, Stagg is not here to make friends; he’s on mission. Like in Conclave, another excellent Focus Features release, there’s a brilliant humor that erupts when this very serious setting collides with cutting replies to arrogance.
Krick is Stagg’s foil, a suave American who literally performs a lively song and dance (“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”) to amuse his troops. Stagg, by contrast, demands the piano be taken away, and literally hits a bad note when slamming its cover closed.
Where others swoon over Krick’s easy-going attitude, name-dropping stories, and retellings of professional glory, Stagg simply stares, seeming to resent the wasting of time. Later, when arguing against Krick’s proposed forecast of beautiful sunny weather, Stagg flatly calls the man “moronic.” And when Krick complains that Stagg is insulting him to his face, Stagg responds sharply, “I’m not insulting you. I’m describing you.”
In this ruthless honesty, there’s an exciting — and yes, funny — rejection of social norms. And maybe even the thrill of vicariously being so good at your job that you don’t need a charm offensive to be heard.
Pressure is competency porn.
Fun fact: I’m the person who introduced this bit of slang to Pressure‘s leading men. In an interview with Scott and Fraser, I explained how Pressure reminded me of HBO Max’s hit series The Pitt, because both feature people who are so dedicated to their work, and so skilled at it, that it’s deeply — almost orgasmically — satisfying to watch.
While it’s tempting to flatten Eisenhower, Krick, Summersby, and Stagg into symbols to make them broader critiques of American attitudes versus British ones, Pressure bristles against such simplicity. For one thing, Stagg is Scottish, Summersby is Irish, and Eisenhower and Krick are two very different representations of American masculinity. The former is a tall, stern man, haunted by his failures. The other is a dynamic hero, held up by his wins and charm.
Looking at the two of them, it’s tempting to think Krick gives Eisenhower the sunny forecast to please him. But in Messina’s intensity opposite Stagg, it’s easier to believe that a soldier with so many victories may be blind to his own potential defeat. None of these people are stupid or lazy or incompetent. But, as Stagg declares almost as soon as he arrives, it’s incredibly difficult to determine the weather in Northern Europe for sure, more than 24 hours in advance. No matter how much these military leaders want the answer to be something else, Stagg won’t bend on being certain.
Here’s where the tension becomes satisfying and humane. This is not one man’s battle to be heard in a realm where he’s surrounded by fools. Pressure presents people who are the best at what they do. Their forces combined, we might think it’s easy to see how D-Day was a success, marking a major turning point in World War II. But Stagg, staunch and soft-spoken, is like a mountain, unmovable as he reminds them that nature, that science, cannot be bellowed at or bullied into submission.
There’s a glint in Eisenhower’s eyes that reminds us of the dying boy on the beach without the need of a flashback. The stakes are clear. It’s electrifying to witness humans who are determined to do the hard, right thing, while having to face that we’re not as in control of the world as we wish to be. So, who will make the tough call, stay or go?
Andrew Scott is remarkable in Pressure.
There’s an incredible restraint in Scott’s performance that allows the humor to reverberate without feeling forced. It’s not that Stagg is trying to be funny or cutting. Scott gives no wink or smile to suggest Stagg enjoys dressing down Krick (though who could blame him?).
Whether caressing his wife or arguing his position against the towering wrath of Eisenhower, Stagg is a man who values time and truth above all else, and so will waste none of the former with a denial of the latter. Because Messina’s boogie woogie American is scripted as the dashing dynamo, Scott suppresses the sultriness and mischievousness that made fans of Fleabag and Sherlock go wild. He holds in the throbbing heartache that made All of Us Strangers radiant in its grief, and the anchoring empathy of Blue Moon. He plays none of the biting barbs as punchlines or reads. Resolute and restrained, he is nonetheless riveting, perhaps especially as Stagg’s anti-social tendencies irk those around him.
Maras smartly sets Stagg apart from his peers with a hint of color. Cheers to Maras and his cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay for rejecting the contemporary obsession for desaturated palettes. In Pressure, a rich saturation brings depth to ornate rooms filled with soldiers in brown, khaki, and more brown. Flesh is allowed to flush red in frustration. But most notably, Stagg, in a crisp blue dress shirt, is visually in opposition to the troop of brown around him. Even in a group shot, even with his back turned, this simple choice of embracing color and a simple choice from costumer Liza Bracey, makes him stand out. Perhaps to remind us of how he feels alone in this fight. Or perhaps, stripped down from his dress jacket in moments of high stress, this blue shirt is meant remind us that these icons of history are also just men, as flawed and fearful as they may be revered and brave.
Created with care and great humanity, Pressure explores the hard work, intense co-operation, and tricky social dance of warfare, in a way that is enlightening and entertaining. Maras is respectful without ever falling prey to a stony reverence that would make his characters statues instead of people. Fraser is committed and suitably stern as Eisenhower. Condon balances warmth and clarity as the middleman between Eisenhower and Stagg. Messina is delightfully smarmy. Along with Scott, they create portraits that don’t feel stiff, but are pulsating, precious, and alive.
Pressure is outstanding cinema, propelled by passion, intellect, and spirit. Don’t overlook it.
Source: Mashable
Review #8
by Matthew Rudoy | Screenrant | May 26, 2026
A new World War II movie starring Brendan Fraser has debuted with a strong Rotten Tomatoes score.
Between The Whale, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the crime comedy Brothers, and the comedy-drama Rental Family, Brendan Fraser’s movies have covered a wide range of genres in recent years. The popular actor, who won an Academy Award for his performance in The Whale, has also been generating a great deal of buzz since he is reprising his role as Rick O’Connell in The Mummy 4, the long-awaited sequel that is scheduled to release in theaters on October 15, 2027.
Now, Fraser’s new World War II film Pressure has debuted with an 83% critics’ score based on 23 reviews. The score will likely fluctuate as more reviews are added before and after the movie comes to theaters on May 29.
Pressure is a movie about D-Day, but rather than mostly focusing on showing the actual invasion, it is about the 72 hours prior. It tells the real story of how a meteorologist named Captain James Stagg worked to convince General Dwight D. Eisenhower to delay the invasion from June 5, 1944 to June 6 due to perilous weather conditions. Many lives and the outcome of the war were saved as a result of the decision to push it back to June 6. Fraser plays Eisenhower in the film while Emmy Award nominee Andrew Scott plays Stagg.
In ScreenRant‘s Pressure review, Brandon Zachary gives the movie six out of 10 stars and highlights the two actors’ performances: “Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser do terrific work in the lead roles, and they’re magnetic enough to make a movie about debates over weather predictions riveting – even if the script and direction can’t quite match their tone.” He also praises Fraser for doing “a great job at making Eisenhower come across as a man haunted by the potential for disaster.”
IGN‘s review by Jim Vejvoda also gives a “Fresh” score, in this case eight out of 10 stars, because “war movie fans and WWII buffs should appreciate the film’s devotion to detail, while mainstream audiences will be treated to a taut, compelling story about the very real men behind the icons who ensured an Allied victory.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck is impressed by the cast, particularly Scott, and how the movie is able to successfully escalate the tension as it progresses: “Featuring an award-worthy performance by Andrew Scott in the lead role and solid supporting turns by Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon and Chris Messina, Pressure lives up to its title with its expert ratcheting up of sustained tension.”
As for the “Rotten” reviews, Alison Foreman at IndieWire expresses frustration at how the director, Anthony Maras, nearly elevates the film, but is ultimately unable to do so despite several promising moments: “There are hints of a far better movie peeking out from Maras’ dull weather drama, and the Australian director nearly finds it on numerous occasions.”
In TheWrap‘s review, William Bibbiani compliments Maras’ direction, but feels it doesn’t do enough to justify the interesting historical background into a full movie: “Maras’ sturdy, competent direction isn’t enough to turn Pressure into anything more than a nifty historical anecdote that can’t sustain a feature-length motion picture.”
If Pressure‘s Tomatometer score stays “Fresh,” it will be Fraser’s third film in a row to achieve this feat. Rental Family‘s positive reviews led to an 88% critics’ score, while Diamond received an 82% after debuting at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. His only “Rotten” critics’ score for a movie since 2020 is Brothers, which sits at 44%. Fraser’s recent movies have generally been receiving high audience scores too, including 95% for Rental Family and 91% for The Whale.
Along with Fraser as Eisenhower and Scott as Stagg, Pressure features Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon as Kay Summersby, Chris Messina as Irving P. Krick, Damian Lewis as Bernard Montgomery, and Henry Ashton as John Eisenhower. The screenplay was co-written by Maras and David Haig, the latter of whom previously wrote the story as a stage play that was first performed in 2014.
Source: Screenrant
Review #9
by Jim Vejvoda | IGN | May 26, 2026
8 out of 10 stars
I like Ike, and successful Allied seaborne invasions.
Pressure focuses on the 72 hours leading up to D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 that ultimately paved the way for the downfall of the Nazis. You’ll never see a more important movie about weather forecasts than this well-crafted, solidly performed drama directed by Anthony Maras and based on David Haig’s 2014 play of the same name.
Pressure dramatizes the fateful choice that General Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, must make when informed by meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) that massive storms may occur on the invasion’s planned date of June 5th. If the Allies delay D-Day too long, they will lose the element of surprise against the Germans and their best shot at winning the war. But if they go ahead with a massive seaborne invasion during such weather, they risk the whole operation failing and thousands of lives being needlessly lost.
Fraser finds Eisenhower’s vulnerabilities and flaws while maintaining his commanding presence. He cares deeply about his men, but can also be single-minded and demanding. The film also tenderly depicts the close bond between Ike and his chauffeur and personal secretary, Lt. Kay Summersby (a warm Kerry Condon), who acts as the gatekeeper to the general. They’re not a romantic item, mind you, so much as work spouses who know each other well enough to speak frankly.
As important as Fraser’s Eisenhower is to Pressure, the film’s main protagonist is Stagg, played by Scott as a brilliant but difficult man. Stagg’s softer side is really only evident to his pregnant wife before he leaves for duty at Southwick House, the rural English headquarters of Operation Overlord. (Batman Begins’ Wayne Manor, aka Mentmore Towers, stands in for the real location.) Stagg is a stubborn but ultimately fair taskmaster who demands results from his team. He almost immediately clashes with his American counterpart, the humblebragging meteorologist Irving Krick (Chris Messina), whom Ike has come to deeply trust thanks to their past campaigns. But Stagg and Krick have wildly different approaches to crafting a long-range forecast for D-Day. Stagg collects and analyzes a wide array of readings and data coming to him in real time; Krick relies on statistical analogue techniques that forecast based on historical patterns. Stagg believes the weather will be awful on June 5th while Krick insists it will be fine.
The brass do not want uncertainty from their meteorologists. Eisenhower and his military commanders, including General Bernard “Monty” Montgomery (a perfectly snide Damian Lewis, reuniting here with his Band of Brothers co-star Andrew Scott), are frustrated that there isn’t a unified recommendation. Monty and others believe if they don’t go on June 5th – and wait until mid-June as Stagg suggests – they may as well start learning to speak German.
Eisenhower, though, is haunted by the recent tragic failure of Exercise Tiger, a dress rehearsal for D-Day that resulted in hundreds of friendly fire deaths due to one simple error. He’s aware that he himself has never seen combat – something Monty obnoxiously reminds him about – and knows that whatever his decision, the fate of the war rests with him. (Guess whose forecast Ike ends up going with?!)
Although the outcome of D-Day is known, Pressure successfully ratchets up tension by showcasing the uncertainty weighing on all of its characters. No one wants to be wrong, many big egos are weighing in, and the fate of the free world hangs in the balance. The film also introduces a very personal, ticking-clock crisis for Stagg that lends him much-needed vulnerability at a point where his behavior threatens to make him insufferable.
While Pressure is to be commended for its painstaking attention to detail in costuming and production design, there’s one notable area the film tries to pull off but just can’t quite succeed in. Act 3 admirably recreates the Normandy Beach landings to great effect, but it’s simply impossible for the film not to come up short when inevitably compared to the unsurpassable D-Day sequences in Saving Private Ryan. Still, not a bad runner-up
Verdict
Pressure is quality dad content. War movie fans and WWII buffs should appreciate the film’s devotion to detail, while mainstream audiences will be treated to a taut, compelling story about the very real men behind the icons who ensured an Allied victory. Brendan Fraser makes Eisenhower flesh and blood, while Andrew Scott adds another whipsmart protagonist to his filmography with his nuanced portrayal of meteorologist James Stagg.
Source: IGN
Review #10
by Dan Mecca | The Film Stage | May 26, 2026
This earnest, engaging D-Day thriller hinges on the storm report.
Can you make an engaging film about predicting the weather? Pressure, directed by Anthony Maras, answers this question in the affirmative. Set mere days before D-Day is set to commence, General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) needs an accurate forecast to ensure the operation will go as planned. The film’s stark opening minutes portray the vicious aftermath of Operation Tiger, a D-Day training exercise gone horribly wrong only months earlier. Hundreds of American soldiers were killed by friendly fire after some deadly miscommunication. We find Eisenhower steadfast but shaken, surrounded by British generals who believe they can do a better job leading the Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF) to victory. Damian Lewis represents this feeling in his outsized portrayal of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, commander of all D-Day land forces.
Andrew Scott plays meteorologist James Stagg, recommended by Churchill himself to help forecast. Eisenhower’s trusted American meteorologist Irving Krick (Chris Messina) is thus forced to play second fiddle to Stagg. When it’s time to tell the powers that be what the weather will do, the two men disagree and Eisenhower must choose whom to trust. That is the central conflict of Pressure. It’s earnestly fascinating that the film works as well as it does. It moves at a brisk pace and is populated by incredibly entertaining supporting turns, most especially Kerry Condon, who plays Eisenhower’s personal secretary Kay Summersby. Ultimately, Pressure is a deft examination of the minutiae of war: the in-fighting, the gossip, the assumptions, the regret. The weather! These things matter and matter mightily.
Scott plays Stagg like a lead from one of Powell and Pressburger’s World War II movies—I kept thinking of David Farrar from The Small Back Room. Stagg is confident, mercurial, and hard to like. Until, of course, he isn’t. Messina plays off Scott perfectly, his Krick the exact opposite (aside from the confidence). He’s jovial and charming, making the most of his war. Fraser’s Ike is full of bluster, but the Oscar winner’s soft, vulnerable face does well to betray his poise. At one point, Eisenhower admits: “When I close my eyes, everything I see is failure.” It’s a deeply strange performance that stands out from the rest of the ensemble, which I suppose is the intent.
Maras makes the most of limited sets. Nearly every scene takes place in some sort of meeting room, save for a quite effective, pivotal sequence in a nearby church. Production designer Daniel Taylor deserves a lot of credit for filling each frame with a busied, lived-in world of war-planning and worry. Cinematographer Jamie Ramsay also does solid work, building effective contrast inside dark, smoky rooms. One wishes he pushed it even further, adding a noir style to the interiors.
Pressure is an interesting, entertaining thriller that harkens back to a kind of studio picture that is now only made by mid-majors like Focus Features. It’s also a celebration of the people who do their jobs and do them well. Too often do we elect the Eisenhowers of the world president while forgetting those who made his job easier.
Source: The Film Stage
Review #11
by Giovanni Lago | Next Best Picture | May 26, 2026
Besides historians and some World War II-obsessed fathers, how many people think about the meteorological patterns that influenced the Allies’ decision to invade Normandy? The answer, apparently, is playwright David Haig, whose fascination with the subject has taken this story from his stage production to the silver screen all these years later. Haig, alongside filmmaker Anthony Maras, attempts to bring the storm to life with “Pressure,” a war drama that seeks to amplify the stakes of the unique situation that forever defined world history. Instead, it’s merely a muted outing, straining to translate the strengths of its stage origins into a passable Oscar-bait drama that, if anything, will mostly satisfy filmgoers of a certain age.
Maras sets the stage by opening the film with imagery of storm systems captured in the atmosphere. Massive waves of water come crashing down onto the earth as man himself exists merely at the behest of nature. This powerful display of the elements’ volatility models the savagery at the heart of this globe-spanning conflict. “Pressure” is told through the perspective of Andrew Scott’s James Stagg, a military captain and chief meteorologist who is requested at the behest of United States General Dwight Eisenhower, played by Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser. Stagg’s strict, by-the-books approach immediately clashes with the culture of the weather team run by the braggadocious meteorologist Irving P. Krick, played by Chris Messina. Soon, Stagg learns the reasoning behind his inclusion on the team as Eisenhower presents him with an impossible assignment: predict the perfect forecast three days out for one of the largest ground-scale invasions in modern military history.
“Pressure” is a feature that rides the coattails of its premise to the absolute limit, as the hunt for the most accurate weather prediction sends Stagg and his colleagues on a race against the clock filled with all the expected tribulations one would expect from a film of this pedigree. Audiences watch Stagg embody the black sheep genius archetype amongst a group that consistently scoffs at his warnings about the tumultuous conditions that could jeopardize the entire mission. Yet, despite our knowing the outcome of D-Day, “Pressure” suffers because the immediacy so desperately emphasized by Eisenhower is never truly conveyed to the audience. The film’s pacing never sustains the intensity needed to keep viewers engaged in Stagg’s struggles, both in this impossible endeavor and in the strife of his personal life.
It also doesn’t help that the screenplay by Haig and Maras still feels better suited for the stage, as the boilerplate drama that arises from characters confined to a single setting largely dissipates once the scale expands. Maras’s direction is adequate, bringing all the pieces together, even if the film operates at a somewhat lethargic pace throughout.
Most of the ensemble’s performances are at least entertaining, but it’s far from anyone’s best work, as the writing holds the cast back from taking their characters beyond the one-note roles they serve within the narrative. Stagg, as a character, is too stoic for his own good, even as Scott attempts to chip away at that exterior as the film progresses. Messina purposely plays up the overly confident antagonist whose whole purpose is to thwart any progress or goodwill in the eyes of Eisenhower’s cabinet. His constant hammering on previous weather patterns becomes peculiar and grating to the point that audiences can practically feel Stagg’s frustration. Kerry Condon, who plays the tough-as-nails Kay Summerby, is mainly present to reaffirm any doubts Stagg finds within himself on his mission to prove the impossible.
Then there’s Fraser as Ike himself, whose larger-than-life reputation may simply be too broad for the actor to fully bring to life. One has to question whether Fraser is slightly miscast as a titan of American military history and the future president of the United States. It’s easy to understand why a role like this would be enticing for an actor. Still, Fraser is largely relegated to delivering crowd-pleasing line readings and bursts of righteous anger that feel engineered for an awards season sizzle reel. It’s difficult to take him seriously at times, especially when he’s at odds with Damian Lewis’s Bernard Montgomery, a British military officer undermining his authority at every turn. Still, it’s Fraser’s chemistry with Scott that gives “Pressure” the necessary spark to keep going. The two together are compelling enough to make audiences wonder why more of the film isn’t centered around their relationship.
“Pressure” aims to live in the shadow of films like “Darkest Hour” and “The Imitation Game,” military biopics from the 2010s that have long since faded in the minds of many who saw them. It’s not that “Pressure” is a poor film by any means, but rather one we’ve seen countless times before. It’s an engaging entry point into this well-known historical event, but there’s only enough beneath the surface to make it, at best, a moderately amusing history lesson.
The Re-Cap:
THE GOOD – Has enough in its forecast for it to be an entertaining watch. Solid performances from Andrew Scott and company.
THE BAD – Very familiar storytelling. Brendan Fraser, while fairly suitable in the role of Eisenhower, makes us question sometimes if he’s right for the role.
THE FINAL SCORE – 6/10
Source: Next Best Picture
Review #12
by Tyler Nicoles | JoBlo | May 26, 2026
7 out of 10 stars
An alternate look at one of the most important days of World War 2.
There’s just something special about a World War 2 movie. It’s such a major part of history and is the ultimate showdown of good versus evil. Often, we see these stories told through the troops on the ground, but Pressure does something unique by following a meteorologist who affected D-Day more than anyone. So while there are fewer battles present here, the tension is as present as ever, with the high stakes bleeding through every choice made by the Allies.
Pressure follows the decision-making behind the seaborne invasion of France, known as D-Day. More specifically, a breakdown of the weather forecast and how that would affect the operation. We mostly follow Chief Meteorologist James Stagg, who was brought in by Winston Churchill due to his expertise. But he’s the odd man out, as all of the other military officers want the attack to go through as scheduled. This has the very tall task of making weather forecasting interesting and somehow manages to do so. I was completely riveted, despite knowing the general outcome. It still manages to have some interesting surprises along the way, ramping up the tension throughout.
The name Pressure could not be more apropos, because everyone in this is dealing with immense pressure to perform their jobs to the utmost of their abilities. If they don’t, people will die, and the war efforts could prove futile. Andrew Scott is absolutely phenomenal as James Stagg, the meteorologist tasked with predicting the weather for D-Day. He’s able to convey so much with so little that the moments when he finally gets emotional hit harder. The film is firmly on his back, and he does a great job of making weather talk interesting.
Brendan Fraser continues his streak of great performances, perfectly encapsulating General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Whether it’s the quiet moments or his angry outbursts, he perfectly conveys how much this decision is weighing on him. Kerry Kondon is Eisenhower’s aide, Kay Summersby, and works as a go-between for Stagg and Dwight. She feels a little underutilized, but there’s only so much time for side characters, given the film’s fairly tight 100-minute runtime. Damian Lewis, Chris Messina, and Con O’Neill round out the supporting cast, and all manage to be adequate. Since we’re mostly just following these decision-makers, it does mean we’re not getting any significant connection to the ground troops, which slightly lessens the impact of the D-Day scene.
After Saving Private Ryan perfectly encapsulated Normandy Beach, it’s hard to do D-Day, and it quickly became the blueprint. With all of the events of this film, leading to that event, I wasn’t sure if they would even touch on it, given the very high watermark set by Spielberg. Surprisingly, they actually show the storming of the beaches, cutting between the ground warfare and the military officials who made the decision in the first place. And it’s all very well done, being used as a perfect payoff to all of the tension built throughout the prior hour.
I’ll be perfectly honest, while I’ve seen plenty of WW2 movies in my lifetime, I’m far from an expert on the subject. So I’m not sure how much Pressure takes artistic liberties. As it’s presented, nothing feels too out there, and everything is presented in a believable way. I’m sure there’s some classic Hollywood embellishment, but there’s nothing to ruin the experience. There’s a subplot involving Stagg’s wife that ups the stakes and avoids feeling corny or over-the-top.
Much in the same way that Schindler’s List was shown to students while I was in school, I can see Pressure following a similar trajectory. It’s informative and shows a different side of a story I’m sure we’ve all heard time and time again. But it’s good to be reminded of a very dark time in world history that could have very well ended very differently if not for the brave men and women on the ground, and making these decisions. This is a feel-good story about making the right call in the face of adversity, and it accomplishes its job of honoring the real-life people behind it.
Source: JoBlo
Review #13
by Jonathan Sim | ComingSoon.net | May 27, 2026
8 out of 10
The opening image of Pressure tells you almost everything you need to know before a single line of dialogue is spoken: blood diffusing into dark, restless water, soldiers lying in the ocean—an omen hanging heavy in the air. It’s an arresting, almost ghostly visual that frames the film as a meditation on the fragile, terrifying calculus behind it. From there, we arrive 72 hours before D-Day, into a world where the fate of thousands hinges not on bullets or bombs, but on clouds, wind, and the stubborn interpretations of men.
At the center of this storm, both literal and metaphorical, is James Stagg, played with quiet intensity by Andrew Scott. The film introduces him in familiar fashion: a dutiful man pulled away from his pregnant wife, summoned to serve a higher purpose. It’s a setup that could feel overly conventional in another film, but here it works precisely because it’s so foundational. Pressure understands that in a story driven heavily by technical debate and historical inevitability, we need an emotional tether, and Stagg’s personal life provides that anchor. You don’t realize how much you miss these grounding details in modern films until one reminds you how effective they can be.
Stagg himself is not an easy protagonist. He’s rigid, deeply focused, and often humorless to a fault. Social niceties seem like an afterthought compared to the burden he carries: the responsibility of being right. Scott leans into this severity without making the character inaccessible. There’s a subtle vulnerability beneath his stoicism—a sense that his bluntness and isolation aren’t just personality traits, but defense mechanisms against the enormity of what’s at stake. Every forecast he delivers isn’t just data; it’s a life-or-death assertion.
Opposing him is Irving P. Krick, played with confident ease by Chris Messina. Where Stagg is cautious and methodical, Krick is charismatic and assured, advocating that conditions will be favorable for the invasion. Their dynamic becomes the film’s central tension—not a battle of fists or weapons, but of intellect, ego, and interpretation. Pressure smartly resists turning this into a simplistic good-versus-bad dichotomy. Instead, it highlights a more unsettling truth: both men believe they are right, and both can marshal evidence to support their claims.
Hovering above them is Dwight D. Eisenhower, portrayed by Brendan Fraser with a commanding but human presence. Fraser’s Eisenhower is not the distant, mythologized leader we often see in war films. He’s impatient at times, prone to flashes of temper, yet ultimately grounded by the crushing weight of decision-making. This interpretation creates a compelling contrast with Stagg’s quiet restraint. Eisenhower must absorb the clashing certainties of his advisors and still arrive at a single, irreversible choice. The film understands that leadership, especially in moments like this, is less about confidence and more about making the decision that feels right.
What makes Pressure stand out in the crowded landscape of WWII cinema is its refusal to rely on spectacle. There are brief glimpses of the machinery of war, but they remain peripheral. The real action unfolds in cramped rooms filled with maps, chalkboards, and exhausted men running on little sleep. The film is driven almost entirely by dialogue, yet it rarely feels static.
In that sense, Pressure feels spiritually aligned with films like The Imitation Game or Darkest Hour. It’s less concerned with the execution of history than with the agonizing process that precedes it. The ticking-clock structure, with those crucial 72 hours, adds a layer of urgency that keeps the film propulsive, even when characters are simply debating weather patterns. You feel the time slipping away, the margin for error shrinking with each passing hour.
The film also taps into a theme that feels strikingly contemporary: the danger of cherry-picking data. In an era where information can be selectively interpreted to support almost any conclusion, Pressure serves as a sobering reminder of the stakes involved when truth becomes malleable. Krick’s confidence isn’t villainized outright, but the film carefully illustrates how certainty, when built on selective evidence, can be as dangerous as ignorance. Stagg’s insistence on caution, meanwhile, underscores the value of humility in the face of incomplete knowledge.
There’s also an undercurrent of exhaustion that permeates the film. These men aren’t just debating; they’re unraveling under pressure. Sleepless nights blur together, tempers fray, and the weight of impending catastrophe becomes almost unbearable. The film does an excellent job of conveying how high-stakes decision-making erodes even the most disciplined minds. It’s in these quieter, more human moments that Pressure finds its emotional core.
Performance-wise, the ensemble is uniformly strong. Scott anchors the film with a performance that is both restrained and quietly devastating. Messina provides a necessary counterbalance, injecting energy into scenes that might otherwise become too heavy. Fraser, meanwhile, delivers one of his more understated performances in recent years, grounding the film in gravitas without tipping into caricature.
Perhaps most refreshing is the film’s scale. Pressure feels like the kind of mid-budget adult drama that has become increasingly rare in today’s blockbuster-dominated landscape. It doesn’t rely on visual excess or franchise recognition to capture attention. Instead, it trusts its audience to engage with ideas, characters, and moral dilemmas. There’s something almost radical about that simplicity.
Ultimately, Pressure is a film about decisions—how they’re made, who makes them, and what they cost. It reminds us that history is not just shaped by grand actions, but by quiet, uncertain moments where the right choice is anything but clear. In stripping away the spectacle of war and focusing instead on the minds behind it, Pressure offers a perspective that feels both intimate and immense. It may not have the explosive set pieces of more conventional war films, but it offers something arguably more compelling: an emotional, thrilling, thoughtful examination of responsibility, truth, and the unbearable weight of being right.
Source: ComingSoon.net
Review #14
by Mark Keizer | MovieWeb | May 26, 2026
- Story 4.5 out of 5
- Performances 4 out of 5
- Execution 4 out of 5
- Entertainment Value 4.5 out of 5
On January 20, 1961, President-elect John F. Kennedy was riding to the Capitol for his inauguration alongside Dwight D. Eisenhower, the outgoing president and Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during D-Day. When Kennedy asked Eisenhower why the Normandy invasion had been such an overwhelming success, he replied, “Because we had better meteorologists than the Germans.” If Ike’s answer sounds like a joke, then director Anthony Maras’s compelling true story, Pressure, will convince you that his words could not have been more accurate.
Pressure is a thoroughly absorbing, high-stakes drama in which the success of the largest amphibious assault in the history of warfare comes down to two men arguing about the weather — and the conflicted general who must decide which one to trust. In one corner is Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), the meteorologist sent to Allied headquarters at England’s Southwick House to determine if weather conditions would be suitable for a June 5 invasion of Normandy. In the other corner is fellow meteorologist Irving P. Krick (a terrific as usual Chris Messina), Ike’s cocky, name-dropping weather savant whose findings clash with Stagg’s. Brendan Fraser throws his bulk around as Eisenhower, who demands certainty before asking hundreds of thousands of Allied troops to risk their lives by storming the beaches of France. In a genre overflowing with outsized stories of battlefield heroism, Pressure finds a fascinating corner of World War II history centered on an unheralded desk-bound meteorologist whose instincts and expertise helped defeat the Germans.
Scott, an Olivier Award winner whose range and intelligence make every screen performance (including Ripley and All of Us Strangers) a new revelation, has such a strong grasp on Stagg that we understand him immediately. Just by looking at his stiff body language, we imagine him humorless and friendless, despite a very pregnant wife (Tamsin Topolski) who provides some perfunctory domestic drama to turn the screws on him even further. His dialogue (written by David Haig, adapting his 2014 stage play) is terse and precise; Stagg often claims to be confident, but not certain, of his predictions. Yet Scott’s performance is far from dry; it’s full of prickly life. His bearing and demeanor suggest the self-imposed, all-business sense of isolation that often accompanies genius, which immediately puts him in conflict with the more casual Krick.
A piano-playing occasional advisor to Hollywood productions (in Krick’s telling, his expertise saved Gone with the Wind), Krick relies on historical precedent to predict favorable weather for the June 5 landing, which is exactly what Eisenhower and his staff, including Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (a deliciously stuffy Damien Lewis), are hoping for. Stagg prefers here-and-now evidence, which points to rain. Stagg and Krick’s disagreements weigh heavily on Eisenhower, who is already haunted by the failure of Exercise Tiger, the monumentally tragic rehearsal for D-Day that opens the film. During the operation, which unfolded in the spring of 1944, communication failures and Eisenhower’s insistence that his troops train with live ammunition were largely responsible for the deaths of 749 U.S. military personnel (how this is not already a major motion picture is a mystery).
Fraser adjusts his voice and beefs up his body for the part, but the Oscar winner’s inherent likability precludes him from being a convincing figure of such intimidating power. Indeed, when bellowing his displeasure into Stagg’s ear, Fraser looks like he’s forcing it out of himself. In confessional scenes with ambulance driver-turned-Eisenhower aid Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon, in a fairly thankless role as feminine nurturer to the big, important men), Fraser’s innate sensitivity proves better suited to a troubled military leader questioning his wartime judgment.
Australian helmer Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai) takes his cues directly from Stagg’s no-nonsense bearing: this is clean, fat-free filmmaking that comes out of the gate almost too quickly. But once it settles in, Pressure generates moments of terrific interpersonal drama thanks to Stagg’s head-down professionalism in the face of an Allied war machine that wants him to agree with Krick’s weather assessment so the invasion can begin. When Stagg turns out to be right and the June 5 landing date is scrapped, that’s not the end of the problem-solving. Haig’s focused, conflict-heavy script finds room for Stagg to show increased confidence and even magnanimity towards Krick as he pitches June 6 — with its sliver of good-enough weather — as the new date for the invasion.
The movie benefits greatly from a production team that delivers impressive period verisimilitude — from cinematographer Jamie Ramsay’s roaming camera and Liza Bracey’s crisp costumes to Daniel Taylor’s detailed production design. Equally helpful is Volker Bertelmann’s score, whose rhythmic ticking underscores the mounting anxiety that’s closing in on Stagg from all sides, including back home, where the maternity ward caring for his wife is bombed by the Germans.
Pressure is a crackling good tale about a subject we common folk never consider when it comes to wartime planning. It contains just enough weather jargon to not insult our intelligence while still allowing us to keep a firm grip on Stagg and Krick’s conflicting opinions. Stagg’s arguments are not just riveting because of their historical importance but because we root for someone — even someone so aloof— who holds fast to his integrity despite some of America’s greatest military minds questioning his every move. Stagg’s honesty and rectitude may have helped the Allies win World War II, but maintaining your principles in the face of adversity is as valuable a quality at home as it is on the front lines.
Source: MovieWeb
Review #15
by Neil Pond | Parade Magazine | May 26, 2026
3.5 out of 5
Pressure reveals the D-Day secret that almost changed history.
Releasing ahead of the 82nd anniversary of D-Day on June 6, Pressure is a riveting drama starring Brendan Fraser, Andrew Scott and Chris Messina. The film shines a spotlight on the intense preparations for the largest seaborne invasion in history—one which marked the beginning of the end of World War II.
But Pressure isn’t a war movie—it’s a weather movie. The film centers on the high-stakes calculations, analytics and storms-or-shine head-butting that went into planning the 1944 invasion, which involved some 300,000 Allied troops, a naval armada and airborne reinforcements. It’s the true story behind the far-better-known one—predicting the optimal time to slip the mission between two monstrous North Atlantic storms brewing offshore while keeping it a secret from the Germans—and ultimately pulling off one of the riskiest Hail Marys in modern history.
The plot centers on Group Capt. James Staggs (Scott)—a no-nonsense Scot and the highest-ranking meteorologist in Great Britain’s Royal Air Force—who is brought aboard to head the invasion task force monitoring the weather. But he clashes with Irving Kirk (Messina)—a cocky military climatologist from California. And at the top of it all is Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Fraser), the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces.
Tempers flare as Staggs and Kirk spar over what kind of weather they think is coming to the coast of France, with Kirk insisting the date set for the invasion will be bright and sunny. Staggs, meanwhile, is steadfast in predicting abnormally unstable conditions with massive waves, torrential rain and near-zero visibility. Can Staggs convince the military that the invasion, as planned, will confront “the wrath of nature” and likely fail?
None of the brass assembled in England sides with Staggs, or believes what he tells them about the desperate need to postpone their plans. They’re all rarin’ to go, particularly Britain’s battle-hardened Field Marshal Montgomery (Damien Lewis). Only Eisenhower’s chief aide, Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon), has a sympathetic ear for Staggs, especially after he gets some devastating news about a bombing back in Scotland that hits horribly close to home.
The movie’s title is appropriate. The invasion planning is a high-pressure situation, with hundreds of thousands of lives—and even the fate of the free world—hanging in the balance. What if Staggs steers the Allied forces wrong? But pressure also has meteorological significance, with atmospheric barometric pressure an augur of what the skies are going to do.
The cast is top-notch, all conveying the magnitude of the decisions shaping the situation as the clock ticks away and days become hours. Director Anthony Maris (Hotel Mumbai) masterfully ratchets up the tension with every scene, never letting his characters slip into simple stereotypes. Fraser in particular puts another notch in his dramatic acting belt, following up his acclaimed roles in The Whale and Rental Family. Yes, the guy who once played Tarzan and George of the Jungle makes you feel both the crush and the crunch borne by the Supreme Allied Commander.
The D-Day landing has been depicted in numerous movies—including Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day and The Big Red One. This one also shows the bullets flying and bodies falling as the Allies come ashore, but that’s not its focus.
It’s a riveting backstory of weather pros and military honchos, all hunkered down behind the battle lines while orchestrating a pivotal moment that would go down in history one way or another, as a hard-won success or a cataclysmic failure. We see Eisenhower presenting two statements on the eve of the invasion, one to read if it were a success, and the other taking full responsibility if—as Field Marshal Montgomery puts it—the free world ends up overrun by goose-stepping to Hitler’s drumbeat.
In Pressure, that pressure is palpable, the stakes sky-high and the risks nothing less than global. See it and be reminded of a fraught moment in time when the winds of change, and the end of World War II, might have easily gone another way.
Source: Parade Magazine
Review #16
by Brandon Yu | New York Times | May 28, 2026
The Weather of War.
In many disaster movies, there is that moment when the scientist reluctantly stands before politicians and five-star generals, and gives a technical spiel about the brewing crisis. The men usually scowl and demand that he simplify his statements. Then, the expert takes a breath — but really this is for us, the audience — and explains in plain and sober terms: Cataclysm is on its way.
“Pressure,” directed by Anthony Maras, is like dragging out that kind of stakes-setting scene to a full-length film, then sapping it of its drama. That’s because in this case, the promised disaster — the assumed arrival of which any tension is predicated upon — never comes. The potential catastrophe? The possibility of intense, stormy conditions that would sabotage the Allies’ D-Day operation during World War II.
Of course, the broader stakes are real, but the premise here amounts to an overdramatized tidbit of trivia. There are many staid films that rely on the backdrop of our bloodiest war to prop up a dull story, but “Pressure” pushes the bounds, focusing on, in all that human chaos, the dueling weather reports of two meteorologists. The fate of the world rests on the outcome of D-Day, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) tells the chief meteorologist, James Stagg (Andrew Scott). And so, the general declares: “I need a forecast.”
Of the weather on the day of the invasion, that is. Drama here is found in calls to gather data on salinity levels and upper and lower air, and to send off weather balloons in the sky. There’s also the crudely contrived danger befalling Stagg’s pregnant wife (Tamsin Topolski), who’s off in a hospital that is bombed while he’s stuck in the war rooms. But the main conflict is between Stagg and his fellow meteorologist, Irving Krick (Chris Messina), each offering a different prediction of weather conditions (Stagg: stormy, Krick: sunny) and putting Eisenhower in a tight spot. Postponing the invasion would likely thwart the Allies’ surprise attack.
As the general and the meteorologists go around in circles about data and dates, it all amounts to an empty idea masquerading as a prestige war film that a sturdy cast can’t save. Fraser, though, is a glaring miscast. General Eisenhower, or any leader whose decision constitutes the tension of the entire film, requires a certain gravitas that is, for better or worse, not in Fraser’s tool kit. The actor is defined by a goofball sensitivity that can be touching when used properly; here, those qualities translate mostly to cartoonish blustering for a general with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
But Fraser’s performance partly reads as silly because the entire drama around him is. It’s strange to find yourself briefly comforted, when the invasion eventually arrives, by the spectacle of war and bloodshed, if only because an actual conflict is occurring. It’s the standard stuff of war movies, as men charge the beaches of Normandy, but at least we’ve moved on from the weather reports.
Source: New York Times
Review #17
by Rebecca Hersher | NPR | May 27, 2026
Meteorologists are rarely the heroes of major Hollywood movies. Never say never.
The new film Pressure is a lightly fictionalized version of the actual lead-up to the D-Day invasion of France by Allied troops during World War II, and the crucial role of meteorologists in deciding when that battle would happen. And it stars some big names.
Andrew Scott, most recently of Ripley fame, plays James Stagg, a Scottish meteorologist who is tasked with pulling together a D-Day weather forecast for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, played by Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser.
Stagg is stressed out, to say the least. The movie’s title alludes both to barometric pressure, and to the enormous responsibility that the D-Day planners felt, given that so many soldiers were sure to die in the assault on Normandy’s beaches. The Allied commanders also knew that, if the invasion failed, the Germans would have the upper hand.
There was a lot of pressure on meteorologists to get the forecast right, says James Taylor, the principal curator at the Imperial War Museums in the United Kingdom. “They had an absolutely key role to play in the planning of D-Day.”
But the main drama in the film comes not from the interpersonal conflict between stressed-out weathermen in well-tailored uniforms, but from the science of weather forecasting itself. The movie depicts how a now-obsolete method of weather forecasting that was popular in the United States leading up to World War II was replaced by more modern methods that were taking root in Europe at the time.
“It’s really a seminal moment for the entire meteorological community,” says Louis Uccellini, who led the National Weather Service from 2014 to 2022. “And that was brought forward for societal benefit post-World War II.”
Here are three things that Pressure gets right about modern weather forecasts, according to scientists and historians.
WWII Weather Tip #1: The future doesn’t necessarily look like the past
Until World War II, weather forecasting in the U.S. mostly relied on a simple principle: past weather patterns are similar to future ones. Basically, look to the past to predict the future.
In the movie Pressure, that school of thinking is embodied by the meteorologist Irving Krick, who led the American forecasting effort for the Allies. In the days leading up to D-Day, “Krick was doing trend analysis,” explains Frank Blazich, a military historian at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
The D-Day invasion was originally planned for early in the morning on June 5th, 1944. “Eisenhower needed a really strong weather forecast,” Blazich says. “You need clear weather and a full moon to bring in aircraft at night,” as well as clear skies and no low clouds, so ships could see targets on shore clearly.
Krick was looking back at weather patterns that had occurred on that date in the past, to predict what would happen in 1944. And, based on the past weather, he was certain there would not be a storm. “Mark my words, D-Day will be calm and sunny,” Krick says in the film.
But other meteorologists disagreed. There were two other groups feeding weather information to Eisenhower, both of them staffed by European scientists. Their forecasts were based not on past patterns, but on real-time measurements of what was happening in the atmosphere from Newfoundland to Ireland. Those measurements clearly showed a storm headed for England and France.
In the end, the Europeans were correct, and D-Day was postponed to June 6.
After World War II, that new weather forecasting method took hold in the U.S., says Uccellini, and allowed for much earlier and more accurate weather forecasts, especially for severe weather events like hurricanes and other large storms.
“This is a basis for what we then saw in the rest of the century, in terms of being able to make predictions two, three, four, five, six days in advance,” Uccellini says.
Today, past patterns are even less useful for predicting the weather, as climate change alters global weather patterns and drives record-breaking storms and heat waves.
WWII Weather Tip #2: You can’t just focus on what’s happening at ground-level
In the days leading up to the D-Day invasion, the Allies had access to a lot of real-time information about conditions in the upper atmosphere, says Taylor of the Imperial War Museums. Without that information, they could not have predicted either the storm that delayed the D-Day invasion, or the lull in stormy conditions, which allowed the Allies to launch a surprise attack on the Germans just one day later, he explains.
Many of those measurements came from balloons. In the movie, which is directed by Anthony Maras, viewers are treated to lingering, moody shots of technicians wrestling with white weather balloons in windy weather, and of balloons traveling up through storm clouds over the Atlantic. The suspense builds as we and the film’s protagonists wait to learn what information the balloons sent back to the surface.
Today, such balloon measurements are still a crucial pillar of weather forecasts. The National Weather Service sends up hundreds of balloons every day, to monitor conditions in the atmosphere and keep track of how weather patterns are changing.
Radar, another technology that took hold as a result of World War II, is also a key modern forecasting tool that traces its roots back to World War II. The British used radar to spot incoming German bombers, but they were frustrated that the radar could also see rain. “For them, it was interference, in terms of being able to identify the aircraft,” explains Uccellini.
Many British radar scientists spent much of the war in the United States, where it was safer, and worked closely with American scientists, he says. “As soon as the war ended, the radar became a big topic within the meteorological community because of its ability to detect rainfall.”
The focus on what’s happening in the upper atmosphere has only deepened in recent decades. Since the 1980s, satellites have added another layer of granularity to our understanding of what is happening in the Earth’s atmosphere, often taking thousands of measurements every day.
WWII Weather Tip #3: More advanced science = better weather forecasts
One of the big takeaways from the movie Pressure is that better science can literally win wars.
The film closes with a quote from Eisenhower, who allegedly told John F. Kennedy that the Allies won the war because, “We had better meteorologists than the Germans.”
It’s unclear if this is indeed an exact quote from Eisenhower, or an apocryphal anecdote. Taylor and Blazich, both historians, were not aware of any original documents or accounts that verify the quote. The Eisenhower Presidential Library did not respond to questions about the quote.
Nonetheless, the sentiment that the quote expresses is valid, says Taylor. State-of-the-art weather science was a crucial piece of the puzzle when it came to planning D-Day and winning World War II.
More broadly, the film captures how investments in atmospheric science can lead to real-world applications that save lives, says Uccellini, and how outdated weather science can have devastating consequences.
That theme is particularly salient given the Trump administration’s efforts to cut staff and delay funding for climate science across every major federal science agency, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and university-affiliated laboratories that focus on atmospheric and climate research.
Staff cuts, retirements and a hiring freeze led to severe understaffing at the National Weather Service last year, although the agency has since hired hundreds of workers, following pressure from lawmakers and former weather service leaders including Uccellini.
The President’s budget proposal for next fiscal year asks Congress to make steep cuts to the NSF and other science agencies.
“I’m very concerned,” says Uccellini, “when I see cuts to the NSF, cuts to NOAA labs.” As climate change makes weather more dangerous, and less predictable, weather science becomes even more important, he says. In particular, he points to federally funded scientists working to understand how changes in the atmosphere affect things like flash droughts and extreme rainfall.
Source: NPR
Review #18
by Caryn James | BBC | May 30, 2026
The Weatherman crucial to D-Day victory.
It was the boldest military operation in history – and its success hinged on weather forecaster James Stagg. A new film with Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser explores his role in the end of World War Two.
On his inauguration day, in 1961, John F Kennedy asked the outgoing president, Dwight D Eisenhower, what had given him the advantage over the Nazis on D-Day, when Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. “We had better meteorologists than the Germans,” Eisenhower said. That anecdote is cited at the end of the new film Pressure, which suggests that Eisenhower’s reply was not much of an exaggeration. The film tells the true story of the life-or-death decisions the Allies’ chief meteorologist, Scottish Royal Air Force Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), and Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) had to make in the three days leading up to the Allied invasion of Normandy, which historian Antony Beevor, in his authoritative D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, calls “almost certainly the most ambitious operation in the history of warfare”.
As events unfolded, on 6 June 1944, nearly 160,000 Allied troops arrived in Normandy by air and sea, which proved to be a turning point in the war. But days before the landing, which was initially planned for 5 June, Stagg could see that a dangerous storm was coming, even though the team of meteorologists he led disagreed with him fiercely. His job was to distil the forecasts into a simple Go or Don’t Go recommendation for Eisenhower. But it was fraught with pitfalls: going into a storm could have cost thousands of lives, but a delay could have meant waiting weeks for the right conditions and risked word of the operation leaking to the Nazis.
Based on David Haig’s acclaimed 2014 play, the film turns those events into a tense drama full of clashing opinions and egos. And as its creators tell the BBC, it is also a story about relying on the hard evidence of science, and the heroism of telling uncomfortable truths.
“How do you make a slow-moving weather system feel thrilling? It’s not just the weather,” the film’s director, Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai), who wrote the screenplay with Haig, says. “How do we look at the characters, put them under immense pressure, and see how they morph and change?” From that perspective, he says, “You can make a film about a slow-moving weather system feel like the biggest thing on Earth because it is to these characters.”
A personality clash
Scott portrays Stagg as historical accounts do: a taciturn, buttoned-down personality. He had, Haig says, “a quiet, steely integrity”, and Scott allows us to see the depth of feeling beneath the brusque exterior. Much of the film takes place in offices and rooms full of weather maps in Southwick House, the 19th-Century estate near Portsmouth used as Allied headquarters, where, for security reasons, the meteorologists couldn’t communicate with the outside world. There, Stagg remains unemotional on the surface, even when he gets word his pregnant wife is in labour.
“Stagg who wasn’t interested in what people wanted to hear, but was intent on telling them what they needed to hear.” – Anthony Maras
His rival meteorologist is a brash, self-important American, Irving Krick (Chris Messina), who had Eisenhower’s trust. Krick’s forecast, which saw clear skies ahead, was based on charting historical weather patterns. At the time, Haig says, that approach made sense “for North Africa and the USA,” where Krick had made successful predictions, but didn’t account for the changeable English weather. Meanwhile, Stagg was noticing troubling changes in the approaching air currents, a then cutting-edge method of weather forecasting not common in 1944.
Everyone from Eisenhower to Krick to British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis) wanted to go ahead on 5 June as planned. Stagg had to give them a Don’t Go recommendation. Maras says: “You had a character in Stagg who wasn’t interested in what people wanted to hear, but was intent on telling them what they needed to hear. And I think there’s a type of heroism in that.” In the end, Stagg saved the operation by discerning that there would be a brief break in the bad weather on 6 June, but he could not have foreseen that when he delivered his unwelcome verdict.
Why the story is worth retelling
Stagg’s decision resonates today at a time when facts and science are often seen as opinions. Maras says of Stagg: “He looked in the eyeballs of the fiercest military commanders on planet Earth, at least on the Allied side” and said, essentially, “All we can do is go on what we know. There is evidence and there is data.” And his backbone is not mere Hollywood gloss. Beevor writes, “Stagg felt compelled to follow his own instinct and overlook the more optimistic views of his American colleagues.”
While Stagg will be a little-known figure to the film’s audience, so will be the Eisenhower we see on screen, also based on historical accounts. In the popular imagination, his presidency overshadows his military career. Fraser says that before reading the script, the name Eisenhower would have brought to mind the famous, catchy slogan from his presidential campaign and the simplistic image that has come down through the decades. “I would have thought of a campaign pin that said ‘I like Ike’ and a cartoon drawing of a smiling bald man who I also knew was involved in the planning of Operation Overlord”, as the D-Day invasion was officially called.
“Let us be reminded of what leadership looked like at one time, and the need to speak truth to power.” – Brendan Fraser
But during Eisenhower’s war years, Maras says “He was a guy who was smoking four to six packets a day, who was drinking something like 20 to 24 cups of coffee a day, whose body was breaking down, who had an ulcer on his back that was an open wound. He was a mess. And he was extremely vulnerable in his private moments.”
We see that vulnerability in moments he shares with his driver and personal assistant, Lieutenant Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon). First assigned to Eisenhower as a member of the British motor corps, she became his confidante. There has long been unproven speculation about an affair between them, but the film depicts their close emotional bond without suggesting anything further took place.
Their private conversations on screen reveal how much Eisenhower’s responsibility weighed on him, partly due to the shadow cast by Exercise Tiger. That a live-ammunition rehearsal for D-Day, which, Eisenhower had authorized six weeks before, The film opens with a recreation of that exercise, which went so monumentally wrong that more than 700 Americans died when miscommunications led them into friendly fire and an attack by German boats.
Fraser sees the film’s World War Two story offering a lesson for today. “Let us be reminded of what leadership looked like at one time, and see the importance of paying attention to facts and science and the need to speak truth to power,” he says. 5 June 1944 did bring a howling storm, just as Stagg’s evidence predicted.
Source: BBC