FURY 123
Production
Most of the casting occurred in April 2013, starting with the signing of Brad Pitt
to play the lead role of Wardaddy Collier. Prior to the actual shoot, David Ayer
required his actors to undergo a four- month preparation pro cess that included
extensive reading in the period, crew training in a working Sherman tank, verbal
and physical sparring for crew bonding purposes, and a week- long boot camp run
by Navy SEALs. Principal photography lasted seven weeks (30 September–
15 November 2013) and took place in and around the village of Shirburn, Oxford-
shire (southcentral England), using five operational tanks, two of which— the
Sherman tank dubbed “Fury” and a German Tiger I tank— were borrowed from
the UK’s Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. The other Sherman tanks were
rented from restorers. Already rattled by frequent sounds of gunfire and rumbling
tanks, Shirburn residents were angered when Ayer ignored their pleas to suspend
shooting on Remembrance Day (11 November). David Ayer was forced to make a
public apology, as was Sony Corporation. To ease hard feelings, Brad Pitt made
a parting gift of £1 million ($1.6 million) to the town when the shoot wrapped.
Plot Summary
During the Rhine campaign in the spring of 1945 Allied forces are making their
final thrust into the heart of Nazi Germany. In their ranks is Don “Wardaddy” Col-
lier (Brad Pitt), a U.S. Army staff sergeant commanding an M4 Sherman tank
(dubbed “Fury”) with the 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored (“Hell on Wheels”)
Division. Collier’s battle- seasoned crew consists of gunner Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia
LaBeouf), loader Grady “Coon- Ass” Travis ( Jon Bernthal), and driver Trini “Gordo”
Garcia (Michael Peña). The tank’s assistant driver/bow gunner, “Red,” has been
killed in battle. His replacement is Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a new recruit
trained as a typist, not a tank crewman, and, as such, the butt of fierce derision by
Fury’s veteran crew. Ordered to clean the tank, Ellison vomits after finding part of
“Red’s” face. Inexperienced and basically nonviolent, Ellison is reluctant to kill Ger-
mans, especially Hitlerjugend teen agers. When he hesitates, the platoon leader
Lt. Parker (Xavier Samuel), is killed and Ellison’s tank and fellow crew members are
destroyed. To indoctrinate Ellison to the realities of war, Wardaddy Collier com-
mands him to kill a captive German soldier. Ellison can’t pull the trigger himself, so
Collier holds the gun in Ellison’s hand and makes the gun fire. The horrors con-
tinue as Ellison and Collier take over a German village. As they root through a
house, the soldiers come upon two German women: Irma (Anamaria Marinca) and
her younger cousin, Emma (Alicia von Rittberg). Noticing a mutual attraction
between Ellison and Emma, Collier insists that Ellison make love to the young
woman or he, Collier, will. Later, as the foursome is eating breakfast, the remain-
ing members of Fury’s crew enter the house, teasing the women and leaving Elli-
son and Collier enraged. Emma is then killed by German gunfire. Ellison begins
to change, now enjoying hunting down and killing German soldiers. A four- tank
platoon is given orders to hold a crossroads to ensure the safe passage of supply
trains, but en route, the platoon is ambushed by the Germans. All but one of the