Fury is a 2014 American war film written, directed, and co-produced by David Ayer. It stars Brad Pitt with Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal as members of an American tank crew fighting in Nazi Germany during the final weeks of the European theater of World War II. Ayer was influenced by the service of military veterans in his family and by reading books such as Belton Y. Cooper’s Death Traps, a 1998 memoir that underscores the high casualty rates suffered by American tank crews in combat against their better-equipped German counterparts.

In April 1945, the Western Allied invasion of Germany encountered strong resistance. Don “Wardaddy” Collier, a battle-hardened staff sergeant in the U.S. Second Armored Division, commands an M4 Sherman nicknamed Fury whose crew consisting of gunner Boyd “Bible” Swan, loader Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis, driver Trini “Gordo” Garcia, and assistant driver–bow gunner “Red” have been together since the North African campaign. After Red is killed in a tank battle, he is replaced by Private First Class Norman Ellison, a young typist clerk from V Corps.

As Fury moves deeper into Germany, the crew disdains Norman for his lack of combat experience and aversion to violence. While moving in a tank convoy, he spots but does not fire upon a group of concealed Hitler Youth soldiers, who ambush the tank column with a Panzerfaust. They destroy the lead tank and kill the platoon leader and his crew. Don assumes command of the tank column.

Later, while in a battle, Norman hesitates under fire from anti-tank guns. After the battle, Don orders Norman to execute a captured German soldier. When he refuses, Don wrestles his revolver into Norman’s hand and forces him to pull the trigger, killing the soldier and traumatizing Norman.

After the platoon captures the small town of Kirchohsen, Don takes Norman to help search and clear an apartment, where they discover two German women – Irma and her younger cousin Emma – in hiding. After Don gives them some supplies, the women prepare a hot meal and give Don hot water for a shave. As they begin to bond, Norman and Emma retreat to the bedroom and have sex, having been prompted to do so by Don. Later, as the four sit down to eat together, the rest of Fury’s crew drunkenly barges in, harassing the women and bullying Norman. The crew’s resentment toward Norman leads to a tense standoff with Don before they all are called away for an urgent mission. As they depart, German artillery strikes the town and kills Emma. Norman suffers a mental breakdown.