Brad Pitt's "Fury" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fury is the name of the Sherman tank that is the centrepiece of the movie.

"Fury" (2014) is about a US M4 Sherman tank commanded by Sgt Don "Wardaddy" Collier, who is a battle-hardened war veteran leading four other soldiers in a tank called Fury (written in bold capitals on the gun barrel). The crew have been together for three years, through North Africa, France and now in Germany, fighting to get to Berlin.

The irony in the movie is these are the last days of the war as the Allies will "win" the war when they reach Berlin, which is the crew's overall assignment. This should be easier than previous ones as there are few experienced Nazi soldiers left to fight.

But as Collier observes. "The dying's not done. The killing's not done".

Answer: A soldier jumps from a tank and stabs the Nazi.

A soldier (Pitt) jumps from what looks to be a disabled tank and stabs the Nazi soldier to death. He then removes the bridle form the horse and releases it from its obligations. The white horse is a metaphor for hope and the fact that Collier (Pitt) kills the soldier and releases the horse shows how Collier is conflicted between the paradigms of hope and despair.
The other apparent metaphor in this scene, which is seen repeated in nearly all subsequent scenes, is mud. Mud represents death, and there is more mud in this movie than in any other one might have seen...

Answer: Tough Nut

Wardaddy and his crew are battle hardened veterans who are scarred by what they have seen and experienced and have little way of communicating that to other people. Coller runs a tight ship as their very lives depend on each man doing his job: Shia LaBeouf is Boyd "Bible" Swan, the tank's gunner who preaches scripture and will explain the difference between murdering and killing; Michael Pena is "Gordo", the Mexican tank driver ("Gordo" is Spanish for "fat"); "Coon-Ass" is an Arkansas redneck played by John Bernthal" [Coon Ass is either a racial slur or a badge of honor for anyone of Cajun descent - in this case it is a term of respect].

The fifth member of the crew has been killed in battle just before the story starts. An interesting aside is that Norman Ellison, the new crew member is played by Logan Lerman who is Jewish. Add another key player, Jason Isaacs, (Cpt Waggoner) and you have four actors out of six leads who are Jewish.

Answer: He has to clean up the gore from where his killed predecessor sat in the tank.

This movie is a star vehicle for Brad Pitt but we see the whole movie through Ellison's eyes; we identify with him as he is innocent but he has the the most brutal arc within the movie. The rest of the crew are already jaded, cynical and exhausted. Their characters do not change much during the course of the movie, but Ellison's does. Note this exchange early in the movie, when Collier wants Ellison to shoot a Nazi prisoner:

Wardaddy: "Yes, you can. I know you can. He kills you or you kill him. It's simple math. You or him: pick."
Norman Ellison: "Just kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, please. I can't do it."

Compare that with this retort by Ellsion in the second half of the movie:
"Best job I've ever had", mirroring what his battle-scarred crew mates had said earlier in the movie.

Initially, Collier doesn't want Ellsion as part of his crew when Ellison turns up for duty: "I had the best Assistant Driver in the entire Ninth Army in that seat. Now I got you. I promised my crew a long time ago I'd keep them alive. You're getting in the way of that. It ain't like the newsreels up front."
Ellison's inexperience causes other allies to die early on his first mission but by the climax he has become one of the men and he his respected by the crew for the deeds that he has to perform. They call him Machine.
As the audience, we are ashamed for what Ellison has become.

Answer: German (when he confronts the German prisoner who pleads for his life)

Collier speaks what appears to be fluent German to the captured SS prisoner. He also speaks German in a key, subsequent scene. How he came to be able to speak the language is never explained. However, it is clear Ellison becomes the son Collier never had and confides in him. Brad Pitt was fifty when he shot this movie, which was set in April 1945.

It is quite possible Collier could have been a World War I veteran and learned the language then. In an unofficial early script posted on a web-hosting site, Collier (in his mid-20s) explains to Ellison that his mother is from the very German city they are heading for.

In the same conversation, he reveals that the scars on his back were caused by a drunken auto crash in the US where he killed his girlfriend and his brother in the same crash.

Answer: We do not know the fate of the two women.

This scene shows the humanity of Collier and Ellison. Collier treats the women with respect, even if in a brusque manner (although at that stage we do not know if Collier will attempt to rape one of the women). Norman is smitten with one of the women and they spend some time in the bedroom where Norman is tender and giving.

When the four eventually share a simple meal of eggs (provided by Collier as a symbol of new life), the rest of the crew come into the apartment and spoil the mood. They are disrepectful to the women.

They are lewd and do not trust the women. We fear the other crew members will kill or rape the women. Collier gets rid of the men but does not chastise them (as he appears to take responsibility for the men that they have become).

As the crew gets ready to leave the town, the apartment is bombed, killing the two women.

Answer: Move to a certain crossroads to hold off a Nazi column from interrupting the US supply chain

The small convoy of tanks, (they needed more than the four they had) were sent to a crossroads to hold so the Nazis would not be able to infiltrate a US supply chain a little further back. It is a dangerous mission but no-one (except us, the audience) flinches. Both Waggoner and Collier know men will die.

It it not that they are blase about it, it is just that they both have known for a long time that advancement in war costs lives. These instructions are given soon after the interlude in the small German town which becomes firebombed as the troops prepare to leave.

The whole movie is really a series of violent episodes strung together. The fact that both sides know the war will be over very soon is irrelevant. Both sides will fight (and die) to the very end.

Answer: The faster Sherman gets behind the Tiger where its armour is weaker and is able to destroy it.

This scene is one of the most tense in the movie. The first tank being destroyed takes us by surprise but the the ease in which the German Tiger makes us, the audience, worry that Collier's crew are not going to make it is revealing. (This in itself is a triumph for both the director and the five actors, despite what else we think of them because of how the war has changed them; we want them to survive this scene). Eventually the remaining US Sherman gets behind the Tiger and aims a salvo at the rear end of the German tank and because the armour is weaker there, the smaller Sherman gun is able to fire a missile which penetrates the German tank destroying it.

This scene serves two purposes: it shows how close knit the crew, including Norman, have become to achieve a common purpose and it underscores the total barbaric brutality of war.

Answer: The tank runs over a mine at the crossroad disabling one of its tracks.

While Grady tries to repair the track, Ellison is sent to the hill to watch for Nazis. It isn't long before he see hundreds of them marching towards the crossroads. He reports back to Collier, the crew make hasty preparations to hide, but Collier says that that they have never run before, and scales down into the tank.

The rest of the crew follow, knowing the chances of surviving will be remote. What ensues is the climatic battle between a disabled tank with a crew of five and hundreds of Nazis.

Answer: The Nazi acknowledges that Ellison is alive but moves on without harming him.

*SPOILERS* The final scenes are filled with metaphors. With three of the crew dead and Collier badly injured, Collier tells Ellison to escape through the hatch in the floor of the tank, as it becomes inevitable the Nazis will storm the tank very soon. Ellison escapes and covers himself with mud (a metaphor for death) from the crater caused by the landmine. The Nazis reach the tank and drop two grenades down the hatch killing Collier. Ellison is spared. A very young soldier spots Ellison with his flashlight and ironically, given how Ellison was forced to kill a Nazi prisoner early in the movie, spares him as the Nazis prepare to move on. Ellison passes out to awaken to the American army reaching the tank. The Americans help him into an ambulance, calling him a hero. Ellison feels anything but and appears confused with the whole scene. Ellison sees the white horse (and it is this alone which gives us some hope that Ellison will be OK despite what he has become). While the quote listed above is stated much earlier in the movie, it serves as a reminder of how Ellison has succumbed to the war.
This film is very much about trying to find a balance. It displays the horrors of war without completely removing the elements of heroism; it depicts the grotesqueness of war accurately, without revelling in the depravity of man and it shows glimpses of humanity but does not present a sanitised view like war movies of the the mid-twentieth century. As a war movie, it is memorable rather than entertaining, but as an anti-war film this is one of the most powerful movies of the genre released to date.

Collier, "You're an animal. A dog. All you understand is the fist and boot".