Valkyrie (2008)

Everybody knows how this plot ends before the opening credits, so Valkyrie has to make you sweat over phone calls, paperwork and switchboards, and for a stretch it really does. Bryan Singer turns a real attempt by German officers to stop Hitler into a procedural about seizing a government with telephones and signed orders. Tom Cruise plays Stauffenberg with steel, an eye patch and very few words, and he’s convincing as a man done waiting. The weak spot is the voices. Cruise sounds American, much of the cast sounds British, and the movie starts in German and drifts into English mid-sentence. Bill Nighy is great as a general who can’t make up his mind. It treats the risks these men took with real respect. It made $201.5 million worldwide on a reported $75 to $90M. A 6.7 because it’s a sturdy thriller about real courage that never quite finds the people inside the uniforms. $89.54 says you know exactly how history went and still catch yourself hoping during the phone calls.

What works: The coup itself plays like a tense procedural, and Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson make the men who hesitated as gripping as the man who acted.

What doesn’t: The mix of American and British accents is distracting, and the conspirators rarely feel like full people outside of their roles in the plan.

Who it’s for: History fans who want a serious, respectful thriller about the officers who tried to stop Hitler from the inside.