Overlord is a 2018 American war horror film directed by Julius Avery and written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith. It stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbæk, and Bokeem Woodbine. The film was produced by J. J. Abrams, through his Bad Robot Productions banner, and Lindsey Weber. The plot follows several American soldiers who are dropped behind enemy lines the day before D-Day and discover secret Nazi experiments.
Overlord | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Julius Avery |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by |
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Story by | Billy Ray |
Starring |
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Music by | Jed Kurzel |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Matt Evans |
Production company |
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Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $38 million |
Box office | $33.1 million |
Overlord was released in the United States on November 9, 2018, by Paramount Pictures. The film received mostly positive reviews and has grossed over $33.1 million worldwide on a budget of $38 million.
Screenplay
On the eve of D-Day, a paratrooper squad is sent to destroy a German radio tower in an old church; however, their plane is shot down before they can reach their target, leaving only five apparent survivors, Corporal Ford and soldiers Boyce, Tibbet, Chase and Dawson. Dawson is killed by a landmine but the team continues onward, running into a French woman named Chloe who agrees to take them into the village where the radio tower is located. The soldiers learn that Chloe lives with her 8-year-old brother Paul and her aunt, who has been disfigured by Nazi experiments taking place in the church. After Tibbet and Chase depart to check the scheduled rendezvous site, the remaining soldiers are forced to hide in the attic when a Nazi patrol performs a routine inspection. But when SS Hauptsturmführer Wafner attempts to rape Chloe, Boyce attacks him, forcing the soldiers to take him prisoner.
Attempting to reach the rendezvous point, Boyce witnesses the Nazis burning disfigured village residents. He is nearly caught by a dog and is forced to take refuge in a truck carrying the bodies of some of the other paratroopers. Once inside the base, Boyce learns that there are various experiments taking place in the lab, based around a mysterious liquid compound the Nazis discovered, by distilling an ancient tar through human bodies, from under the church. Boyce takes a sample of the serum and rescues Rosenfeld, another member of the paratrooper squad who was captured by the Nazis, and escapes the castle.
Back at the attic, Wafner refuses to explain what the serum is when questioned and is subsequently beaten by Ford. As the squad prepare to assault the church, Wafner attempts to escape, shooting and killing Chase in the process, driving Boyce to use the serum on Chase after his death. The serum restores Chase to life, but he immediately begins to mutate, showing inhuman strength, a resistance to gunfire, and turns hostile, forcing Boyce to pulverize Chase's head to stop him. In the midst of the chaos, Wafner escapes while taking Paul as a hostage, although part of his face is blown off by Ford in the subsequent shootout.
With time running out until the deadline when the radio tower must be destroyed, Boyce convinces Ford that destroying the laboratory has to be their priority. While Rosenfeld and Tibbet create a distraction at the main entrance, Ford, Boyce and Chloe enter the base through the sewers Boyce previously used to escape, with Boyce and Ford planting the explosives while Chloe rescues Paul. Ford is attacked by a mutated Wafner, who has injected himself with a combination of untested serums, which heals his injuries while driving him increasingly insane. When Boyce manages to distract Wafner, the injured Ford injects himself with another sample of the serum, allowing him to force Wafner down the pit where the compound was discovered, but he then forces Boyce to leave him behind and finish setting off the dynamite. Boyce succeeds in blowing up the radio tower and the laboratory, escaping just in time for the church and radio tower to collapse behind him.
After the destruction of the radio tower, Boyce reports to their superiors that Ford chose to plant the bombs inside the church rather than outside to ensure its destruction, choosing to avoid mentioning the serum or the lab as Ford believed that neither side should possess the serum. The military accepts this story and the soldiers are informed that they will be reassigned to another company as the war continues.
- Jovan Adepo as Pvt. Ed Boyce, a paratrooper who uncovers the Nazi experiments below the church and radio tower.
- Wyatt Russell as Cpl. Ford, a paratrooper who is vehemently against swaying from orders and mission to destroy the radio tower.
- Mathilde Ollivier as Chloe, a French civilian who aides the stranded paratroopers.
- John Magaro as Tibbet, a paratrooper and sniper.
- Gianny Taufer as Paul, Chloe’s younger brother.
- Pilou Asbæk as Cpt. Wafner, an SS Hauptsturmführer.
- Iain De Caestecker as Morton Chase, a paratrooper and photographer.
- Dominic Applewhite as Jacob Rosenfeld, a paratrooper.
- Jacob Anderson as Dawson
- Bokeem Woodbine as Sgt. Eldson
- Meg Foster as Chloe's aunt
- Erich Redman as Dr. Schmidt, head of the experimentation on French civilians and dead German soldiers.
The initial story for the film was conceived by J. J. Abrams and screenwriter Billy Ray, with Ray penning the script. Paramount acquired the film in 2017, and Mark L. Smith was brought in to polish the script. On February 1, 2017, Bad Robot Productions and Paramount Pictures announced that Julius Avery would direct the film.
On May 17, 2017 it was announced that Wyatt Russell, Jovan Adepo, Jacob Anderson, Dominic Applewhite, Pilou Asbæk, Iain De Caestecker, John Magaro, Mathilde Ollivier, and Bokeem Woodbine would star in the film. Principal photography began in May 2017.
The film was initially reported as being the fourth installment in the Cloverfield film series, though Abrams denied this at CinemaCon on April 25, 2018.
Visual effects for the film were provided by Industrial Light & Magic, Pixomondo, Rodeo FX, Southbay and Nzviage. Mark Bakowski, Julian Foddy, Dan Seddon, Stefano Trivelli and Pauline Duvall served as visual effects supervisors.
Overlord was originally scheduled to be released on October 26, 2018. However, in July 2018, it was pushed back to November 9, 2018.
Footage premiered at CinemaCon in April 2018, and the first trailer was released on July 18, 2018. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest 2018 on September 22.
Theatrical run
As of November 20, 2018, Overlord has grossed $18.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $15 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $33.6 million, against a production budget of $38 million.
In the United States and Canada, Overlord was released alongside The Girl in the Spider's Web and The Grinch, and was projected to gross $8–13 million from 2,859 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3 million on its first day, including $900,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $10.1 million, finishing third at the box office. The film fell 62% in its second weekend to $3.9 million, finishing eighth.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 141 reviews, and an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Part revisionist war drama, part zombie thriller, and part all-out genre gorefest, Overlord offers A-level fun for B-movie fans of multiple persuasions." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it three out of five stars.
Amy Nicholson of Variety wrote "Even at its most suspenseful, when Jed Kurzel's cello score stabs at the eardrums, Overlord feels familiar, a collage of cinematic nightmares checking off its influences: a woman wielding a flamethrower like Ripley in Aliens, a cruel SS officer (the terrifically hissable Pilou Asbæk) who grins like a Batman villain, and enough of a Castle Wolfenstein video-game vibe that its fans may find themselves reaching for the controls out of habit." John DeFoe of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, writing: "As the team moves in on the laboratory and the radio tower above it, Avery balances the truly disgusting with more comic-book-like action...Still, the movie's tone holds together, with the lurid colors of opening scenes (the cinematic equivalent of a gory, pre-code war comic book) setting the stage for heightened action to come."