What Happened on the Set of ‘Fury’? – Armessa Movie News

Fury is one of the best World War II films in recent memory. While the war has been covered by many different filmmakers in both film and television, David Ayer’s 2014 action thriller explores a different side of the conflict, as it focuses entirely on the crew of a small American tank crew during the final months of the European Theater. Ayer brought a sense of gritty realism to his crime films, including End of Watch and Harsh Times, and Fury has that same authenticity. Ayer may think that history has forgotten some of his work, but Fury is an unforgettable film. Unfortunately for the film’s cast, making the film as authentic as possible also meant going through the same rigorous training regime that their characters would have experienced. Fury may now be considered to be a modern war classic, but being on set was a literal hell for the film’s stars.

What Is ‘Fury’ About?

Fury begins in April 1945, when historically the Allied Forces began a full-scale invasion of Germany. Their advances are met with strong resistance, as the Nazis are unwilling to give up their home country without a proper fight. To deal with the overwhelming resistance from the Germans’ ground forces, the Allies utilize heavy-duty M4 Sherman tanks to lead their ground assaults. The senior staff sergeant Don Collier (Brad Pitt), nicknamed “Wardaddy,” is put in charge of an M4 nicknamed “Fury.” Wardaddy’s crew includes the tank gunner Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Peña), Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal), and the gunner “Red.” Wardaddy’s crew have served together since the North African campaign, and have essentially gotten to know each other as family.

Unfortunately, a brutal battle on the outskirts of Germany costs Red his life. This means that Fury will have to hire a new gunner to take part in one of the most important campaigns of the war; given the mission’s importance, Wardaddy’s crew is hesitant about bringing on a new member of the team. They’re even more skeptical when they learn that their new gunner is the young, inexperienced Private Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman). Ellison hasn’t seen much action, and the crew doubts that he has the tenacity to serve such a critical role on their crew. Ellison learns the importance of trust within his experience with the Fury crew. Each man must completely trust that they can do their duties. Lerman proved that he was much more than a high school movie star, and could deliver more mature performances.

What Happened on the Set of David Ayer’s ‘Fury’?

One of the reasons why Fury works so well is that the tank crew feels like an actual family unit. These men are used to spending time in close quarters with one another and have all experienced the trauma of combat together. According to an interview conducted with Indiewire, David Ayer felt that authenticity was critical to the film’s success. His motivations were personal; Ayer had several family members who served in the military, including two grandparents who fought in World War II. Ayer, a veteran himself, said that he “became fascinated how men in combat process trauma and the movie shows a little bit of why PTSD happens and how these dark family legacies for those who have had service men in their families.” Ayer noted that his grandparents “never talked about” their experiences in the war, and wanted to make sure that the film was as respectful to their experience as possible. He proved that he was much better suited for historical dramas like Fury, and not comic book adventures like Suicide Squad.

David Ayer ensured that the actors embodied this theme by putting them through a rigorous training regime. Per IndieWire, Pitt said that he, Lerman, Bernthal, LaBeouf, and Peña “went through months of training and we all had a full immersive experience.” While Pitt had previously starred in Quentin Tarantino‘s World War II epic Inglorious Basterds, that couldn’t prepare him fully for his work on Fury. According to Pitt, Ayer’s schedule included “training, getting to know the tank, sparring each other, throwing punches at each other, before we even started to get to know each other.” Pitt said the immersive on-set experience also involved meeting with real veterans. This culminated in a literal boot camp that Pitt said left the cast “cold, wet, hungry, physically exhausted.” However, he noted that Ayer gave them “tasks that would bring us together, bond us, discover each other’s weaknesses and strengths and establish a pecking order.” He stated that he became a better father and a more tolerant man as a result of the experience.

While the experience may have ended up being a rewarding one, that wasn’t always clear to the cast during the filming experience itself. Peña joked that “doing a movie with Ayer is like getting a root canal,” and that “everyone was broken” after a few days of the boot camp. Although Fury hasn’t been Peña’s only action role, from the actors’ accounts, this shoot was likely much more intense than anything that he experienced filming the Ant-Man movies. The comradery translated well to the screen, as the characters often joke around with each other as they initiate Ellison into their non-traditional “family.” Lerman said that this made his role particularly challenging because he “had to be the new guy,” after the entire cast had spent so long getting to know each other before shooting began. He said that his co-stars “all laugh because they gave me a really hard time,” and that it “was a challenging position to stay in, to create conflict with these guys constantly, being non-conformist.”

Tensions between actors on set also had their boiling-point moments. An altercation allegedly occurred between Scott Eastwood who plays Sergeant Miles in the war film and Shia LaBeouf when LaBeouf confronted Eastwood over a miscommunication about filming. LaBeouf felt Eastwood, who was spitting chewing tobacco on their tank, was acting disrespectfully. Brad Pitt detailed how he diffused the volatile situation in an interview with GQ, citing the severity of the boot camp experience the actors endured in preparation for their roles as one factor leading up to the altercation. In the end, it turned out that the script had actually stated that Eastwood should do exactly what he was doing, spitting tobacco on the tank.

A Stuntman Was Stabbed Filming ‘Fury’

Fury feels like an authentic representation of the pivotal combat, but unfortunately, the film may have gotten a little too real in some instances. During the production of one of the major action sequences, a stuntman was impaled by a bayonet and rushed to the hospital. A spokeswoman for the film stated that while the incident was “unfortunate,” the extra in question “left the set laughing and talking.” On-set safety is no joke, especially for films like Fury which require a high amount of technical precision. The aftermath of the unfortunate tragedy on the set of the Western Rust has hopefully convinced Hollywood film productions to add a new level of safety precautions when using real weapons on set.

Why ‘Fury’ Is One of the Best World War II Movies

David Ayer also admitted in the interview that he wanted to throw away all expectations about World War II films. He said that “a lot of these Hollywood productions were co-funded by the army, by providing assets to tell a story,” and that the “methodology was repeated.” Fury stands out because “it’s not a movie about a battle or an event,” and “the star is the behavior of the men in this horrible situation.” While Fury showcases the men’s heroism in combat, it does not end with the rousing nationalistic fanfare that films like Saving Private Ryan do.

Fury does a great job of introducing the audience to the tone of the conflict through Ellison’s character arc. Ellison starts as a novice on the team and only slowly learns about the expectations that are expected of him. Ellison begins to lose his sense of innocence throughout the war; while he starts as a bright-eyed rookie, he becomes a more grizzled veteran like Wardaddy by the end of the war. Showing how conflict changes a soldier’s perspective is a quality that all great war films have.

Fury is available to stream on STARZ in the U.S.

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