There are three kinds of people in the world.
Those who make it happen,
those who watch it happen,
and those who spend their lives asking, "What happened?"
I understand you arrived in only this morning.
Yes, sir.
Well then, let me assure you
you will never get used to the heat and the sand.
There really is no escaping it at all.
Ghastly stuff as you can see.
Although, around 5 p.m. it does start to cool
this time of year.
You can feel it. It's like clockwork.
One must simply learn to live with it, unfortunately.
Nonetheless, here we are.
Where did you study?
At Oxford.
Ah, yes! Oxford.
Well, I dare say it's a trifle greener than Cairo.
Not as many goats.
I do apologize for notifying your superiors.
It's such short notice.
This situation came about rather suddenly.
The timing of your arrival is most fortunate indeed.
I appreciate this will not be pleasant for you, my dear.
However, we'll get you out of the ward for a few days.
And good experience in the field never goes astray.
You will find his medical records in the file.
He's German.
I thought we were looking for one of our own.
We are, my dear.
Captain Josef Von Zimmermann of the elite German Uberkanone,
has been working for us quite some time.
You'll note he does not speak any English.
Frightful-looking chap. Don't be alarmed.
Fortunately, he's one of us now.
One of our pilots spotted a downed aircraft
in the desert about uh, 100 miles East this morning.
He is carrying sensitive information
smuggled out of Germany.
It is the highest priority that we find him and bring him in.
Do we know if he's alive?
We're not even certain it is our man.
He has quite a record, I dare say.
Regrettably he's been responsible
for shooting down a number of our lads,
making him one of Germany's finest,
but such is war.
We tend to send out our grounded pilots
on these sorts of rescue operations.
Keeps them occupied until they get back into the air.
The captain whom you will be accompanying,
has been briefed.
He is a rather unorthodox chap.
What was he grounded for?
Well, I'm sure you'll have plenty of time
to ask him that yourself, my dear.
That's him?
Yes, my dear. Don't be alarmed.
Captain.
Captain Jackson Cove.
I'd like you to meet Eleanor Morgan.
She will be accompanying you on your mission.
I thought I was going alone.
Yes. Well, we received orders from Christland
that someone with medical training accompany you.
If our man is out there alive, Eleanor here,
will be more than capable of tending to his medical needs.
Great.
Eleanor is fluent in German,
so she will be acting as your interpreter.
Yeah.
We were very lucky that she was available.
So be a nice chap and take good care of her.
You drive?
Yes, sir.
Captain.
Eleanor.
Grab those, will you?
Surely you're not serious!
Captain.
Captain!
You're stopping?
Know anything about navigating?
No. Not much.
Not much or nothing at all?
Nothing.
All right. Look here.
- You see this? - Uh-hm.
That's where we are. You see this?
- Uh-hm. - Okay.
That's where they think he is.
So, we're going to drive in a straight line,
114 miles that way, North by Northeast.
You see this compass?
That's North by Northeast, okay?
And we also need to keep track of our speed
and we need to watch our hours.
So it's 1900 right now, and we're here, okay?
At 2000, we work out distance equals speed over time.
You understand that?
- Yes, sir. - Okay.
That's how we calculate our position,
and that's how... That's how we find him.
And that's navigating, all right?
We watch our compass, we keep track of our speed,
and we watch our time or we'll get lost.
If we get lost, we run out of water.
We run out of water, we die.
How do we know our speed?
This thing does 25 miles an hour.
- Is that fast? - Yeah, it's pretty fast.
Is a mile longer or shorter than a kilometer?
You gotta be fucking kidding me.
Jesus Christ!
You should try and get some sleep, all right?
We'll stop just before sun-up.
Yes, sir.
Oh my God, Cove.
Captain!
Oh! Ouch!
You're drunk!
Maybe a little.
I though we were under attack.
I thought you were shot.
What is wrong with you?
Oh, come on!
You frightened the life out of me!
It's just a little desert trap shooting.
Oh, that's just bloody wonderful!
It's a disgrace!
No wonder they wouldn't let you fly!
Hey, my flying has got nothing to do with my drinking.
Give me that before you kill somebody.
You want to be careful. It's loaded.
Oh, thank you very much, Captain,
for pointing out the blooming obvious.
I'm driving.
It doesn't count if you're sober.
Bastard!
That was a nice shot.
I'm good.
Shouldn't take yourself so seriously, Oxford.
Time.
Needle.
Speed.
Bastard!
♪ Make her drive the truck I tell ya ♪
♪ Make her drive the truck through the desert ♪
♪ Early in the morning ♪
♪ Ooh rise up she's rising early in the morning ♪
Captain.
Uh, Captain!
"Oh, Captain, my captain."
Hey, Eleanor.
R-uh-uh-uh-uhn!
Women...
The other way!
You all right?
I think so.
Where you going?
Stay down!
What are you doing?
Have a little fun, boys.
Oh God!
I'm going to need your help.
- What is it? - It's a scotch bomb.
It didn't detonate.
Will he come back?
Uh, I doubt it.
It's probably just a leftover.
What's a leftover?
Ah, you always keep one just in case you see
a sitting duck you can pick off on the way back.
Well, will it explode?
Uh, they usually do.
Oh God!
Well, we can't just leave it.
Oh, no, and the slightest vibration
is going to trigger it.
We are going to have to defuse it.
And that is a two-man job.
Well, I'm not a bomb expert.
Don't worry.
Neither am I.
Oh God!
Please tell me you know what you're doing.
I've seen a bomb like this once before.
- Once? - Once was enough.
The guy defusing it ended up legless.
Oh my God!
Don't worry.
Supposedly there's instructions on the inside
that tell us how to disarm it.
Can we not use the term "disarm," please?
We're going to need to crack it open.
Hand me the pliers.
Probably just like operating on a patient, right?
You know, only difference here is you make a mistake,
the patient doesn't die... you do.
There we go.
All right.
I'm going to need you to hold the base of this.
- Oh! - Go on, hold it.
Right at the bottom.
Just grab it. Get in here.
Get a good grip on it.
Nice and tight.
Yeah.
Firm.
Just like that.
Here we go.
Hey, Eleanor?
Uh-hm.
You can let go now.
Read these.
One, remove liquid container.
Two, release the cap.
Three, drain liquid.
Ah!
Scotch bomb!
What the hell is wrong with you?
Have you been out here so bloody long
you've got sand between your ears?
God!
There's a man lying out there somewhere,
possibly dying, and you're buggerising around
thinking about only yourself and your addiction.
God! You are nothing but a washed-up drunk!
I just hope we're not two minutes too late to save him
because it's you who's going to be looking back
at this time that you've wasted
that could have been better spent
saving a life rather than drinking it away!
You know whose life it is
we're out here supposedly saving?
Yes.
Do you?
- Yes. - Do you?
- Yes! - Do you really?
Josef von Zimmermann.
Captain Josef von Zimmermann, the...
Germany's top ace. You heard of him?
- Well! - Well?
Did you hear that Captain Josef Von Zimmermann
has singlehandedly shot down 27 Allied planes
and has 23 confirmed kills, and did you hear
that one of those 23 confirmed kills was my brother?
Yeah? Well, how many have you killed?
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
So I'm sorry if I'm not in any rush to find him.
I didn't know.
I know you didn't know.
Oh, no thanks.
I don't smoke.
How long has it been?
Six months.
Older brother?
Younger.
He shouldn't have been out here.
Ace?
Almost.
Were you close?
As close as brothers are.
You know, just because von Zimmermann's
a switch-hitting batter for both sides
doesn't change anything.
He doesn't deserve to live.
You're... you're not thinking about...
You're not thinking you're going to...
Kill him?
I've seen so many men die in hospitals.
I guess we're just simply taught to care.
I don't see anyone as good or bad.
I just see them as men...
brothers...
with children, families.
We just do our best to aid them.
Is this why you were grounded?
No.
Come on.
Share.
I crashed too many planes.
What?
I crashed too many planes!
What do you mean "you crashed too many planes"?
I mean, pilots crash all the time.
Yeah, not when they're drunk.
All right. Well... well, how many are we talking?
Enough to get me grounded.
Why do you do it?
What? Drink?
Fly.
I don't know.
I guess it's that thing da Vinci said, you know,
"Once you've tasted flight, you'll forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skyward because there you've been
and there you will always long to return."
That's beautiful.
I never heard anything like that.
Ah, come on, Oxford.
I thought you were educated.
I am, thank you very much.
I know who da Vinci is.
That's good.
What about you?
- Educated? - No! No! Nope.
I left school when I was 13.
Injury ended my baseball career,
so, military was all that was left really.
If it wasn't for flying, I don't know what I'd do.
Do you think it has a future?
Pilots don't think much about their future.
Yeah, I guess not many of us do these days.
And you?
Me? Oh, I don't know.
I just like helping people.
At least what you do is exciting.
Yeah, well, the girls love it.
Oh.
Aw, come on.
You think we just fly up there
risking our lives every day for fun, huh?
No.
Ninety-nine percent of us are just pilots
to get the girls.
Oh yeah, and you're in the 99%, are you?
- Maybe. - Uh-huh.
Maybe I am.
Maybe I'm a one-percenter.
Oh, wow.
If you figure that out, perhaps you'll let me know.
We used to drop them down
on the boys in the western front.
Those scotch bombs.
After a mission, whoever of us was left
would drop one down to the boys in the trenches.
It became kind of a tradition.
You know, sort of a good luck thing
to let those boys know we were thinking about them.
We fly back to the base every night, get drunk,
sleep in a bed if we want.
Those boys down there, they didn't have that.
They were just in those sewers fighting,
day in and day out.
So those scotch bombs became a way for us pilots
to recognize that, you know,
and lay away some of the guilt, I guess.
They would love it.
You could hear the cheers sometimes after we dropped them.
It certainly helped keep their spirits up.
Is that an American attempt at humor?
What? I don't know what you're talking about.
"Keeping their spirits up"?
Aw, come on. Even you got to admit that was kind of funny.
That was kind of funny.
There you go. I can be funny.
Yeah.
I've never seen a woman handle a pistol as good as you.
Where the hell did you learn to shoot?
My father.
He was a gun-maker.
He still around?
Dead.
That's why I hate guns.
- Yours? - Ah, he's dead, too.
That's why I lo-v-v-ve flying.
Two of a kind.
Nah. He was a drunk.
It's 114 miles according to your calculations.
Mark it.
Here.
Nah, still too hot.
We're going to have to wait until the heat haze clears.
I hope we didn't come all this way for nothing.
We'll find him.
Captain!
I think I sight something.
That could be it.
Let's go.
What do you think?
Let's get a little closer.
Anything?
There's something out there.
Nah, it's too hard to make out.
Get out of the way.
Sure doesn't look like
much of an aircraft down there if it is.
Doesn't look like anybody could have survived.
You sure?
I've crashed enough airplanes to know.
No, I just don't want to get down there
and find out it's nothing.
We have to look.
Yeah, we do.
You get your gear ready while we still got light.
I'll be damned!
Watch yourself.
Yes, sir.
Stay behind me.
Just stay behind me!
Yes, sir.
Can you see anything?
Not yet.
- That's him! - Wait a minute!
Is he dead?
I don't know.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait! Drop it!
Drop the gun!
All right! All right!
All right!
What's he saying?
Your pistol.
Fuck!
Think, think, think.
Where are they going?
I hate Egypt!
That is...
one mile!
Josef!
♪ I wonder who's looking into her eyes ♪
♪ Breathing sighs telling lies ♪
There you go. Sleep now.
♪ I wonder if she ever tells him of me ♪
♪ I wonder who's kissing her now ♪
Helluva storm, eh, little man?
Well, make yourself comfortable.
I think we're going to be here a while.
Don't get thirsty!
We're not doing too well here, are we little man?
Me and you, we're going to be lucky
to make it to tomorrow.
Nine crashes.
This ain't really the heroic end I had in mind.
I always imagined I'd be shot out of the sky...
Splattered all over the ground.
It may have been on your list, little man,
but killing a Sunday roast
certainly wasn't on my list of good ways to die.
You will never get used to the heat and sand.
There really is no escaping it at all.
Ghastly stuff as you can see, although around 5 p.m.
it does start to cool this time of year.
You wouldn't know a good way out of here,
would you, little man?
You're a genius, little man.
Batter up.
Who said we needed wings to fly, huh, little man?
Wherever we've been, it won't be long to return.
We're not dying in this dust-bowl, little man.
No way.
I don't know about you, little man, but I feel better.
All right.
Throttle.
Stick.
Good.
Fuel.
Oil pressure.
Guns.
And a broken compass.
Perfect.
All right. I've checked everything.
What have I missed?
What have I missed in here, huh?
German engineering, huh, little man?
Who knows?
All right. Throttle, and here we go.
All right.
There.
Come on now!
Here we go!
Here we go. Come on!
Come on!
Yeah!
Yeah! Whoa!
We got it, little man! Yeah!
Whoa, whoa!
Yeah!
Faint-hearted never fucked a fair maiden!
Woo!
Eleanor!
Oh shit!
Damn it!
Eleanor!
Cove?
You have nothing also.
Eleanor, stay down.
He's got a clean shot at you.
I'm all right!
Oxford!
I'm all right!
You have this.
Just stay right where you are.
Two birds, one stone.
Oh, don't worry, I feel right at home.
We'll see about that.
Nor! What are you shooting at?
Can you free yourself?
I need time.
You don't have any!
Eleanor, stay down. Stay down!
Eleanor!
Oxford!
Oxford...
Eleanor!
Boom!
Oh, I'm going to kill him!
I'm going to kill him!
So much for switching sides.
Oh, come on!
Good-bye, Captain.
For an ace, you should know better.
That's twice now you didn't check on your kill.
You stay with me, Eleanor. Stay with me now.
Who did you signal for?
Nor, who was the flare for?
He wants your clothes.
Do as he says.
It's over! They're coming.
Who?
The Germans.
Tell him it's not too late.
Tell him we could still get him to Cairo.
I thought we were on the same team, for God's sake.
- Tell him! - I have!
Tell him again!
It's not too late. Come on!
He says he'll never betray his country.
Which one?
This is nuts!
A DR-1 single-seater.
Looks like he's not planning on taking back any passengers.
I can get us out of here. Come on.
Oh, come on, Eleanor.
You've got to help me. Get up. Get up!
Eleanor!
It's over.
No, no. Come on.
We're getting you back to Cairo.
Come on. Come on now.
No! No!
No!
Big cannon, my ass!
That worked!
There are three kinds of people in this world.
Those that make it happen,
those that watch it happen...
And those that go, "What happened?"
Captain.
Sir.
Well, don't get up.
I wasn't planning on it.
I gather... You're recovering well.
Yeah, I'm doing okay.
That bunker you destroyed was a strategic installation
being prepared for aerial assaults on Cairo.
The fueling station they constructed,
put German aircraft within easy reach of our forces here.
More importantly, the information you discovered
was of extreme value.
Was it now?
In fact it was.
It was a detailed list
identifying all German operatives
working across Europe.
I understand you may have actually known one of them.
Eleanor Morgan.
Oxford?
Born Margrit Almajaeger, in Germany, in 1889.
She had been sent to Cairo
specifically to intercept and substitute the information
that Captain von Zimmermann was carrying.
Most likely when he came in for medical treatment.
Quite a clever plan, when you think about it.
Of course, it all changed when we sent you out there.
Your efforts have been noted in my reports.
I have made commendations for you.
Excuse me, sir.
Yes, yes, of course. Carry on.
Is that more comfortable, Captain?
Yeah, thanks.
I trust our fine medical staff are looking after you well.
We need you in tip-top condition as soon as possible.
Headquarters have reinstated you to active flying duty.
Recover well, Captain.
Yes, sir.
Very good.
I know, I know, little man.
Batter up.
You don't speak any German, do you?
No, sir.
Perfect.