Universal Studios/Amblin Is 1917 based on a true story? From the stark realities of trench warfare to the conflict’s effect on civilians and the state of the war in spring 1917, here’s what you need to know to separate fact from fiction ahead of the movie’s opening on Christmas Day.īlake and Schofield must make their way across the razed French countryside. While Blake and his brother-in-arms Schofield (George McKay) are imaginary, Mendes grounded his war story in truth. “If you fail,” a general warns in the movie’s trailer, “it will be a massacre.” One of the men, Blake (Dean Charles Chapman, best known for playing Tommen Baratheon in “Game of Thrones”), has a personal stake in the mission: His older brother, a lieutenant portrayed by fellow “Game of Thrones” alumnus Richard Madden, is among the soldiers slated to fall victim to the German trap. Plot-wise, 1917 follows two fictional British lance corporals tasked with stopping a battalion of some 1,600 men from walking into a German ambush.

Grandfather escape hospital