Company of Heroes 2013

By Christmas 1944, with the German war machine squeezed by the Allied and Red Army encirclements, Hitler proclaims a promised “super weapon” that could tilt the balance in his favor. A squad from the 2nd Infantry Division on a routine mission near Elsenborn in the Belgian Ardennes stumbles into a surprisingly formidable German force—a tank destroyer and infantry contingent that tests their nerve and nerve. The team is led by Lt. Joe Conti, Neal McDonough and Sgt. Matheson, Sam Spruell. Believing the Ardennes are quiet, Conti assigns the mission under the cover of delivering Christmas hams to forward positions, a seemingly banal task that masks a far higher-stakes objective. After a brutal firefight, the Americans break through and shift into retreat, only to realize the danger is not a stray engagement but a full-scale German surge aimed at their Division HQ.

En route, the unit stumbles upon a German experimental site still smoldering from a devastating event. The clue of a bomb device, its trigger misfiring, hints at a weapon capable of enforcing a decisive edge—if the trigger can be perfected. An American OSS officer, Atanas Srebrev, lies among the ruins, badly burned, and reveals that the Germans are close to completing a so‑called super-bomb that could alter the course of the war. With his strength fading, the OSS agent urges the squad to complete a critical mission: locate the bomb, disable it, and extract the scientist who has agreed to defect. The contact for this dangerous venture is a woman named Kestrel, Melia Kreiling, who guides them toward the train to Stuttgart and a path to the man who could hold the key to it all—Dr. Luca Gruenewald, Jürgen Prochnow.

With their sergeant and other NCOs dead in the line of duty, the youngest soldier, Nate Burrows Jr., Chad Michael Collins, pairs with the more seasoned Dean Ranson, Tom Sizemore, as they push deeper into Nazi territory. They soon gain unlikely allies: escaped British airman Brent Willoughby, Vinnie Jones, and Red Army soldier Ivan Puzharsky, Dimitri Diatchenko. The group becomes a fugitive band, constantly on the run and narrowly slipping through the Nazis’ grasp as they are relentlessly pursued by Lt. Schott, Philip Rham, and his forces.

Their escape routes take them to the train yard and toward the city of Stuttgart, where the investigation intensifies. Nate volunteers to fight his way through to the target while the others slip into the city in stolen German uniforms. In Stuttgart, they finally locate Kestrel and learn more about Luca Gruenewald—the man who might unlock or block the power of the bomb. The first atomic prototype, it’s explained, failed because of a trigger flaw; Gruenewald has since perfected the mechanism, but the Nazis plan to seize the second prototype the very next day. The mission hinges on getting into the laboratory where Luca works and preventing the weapon’s fall into enemy hands.

That night, Ivan attempts to steal Kestrel’s copy of the lab plans, forcing Nate to sound the alarm and mobilize the group. They reach Luca’s lab in a tense, resourceful dash, only to discover the bomb is already missing. A brutal gunfight erupts as ammunition runs low, and Schott’s firing squad closes in. In a final turn, Ivan attacks the guards and eliminates them, allowing the escape to continue as Allied bombers unleash destruction on the facility. Ivan departs with the plans, while Nate forcibly escorts Luca and the second bomb prototype toward a safer route.

The squad, Luca Gruenewald, and Kestrel manage to slip into Allied-controlled territory, but a stark briefing awaits them: there will be no medals, no fanfare, and no public recognition. The mission is compartmentalized and kept secret to preserve the integrity of the atomic program. In this balance of courage and restraint, the survivors carry with them a heavy burden—the truth of what they defended and the secret of a weapon that could change the fate of nations.