Overlord (2018 film)
Alternate history horror of Nazi experiments before D-Day.
Overlord is a 2018 American alternate history action horror movie. Julius Avery directed it, and Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay. The story follows American soldiers who parachute behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day and stumble upon horrifying Nazi experiments. Lindsey Weber and J. J. Abrams produced the film under Abrams’ Bad Robot label, which was the company’s first R-rated release.
**Plot**
In an alternate 1940s where Executive Order 9981 is signed in 1944, a paratrooper squad—most of them part of an integrated unit—is tasked with destroying a German radio-jamming tower inside an old church, just before D-Day. Their plane gets shot down, and most of the squad, including leader Sergeant Rensin, die in the crash or from Nazi soldiers and landmines. Four survivors remain: Corporal Ford, Private Boyce, Private Tibbet, and Private Chase.
The group meets Chloe, a young woman from the nearby village, and hides in her house. Chloe lives with her 8-year-old brother Paul and her aunt, whose face was disfigured by Nazi experiments. Tibbet and Chase leave for the scheduled rendezvous point. SS Hauptsturmführer Wafner leads a Nazi patrol to Chloe’s home. He sends his men away and pressures Chloe for sex, threatening to send her brother to be “fixed.” Boyce and Ford interrupt and capture Wafner.
Boyce searches for Tibbet and Chase and witnesses Nazis burning disfigured villagers. A dog forces him into a truck full of dead bodies heading to the church. Inside, Boyce finds an underground base with a radio operating room and a laboratory where Germans experiment on living prisoners using an ancient black tar distilled into a serum. Boyce takes a syringe of the serum and rescues Rosenfeld, another squad member who was captured. They escape through the sewers.
Boyce, Rosenfeld, Tibbet, and Chase return to Chloe’s house. Wafner refuses to explain the serum. As Chase tries to escape, Wafner kills him. Boyce injects Chase with the serum, which resurrects him as a violent mutant; Boyce then bludgeons him to death. A patrol responds, and Ford shoots off half of Wafner’s face in the firefight. Wafner escapes, taking Paul as a hostage, and injects himself with two doses of the serum in the lab.
The squad plans to infiltrate the base, destroy the tower and lab, and rescue Paul. Rosenfeld and Tibbet launch a frontal distraction while the others enter throu
- Release date
- November 9, 2018
- Director
- Julius Avery
- Writers
- Billy Ray, Mark L. Smith
- Producers
- Lindsey Weber, J. J. Abrams
- Budget
- $38 million
- Box office
- $41.7 million
- Runtime
- Not specified in article
Lore & Background
The plot is set on the eve of D-Day in an alternate 1940s where Executive Order 9981 is signed in 1944. A paratrooper squad, most in an integrated unit, is sent to destroy a German radio-jamming tower in an old church. Their plane is shot down, and four survivors—Corporal Ford, Private Boyce, Private Tibbet, and Private Chase—meet a French woman named Chloe and her brother Paul. They discover an underground Nazi laboratory where experiments involve ancient black tar distilled into a serum using living prisoners. The squad eventually infiltrates the base, destroys the tower and lab, and escapes as D-Day succeeds.
Reader's Guide
Overlord received generally positive reviews and grossed $41.7 million against a $38 million budget. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an 82% approval rating, with the critical consensus calling it 'part revisionist war drama, part zombie thriller, and part all-out genre gorefest.' On Metacritic, it scored 60 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. The film was released by Paramount Pictures and premiered at Fantastic Fest 2018. Its significance lies in blending war and horror genres, and it was Bad Robot's first R-rated film. The soundtrack was composed by Jed Kurzel, with the song 'Bridging the Gap' by Nas playing over the credits.
Did You Know?
- The film was Bad Robot's first R-rated production.
- The soundtrack was composed by Jed Kurzel, who previously worked on Alien: Covenant.
- The film's plot involves an alternate 1940s where Executive Order 9981 is signed in 1944.
- Overlord was originally scheduled for October 26, 2018, but was pushed back to November 9, 2018.
More in Horror war films 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record