fortress

Director: mike phillips

Actor: bug hall,donnie jeffcoat,sean mcgowan,chris owen

Data Published: Sun Apr 01 2012

Genres: Action,Drama,War

Key Words: sicily,bomber,airplane crash,playing cards,behind enemy lines

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558575/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_(2012_film)

Description: Fortress is a video starring Bug Hall, Donnie Jeffcoat, and Sean McGowan. A replacement co-pilot joins a B-17 bomber crew in North Africa. He soon finds himself at odds with the remainder of the crew and has to regain their trust...

Plot: The B-17F Lucky Lass, part of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) 99th Bombardment Group (Heavy) (the "Diamondbacks") from the 12th Air Force is stationed at Navrin, Algeria in 1943. We learn in the opening reveal that air crews are expected to complete 25 combat missions before they can be sent home. However, losses are heavy and the odds are that only 2 in 10 will survive 25 missions. During a raid on Gerbini, Italy, with her Irish-American crew, the Lucky Lass is heavily damaged and the (pilot "Pops" (Jamie Martz), and both waist gunners, Jake (Anthony Ocasio) and Joe (Steve Holm) are killed. Five days later, Wally (Donnie Jeffcoat) is now the Lass' aircraft commander), and replacements arrive. Co-pilot Michael Schmidt (Bug Hall) reports to Wally, and two new waist gunners, Tom (Jeremy Ray Valdez) and Oliver (Tony Elias), introduce themselves to the enlisted crewmen. On their walk-around of the North African base, the replacements are introduced to the alcohol still flight engineer Burt (Chris Owen) has put together from bomber parts and other scraps. Burt explains that the Army adds ethanol to boost the octane rating of aviation fuel, so they are cooking the fuel to distill out the alcohol. The crew, anxious to get back into the air, push maintenance chief Sgt. Caparelli (Howard Gibson) to clear their aircraft to fly. After some griping, Caparelli tells the men that the Lass has already been cleared earlier that day. The crew throws a party/wake to celebrate their return to flight status and mourn their losses. Only Wally dares to sample the local cuisine, goat meat and cous-cous, while everyone else sticks to their C-rations. Michael is present and appears standoffish. Further alienating him from the crew, he does not join in Wally's toast to their recently departed crewman because he doesn't drink. Wally takes the you new young pilot outside and gives him some advice to try harder to fit in, including drinking with the men. During the next mission which is supposed to be a milk run, an already hungover Wally succumbs to ptomaine poisoning. Michael takes over the controls. The squadron is ordered to fly into the clouds in a roundabout course to avoid flak emplacements on the approach to the target in Messina. Michael simply tries to keep an eye on the plane in front of him and doesn't use instrument navigation. Unfortunately, when the Lass comes out of the clouds, the rest of the squadron is nowhere to be seen. Not only are they off course, they have flown over territory heavily defended by antiaircraft guns. They abort and manage to make it home without any injury. A despondent Michael tells Wally that he's going to apply for a transfer to another plane. Wally says that while getting loss is a serious screw up, shit happens. He convinces Michael that the crew will eventually forgive him and suggests he start by admitting his mistake and apologizing to the crew. However, as he approaches the crew's tent, he overhears them making disparaging comment about him. The complain that they won't get credit for what was an easy mission, and he realizes now is not the right time to talk to the men. That night, there is a fierce sandstorm forcing everyone on the base to take cover. Burt finishes collecting a batch of alcohol, but in his haste to get away from the storm, he fails to shut down the still, allowing the flammable liquid to drip and pool on the ground. To help boost the crews' confidence in Michael, Wally lets him take the pilot's chair. Shortly after takeoff, the pilots notice the oil pressure rising rapidly, and the engines begin losing power. Since they can't stay in formation, the Lass is forced to abort yet another "milk run" (an easy mission) to Messina, Sicily. To make matters worse, the still is destroyed in a fiery explosion. The crew blames Michael at first, considering him a jinx. Later, the squadron limps back, indicating that it had not been an easy mission. At the debriefing, we learn that the squadron's fighter protection was diverted, and enemy fighters had unexpectedly shown up over the target. Wally assures Michael that by aborting the mission, he had perhaps saved their lives. With the Lucky Lass grounded and the squadron decimated, some of the Lass' crew are mixed into other crews for the next mission. Charlie (Manu Intiraymi), Eddie (Joseph Williamson) and Michael are not assigned. Michael feels guilty at missing yet another mission, but his crewmates point out this is a blessing in disguise because as the only officer on the ground, he can ensure that Caparelli fixes the plane properly. After having worked all night to ready the squadron for today's mission, Caparelli is loath to order his men to work in the 105 degree in the shade sun. He tells Michael they've already checked the plane and didn't find any mechanical problems, but Michael won't take it lying down. After reading Caparelli the Riot Act, he persuades Caparelli to inspect the Lass again to discover the "gremlins" that brought down the aircraft. Since excessive oil pressure was the problem, Michael insists that Caparelli take apart the oil pumps despite the new pump having been installed just last week, and a visual inspection not revealing anything. Caparelli reluctantly follows Michael's orders and discovers that the oil lines have been fouled with sand from the last sandstorm. Meanwhile, to make good on a promise to Al (Tim Hade) for a celebration on his safe return, and with no alcohol left, Charlie is caught stealing liquor from the officer's club by the chicken-shit quartermaster, Monroe (Matt Biedel), and is facing a summary court-martial. Eddie pleads with Michael to intervene with Col Shay (John Laughlin), the "Old Man". Michael arrives just as the colonel asks Charlie if he has an exonerating explanation. Michael explains about the Lass' newly discovered mechanical problems, and claims he ordered Charlie to get alcohol to use as a solvent to clean the oil lines, and accepts blame because he wasn't explicit enough in his order to Charlie to get it legitimately. The colonel pretends to believe Michael's ridiculous lie and lets Charlie off. Monroe protests, but the colonel dresses him down and tells Monroe he doesn't have time to waste on anything that doesn't effect the operational efficiency of the squadron and dismisses Monroe. Before dismissing Charlie, the colonel asks why he only grabbed Scotch whiskey, to which he replied the Lass is an Irish bomber with discriminating taste. The colonel takes a bottle from the case and chuckles to himself after Michael and Charlie leave. That night, whole crew celebrate Charlie's vindication, and declare Michael an honorary Irishman, christening him, "O'Schmidt". July 19 arrives and the Lass is cleared to fly the Rome mission. On the final run to the IP, Burt is blinded by shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire, but they continue and manage to release their bombs over the target. However, as they make the turn home, a B-17 flying above them is hit and begins falling in their direction. They take evasive action, but the doomed bomber's wing clips part of the Lass' right horizontal stabilizer, causing them to go into an uncontrolled climb until they stall and begins a lateral spin. The plan loses altitude rapidly as Michael and Wally struggle desperate to regain control. At the last second, Michael and Wally manage to pull up, but they are now very low over Rome and taking heavy ground fire. As they reach the edge of the city, a barrage of flak takes out another engine and obliterates Wally. Back in the waist, Tom checks on a wounded Oliver. Oliver says he's OK. As Tom turns back to his guns, another flak round kills him instantly. Michael asks Archie (Sean McGowan) to come to the cockpit to help him fly, since the navigator was once in flight school. Archie makes his way to the cockpit without saying a word about his wounds. He looks at the pulped flesh that used to be Wally before climbing into the seat. The Lucky Lass gets away from Rome, and makes a run for a British airbase at Malta. Michael asks Al from his position as the ball turret gunner about their situation. He reports that aside from the knocked-out engines and other damage, the B-17 appears to be fine. However, the damaged port landing gear falls away as it's being lowered, leaving Michael no choice but to order everyone to bail out. Michael, not noticing that Archie is wounded, leaves the cockpit with Archie at the controls. As Michael helps the crew bail out, Archie begins to cough up blood. Archie opens the bomb bay doors and makes his way back to Michael as the last of the crew exits the plane. As he turns around, Michael is horrified to see blood soaked Archie, obviously in excruciating pain. Archie knows he's not going to make. As Michael tries to help him get ready to bail out, he sees Archie's parachute has been destroyed. Michael says that they can land the aircraft on the water or both jump together using his parachute. Archie nods, but he then tells Michael to "take care of the boys" and pushes Michael out. Archie makes his way back into the pilot's chair to take control of the B-17 and starts climbing, but in its damaged state, it cannot take the stress and disintegrates, taking the navigator with it. Some time later, back at Narvin, a new replacement checks in with Michael, now the flight commander of a new bomber, starting the cycle again.