My Review of Pressure (2026)

 

Written by David Haig And Anthony Maras

Directed by Anthony Maras

James Stagg: "How can the weather be boring? It feeds us. The weather can destroy us. It controls our daily life. I don't think that's boring."

For something a little different, I went with a recent World War II themed movie and yes, because it starred Andrew Scott. In this film, he took on the role of real life meteorologist, RAF Group Captain James Stagg, who was part of Operation Overlord.

This film took on a rather crucial part of the war with Stagg being hired by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) on the cusp of D-Day. It was up to Stagg to accurately predict the weather for the main event itself. For that to happen, Stagg needed everyone on board to help him.

Of course Stagg wasn't the most popular man at the base and there was opposite in the form of  USAAF Colonel Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina). Krick had his own predictions in regards to the weather for D-Day and it directly contradicted Stagg's.

Stagg didn't exactly endear himself to Eisenhower when he tried to take command of the situation and it was MTC First Lieutenant Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon) who had to mediate between the two. In fact, Summersby seemed very sympathetic towards Stagg, especially given the latter had a pregnant wife, Liz (Tamsin Topolski) that he was worried about.

The movie largely stuck to the events it was portraying and there's some strong supporting performances from Damian Lewis, Con O'Neill and Henry Ashton as General Bernard Montgomery, RAF Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory and John Eisenhower respectively. Saying that, it really was Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dominating proceedings.

- This was based on David Haig's play, which is also called Pressure.

- The film's closing intertitles talked about the events role in defeating Germany within a year.

- Standout music: Nice use of All Creatures Of Our God And King.

- Chronology: Set in 1944, leading into the events of D-Day in Normandy, France.

Pressure (2026) isn't anything particularly revolutionary in terms of World War II themed films but it's led well by Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser with a solid script and direction from Anthony Maras. Good stuff.

Rating: 7 out of 10