Summary

  • Fury is not directly based on a true story, but its plot was inspired by the experiences of real WW2 tank crews.
  • The movie aimed for historical accuracy, using WW2-era tanks and authentic military uniforms and weaponry.
  • Brad Pitt's character, Wardaddy, was loosely based on real tank commander Lafayette G. Pool, known as "War Daddy," who destroyed 258 enemy vehicles.

Fury is a thrilling, action-packed war movie starring Brad Pitt as a grizzled tank commander – but is it a fictional story or was it based on true events? Fury revolves around a U.S. tank crew fighting in Nazi in the last few weeks of the European theater of the Second World War. This was the second movie after Inglourious Basterds to put Pitt at the helm of a ragtag band of American soldiers going behind enemy lines in the final leg of World War II.

Under the direction of Suicide Squad’s David Ayer, Pitt leads a star-studded ensemble cast that includes Shia LaBeouf as the tank gunner, Michael Peña as the tank driver, and Jon Bernthal as the tank loader. Fury was praised by critics for its visceral battle scenes capturing the horrors of war with a raw intensity that can only be achieved in cinema. But is Fury a fabricated story playing on familiar genre tropes or is it a true-life adapted from real events?

Fury Was Inspired By WW2 Tank Crews, But The Movie Is Not Directly Based On A True Story

Shia Labeouf and Logan Lerman in a field in Fury

The Fury screenplay isn’t directly adapted from any one true story, but its fictionalized plot was inspired by the efforts of real tank crews who fought in World War II. All the key dramatic sequences in the film, like when Wardaddy takes young Norman into the apartment where they find two German women in hiding, were made up for the script. But the day-to-day operations of the tank and the endearing camaraderie of the crew were inspired by the experiences of several real Allied tankers.

Ayer sought to make the movie as historically accurate as possible (although Fury did get one glaring detail wrong), with military uniforms and weaponry that would match those used by American tank crews at the time the story is set. The movie was shot in the UK, mostly due to the availability of working WWII-era tanks. The making of Fury marked the first time since 1950’s They Were Not Divided that a real Tiger tank was used on a film set.

Brad Pitt's Wardaddy Character In Fury Was Loosely Based On Tank Commander Lafayette G. Pool

Brad Pitt smoking a cigarette in Fury

Although Pitt’s tank commander character in Fury (one of five WWII roles Pitt has played), Don “Wardaddy” Collier, is a fictional creation, Ayer loosely based the character on a real-life American tank commander named Staff Sergeant Lafayette G. Pool. Much like Collier, Pool’s wartime nickname was “War Daddy.” He landed just after D-Day and managed to destroy a whopping 258 enemy vehicles before his tank was knocked out in in late 1944 (via Journal of Military Ordnance). The grit and guile of Pitt’s Fury character was rooted in this real-life soldier.

Source: Journal of Military Ordnance