Brendan Fraser’s WWII Sleeper Hit Reveals the Real D-Day Story Behind Its Most Intense Scene [Exclusive]

Not every World War II movie has to sell itself on its visceral battle scenes, its explosions, or its impassioned speeches as the battalions face a do-or-die moment. What makes the latest movie in the genre so remarkable is that it finds its tension in the impossible choices behind D-Day, focusing not on the beach landings themselves, but on the momentous predictions made by one man that could have cost the Allied Forces the war at its most vital stage. After becoming one of the year’s strongest underdog movies at the box office, it’s time to feel the Pressure at home.

Collider is delighted to exclusively reveal a new special feature clip from Pressure, just in time for the film’s digital release. Pressure will be available for purchase on all digital platforms beginning today, June 16, arriving just in time for Father’s Day — and we highly recommend this as a movie for all dads everywhere. It may be the definitive Dad movie. Our exclusive clip pulls back the curtain on one of the film’s more remarkable behind-the-scenes connections, explaining how the production coincidentally ended up working with the grandson of James Stagg, the real-life meteorologist whose weather forecast helped determine the timing of the D-Day invasion.



















































Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.

The Matrix

Mad Max

Blade Runner

Dune

Star Wars

01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one.





02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely?
What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.





03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night?
Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.





04

How do you deal with authority you don’t trust?
Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.





05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term?
Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.





06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart?
The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.





07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all?
Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.





08

What would actually make survival worth it?
Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.





Your Fate Has Been Calculated
You’d Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.


The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

  • You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
  • You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
  • You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
  • The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.


The Wasteland

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

  • You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
  • You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
  • You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
  • In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.


Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

  • You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
  • In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
  • You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
  • In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.


Arrakis

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

  • Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
  • You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
  • Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
  • In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.


A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

  • You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
  • You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
  • You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
  • In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

How Good Is ‘Pressure’?

Directed by Anthony Maras, Pressure was very well received by critics and viewers, unsurprisingly given how well it’s made and how good the cast is. The film currently holds an 86% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 95% audience score, which is hugely impressive given how crowded the World War II movie field actually is. What makes the movie stand out so much is how it doesn’t retell D-Day from the battlefield, but rather on the hours before the Normandy landings, when the weather was as vital as the soldiers themselves.

That different approach has also helped Pressure find momentum at the box office. The film recently overtook the domestic haul of Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, another acclaimed WWII drama. That film earned nearly $70 million worldwide and four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but Pressure has now pushed ahead of its $13.7 million domestic total. The cast includes Brendan Fraser (The Whale) as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) as James Stagg, Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) as Kay Summersby, Chris Messina (Air) as Irving P. Krick, Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers) as Bernard Montgomery, and David Haig (Killing Eve) as Trafford Leigh-Mallory. Haig also co-wrote the screenplay with Maras, adapting his own stage play.

Pressure will be available for purchase on all digital platforms beginning June 16. Stay tuned at Collider for more.



Release Date

May 29, 2026

Runtime

90 Minutes

Director

Anthony Maras


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