Pressure

Details

In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, and with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, Pressure follows General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg as they face an impossible choice-launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.

By June 1944, months of planning for Operation Overlord have brought the Allies to the brink of launching the largest seaborne invasion in history. Hundreds of thousands of troops are ready. Thousands of ships and aircraft have been assembled. The invasion force is prepared to cross the English Channel and begin the liberation of occupied Europe. There is just one thing nobody can control. The weather.

Britain's chief meteorological officer, Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), is brought into the highest levels of Allied command to provide the forecast upon which the entire operation may depend. The invasion has been scheduled for 5th June, but Stagg becomes increasingly convinced that a major storm is approaching.

If he's right, launching the invasion as planned could prove catastrophic. Landing craft would struggle in the Channel, aircraft operations would be severely compromised and thousands of soldiers could be sent towards the Normandy beaches in conditions that make an already extraordinarily dangerous operation almost impossible.

But delaying the invasion presents an equally terrifying risk. The enormous Allied force gathered in southern England cannot remain concealed indefinitely, and postponement increases the possibility that German intelligence will discover where and when the attack is coming.

Stagg therefore finds himself facing an almost unimaginable responsibility. He must convince Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) to postpone D-Day based upon a developing science whose forecasts are themselves the subject of disagreement.

American meteorologist Irving Krick (Chris Messina) reaches a very different conclusion about the approaching weather, leaving Eisenhower confronted by competing forecasts while the clock continues to run down. With commanders including Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis) waiting for a decision, Stagg must persuade some of the most powerful military figures in the world that his prediction is correct. And if he is wrong, the consequences could alter the course of the war.

Andrew Scott stars as James Stagg, the Scottish meteorologist whose forecasting played a crucial role in determining the timing of Operation Overlord, with Brendan Fraser portraying General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kerry Condon plays Eisenhower's trusted aide Kay Summersby, while Chris Messina portrays American meteorologist Irving Krick and Damian Lewis appears as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The supporting cast also includes Con O'Neill as Air Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Alexander Hanson as General Omar Bradley and Robert Portal as Admiral Bertram Ramsay.

Pressure, released soon on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD plus SteelBook from StudioCanal, is directed by Anthony Maras, whose previous feature Hotel Mumbai dramatised the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.