"The English and the French are about to throw everything they've got at us." "Then this is it?" "That whatever happens here, it'll be the end of it?" "~ Seen any Germans yet?" "~ Not yet." "~ You will." "Everyone will remember that this is where we won the war... here, at the Somme." "THUNDER RUMBLES" "DISTANT EXPLOSION" "EXPLOSIONS" "Cyril!" "BIRD SINGS" "I can see him... every night before I sleep." "If I sleep." "Then again every morning." "Sometimes I'll forget... lost in a task..." ".. then I'll remember." "And it's like watching him go for the first time all over again." "CHEERING ECHOES" "'We've lost him." "'Course we haven't." "'Yes, we have.'" "Even if he comes back, he won't be the same boy who left, will he?" "Our little boy." "How could he be?" "You have to stop thinking like this, Annie." "Then tell me he will." "Lie to me!" "It's coming up to three years." "We're fighting over a patch of ground ten miles from here." "We're bringing troops back from the East." "So we get more troops, and the Americans will join the British." "Whatever happens, we're going round in circles." "The whole world's going nowhere." "We're fighting over the same field." "We can still win." "Win what?" "~ Careful!" "~ Watch out!" "Sentry, get back up!" "Raid!" "They're coming!" "SHOUTING" "There's more coming!" "INDISTINCT ORDERS SHOUTED" "Come on, get those trucks loaded up!" "Come on, get it on the lorry!" "Yes, Sergeant." "INDISTINCT CHATTER" "They're moving us back up to where we started." "Started the war?" "All this time... we won't have moved." "What if it never stops?" "What if no-one wins..." "and no-one gives up?" "I mean, what if this is all there is?" "All there's ever going to be?" "They tell us we're moving forward, or north or east or back where we started, but half the time we have no idea where we are." "We fire at these figures in the distance, but we don't really know who we're shooting at." "This isn't a war like I read about in school, like I thought it was going be." "I'm not conquering anything, marching into towns with flags." "So what if... ~ What if it never ends?" "~ Wars end." "Yeah, but there's never been a war like this, has there?" "If there's never been a war like this, how do we know it will end?" "It will." "It has to." "Maybe when there's no-one left to fight any more?" "There's no more leave before we go, Edwards, I'm sorry." "~ It's just..." "I haven't seen her for a month. ~ It's orders." "We have to move out this morning." "Been a rough ride, aye?" "In the thick of it." "Same for everyone." "I'm just..." "I know." "Look, we ran some raids this morning." "There's a BWI prisoner detail leaving in half an hour, they could use another man." "The camp's half a mile from where she'll be." "Now, I dare say they'd let you stop off there, if something terrible happened, like you sprained your ankle on the way." "Yes, Sergeant." "Thank you, Sergeant." "But I don't want to go without you." "You'll be fine, just stick with the other lads..." "I'll meet you there." "Save me a decent bunk." "All right?" "The sergeant said you needed a hand." "Mission of mercy, I was told." "~ Girlfriend?" "~ That's right." "All right, get them up!" "~ Come on, come on, up!" "~ Everybody!" "~ On your feet. ~ Get up now." "They don't seem so different to us." "I bet if we'd met before the war, in a bar, we'd have talked, laughed together." "Maybe." "Well, anyway, at least the war's over." "What?" "We fought hard, and now we're prisoners." "What... what else can we do?" "We can escape." "Get back to our lines." "SOLDIER GASPS" "~ What's going on?" "~ Deserter." "Time to move out." "GUNSHOTS" "Keep quiet." "Continue." "We'll rest up here." "Gentlemen, fall in a line." "Now." "You have an hour." "A minute longer, you'll be a deserter." "Sit down and do not move." "Do not move." "LAUGHTER AND CHATTER" "I haven't got much time." "They're moving us on again and I had to see you." "~ Can you get a break?" "~ Wait." "Are you all right?" "Yeah, I am now." "All those sweet boys..." "What's wrong?" "I'm pregnant." "You hate me?" "No!" "No!" "No, I love you." "I'm just shocked!" "Good." "Me too." "But you're happy?" "Yeah." "Yeah!" "We'll have to get married!" "You don't have to." "No." "No, I want to." "I don't know how it all works and that, but I can find out." "What?" "I just thought..." "I want to marry you." "Then what's wrong?" "I always dreamed the day I'd get married." "I'd be on my father's arm." "I don't know where he is." "I don't even know if he's still alive." "He's alive, all right?" "And we'll wait for him." "~ You don't mind?" "~ No." "We'll have to think of a name." "~ Two names. ~ Two?" "One for a boy, one for a girl?" "Oh, right." "Yeah." "Maybe we don't need to do it right now?" "Yeah." "SHE GIGGLES" "But... you know when it comes?" "I mean, you can't stay here." "I could go home but I don't have one." "I can't go back to Krakow." "One of the medics said there is a convent not far from here." "No." "No, I'll write to my parents, you can stay there." "I don't even know them." "They will love you, just like I do." "Our lines should be on the other side of those woods." "They'll shoot us." "There's only four of them." "There's eight of us." "If we scatter, the odds will be good." "Does it look like any of us can run?" "Here's the address, I'll write home and tell them you're coming." "Go as soon as you can." "I will." "All right, on your feet!" "Right, you heard the corporal." "~ On your feet, on your feet now. ~ Get up!" "~ How was she?" "~ Beautiful." "Thanks, Corporal." "~ I can't do this." "~ You have to come with me." "No, I can't do it any more." "I'm done." "It's over." "~ You don't know where they're taking us. ~ We're prisoners of war." "What does that mean?" "How do we know they won't just take us somewhere and shoot us?" "~ They can't. ~ How can you say that?" "~ After all we've seen?" "~ I'm tired, Mikey." "I need to get back to Katie." "I have to finish this, for Stefan and Lanzo and Rudi," "~ finish it and go home. ~ I know." "Look, I'm a fast runner, I'm used to running over fields." "~ No... ~ They won't catch me." "~ But a bullet will. ~ I have to try." "I can get you a head start." "I'll run that way, not far and not fast." "As soon as they shout, I'll stop and put my hands up." "Should give you a few seconds." "I'll see you when the war's over." "No, Fre..." "Hey!" "Stop or we'll shoot!" "Stop!" "There's another one!" "Don't let him escape." "Stay with the prisoners!" "Where is he?" "Long gone." "There's no chance we'll catch him." "Lucky bastard." "Come on." "Let's get back." "You didn't think I'd leave you on your own, did you?" "'Give her a kiss from me." "~ 'And me!" "~ And me!" "'Oh, I can smell bacon." "'They say run, we run, they say pack, we pack." "'I don't know where we're going..." "'Because the ones that were there first are dead.'" "WIND WHISTLES" "CHURCH BELLS RING" "APPLAUSE" "You got away from the British?" "Yeah." "How many of you?" "Just me." "What were they like?" "The British?" "DULL EXPLOSION" "HE GASPS" "DULL EXPLOSION" "HE GASPS" "WATER DRIPS THUD" "THUDDING TURNS TO GUNFIRE" "GUNSHOTS ECHO" "Oi!" "Cover for us." "Derek!" "~ What is it?" "~ There's someone out there." "I'm going to shoot him." "Derek!" "Leave them." "What?" "!" "Derek!" "~ Get off me!" "~ You'll get us both killed!" "Please, I just want to go home." "And how are you going to get there, you daft sod?" "Please, just let me go." "Please!" "If I could, I'd carry you all the way home on my back," "I swear it, but there's no way through." "Please." "Please." "There's Germans on one side and our officers on the other." "And shot as the enemy or a deserter, you're just as dead." "I want to go home!" "I know you do." "Yeah." "Yeah, and you will!" "~ I won't. ~ I promise." "You just can't go yet, that's all." "~ All right?" "~ You said it!" "You said that there's nothing else, and that this is all there is and all there ever will be." "You said it, Tommy!" "I know I did, and after three years that's how I feel sometimes... .. but we can't just give up hope." "We have to keep trying to do the best that we can." "Joanna told me she's having a baby." "Yeah?" "A baby that's going to need a dad." "You've got your mum and dad, and they need a son." "So however bad it gets, even if it's only for them, you can't give up." "And if it wasn't us here doing it, it'd be someone else, someone else with people worrying about 'em." "I'm so scared all the time." "I know you are, and so am I." "Right?" "So don't leave me to be scared on my own... all right?" "It's dark now." "We can't see any light but there will be." "There has to be." "HE SOBS" "~ They've gone now." "~ What, you think that was wrong?" "I don't know." "There were 19 boys in his class at school." "11 of them are dead." "11!" "We have no food, there are riots." "I just..." "I just want it to be over." "I don't care who wins any more." "I go into the village, and I smile and nod, but..." ".. Hilda and Eva, I can't even look them in the eye any more." "I feel guilty because our son is still alive while theirs aren't." "~ That's only natural. ~ Hmm." "Maybe that's the problem." "We've created a world where something like that is normal." "Michael will be all right." "He told us in his letters he's being looked after, he's safe, he's not too close to the fighting." "And what do we say when we write to him?" "That there's no food?" "No oil?" "No medicine?" "No." "We tell him everything's all right, everything's exactly the same as it was the day he left." "There's a fire burning in the grate, there's food on the table, his bed freshly made waiting for him." "One of those is true." "But if we're lying to him, what if he's lying to us?" "What if things are so bad, he's afraid to tell us?" "How could he bear it?" "POT CLATTERS" "THUNDER RUMBLES" "(Come back.)" "SHE YELLS" "BABY CRIES, EXPLOSION" "Do you think I want to be here?" "Do you think any of us want to be here?" "~ Do you think I'm a coward?" "~ Don't ever say that." "If this armistice happens, we'll all be home for good soon." "It's got to be over soon." "I don't know if I can do much more." "~ You think this is it?" "~ Something's happening." "Germans are becoming isolated, the armistice grows nearer by the day." "~ But they won't keep fighting, not while they're talking?" "~ Probably." "Who knows what we'll be going back to?" "Does it matter?" "As long as we're home." "All we're hearing is push forward." "~ Why let more boys die?" "~ That's not the way they see it. ~ Why not?"