The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Details

Release year: 2024

Storyline

The British military recruits a small group of highly skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II.

Top credits

Did you know

• In real life, one of the lesser-known members of the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was Sir Christopher Lee. Lee was a step-cousin of Ian Fleming, and Fleming first suggested him for the title role in Dr. No (1962) while golfing together. The part went to Joseph Wiseman instead, but Lee ended up playing another Bond villain - Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Also, Lee famously used his experience in the Ministry operations to educate Sir Peter Jackson, when filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy, on the "sound a man makes when he is stabbed in the back."

• With the exception of Marjorie Stewart (who was married to March-Phillips), none of the British operatives shown survive the war. Anders Lassen was KIA during Operation Roast. March-Phillips was killed during Operation Aquatint. On the same mission Hayes evaded capture, made his way to neutral Spain before being handed over the Germans and executed by firing squad 9 months later. Appleyard was lost after his aircraft was declared missing over the Mediterranean Sea in mid 1943.

• In the 1968 Kingsley Amis novel Colonel Sun, James Bond says he once spent several months serving aboard a Brixham trawler, suggesting he was a member of the British Small Scale Raiding Force party that conducted Operation Postmaster, the same operation depicted in this film.

Box Office

Gross (Domestic): $20,535,053

Opening Weekend (Domestic): $8,913,698 (2024-04-21)