The Great Escaper

2023 1h 36m English 7

Action, Biography, Drama, War

The film begins with Bernie Jordan staring at the ocean, before going to get a cup of tea with 4 sugars, just before a cyclist comes flying in front of him, cutting the queue. When Bernie gets back to the care home, with his groceries, he and his wife Rene discuss an old picture they have up on their fire place. Just then, Judith walks in and says that they were too late in booking for the D Day trip and the two stroll down to the seaside together.That evening, neither can sleep and Rene tells Bernie to go over to France anyway, so early the next morning, Bernie has a stroll along the beach, where he sees a nurse he knows called Adele. She gets off the bus and they greet each other. Bernie then takes a taxi to the docks, where he boards a ferry heading to France. Meanwhile, back at the home Rene is looking through some old memorabilia and finds an old jazz record she and Bernie had danced to when they were younger and she begins to play it.Once Bernie gets on the ferry, the Candy Girls are performing and he sits down, has a drink and has a terrible flashback to the war. Just then, an ex RAF pilot named Arthur comes and offers him a drink and he tells Bernie it's his first time going to France. When Bernie docks, he is stood on deck, and has more flashbacks about bombs going off on the beach.Back at the home, Adele brings Rene fish and chips for her dinner and the nurses begin panicking about the sudden disappearance of Bernie and Judith calls the police to track him down. Arthur invites Bernie to come and stay with him and his crew and Bernie accepts, so they go to the hotel room to "unpack", before Bernie goes to the beach to stare at the swords, before having flashbacks about fighting on the seaside and about his friend Douglas Bennett on a ship. When he's finished he goes to see Arthur at a pub and joins in, when another British soldier comes and vigorously asks for a drink and Bernie tells him to go back to his hotel room, so he eventually does. Arthur begins to throw up.Back in the hotel room, Arthur tells Bernie he's got tickets to the 70th anniversary show, before the two fall asleep. That night, Bernie dreams about Douglas and he wakes Arthur up. Arthur tells him he is an alcoholic and that he planned to visit his brother he had accidentally killed during the war, but spent it at the pub instead, he plans to go to the Bayeux graveyard. Early the following morning, Rene wakes up and watches the sunrise, like Bernie had taken her too during the war. Rene tells Adele that Bernie is in France and the police stop searching for him.Rene and the nurses watch the anniversary on the television, before it cuts to a news broadcast, congratulating Bernie for escaping and the press make their way to the home. Rene looks back at when she worked in a workhouse, before running away and watching a bunch of German bomber planes fly overhead in formation. At the beach, Bernie changes his mind and decides to go with Arthur to the graveyard, but the duo go to a pub first and meet a bunch of German soldiers, including Heinrich who was at the beach 70 years ago. Bernie gives Heinrich his ticket and he and Arthur make their way to the Bayeux.Rene tells Adele she might not have long to live. Bernie and Arthur get to the graveyard and Arthur finds his brother's tombstone, while Bernie looks at his friend Douglas'. When they get back to the hotel, Bernie tells Arthur that he wants to go home and they say an emotional farewell. When Bernie walks to the docks, the British soldier from earlier apologizes for the way he had acted, but Bernie knew he was going through PTSD and asks him to get help. Bernie then heads for the docks and when he gets there, he looks at the newspapers and sees that he has become a huge story. On the ferry home, he gets given all sorts of perks, including a giant chocolate bar. When he arrives home, the press watch him get out of the car.Once Bernie is back in his room, he drops his bag of goodies and tells Rene the truth about what happened to Douglas and the fact that he said to get off the boat, only for his tank to be blown up, but Rene tells him that it wasn't his fault, it was just bad luck. He and Rene once again go to the seaside and Rene asks Bernie if he'd like an ice cream, but he remembers the chocolate bar and gives Rene the big sausage. A bunch of cyclists come flying past them, so when they aren't looking, he deflates their tyres.He and Rene fall asleep in their beds, but in the morning they aren't there, they have gone to the seaside to watch the sunrise together and Bernie promises that if he goes away again he would take Rene with him. The film ends, telling us what happened to the real Bernie and Rene.