Scott Eastwood plays a soldier stranded behind enemy lines in “Lucky Strike”, the latest World War II action thriller that is inspired by incredible true events. Director Rod Davis Lurie, working from a script he wrote with Marc Frydman, pulls from numerous real-life accounts of American troops who found themselves alone deep in enemy territory during the costly and consequential Battle of the Bulge.

“Lucky Strike” (a title based on an interesting link to the long-running cigarette brand) tells a fairly straightforward yet consistently engaging story about a soldier, armed only with his wits and a new radio, who must survive a variety of encounters in order to reach a rally point. It’s not unlike similar stories that have been told. But Lurie keeps us glued to the screen by making every encounter meaningful and by raising the stakes higher and higher.

The setting is December, 1944 in eastern Belgium’s Ardennes Forest. Eastwood plays Captain John Castle, the leader of an army engineering battalion who specializes in mining roads and blowing up bridges to stop enemy advancements. He and his team receive orders to cross into Nazi territory and block a critical road in order to keep a ruthless SS Panzer Division from reaching their fuel depots. But in no time, the mission goes terribly wrong.

While wiring their explosives, the team is hit with a surprise attack. All of Castle’s men are killed, leaving only him and the Army’s prototype radio – a backpack-sized Motorola SCR-300 nicknamed Lassie, to navigate the Nazi-infested countryside and make it to an Allied safe zone some 30 kilometers away. As Castle follows Lassie’s lead across the rugged and frigid terrain, he is both caringly aided and violently opposed by the different people he meets along the way.

Again, Lurie and Frydman ensure that each of Castle’s encounters carry meaningful dramatic weight. Whether it’s a sympathetic farm family who offer him refuge or a heavily armed Nazi patrol who puts him in their crosshairs. As for Eastwood, he delivers a performance that impressively balances his character’s courage amid peril with his feelings of utter fear and desperation. He’s tasked with carrying most of the load for a sizable chunk of the movie and he’s up to the task.

Lurie skillfully stages the action in ways that often thrusts us into the middle of it. And the lensing from DP Lorenzo Senatore ensures the tension is palpable throughout. To its credit, “Lucky Strike” isn’t a prototypical war movie. Instead, it turns into a harrowing survival thriller that surprises at numerous points on its gritty and perilous journey. The film is bookended by a part of the story that doesn’t quite click into place as intended. But the meat of the movie delivers the kind of immersive experience that anyone can get into.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS