A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.
In World War II, the fall of Stalingrad will mean the collapse of the whole country. The Germans and Russians are fighting over every block, leaving only ruins behind. The Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev stalks the Germans, taking them out one by one, thus hurting the morale of the German troops. The political officer Danilov leads him on, publishing his efforts to give his countrymen some hope. But Vassili eventually starts to feel that he can not live up to the expectations on him. He and Danilov fall in love with the same girl, Tanya, a female soldier. From Germany comes the master sniper König to put an end to the extraordinary skilled Russian sniper.—Mattias Thuresson
In the winter of 1942, the German and Russian Armies meet in the great Battle of the Stalingrad, one of the most vicious engagements of the Second World War. Enter into this horror a young Russian soldier, formerly a peasant boy with an extraordinary ability to sharpshoot a rifle from far distances. The Russian sniper soon gains fame after killing a record number of German officers causing the Germans to bring in their own sniper expert: a war weathered Major who always accomplishes his mission no matter what the cost. With the Battle of Stalingrad raging around them, these two men must now fight each other.—Anthony Hughes <[email protected]>
In September 1942, Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law), a shepherd from the Ural Mountains who is now a soldier in the Red Army, finds himself on the front lines of the Battle of Stalingrad.Stalingrad is the last major city standing between the rampaging German forces and Moscow. Khrushchev orders the city to be held at all costs. Stalingrad as a city stands in ruins as neither army is willing to retreat.If Germany wins Stalingrad, they will control the rich oil fields of Central Asia.
Troops are brought to the other side of the Volga River in freight trains and are then crammed into flimsy boats and are made to cross the Volga River without any fire cover. The Volga River is heavily bombarded by German artillery fire and fighter planes. Several boats perish in the attempt. Any soldiers who attempt to jump into the water are shot down by the propaganda officers who are on each boat.The docks of Stalingrad are littered with bodies of soldiers crippled in the war.
Soldiers are forced into a suicidal charge without a rifle but with ammunition (half the soldiers were given a rifle, and the other half were given one pallet of ammunition (with 5 bullets) and were instructed to scrounge for supplies from other dead soldiers), the charge comes under heavy German fire from machine guns & tanks around the city. If the Soviet soldiers try to retreat, they are shot down by their own seniors who do not allow them to return to Soviet lines.The German loudspeakers ask Soviet soldiers to surrender as the Germans would treat them better than their own officers.
Vassili hides among a pile of corpses, while a tank shell incapacitates a car. The occupant, Commissar Danilov, takes cover in the same heap of corpses and finds a rifle. Vassili reveals himself, advising the commissar not to fire until an explosion covers the noise.Danilov gives the rifle to Vassili, who, to the former's astonishment, is able to kill five German soldiers in less than a minute.
Vassili uses impressive marksmanship skills taught to him by his grandfather from a young age to save himself and commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Together, Vassili and Danilov return to the Soviet base outside Stalingrad.
Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to coordinate the city's defenses and demands ideas to improve morale. While the other commissars suggest more severe discipline and terror, Danilov, now a Senior Lieutenant, suggests that the people need figures to idolize, and publishes tales of Vassili's exploits in the army's newspaper that paint him as a national hero and propaganda icon.
Vassili is transferred to the sniper division, and he and Danilov become friends. They also both become romantically interested in Tania (Rachel Weisz), a citizen of Stalingrad who has become a Private in the local militia. Danilov has her transferred to an intelligence unit away from the battlefield and ostensibly to make use of her German skills in translating radio intercepts.
With the Soviet snipers taking an increasing toll on the German forces, German Major Erwin Konig (Ed Harris) is deployed to Stalingrad to take out Vassili and thus crush Soviet morale. A renowned marksman and head of the German Army sniper school at Zossen, he lures Vassili into a trap and takes out two of his fellow snipers, but Vassili manages to escape. When the Red Army command learns of Konig's mission, they dispatch his former student Koulikov (Ron Perlman) to help Vassili kill him. However, Konig tricks Koulikov into revealing his position and kills him with a very skillful shot, shaking Vassili's spirits considerably. Khrushchev pressures Danilov to bring the sniper standoff to a conclusion.
When Tania requests to be reassigned to the sniper division, Danilov asks Vassili to discourage her. Vassili attempts to do so but relents when Tania tells him how her Hebrew parents were murdered by the Germans. Danilov recruits young local boy Sacha Fillipov (Gabriel Thomson), who idolizes Vassili and does small jobs for the Germans in exchange for food, to act as a double agent by passing Konig false information about Vassili's whereabouts, thus giving Vassili a chance to ambush the Major.
Vassili sets a trap for Konig and manages to wound him, but during a second attempt Vassili falls asleep after many hours and his sniper log is taken by a looting German soldier. The German command takes the log as evidence of Vassili's death and plans to send Konig home, but the Major does not believe that Vassili is dead.
General Friedrich Paulus confiscates Konig's dog tags to prevent Soviet propaganda from profiting if Konig is killed and identified. In turn, König gives the general a War Merit Cross that was posthumously awarded to his son, a lieutenant in the 116th Infantry Division who was killed in the early days of the battle.
Konig tells Sacha where he will be next, suspecting that the boy will tell Vassili. Tania and Vassili have meanwhile fallen in love. That night, Tania secretly goes to the Soviet barracks and makes love with Vassili. The jealous Danilov disparages Vassili in a letter to his superiors.
Konig spots Tania and Vassili waiting for him at his next ambush, confirming his suspicions about Sacha. He kills the boy and hangs his body from a pole to bait Vassili. Vassili vows to kill Konig and sends Tania and Danilov to evacuate Sacha's mother (Eva Mattes) from the city, but Tania is wounded by shrapnel en route to the evacuation boats.
Thinking her dead, Danilov laments his jealousy for Vassili and his resulting disenchantment with the communist cause. Finding Vassili waiting to ambush Konig, Danilov intentionally exposes himself in order to reveal the Major's position and is killed. Thinking he has killed Vassili, Konig goes to inspect the body, but realizes too late that he has fallen into a trap and is in Vassili's sights. He turns to face Vassili, who then kills him.Two months later, after Stalingrad has been liberated and the German forces have surrendered, Vassili finds Tania recovering in a field hospital.
