War movies come once in a while, but to find one that truly explores the connections between the characters, as well as capture the realities of war is not often. This film is a true emotional force. Written and directed by David Ayer, Fury is an action drama that takes place in late-war Germany, 1945. Army Sergeant, Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (Brad Pitt) and his crew - the commander; Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (Shia LaBeouf), the gunner; Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis (Jon Bernthal), the loader; Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña), the driver; and Norman (Logan Lerman), the assistant driver – fight against German troops in a ‘battle for survival.’

Michael Peña talked about being a Latino lead in a war movie and he admitted that finding information on Latinos who fought in the war turned out to be a lot more difficult than he initially anticipated. “It was actually way harder than I thought it was going to be, to be honest with you. It’s good to have a buddy who has written a Latino in every movie he’s had. End of Watch was an amazing role, and I had to read it three times to make sure I did have that part… It was shocking, to be honest with you, because there was about half-a-million Latinos that actually fought in World War II. So we just started creating a character really, and estimating what it would be like.” Peña also mentioned he had a lot of help with direction thanks to David Ayer, who would speak to him in Spanish. Ayer shared the inspiration behind Peña’s character, Gordo. “There was a comic strip that came out in 1941 called ‘Gordo,’ and it was one of the actual first positive depictions of Latinos in U.S. media. The author of the strip… actually ended up serving in World War II, but because of that comic strip, it was sort of common for Latinos to be given that nickname, Gordo.”

Inside Fury (the tank) Gordo shares some valuable, life saving knowledge with Norman (Logan Lerman). Logan talked about the challenges of his character, who goes from being a typist to fighting in the war. “I would say the toughest aspect to working on this film and figuring out how to portray Norman was mapping his arc and his change from afraid to kill to killer. There’s a lot of things that happen to him on this day that this movie takes place, and to make it realistic, you try to have a gradual change and pick the right moments. That was probably the most difficult aspect to portraying Norman.”

Jon Bernthal, who plays a decent man who’s been emotionally wounded by the war talked about the preparation for the film. “We were all enormously grateful for the pre-production on this movie. It’s not about putting us through hell or anything like that, but this movie mattered so much to our boss and it mattered so much to all of us and the level of commitment and the level of investment three, four months before we even started was there… I really feel like we became a unit before we walked on set.” He also talked about working with Brad Pitt, Sergeant Wardaddy. “At no point did he try to separate himself or hold himself on a pedestal. I respected him immediately for that. And it seemed to me that the colder it got and the wetter it got or the tougher it got, the bigger the smile on his face was.”

David Ayer, whose screenplays include Training Day and The Fast and the Furious, brings a story where the real emotional forces and realties of war are deeply explored and greatly portrayed by the talented cast. Ayer talked about casting Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan and confessed the role was perfect for Shia LaBeouf. “What I got from him was a sense of commitment and a willingness commit and transform and be immersive and really submerge himself into this role and let to role take over his life… He did a vast amount of prep work. He embedded himself in a National Guard unit. He shadowed a military chaplain so that he could understand how to minister to troops and how scripture related to the soldiers life. He really went deep with it and understood the time period in a great way.”

Fury opens in theaters October 17th.