‘Anthropoid‘ Trailer: Jamie Dornan Plots an Assassination

Cillian Murphy has not one, but two World War II films on the horizon: Dunkirk, which reunites him with Inception director Christopher Nolan, and Anthropoid, an assassination thriller co-starring Jamie Dornan. The trailer for the latter has arrived, giving us our first official look at the duo as they plot to kill a high-ranking S.S. officer — and yes, obviously it’s based on a true story.

Anthropoid looks like it would feel right at home on a shelf next to something like Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the new thriller from director Sean Ellis (Cashback) may still prove more fierce than this trailer implies. Dornan and Murphy play a pair of Czech agents who attempt to assassinate S.S. officer Reinhard Heydrich, credited as the architect behind Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution” — thus making him just as horrifically dangerous.

We’re already well-aware of Murphy’s talents, but it’s good to see Dornan proving his worth after playing what essentially amounted to a piece of hyper-sexual sentient cardboard in Fifty Shades of Grey. Those who have seen the BBC series The Fall know that Dornan can be magnetic and fascinating to watch with the right material, and Anthropoid seems like it could be just that.

Here’s the official synopsis:

ANTHROPOID is based on the extraordinary true story of “Operation Anthropoid,” the code name for the Czech operatives’ mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich.
Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution, was the Reich’s third in command behind Hitler and Himmler and the leader of Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia. The film follows two soldiers from the Czech army-in-exile, Josef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubiš (Jamie Dornan), who are parachuted into their occupied homeland in December 1941. With limited intelligence and little equipment in a city under lock down, they must find a way to assassinate Heydrich, an operation that would change the face of Europe forever.

Anthropoid co-stars Toby Jones, Charlotte Le Bon and Harry Lloyd, and hits theaters on August 12.