Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2005 war film called,
The Great Raid. Spoilers ahead. Sit back, relax and enjoy the video.
The movie begins in the year 1944 at the Palawan POW or Prisoners of War Camp where the Japanese
military secret police or the Kempeitai are dragging the American soldiers into air raid
shelters. Major Nagai, the head of the Kempeitai, receives the memo to annihilate all prisoners of
war. With this order, they execute the manner of brutally killing the American soldiers by
barricading the entries of the air raid shelters using oil tanks and setting them on fire. A
few American soldiers manage to escape from the barricade but without mercy, the Japanese soldiers
shoot them killing each and every one of them. The following year of January 1945,
on the first day at the 6th Army Headquarters, Calasio, Luzon, Philippines, Captain Prince,
the captain of the 6th Ranger Battalion, finalizes the overlays and looks for his commanding officer
Lieutenant Colonel Mucci, which he finds playing Poker and hands him the overlays. Later that day,
Mucci meets with General Kreuger and introduces him to Colonel White and Major Lapham,
who are the stay behinds from the Bataan campaign running guerilla units at North Central Luzon,
they work hand in hand with the guerillas as their primary source of intel. Lapham tells them
that there are five hundred American soldiers, who are survivors of the Bataan Death March, at
the Cabanatuan POW Camp who are set to be killed under the hands of the Japanese which is similar
to the incident at Palawan POW Camp. Gen. Kreuger orders Mucci to develop a plan by morning which he
will decide later then, Mucci instructs Prince to create the plan to raid the Cabanatuan POW
Camp which Prince will lead. They then meet with other officers discussing about the photographic
intel of the camp but Prince is having difficulty in determining how many men they will send base
on the unspecific photograph of the camp but Mucci insists that they should get it done immediately.
At the Cabanatuan POW Camp, two POWs are digging graves on the graveyard of the spacious yard of
the camp. They are talking about Hewitt who tried to escape from the camp but they are most certain
that the Japanese will catch him. Meanwhile, Captain Redding is harvesting beetroots from
the farm, he sneaks a beetroot inside his hat and brings it to Major Gibson who is suffering
from Malaria. Lieutenant Cohen enters the room and brings the news that General Douglas MacArthur has
conquered the Southern islands of the Philippines and has landed in Luzon but Gibson doubts that
Gen. MacArthur will rescue them anytime soon since they do not know how close he is to them.
Suddenly, the Japanese guards bring Hewitt to the yard, ties him up and proceeds to
beat him for everyone to see, the Japanese guard blames the American prisoners for being cowards
and not stopping Hewitt from escaping thus he will pay the price of death for his actions.
Later that day, the Japanese soldiers along with some American prisoners go to the market
of Cabanatuan City to refill their food supplies, Gibson bribes one of the Japanese guards to buy
their own food, he goes to the Filipino fruit vendor Mina to trade cash with medicines and
more money. Mina tells Gibson that her family were questioned by the Japanese as they work
underground with the American soldiers, Gibson then asks about Margaret and insists that they
stop taking risks for them. Mina responds that Margaret will not listen and she gives
him Quinine hidden inside the bag of peanuts and Gibson then leaves. As Cohen reaches the cart,
he asks Redding about Margaret whom Gibson is concerned about, Redding explains that Margaret
is an American nurse married to Gibson’s commanding officer who died of Malaria,
she is currently in Manila working for the underground and is also the one who
smuggles all the medicines in the camp. In Manila, Margaret meets with Filipino
dealers who sell medicines for the underground. The Filipino man demands more money for Quinine
since there are only limited supplies, Margaret agrees to get more money and hurriedly leaves
for she senses that they are in a set up. She starts the car and leaves with Cora while her
two men companions shoot at the dealers and the Japanese guards and successfully escape from them.
Back at the 6th Army Headquarters, Mucci briefs his best trained men,
but least proven battalion in the army, entrusting them with his life as he accompanies them on
their upcoming mission to rescue 500 POWs from the Cabanatuan Camp proceeding with Prince’s
plan which the general liked. That night, First Sergeant Top visits Prince in his tent insisting
that he will need him on the mission as someone with experience in combat since the men that
Mucci will send are bachelors and inexperienced, Top effectively convinces Prince to take him.
On the second day, the 6th Ranger Battalion under Mucci left the 6th Army Headquarters
with little information about the enemy but with only the orders to liberate the POWs at
the Cabanatuan Camp. Meanwhile at the Cabanatuan POW Camp, every last Japanese soldiers have left,
leaving the POWs alone thus prodding Redding to break the locks of their fences,
untying the corpse of Hewitt and leading the other men to the canteen to eat leftover food. Gibson
then unlocks the store room and to his surprise it is revealed that numerous food supplies are
deliberately withheld to starve them hence each of the men take food for themselves and for others.
At the Japanese Controlled Territory, Mucci’s men are searching the area for any traces of the enemy
which they find that they left a few hours ago, as they continue on the area, they come across the
Kempeitai going to the direction of the Cabanatuan Camp and they follow them. Back at Manila in
church, Margaret and the Filipino underground members are discussing about the concerning
suspicions circulating about them. Margaret insists that if they are fearful for their
lives they are free to leave and she won’t hold it against them but the members choose to stay.
After the meeting, Mina catches up with Margaret telling her about Gibson’s condition
and that she will continue to help Margaret. Back at the Cabanatuan POW Camp, Redding is
teasing Gibson about Margaret while they relax without the threat of Japanese surrounding them,
but it soon came to an end when the Kempeitai reach their camp shooting one of them and ordering
them back to their fences. Nagai orders the presence of Gibson as the senior commander of the
battalion of the 31st Infantry and shows him the hidden messages they found from their barracks,
messages that are smuggled in camp giving them the hope of MacArthur’s soon return, which Nagai
confirms to be true, as the American forces will soon recapture the Philippines within a few weeks.
Nagai offers a condition to Gibson to help him keep order in camp to make their stay tolerable,
but if anyone escapes, he will kill ten people in that person’s stead.
Nagai continues on to ask if Gibson has a reason to survive the war which he replies that he
would like to stay to witness their surrender. That night at Rizal Bridge, as the 6th Ranger
Battalion are two hours behind the plan as they sneak under the bridge from the ongoing convoy
of the Japanese army. Suddenly, a Japanese soldier stops by the bridge and goes down the
river near the rangers to get some water, as the Japanese ascends back to the vehicle, one of the
rangers make a sound which eventually lead to the killing of the Japanese and they hurriedly escape.
On the third day at the Cabanatuan Camp, Gibson lays in his bed delirious suffering
a malignant Malaria while Redding stays as his aid encouraging him to pull himself together.
Meanwhile at a hospital in Manila, Margaret secretly continues to smuggle medicine from the
hospital but inevitably, the Japanese soldiers raid the hospital bringing everyone outside.
As they stand in line, an unknown whistleblower points out the nurses working for the underground
where Cora is killed. Margaret is shocked by the incident and proceeds to meet with Mina to
give her the Quinine but she reveals that she is being followed by a man. Margaret helps her escape
and an unknown man grows suspicious of Margaret. When the 6th Rangers reached Balanceren, they find
the grieving Filipino villagers along with the guerillas, where the incident happened yesterday
when the Japanese soldiers attacked the village killing the Filipinos for helping the guerillas.
The Alamo scouts also meet with them at Balanceren and explain to them the quarters of the Cabanatuan
Camp but Prince doubts that their intel is enough to determine the success of their plan,
Mucci disagrees and demands no more delays. Prince speaks with the guerilla leader Pajota to discuss
the plan with him, Pajota tells him that they have long planned to save the POWs from camp
but did not do so since they could not care for them since most of them are sick and crippled,
he then suggests that he will bring enough carabao carts to carry five hundred POWs
to be prepared in 24 hours but should relocate them to a safer village in Platero.
Back at Manila, Yamada with the Japanese guards, arrest Margaret from her apartment to
interrogate her. She denies all the allegations thrown at her and they send her to prison,
on the other hand at the Cabanatuan Camp, the POWs are ordered to dig air
raid shelters at the yard when suddenly Nagai receives a letter from Manila.
Upon receiving the letter, the Japanese guards harshly escort Gibson to Nagai’s office,
he negotiates with Gibson to convince Margaret, the leader of the underground movement, to confess
who her accomplices are and in turn will guarantee their safety but Gibson declines the offer.
Yamada enters the prison from where Margaret is and orders her release after being cruelly tied
to a bamboo shoot, she walks past the dead bodies of Mina and the other members of the underground.
Margaret goes to church feeling guilty of the death of Mina but father comforts her and tells
her to trust in something stronger than herself, suddenly the Japanese guards raid the church
and the priest help Margaret to escape. Later at night at the Platero,
the villagers welcome the rangers with the guerillas for a feast, Pajota speaks with Mucci
insisting that the guerillas help with the mission since it is their war too but Mucci declines and
states that they help only with the screening of the flanks and he then leaves. At the camp,
Nagai receives the oil tanks and sends the message to Tokyo awaiting the signal to kill
the prisoners. Margaret along with some ordinary Filipino people wait on a vehicle to transport
them to a different place where they will have to pay to get in, she pays for the mother and
child using her watch and they get in the vehicle. On the fourth day, Redding escapes from camp but
is caught by the Japanese in the morning, Nagai announces that with the disobedience of one ten
other men will pay, he then randomly chooses from the POWs and publicly killed them all. Back at
Mucci’s battalion, the alamo scouts reports that the Japanese have resupplied the camp with fuel
and troops adding more numbers in the camp. Mucci, Prince and Pajota along with Lieutenant Riley’s
platoon scout under the Cebu Bridge to count on the numbers of Japanese reinforcements estimating
a thousand of them. Prince encourages Mucci to take on faith and to hear Pajota’s suggestion,
Mucci meets with him and Pajota discusses his plan to damage the bridge to stop the Japanese vehicles
and trap them in a cross fire. Meanwhile at the camp, Gibson is losing faith and his men are
scared after what happened to Redding, he requests for Cohen to write a letter for him to Margaret
but he doesn’t know how to begin it thus Cohen guides him and they continue on with the letter.
On the other hand, Prince briefs the plan to their men along with the combined forces of
the guerillas, they will need all their men to the camp and the routes in the direction of the
camp blocked to seal the camp for their surprise attack. Mucci, Riley and Pajota each station their
men as planned preparing for battle, the guerillas plant the explosives on the road to Cabanatuan,
Mucci’s men crawl toward the camp while Pajota’s men plant explosives on the Cebu Bridge.
On the way to the camp on Prince’s lead, an American plane flies over the camp to distract
the Japanese guards so that Prince’s platoon can crawl faster near the camp without being noticed,
Nagai sees the plane and orders his guards to stay in their positions and to tighten their security.
At nightfall, when they have all stations secured in position, everyone waits for Riley’s shot to
signal the start of the attack wherein they are delayed for ten minutes but luckily gets
the accurate shot at the guard tower, blowing up the fuels and the vehicles at camp gaining
the massive attention from the troops at the Cebu Bridge where Pajota signals the attack as well.
On Prince’s instructions, the rangers successfully break into the camp surprising the Japanese from
their attack overpowering them, with the smooth execution of the plan, the rangers reach the
barracks of the POWs assisting first the ones who couldn’t walk to the main gate where the carabao
carts are waiting for them. The battle at Cebu Bridge have also started by blowing up the bridge
and the tank of the Japanese army, meanwhile at the camp, Prince follows Cohen to a barrack
where more sick POWs are laying in bed, Prince convinces Cohen to call other rangers to carry
the men in the room and that Prince will carry Gibson himself. Hundreds of POWs escape from their
barracks escorted by Prince’s men heading to the main gate, Nagai survives the attack, he reaches
mortar and blows explosives at the main gate. Top with Daly spots Nagai and tries to hold him down,
Nagai faces head on with Top and kills Nagai being fatally injured as well, the rangers
successfully releases the POWs from the camp with two casualties and one fatally injured. As Prince
searches the camp and finds none left he fires his red star cluster signaling the end of their raid.
On the fifth day, at Talevera, the American frontline, Margaret asks around for Gibson where
she meets Cohen and he leads her to the corpse of Gibson. Margaret breaks down seeing Gibson’s
lifeless body, Cohen then gives her Gibson’s letter and she reads the meaningful message
of his longingness and his appreciation for her commitment to bring hope for the POWs. Mucci with
the general congratulate Prince’s accomplishment on leading the rangers, praising him greatly. The
movie ends with the following narration of credits to the real-life heroes portrayed in the film,
Lt. Col. Henry Mucci is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for Valor along with Capt. Prince,
also, Margaret Utinsky is awarded the Medal of Freedom for outstanding heroism and fortitude.
The raid on Cabanatuan Camp continues to be recognized as the most successful
rescue mission in the U.S military history.