This air battle moment in Masters of the Air is throat tightening

Masters of the Air started a week ago with two episodes on AppleTV+ and every Friday there is now a new episode of the 300 million war series by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. If you haven’t tuned in yet, you should be convinced by the third episode at the latest. Because here the series is about a US bomber group in the Second World War with one breath-taking air battle and a devastating crash to the whole.

Masters of the Air destroys us in episode 3 with an air battle

In Masters of the Air you don’t expect a pathetic series of heroic battles with the Nazis above the clouds. Luckily not. In addition to the first short flying action, episodes 1 and 2 initially focused on introducing the characters and getting to know their sluggish machines. The biggest threat was sometimes a jammed landing gear, which required landing without wheels.

That changes in episode 3. After the first test missions, we are ready for the big battles between bombers and fighter pilots. This time Masters of the Air gets to the heart of war with a harrowing air battlewhich makes it clearer as an intense experience than we might like.

There’s a moment in the third episode where Major Buck Cleven (Austin Butler) stares into space from his cockpit. It is a Moment of devastating beauty when the world in the air is on fire and chaos reigns: Contrails trace trajectories above the clouds in the sky. Black smoking remains of machines fall vertically to the earth and white parachutes try to escape the catastrophe before the body of one of these parachutists is torn apart by the wing of a friendly bomber.

It’s clear: warfare in Masters of the Air only has a limited connection with flying skills. Most of the time, survival is pure chance, because luck decides whether the pilots are caught by anti-aircraft fire on the ground or by machine gun volleys from the more agile German enemies. A single tragic crash encapsulates this message particularly well in episode 3.

Masters of the Air pours the price of war into a single plane crash

2024 is well on its way to becoming the year of successful implementation of dramatic plane crashes. After The Snow Company vividly staged the horror of a crash in 3 minutes on Netflix, the third episode of Masters of the Air is now also waiting for you devastating crash that puts everything in perspective. (Attention, it follows Spoilers for episode 3.)

We jump from cockpit to cockpit as the bomber squadron enters German airspace on its latest mission. However, long before she reaches her destination, a weapons factory, an air battle breaks out in which the only thing that matters is sheer survival. A bullet hits Lieutenant Curtis Biddick’s (Barry Keoghan) co-pilot and “Curt” makes the decision Evacuate damaged machine.

When the crew of the bomber is already strapping on their parachutes and the shaking plane gets dangerously tilted, the “dead man” in the cockpit comes back to life. This badly injured makes it impossible for him to parachute, so Biddick decides to stay and land her falling metal box. While the rest of the crew escapes through the hatch, Curt takes stock breakneck descent into a nearby field in the eye.

Your heart beats faster as you watch as the pilot heads for the clearing in a sea of ​​dark treetops. The plane hits the tops of the trees and we almost want to breathe a sigh of relief that he actually made it. But even those who have no idea about flying suddenly see that the plane still has too much thrust and the landing angle is too steep. The plane touches down hard, explodes in a ball of fire and leaves us stunned.

Dealing with the crash is what makes the war series so realistic

The sudden crash in episode 3 of Masters of the Air functions almost as a counterpoint to last week’s season opener, where a bomber managed to touch down safely even without the landing gear extended. Despite the swelling music, the expected explosion on the military base did not occur and no one lost their lives. But now the war series throws us into the middle of the battle Different rules apply here. There is no time for a correctly calculated landing here.

Alongside the main cast are Austin Butler and Callum Turner Barry Keoghan (Saltburn, Eternals) one of the most famous stars in the cast of Masters of the Air. There are expectations attached to such a big actor name from the start – expectations that the series mercilessly undermines with its crash. Because after we just got to know his Curt, the star is eliminated again in episode 3. Nobody can survive this explosion. And no one in the cast is safe before the fatal consequences of the war.

What’s interesting is that the crash scene occurs exactly halfway through the episode and This puts us in the seat of the surviving pilots: You can only perceive the loss with a stumbling heart and then you have to move on because nothing else is not an option. Planning continues in the control center and the remaining airmen have to save their own skins. After all, the mission doesn’t end with the loss of a friend. In any case, it remains unclear for a long time whether anyone noticed the tragedy in the chaos. Only those who survive the deadly maneuver have time to mourn. Those remaining have to get to Africa at the end of the episode before anyone even mentions the crash.

Heroes and Cowards: The Masters of the Air war series condemns no one

Masters of the Air unquestionably shows its protagonists as heroes. But the war series also shows how quickly this happens Moment of heroism burst into flames can.

The antithesis to Curt’s fatal decision was given to us shortly before by another young aviator: in the moment of panic, as his crashing plane races towards the ground, he makes the guilty yet understandable decision to bring himself to safety rather than a stranded comrade to free. His pleading apology is lost in the confusion of trying to find the exit hatch. There is no time to save both men.

At the end of the third episode, Masters of the Air, everyone has to decide for themselves which of the two men made the “better” decision. If a Survival or a heroic death are more valuable in war. The only thing that is certain is that we can be excited and happy that we don’t have to make these decisions ourselves.