Rescue Dawn

Rescue Dawn (2007) is Werner Herzog's war survival drama — watch it online on iFILM. Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a German-born US Navy pilot whose attack aircraft was shot down over Laos in January 1966, before America had officially entered the war. He was captured almost immediately and taken to a remote jungle prison camp.

What followed was months of starvation, dysentery, and grinding captivity — but Dengler refused to break. He began planning an escape almost from day one: memorising the guards' routines, counting distances, persuading fellow prisoners to come with him. Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies play his cellmates, men the jungle has already half-destroyed by the time Dengler arrives.

Herzog first told Dengler's story in the 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly — here he returns to it with Bale, who dropped significant weight for the role and brings a fierce, uncomplicated will-to-live that makes the film feel earned rather than heroic. Stream Rescue Dawn (2007) online on iFILM.