MovieChat Forums > Den 12. mann (2018) Discussion > One thing I didn't quite understand

One thing I didn't quite understand

posted 6 years ago by Jehosaphet (1055)
2 replies | jump to latest

These men's mission was to blow up several strategic German targets, operational, I think, right?
Yet they were captured before even meeting their contact...they ended up destroying their own cache of explosives in trying to cover up the details of their mission. So they failed before ever having the chance to succeed, really.

So why then was it so important to get the 12th man? To find out what they WOULD have attacked, if given the chance? And they tortured the other 11 before killing them...and same question there, why?
What kind of information could they have gotten from these 12 that was so important as to have such an extensive search for the one that got away?

[–] Area Man (34) 5 years ago

"why then was it so important to get the 12th man?"

It appeared to be a combination of the strict nazi protocol and one of the officer's need to have a perfect record on such a protocol. One of the commanders threatened one of the officers with reporting to Berlin him for not wanting to search for the guy. So it appears they were afraid of Berlin sending them to the Eastern Front for not following protocol. Something like that.

[–] Cranmer (139) 2 years ago

I think it was a matter of pride that all of them were caught. Plus, the German officer made a big fuss about having caught all of them even when he knew it was still possible one could have escaped, so it was vital for the 12th man to be caught (actually I was surprised the German did not shoot himself because of the disgrace or face a court martial, but the credits say he was not executed for war crimes until after the war)