If you've seen other movies of this ilk, then you can likely predict the ending just by reading a brief synopsis of the premise before even watching it. The film has mediocre-to-average acting, with the exception of the German general who may be considered a little above average.
As the movie progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that it will end with a dramatic show-down between the tank and the plane, at least one of which will only have one crew member left, because the director just seems to pass up all other opportunities to end the movie differently, and by the last 15 minutes there really is no room left for any other ending. I saw it coming from the beginning, but I was kind of disappointed. I'm not sure what I think would have been a better/more satisfying ending, but I was just hoping despite knowing better that the director would resist the temptation of doing as so many other war movies seem to, that is, making the plot eventually come down to "Moby Dick but with a submarine/ship/plane/tank/person/whatever". The German general character didn't even seem to be heading that way even though I knew that one way or another that is what would happen. He was set up more as a wise tactician and loyal soldier, and only at the very end do they pull out the "military leader obsessed to the point of madness with pursuing and destroying his enemy" trope.
During the movie, the general reveals that pursuing the plane is in reality just a secondary objective en-route a secret rendezvous point in the middle of the desert in which the straggling German forces who got left behind during the retreat are to re-group and attempt to wage guerrilla warfare from behind the Allied front lines. At first I thought the general was just making it up in order to give his men hope to keep them from loosing all morale and mutinying, but then later they reveal though the British characters that this secret base does actually exist and the general really is making his way there, which gave me hope for a different ending than I was expecting. But then they sort of just set that aside and keep going on toward the inevitable dramatic showdown like I originally thought. The secret base they keep referring to, despite being made clear to really exist in the movie's universe, is never actually shown on-screen, probably due to budget limitations. I can get past that, and in fact I think not showing it may have added a special element of suspense, but it was an element of suspense I feel they squandered by not having that secret location have any bearing on the climax. The general, who throughout most of the movie is played as an expert tactician who knows how to carefully bide his time and stalk his wounded prey in order to have his cake and eat it too, suddenly turns into a crazy and unstoppable killer, despite being within just a few hours of the secret base, having more than enough supplies to get there safely, and having two now-defeated enemies whom, instead of taking prisoner as collateral and a source of information as appeared to be his original plan, he decides to just gun down while they are surrendering (one survives), having never displayed any indication before that he considered that an option.
Still, even though the ending was extremely predictable and didn't really make sense from a character motivation standpoint, it was still filmed and acted well enough, and ends on a relatively satisfying cliff-hangar. Given the clearly limited budget and promotion they had, I' say they did a pretty fine job all things considered. Not a riveting masterpiece, but it's a fine little film that's worth its short hour and 15 minutes.
As the movie progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that it will end with a dramatic show-down between the tank and the plane, at least one of which will only have one crew member left, because the director just seems to pass up all other opportunities to end the movie differently, and by the last 15 minutes there really is no room left for any other ending. I saw it coming from the beginning, but I was kind of disappointed. I'm not sure what I think would have been a better/more satisfying ending, but I was just hoping despite knowing better that the director would resist the temptation of doing as so many other war movies seem to, that is, making the plot eventually come down to "Moby Dick but with a submarine/ship/plane/tank/person/whatever". The German general character didn't even seem to be heading that way even though I knew that one way or another that is what would happen. He was set up more as a wise tactician and loyal soldier, and only at the very end do they pull out the "military leader obsessed to the point of madness with pursuing and destroying his enemy" trope.
During the movie, the general reveals that pursuing the plane is in reality just a secondary objective en-route a secret rendezvous point in the middle of the desert in which the straggling German forces who got left behind during the retreat are to re-group and attempt to wage guerrilla warfare from behind the Allied front lines. At first I thought the general was just making it up in order to give his men hope to keep them from loosing all morale and mutinying, but then later they reveal though the British characters that this secret base does actually exist and the general really is making his way there, which gave me hope for a different ending than I was expecting. But then they sort of just set that aside and keep going on toward the inevitable dramatic showdown like I originally thought. The secret base they keep referring to, despite being made clear to really exist in the movie's universe, is never actually shown on-screen, probably due to budget limitations. I can get past that, and in fact I think not showing it may have added a special element of suspense, but it was an element of suspense I feel they squandered by not having that secret location have any bearing on the climax. The general, who throughout most of the movie is played as an expert tactician who knows how to carefully bide his time and stalk his wounded prey in order to have his cake and eat it too, suddenly turns into a crazy and unstoppable killer, despite being within just a few hours of the secret base, having more than enough supplies to get there safely, and having two now-defeated enemies whom, instead of taking prisoner as collateral and a source of information as appeared to be his original plan, he decides to just gun down while they are surrendering (one survives), having never displayed any indication before that he considered that an option.
Still, even though the ending was extremely predictable and didn't really make sense from a character motivation standpoint, it was still filmed and acted well enough, and ends on a relatively satisfying cliff-hangar. Given the clearly limited budget and promotion they had, I' say they did a pretty fine job all things considered. Not a riveting masterpiece, but it's a fine little film that's worth its short hour and 15 minutes.