Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
How I Unleashed World War II, Part I: The Escape
TITLE DETAILS

How I Unleashed World War II, Part I: The Escape

1970-04-02 · 86 min · ★ 7.6

Comedy · War · Adventure

On the night of August 31, 1939, Dolas, from a platoon reinforcing a train station on the German border, falls asleep in a train car and unknowingly crosses into Germany. The moment he shoots a German, who he thinks is a saboteur, the German invasion of Poland begins, and Dolas is convinced it was his fault. He is taken to Stalag POW camp, the first destination in his odyssey around Europe.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Tadeusz Chmielewski
Production companies
PRF "Zespoły Filmowe"
Countries
Poland
Status
Released

Top Cast

Marian KociniakMarian KociniakFranciszek Dolas
Janina BorońskaJanina BorońskaElżbieta
Adam CyprianAdam CyprianGulke's Brother
Wirgiliusz GryńWirgiliusz GryńJózek Kryska
Zdzisław KuźniarZdzisław KuźniarDimo Stojadinovic
Józef ŁodyńskiJózef ŁodyńskiStoker
Jarosław SkulskiJarosław SkulskiColonel
Tomasz ZaliwskiTomasz ZaliwskiYugoslavian Officer
Elżbieta StarosteckaElżbieta StarosteckaSinger
Emil KarewiczEmil KarewiczGestapo Officer in Austria
Henryk ŁapińskiHenryk ŁapińskiWladysław Wachocki
Stanisław MilskiStanisław MilskiGerman General
Kazimierz TalarczykKazimierz TalarczykWoydyłło
Janusz ZiejewskiJanusz ZiejewskiFeldfebel
Ludwik BenoitLudwik BenoitInnkeeper (uncredited)
Zbigniew BielskiZbigniew BielskiSoldier selling Sausages (uncredited)
Jerzy BlockJerzy BlockBolek (uncredited)
Adolf ChronickiAdolf ChronickiPolish Captain (uncredited)
Ryszard DembińskiRyszard DembińskiGerman Officer (uncredited)
Bohdan EjmontBohdan EjmontOfficer in Stalag (uncredited)

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Availability not listed for this country.

Recommendations

Triple Cross
★ 6.1
Triple Cross1966War · Adventure

Safecracker Eddie Chapman is languishing in prison on the island of Jersey when the Nazis arrive. An adept manipulator of situations, Chapman convinces the Germans to use him to spy on the British. And when the would-be traitor arrives home, he convinces the English to use him as a double agent -- in exchange for a full pardon.

Kelly's Heroes
★ 7.4
Kelly's Heroes1970Comedy · War · Adventure

A misfit group of World War II American soldiers goes AWOL to rob a bank behind German lines.

Colonel Wolodyjowski
★ 7.0
Colonel Wolodyjowski1969War · Adventure

In 1668 Polish colonel Michał Wołodyjowski, who recently retired to a monastery, is recalled to active duty and takes charge of Poland's eastern frontier defenses against invading Tatar hordes and Ottoman armies.

Sahara
★ 6.7
Sahara1995War · Adventure

After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.

Red Scorpion
★ 6.0
Red Scorpion1988War · Adventure

A Soviet commando is sent to eliminate a rebel leader in Africa. Soon he finds himself doubting his mission.

The Dirty Dozen
★ 7.6
The Dirty Dozen1967War · Adventure

12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
★ 7.0
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare2024Comedy · War

During World War II, the British Army assigns a group of competent soldiers to carry out a mission against the Nazi forces behind enemy lines... A true story about a secret British WWII organization — the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Germans helped to change the course of the war, and gave birth to modern black operations.

Legionnaire
★ 5.9
Legionnaire1998War · Adventure

Alain Lefevre is a boxer paid by a Marseille mobster to take a dive. When he wins the fight he attempts to flee to America with the mobster's girlfriend Katrina. This plan fails and he seeks escape by joining the foreign legion. As part of the legion he tangles with abusive lieutenant Steinkampf and bonds with legionnaires Luther, Mackintosh and Rosetti.

Catch-22
★ 6.7
Catch-221970Comedy · War

A WWII military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane in order to be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.

Hidden Strike
★ 6.9
Hidden Strike2023Comedy · Adventure

Two elite soldiers must escort civilians through a gauntlet of gunfire and explosions.

Accident Man
★ 6.3
Accident Man2018Comedy · Adventure

Mike Fallon, the Accident Man, is a stone cold killer. When a loved one is murdered by his own crew, Fallon is forced to avenge the one person who actually meant something to him.

Von Ryan's Express
★ 7.1
Von Ryan's Express1965War · Adventure

Von Ryan's Express stars Frank Sinatra as a POW colonel who leads a daring escape from WWII Italy by taking over a freight train, but he has to win over the British soldiers he finds himself commanding.

Balls Up
★ 5.8
Balls Up2026Comedy · Adventure

Two marketing executives go "balls out" and pitch a bold full‑coverage condom sponsorship with the World Cup. After their drunken celebration in Brazil sparks a global scandal, they must outrun furious fans, criminals, and power-hungry officials to salvage their careers and make it home alive.

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
★ 6.3
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins1985Comedy · Adventure

Tough Brooklyn street cop Sam Makin is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a secret United States organization known as CURE, who fake his death and give him a new identity: Remo Williams. With his appearance surgically altered, Williams is trained to be a human killing machine by his aged, derisive and impassive Korean martial arts master Chiun.

Three Kings
★ 6.7
Three Kings1999Comedy · War

A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that's destined to change everything.

The Men Who Stare at Goats
★ 6.0
The Men Who Stare at Goats2009Comedy · War

A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

Farewell to the King
★ 6.0
Farewell to the King1989War · Adventure

An American soldier who escapes the execution of his comrades by Japanese soldiers in Borneo during WWII becomes the leader of a personal empire among the headhunters in this war story told in the style of Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. The American is reluctant to rejoin the fight against the Japanese on the urging of a British commando team but conducts a war of vengeance when the Japanese attack his adopted people.

Tropic Thunder
★ 6.7
Tropic Thunder2008Comedy · War · Adventure

A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film ever. When budgets skyrocket and schedules fall far behind, the director tries to save the production by leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they inadvertently encounter real danger.

Sharpe's Challenge
★ 6.2
Sharpe's Challenge2006War · Adventure

Sean Bean is back as the swashbuckling hero in Sharpe's Challenge, an action packed mini-series to be shot on location in Rajasthan, India. Two years after the Duke of Wellington crushes Napoleon at Waterloo, dispatches from India tell of a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, who is threatening British interests there. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. When a beautiful general's daughter is kidnapped by the Indian warlord, the tension mounts, leaving Sharpe no option but to pursue the enemy right into its deadly lair. Deep in the heart of enemy territory he also has to keep at bay the beautiful but scheming Regent, Madhuvanthi, who is out to seduce him. The fate of an Empire and the life of a General's daughter lie in one man's hands...

Missing in Action
★ 5.9
Missing in Action1984War · Adventure

American servicemen are still being held captive in Vietnam and it's up to one man to bring them home in this blistering, fast-paced action/adventure starring martial arts superstar Chuck Norris. Following a daring escape from a Vietnamese POW camp, Special Forces Colonel James Braddock (Norris) is on a mission to locate and save remaining MIAs.

Similar titles

The Great Dictator
★ 8.3
The Great Dictator1940Comedy · War

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

The Bridge on the River Kwai
★ 7.8
The Bridge on the River Kwai1957War

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Antonia's Line
★ 6.9
Antonia's Line1995Comedy

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

The Best Years of Our Lives
★ 7.7
The Best Years of Our Lives1946War

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

How The Bismarck Sank HMS Hood
★ 8.0
How The Bismarck Sank HMS Hood2012War

The 'mighty' Hood was the pride of the British Navy for more than 20 years, revered around the world as the largest and most powerful warship afloat. But when it was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck off the coast of Greenland on 24 May 1941, its end was shockingly swift.

The Battle of the Damned
★ 5.8
The Battle of the Damned1969War

A small band of misfit American commandos are assigned to head across the North African desert to blow up a huge German fuel depot.

Jakob the Liar
★ 6.7
Jakob the Liar1999Comedy

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.

The Dream
★ 5.8
The Dream1966War

In the whirlpool of WW2, two peaceful towns that have already tasted peace are once again attacked by the Germans. Casualties are high, but the dream of a boy and a girl about their liberated towns cannot be destroyed.

Echo on the Seashore
★ 8.0
Echo on the Seashore1966War

World War II. Patriot Jonuz Bruga has troubles with his young son, Selim, who leads an immoral lifestyle and does not support the anti-fascist war, while his brothers fight in the city's guerrilla units.

The Ambush
★ 10.0
The Ambush1968War

A film set during World War II - a small partisan unit must ambush a German convoy.

Cameramen at War
★ 5.8
Cameramen at War1943War

A tribute to the cameramen of the newsreel companies and the service film units, in the form of a compilation of film of the cameramen themselves, their training and some of their most dramatic film.

What the War Meant
Not rated
What the War Meant2008War

The drama stars Beat Takeshi as General Hideki Tojo, who served as Prime Minister of Japan during World War II and was later executed as a war criminal. The story's theme is said to be a look at how the Pacific War began, focusing mostly on the three month period between the Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi) on September 6, 1941, and the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Days of Glory
★ 6.7
Days of Glory2006War

1943. They have never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir enlist in the French Army, along with 130,000 other “indigenous” soldiers, to liberate the “fatherland” from the Nazi enemy. Heroes that history has forgotten...

Transit
★ 5.1
Transit2006Comedy · War

A group of American pilots from Alaska ferry Airacobra fighter planes across the ocean on Lend-lease. The orderly course of life is disrupted when it becomes clear that the American pilots are attractive and charming young women. The feelings of the Russian young men collide into barriers of culture and language resulting in a host of awkward, funny, and sometimes tragic situations.It is the story of Russians, Americans, and natives of the Far North. It is the story of man and woman in war. Love and death are squeezed between the hills as human fates are destroyed and born.

Valkyrie
★ 7.0
Valkyrie2008War

Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.

LE PORTEL 1943, Les sacrifiés du grand bluff des Alliés
Not rated
LE PORTEL 1943, Les sacrifiés du grand bluff des Alliés2026War

Les enfants de Pétain
★ 8.0
Les enfants de Pétain2024War

Lifeboat
★ 7.4
Lifeboat1944War

During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.

The Dam Busters
★ 6.9
The Dam Busters1955War

The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 Squadron 'The Dam Busters'.

A Bullet for Rommel
★ 6.0
A Bullet for Rommel1969War

During World War II, a tough officer organizes a commando raid into Germany.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.