SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's early June 1944, days before the planned Allied landings in Normandy. And General Dwight D. Eisenhower's got everything in place - or almost everything.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PRESSURE")
BRENDAN FRASER: (As General Eisenhower) Fate of the war hinges on this. All the pieces of the jigsaw are in place. There's only one imponderable that remains. I need a forecast.
ANDREW SCOTT: (As James Stagg) I'm - yes. I'm concerned that what you're asking me is scientifically impossible, sir.
SIMON: That's Brendan Fraser as Eisenhower, Andrew Scott as the meteorologist James Stagg in the new film "Pressure." It reminds us that one of the great military achievements in history was won by superior resources, skill, valor and chance - something as chancy as the weather or trying to predict it. The film's directed by Anthony Maras and written with David Haig, based on his 2014 play.
David Haig, the actor and playwright, joins us from London. Thanks so much for being with us.
DAVID HAIG: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: More than 150,000 troops - U.S., British, Canadian, Free French - ships, airplanes, all set to go. But help us understand how difficult weather prediction was before satellites.
HAIG: It was complex, and one of the central dilemmas of the film is the slightly archaic meteorological philosophy adopted by Eisenhower's American team. And this is not being disparaging to American meteorologists. It's just that America is a huge land mass. And so the system used was based on old charts of weather systems and connecting them with the present day. So if an American meteorologist had a chart from 1901 that tied in with June 5, 1944, the day of the D-Day landings, then the forecast would be based on that.
But the British and Europeans, because of the fragility of the weather systems in the United Kingdom, were beginning to understand the jet stream - the power of this current from west to east, from the States to the U.K. - and therefore anticipated appalling storms on the day of D-Day. And that is the central clash between the two meteorological teams, and it's up to Ike to decide which of those predictions he trusts.
SIMON: The film begins by saying it's a true story, which it certainly is. But what kind of creative freedom do you take with dialogue and scenes?
HAIG: Well, dialogue, inevitably, but surprisingly little - few liberties with the truth. The scenario, the situation is very, very true to the historical reality - the 72-hour countdown on the south coast of England with different forecasts coming in every day from all over the country, from weather ships all over the Atlantic, from weather stations on the west coast of Ireland.
And these people compressed and pressurized within one building on the south coast of England while the entire fleet waited to depart, and all of it on the shoulders of this slightly taciturn, slightly blunt, brusque Scottish meteorologist. But crucially, like all good heroes and maybe in movies, if that's his exterior, it certainly disguises his interior as a human being.
SIMON: Your screenplay makes it plain. There's no such thing as a guaranteed weather prediction. Certainly, there wasn't in 1944. But can we project a little bit what might have happened had the invasion been ordered as planned on June 5?
HAIG: I think there could have been between 80,000 to 100,000 deaths, drownings. I - they were using antiquated and archaic landing craft that were flat-bottomed. It was one of the biggest storms for a hundred years. I think it would have therefore delayed any invasion of the mainland and elongated the war. I mean, some even believe, you know, could have affected the outcome of the war. I'm not sure I believe that. But it certainly would have elongated it, and therefore not just the deaths that would have been caused on D-Day itself, but on mainland Europe and elsewhere within the conflict - a huge number of deaths.
So I think the decision twofold, actually. The trust that Ike so sagaciously put in this Scottish meteorologist and the courage and integrity of the meteorologist himself were crucial in saving an enormous number of lives.
SIMON: Is there a message? Oh, boy. I hate to use the word message, but...
HAIG: I think there is. I...
SIMON: Yeah.
HAIG: ...Think I know what (laughter) - I think I know what you're going to ask. And I think there is a message. You know, I always was fascinated when people told me that the Cuban Missile Crisis, if you place that in 2025 with the speed and impulsiveness of responses that are typical in modern-day politics and strategy, it could have been a very different result. And I think the presentation of data and science to a series of strategists in 1944 was so carefully considered, so wisely and sensibly debated that the right decision was made. Now it strikes me that when data and science is used, reactions and responses are impulsive and immediate and fast, with potentially, I think, disastrous repercussions.
SIMON: I have to tell you this. Well, I - our family has family in Normandy, and we will be there on June 6.
HAIG: Ah. Really?
SIMON: The stories of that time never run out, do they?
HAIG: They never run out. It is an extremely moving place to visit now. And I suppose, you know, one debates the validity of any war, but that war had to be - I mean, I don't want to get too sort of gung ho or patriotic, but that war had to be won. And so the success of this particular thing is crucial to all those families who lost lives during the landings or - did your family lose lives in D-Day itself?
SIMON: No. My wife's side of the family is French. And...
HAIG: Aha.
SIMON: Her mother spent the first years of her childhood in the basement, the cellar of their...
HAIG: Yeah.
SIMON: ...Farmhouse, because Nazi staff officers occupied the house in which they lived.
HAIG: Yeah.
SIMON: Every year, it seems to me, there are new memories that come out. And people who have kept stuff pent up talk about it while they still can.
HAIG: Yeah, and stay silent for so long. I mean, it's fascinating - isn't it? - that reticence that a lot of veterans feel and then suddenly have to talk about it. It's absolutely fascinating, that.
SIMON: David Haig, who has helped turn his lauded play into a film - "Pressure." It's in theaters next week. Thank you so much for being with us.
HAIG: Oh, well, thank you for having me. It was a very interesting conversation. I enjoyed it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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