MovieChat Forums > Where Eagles Dare (1969) Discussion > What was the plan if Major von Hapen had...

What was the plan if Major von Hapen hadn't shown up?

posted 12 years ago by BerlinDancer
3 replies | jump to latest

One thing that has always intrigued me about Where Eagles Dare is what was Smith's plan immediately after obtaining the notebooks? He had just collected them all from the traitors when Major von Hapen appeared in the great hall with his pistol drawn.

A few seconds later, Mary appears at the door - thus distracting von Hapen - and all the leading Nazis were gunned down as they either reached for their own pistols or tried to make a run for it.

Now what do you guys think would have happened if von Hapen hadn't appeared?

I can't see them killing Colonel Kramer, General Rosemeyer and the female secretary in cold blood. If this was the plan then they would have killed the 3 traitors as well instead of having to take them through the castle at gunpoint which greatly increased the risk of the large party being detected.

But at the same time, if they allowed Kramer and the others to live, then how are they to escape from the castle without the alarm being raised?

I reckon the original plan must have been for Smith, Schaeffer, Mary and Cartwright-Jones to descend by rope and leave how they came in - on the roof of the cable car.

But the gunfight and the alarm being raised killed all hopes of that.

[–] Koosh_King01 12 years ago

In the original novel, even after von Hapen (named "Captain von Brauschitz" in this version) shows up, all of the high-ranking Nazis are injected with knockout drugs. Instead of being shot by Schaffer, von Brauschitz is enticed to come closer and punched and knocked out after being distracted by Mary's entrance. Consequently, there's no spur-of-the-moment shooting that ends with all of the Nazis being killed. They're all taken alive.

Smith and Schaffer have with them some knockout drugs and put them to sleep non-fatally, even the already knocked-out von Brauschitz, except for Thomas, Christiansen and Carraciola (the novel's version of Berkeley), who they take with them as hostages, as in the film. So one can assume that the original plan was likely to incapacitate Rosemeyer and the others in some manner as depicted in MacLean's book.

"I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?"

[–] BerlinDancer 12 years ago

Thanks, I read the book about 20 years ago but couldn't remember much about the differences between it and the movie.

Yeah, makes sense to me.

[–] rtw416 10 years ago

So-what would HAPPEN if Von Hapen didn't HAPPEN to appear?
Say that 10x's fast....