From the woods to the town of Foy, the ground was covered in a blanket of white fake snow. Matthew crouched in the artificial forest, pushing up his helmet slightly. Across from him, the town of Foy was engulfed in the flames of war; the crackle of gunfire never ceased, and occasional thunderous explosions sent plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.
More than a dozen camera teams from the Crew, using handheld cameras, were scurrying about to capture their respective targets.
On Matthew's side, three two-man camera teams were also on standby. Their mission was to capture the protagonist of this battle scene—Ronald Speirs.
On the battlefield, soldiers dressed in the paratrooper uniforms of the 101st Airborne Division fell to the ground one by one to the sound of gunfire.
Up ahead, Captain Winters, played by Damian Lewis, was agitated and wanted to head to the front lines to command personally, but he was held back by the colonel.
Easy Company lacked effective command, which was extremely lethal on the battlefield, leaving them as nothing but prey for the Germans.
Matthew held a standard tactical posture, crouching in the snow until Damian Lewis shouted at him.
"Speirs, over here! Move it!"
Hearing the shout, Matthew immediately ran over clutching his chicago typewriter. Damian Lewis looked at the battlefield ahead and roared at him, "Go in there and relieve that damn Dike! Take command of Easy Company and finish the assault!"
With a cold, stern expression, Matthew said nothing and strode toward the smoke-filled battlefield. The three camera teams moved with him simultaneously: one capturing shots from the front, one filming from about ten meters to the side, and another on standby at all times.
At this moment, Matthew was enjoying the full treatment reserved for a protagonist.
The presence of the camera teams didn't interfere with Matthew's actions in the slightest. He had already grasped the essence of the character Ronald Speirs. His face showed no emotion—no panic, no anxiety—just a calm advance, as if he were a veteran who disregarded life and death, truly standing on a World War II battlefield.
BOOM—
The dirt ahead erupted in a cloud of smoke under the control of the pyrotechnics team. Matthew didn't hesitate, jumping right through the smoke to reach a haystack. Without a word, he grabbed the actor playing Dike by the neck and shouted, "You're relieved! I'm taking command of Easy Company!"
"Sergeant Lipton!" he immediately asked, "What's the situation?"
An officer crawled over immediately and said, "The company's scattered. First platoon..."
He rattled off a long explanation at top speed. After listening, Matthew immediately pointed to a house and said, "Use the mortars to take them out!"
Matthew slowly stood up. "Everyone else, direct assault! No more flanking!"
With that, he rushed out from behind the haystack and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Follow me!"
Matthew didn't even look back as he strode forward with long steps, seemingly trusting completely that the brothers of Easy Company would follow the charge. He followed the route pre-set during the walkthrough, not stopping until he reached the back of a building.
"Cut!" Director David Frankel called a halt to the filming through a megaphone. He appeared on a hidden observation platform on the tallest house and gave Matthew a thumbs-up. "Good job!"
The large-scale combat scene concluded there. David Frankel descended from the platform, instructed his assistant to have the Crew adjust the set, and then walked over to Matthew.
"Director." Matthew took off his steel helmet and greeted him with a smile. David Frankel came over and patted him on the shoulder. "Well done!"
Matthew gave a simple, honest laugh.
David Frankel nodded. This young man had made a very good impression on him: smart, humble, hardworking, professional, and respectful. Although his acting skills were average, an actor like this was impossible to dislike.
He walked out from behind the house and beckoned Matthew over, pointing to a low wall at the end of the street. "Don't think about anything else during the next take. Just run to that low wall as fast as you can and vault over it."
"I'll be waiting for you behind the wall."
German tanks and soldiers were being positioned on the street. Matthew took a look and saw the low wall; it was no more than a hundred meters away.
He said firmly, "Alright!"
This scene was about Ronald Speirs charging alone through a street crawling with German troops to link up with Item Company on the other side, creating a pincer movement against the Germans. Even more incredibly, Ronald Speirs not only made it across, but after contacting Item Company, he ran back through again completely unscathed.
This was described in both the original book and the memoirs; it wasn't some exaggerated plot point the Crew had added on a whim.
In Sergeant Lipton's recollected words, the Germans simply didn't expect a soldier to dare charge out alone, and they certainly didn't expect him to run back. Moreover, Easy Company was attacking fiercely at the time, which distracted the German soldiers.
It was this very charge that earned Ronald Speirs the acceptance of the men of Easy Company. Combined with the fact that the incompetent Lieutenant Dike was killed by a shell, Ronald Speirs naturally took over as the fourth commander of Easy Company.
Once the scene was set, filming began again.
After a few lines of dialogue with the actor playing Sergeant Lipton, Matthew darted out from behind the building. He moved his long legs like a lithe leopard, charging past German fortifications along the street and weaving between a tank and a self-propelled gun.
Three cameras filmed him from different angles.
Matthew could hear nothing but the wind whistling past his ears. He ran past a Tiger tank and reached the low wall. Without slowing down, his legs exerted a sudden burst of power as he vaulted onto the wall, which was over a meter high.
Unexpectedly, because he hit it with such momentum and the wall was only a temporary structure, it couldn't withstand the impact. Just as Matthew vaulted onto the wall, he felt the structure beneath him give way.
The next moment, the top third of the wall collapsed, sending Matthew crashing to the ground on the other side.
Matthew knew things were bad before he even hit the ground. The moment his body touched the earth, he went into a roll, narrowly avoiding the falling bricks, but a searing pain shot through the arm that hit the ground first.
"Cut!"
Director David Frankel, who was right behind the wall, shouted immediately, "Medic! Get a medic over here, fast!"
When filming battle scenes like this, a medical team is a mandatory department for the Crew. A doctor immediately ran over with a medical kit.
Matthew's left hand was in sharp pain. As he struggled to push himself up from the ground, an experienced Assistant Director immediately stopped him.
"Don't move!" the man shouted a reminder. "Let the doctor check you first."
"I'm fine!" Matthew shook his head. "I'm fine."
Back when he worked on construction sites, bumps and bruises were common. He generally felt that it was just a superficial injury to his arm and that everywhere else was likely fine.
No Crew wants an actor to get injured; an injured actor usually means a lot of trouble.
Not only did the doctor arrive at top speed, but even the two producers, Gary Goetzman and Eric Polk, came over.
"Where does it hurt?" The doctor knelt beside Matthew. Matthew pointed to his left arm. "Here."
The doctor unbuttoned his sleeve and asked, "Anywhere else?"
Matthew shook his head. "I think I'm okay. I don't feel pain anywhere else."
The doctor rolled up the sleeve to reveal the upper arm. Matthew looked and saw a bruised patch. The doctor immediately felt the area and then let out a sigh of relief. "The bone seems fine; it's just a soft tissue injury."
Matthew also breathed a sigh of relief. No one wants to get injured.
Then, following the doctor's instructions, he moved his limbs and confirmed that it was indeed just a minor injury to his arm.
"Go to the hospital and get that looked at properly," David Frankel said, walking over.
He said the words, but his brow was furrowed deeply. Setting up this scene hadn't been easy, and they were already more than halfway through filming. Other things were manageable, but if it rained tonight or tomorrow, it would be a disaster.
With London's hellish weather, rain could start at any moment. If that happened, many sets would have to be rebuilt, and the entire filming schedule would be delayed.
Not just Director David Frankel, but even the producers Gary Goetzman and Eric Polk were worried. A filming delay usually meant increased expenses, which was the last thing a producer wanted to see. However, if an actor was injured, they couldn't exactly stop him from seeing a doctor.
If the actor had a powerful Agent behind him, it would be even more troublesome.
"Let's go," the doctor urged Matthew. "I'll go to the hospital with you."
David Frankel had already gone to the other side and was losing his temper at the set designers, shouting and pointing at the low wall, clearly very annoyed.
Matthew saw all of this, but he wasn't stupid enough to think David Frankel was worried about him; he guessed the director was worried about the filming schedule.
"This minor injury..." Matthew moved his left arm. Aside from some lingering pain, it felt fine. He raised his voice and said, "There's no need for the hospital."
David Frankel immediately turned to look. Matthew continued, "It's just a scratch, I'm fine. The work is more important!"
Since Matthew insisted, the others naturally didn't object. After the doctor gave his left arm a simple treatment and his makeup was touched up, he dove back into filming.
The low wall wasn't repaired, only the remaining major section was reinforced. David Frankel decided to use the footage already shot. After filming resumed, Matthew vaulted over the wall and sprinted back behind the house through a group of extras dressed as German soldiers and armored vehicles.
A short distance from the wall, Gary Goetzman and Eric Polk were watching the scene.
"A very professional young man," Gary Goetzman said, seemingly very approving of Matthew's work attitude. "He saved the production a lot of unnecessary trouble."
He asked Eric Polk, "What's this young man's name?"
Eric Polk naturally recognized Matthew and said, "Matthew Horner. He was an actor Tom Hanks personally selected from the auditions."
Gary Goetzman nodded slightly. "Hanks has always had a good eye. Go check on him tonight and give him some appropriate encouragement."
"Yeah, I know." Eric Polk thought about what he had discussed with Helen Herman, but the matter was more complicated than expected. The final approval didn't lie with him; Gary Goetzman had the final say. He paused for a moment and said tentatively, "How about this? Don't we have a press conference coming up? Let's have Matthew Horner attend as well."
Gary Goetzman thought about it. "That works."