Nuremberg (2025 film)

thumb|right|Hermann Göring: What do you think war is?! What do you think the Russian's do to German prisoners of war?! You have your freedom and I am a prisoner because you won and we lost, not because you are morally superior! This trial will be a farce in 15 years. Great conquerors are not thought of as murderers, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great... Douglas Kelley: You're not Alexander the Great! You are a fat man in a cell. And you knew. Nuremberg is a 2025 American drama film about US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley seeking to carry out an assignment to investigate the personalities and monitor the mental status of Hermann Göring and other high-ranking Nazis in preparation for and during the Nuremberg trials. Written and Directed by James Vanderbilt, based on Jack El-Hai's 2013 book "The Nazi and the Psychiatrist". An epic World War II thriller based on true events Hermann Göring Just because a man is your ally does not mean he is on your side. The first time I saw Hitler talk, it was uh... 1922, upstairs of a coffee shop, for maybe 30 people. This was peacetime, but it was a peace without food, jobs, shoes. And he stood up and he said "French bellies are being filled with German pain." And then, "If you make threats, you need bayonets. Rearm! Down this Versailles!" So that night, I became a National Socialist. No man has ever beaten me. [After being defeated at the trial] Years from now, I wonder what you will say about us. Will you even acknowledge we were human? Abracadabra [final words after making a cyanide capsule appear out of thin air through magic] Douglas Kelley [On Göring] You know what sets him apart from us? Nothing. [to Göring] There's a difference between us bombing war factories and civilians dying as collateral damage! And you building 1200 human slaughter houses designed to exterminate an entire race! And you know it!! [to Göring] You think you're a great man? I know more about this man than anyone else on the planet. You're walking into a trap! Others Sergeant Howie Triest: [to Douglas] Do you know why it happened here? Because people let it happen. Dialogue Elsie: It can't be done. Robert Jackson: You keep saying that. Elsie: Because it can't be done. Robert Jackson: Give me one good reason why not. Elsie: There’s no legal precedent for a trial. There’s no international law to base the charges on. No one has ever tried war criminals outside of one nation’s jurisdiction because the whole concept of international law is that one country can’t tell another country’s citizens how to conduct themselves. Robert Jackson: Elsie... Elsie: Trying these men in a German court would be different. But what you’re talking about is trying them in some sort of legal limbo that doesn’t exist using case law that hasn’t been written yet. And on the off chance that you’re not keeping track, that’s about four good reasons why not. Robert Jackson: I'm getting you drink. Elsie: I don't want a drink. Robert Jackson: Then I’m getting me another and getting you one for show. [poors some drinks in his glass and one for Elsie] Elsie: Who do you put on trial? The German commanders? Enlisted men? What about the judges who enforce the racial codes? Robert Jackson: Obviously we’d have to work that out. Elsie: And once you decide who to put on trial, what do you charge them with? Robert Jackson: Conspiracy to wage aggressive war on the world. Elsie: And you want the United States to argue that as prosecution? Robert Jackson: I do. Elsie: Against Germany? A country that never attacked us? Robert Jackson: Say just for a second it could be done. Elsie: Robert. Robert Jackson: Don’t you want to know how I’d do it? [Elsie gesture, as of saying, ,"How?"] It would have to be a completely international effort. All of the allies would have to participate. The US, Britain, France, Russia. You can’t do it without the Russians. Four international judges. Elsie: You're talking about a tribunal. Robert Jackson: Exactly. The world needs to know what these men did. [as Robert Jackson and John Amen are leaving the catholic church to get support from the Pope for the upcoming trial] Colonel. John Amen: Did you just blackmail the Pope? Robert Jackson: I don't wanna talk about it. Colonel. Burton Andrus: Your cells are made of stone, nine feet by thirteen. Your beds are bolted to the wall. Your mattress is stuffed with straw instead of springs. Your desks are made of cardboard and will not support a man’s full weight. Your chairs are never allowed against any wall and will be removed every night at sundown. When you sleep, your head and hands will remain above your blanket visible at all times. You will be given no belts, you will be given no shoelaces, you will be given no toilet seats, you will be given nothing with which to use as a weapon to take your own lives. Welcome to Nuremberg. Robert Jackson: May I please your honors... The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because we cannot survive their being repeated. In the prisoner's dock sit 20 odd broken men. We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power. Civilization can afford no compromise by dealing ambiguously or indecisively with the men in whom these forces now precariously survive. Wars are no longer local. All modern wars become world wars, eventually. And none of the big nations can stay out. But the ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars in a system of international lawlessness is to make statesmen responsible for the law. And let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, it must condemn aggression by any other nation including those who sit here now, in judgment. We are able to do away with domestic tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power against the rights of their own people only when we make all men answerable to the law. [After a trial hearing, at Göring's cell, Douglas is horrified, disgusted, and furious over what he has seen from the video footage of the atrocities committed at the concentration camps] Douglas Kelley: How is that possible? [short pause, he stands up] What I just saw. How is it possible? Hermann Göring: [short pause] Himmler. Douglas Kelley: Himmler wasn't second in command. You were. 1200 camps? What am I supposed to believe that you didn't know? Hermann Göring: Anyone can fake an atrocity. Douglas Kelley: So you're saying the filming was a fake, that's your defence? Hermann Göring: What would you have me say? Douglas Kelley: About the truth for once! Hermann Göring: Why? So you can run and tell Jackson. My friend, your hypocrisy is stunning. Douglas Kelley: My hypocrisy? Hermann Göring: You think American bullets and bombs don't kill people?! You vaporised 150,000 Japanese at the touch of a button. And you presume to stand in judgment on me for war crimes. Douglas Kelley: We had every right to defend ourselves. Hermann Göring: How do you defend yourself on someone else's soil?! Douglas Kelley: There's a difference between us bombing war factories and civilians dying as collateral damage! And you building 1200 human slaughter houses designed to exterminate an entire race! And you know it!! Hermann Göring: What do you think war is?! Douglas Kelley: [pause] Not what I saw today. Hermann Göring: What do you think the Russian's do to German prisoners of war?! You have your freedom and I am a prisoner because you won and we lost, not because you are morally superior! This trial will be a farce in 15 years. Great conquerors are not thought of as murderers, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great... Douglas Kelley: You're not Alexander the Great! You are a fat man in a cell. And you knew. [pause] Hermann Göring: I have made a mistake. You are not destined for more. You will have an unhappy life, I think. It will all be overshadowed by this. By the time spent with me. You will write your volumes trying to relive it. The one moment in your life when you actually stood with greatness. Douglas Kelley: [short pause] You think you're a great man? You think that that's your legacy? Hermann Göring: At least I will have one. You will leave no mark on this world. I am the book! You are merely a footnote. [pause] Douglas Kelley: They're gonna kill you! They're gonna hang you by the neck till you piss yourself and die. Your wife will be a widow. Your daughter will be an orphan. And you will have done that to yourself. [Kelley knocks on the cell door to be let out, door opens. He glares at Göring and leaves]                                          Douglas Kelley: Came to say goodbye? Howie Triest: Did you really mean it? You said Jackson had no chance? Douglas Kelley: Sure. It’s all just a big show for the cameras anyway. So it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow. If Göring beats Jackson, so be it. Howie Triest: Yeah, I don’t believe that. Neither do you. You know more about him than anybody on Earth. Douglas Kelley: Yeah, that’s right. I do. You know, I spent thousands of hours with him. I run hundreds of tests. You know what sets him apart from us? Nothing. Howie Triest: I know. Douglas Kelley: You know? Howie Triest: Because I’m one of them. Douglas Kelley: What are you talking about? Howie Triest: I’m German, Doc. I grew up in Munich. Douglas Kelley: No, you grew up in Detroit. You said your mom spoke German. Howie Triest: She did. So did my father. Because I was raised here. Douglas Kelley: You’re an American soldier. Why’d you leave? Howie Triest: Why do you think? [Douglas Kelley's eyes open wide with wonder] Douglas Kelley: You're a Jew. Howie Triest: You know, with the blonde hair and the blue eyes, I never got a hassle much. My father was a patriot. He fought for Germany in the First World War. We loved this country. Eventually he realized we had to get out. Douglas Kelley: How did you do? Howie Triest: The problem was getting travel visas. Other countries wouldn’t take us. My dad had a cousin in New York who helped. We finally got our visa in 1940. But we only had enough money for one ticket out. My little sister, Margo… She was only 11, so… My parents didn’t want her traveling alone. So they sent me. Boy, I was seasick the whole way. When I landed, I stayed with my cousin. When the Nazis invaded Holland, my family never showed up. That’s when I went to Detroit. I got a job as an apprentice in a tool factory where the English listened to baseball on the radio. When Pearl Harbor happened, I was the first one in the recruitment office to enlist. You know what they said? They couldn’t take me. Because I wasn’t an American citizen. I’d have to wait to get drafted. So I did. I waited, and I waited. I checked the mailbox every day for two years. June 6th, 1944. Landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Four years earlier, I left this country, scared and alone in the middle of the night. But I came back with a goddamn army. I found Margo. She’s in Switzerland. She’s 16 now. She’s living with relatives. She’s good. She made it. Douglas Kelley: And your folks? Howie Triest: The records show that my parents arrived at Auschwitz, August 12th, 1942. The camp was liberated January 27th, 1945. No sign of them. The Nazis had a name for what they did to us: The Final Solution. Like we were some kind of nagging puzzle that they finally figured out how to solve. Douglas Kelley: So sorry, Howie. Howie Triest: I want to tell Streicher. I want to tell him right before they put that rope around his neck, I’m going to tell that piece of shit that he was confining in a Jew. You say it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow. It matters. More you know matters to me, to my family, to all of Germany. Göring has to fall. You think he’s going to beat Jackson? Doc, please. Do something about it. Douglas Kelley: I can't. Howie Triest: You can't what? Douglas Kelley: I'm just a shrink. Howie Triest: You want to know why it happened here? People let it happen. Because they didn’t stand up until it was too late. [Douglas is live on a radio show] Douglas Kelley: [drunkenly] There are people in America who would willingly climb over the corpses of half the American public if they knew they could gain control of the other half! Moderator: Doctor, please- Douglas Kelley: They stoke hatred; it's what Hitler and Göring did, and it is textbook, and if you think the next time it happens we're going to recognise it because they're wearing scary uniforms, [stands up, intensely] you're out of your damn mind! [sits back down] They're us, okay? The Germans are us. [Silence. The Moderator leans into his microphone] Moderator: More with our panel when we return. [Commercials begin. The Producer comes over to Douglas, who pours himself another glass of whiskey] Producer: They're not going to invite you to stay for the next segment. Let's go. [He helps Kelly to his feet and hustles him towards the door] Producer: And just so you know? Trashing our country is not the best way to sell your book. [Douglas looks at him, turns and leaves] Taglines An epic World War ll thriller based on true events Cast Russell Crowe - Hermann Göring Rami Malek - Douglas Kelley Leo Woodall - Sergeant Howie Triest John Slattery - Burton C. Andrus Mark O'Brien - John Amen Colin Hanks - Gustave Gilbert Wrenn Schmidt - Elsie Douglas Lydia Peckham - Lila Michael Shannon - Robert H. Jackson Richard E. Grant - Sir David Maxwell Fyfe Lotte Verbeek - Emmy Göring Andreas Pietschmann - Rudolf Hess Steven Pacey - George C. Marshall External links 29567915 Nuremberg (2025 film) nuremberg_2025 Nuremberg (2025 film) Category:2025 films Category:2025 American films Category:2020s American films Category:American historical films Category:Drama films Category:World War II films Category:War films Category:Courtroom dramas Category:Films set in the 1940s Category:Films about psychiatry Category:Films based on non-fiction books