| Andrew Neill |
Valkyrie plays on glorious 35mm at the Trylon Cinema from Sunday, September 21st, through Tuesday, September 23rd. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org.
17 years ago, on a frigid night in January 2008, I was in a car packed with friends, speeding up I-29 from Fargo to Grand Forks to see a new release. We would have gone to see it locally, but the theater chain (Marcus) and the distributor (Paramount) were fighting. The film wasn’t coming to Fargo, but that wasn’t going to stop us. The film’s marketing campaign had hooked us and was reeling us in at 85 miles per hour. It was the peak era of J.J. Abrams’s mystery box, and my friends and I all wanted a peek inside. We had seen the untitled trailer of shaky, amateurish video, ending with the Statue of Liberty’s severed head crashing down a busy street. We had obsessed over it for months. We could make an hour and a half drive for what turned out to be another hour and a half of dizzying monster movie mayhem. Cloverfield lived up to the hype.
I’ve been thinking a lot about 2008. Weirdly, it wasn’t Cloverfield that started it, but the Trylon’s programming of a far less remembered movie from that year, Valkyrie. It got the ol’ brain gears turning about how the industry of that time and the movies released then share a host of connections to the Hollywood of today. There are even a few monumental cinematic events of 2008 that continue to shape the industry, for better and worse. We’ll get to those, but let’s start with Nazi Tom Cruise and why that matters.
Part I – The impossible mission before Mission: Impossible
Valkyrie is based on a true story from World War II, in which a network of German military officers and politicians conspired to kill Hitler and overthrow his authoritarian government. Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who’s just lost an eye and arm on the North African front. He returns to Berlin rocking a cool eyepatch and a steely, one-eyed gaze, focused squarely on Adolf’s neck. Stauffenberg’s co-conspirators are played by a whole cavalry of great British actors, including Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, and Terence Stamp (who recently passed away).
Those dudes rock, but I’m afraid they aren’t the defining aspect of Valkyrie’s legacy. The film marks the first collaboration between Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. Since McQuarrie wrote Valkyrie, their partnership has overtaken both of their careers. McQuarrie has written most of Cruise’s movies since and taken over as the auteur of the last four Mission: Impossible movies, including this year’s eighth (and final but probably not final) installment, The Final Reckoning. We have Cruise and McQuarrie to thank for some of the most euphoric action sequences in modern movies. I highly recommend stomaching the indulgently paced Final Reckoning because it contains two of the greatest action sequences ever put on film.
As for Valkyrie, it’s a weird one to watch now. Cruise’s von Stauffenberg and his coterie of conspirators may be gunning for Hitler, but they’re still Nazis. Their snazzy uniforms are sporting swastikas. They’ve turned on the dictatorship, but they’ve fought for the cause. The film isn’t glorifying Hitler’s regime—it depicts it as a monolithic threat, symbolized by looming concrete structures and seas of billowing red Nazi flags—but I found it a queasy watch as our country continues to surrender to an authoritarian.
Part II – Batman v Iron Man and the dawn of modern franchises
The film franchise was not introduced in 2008, nor was the superhero genre, but the year kickstarted a new era of franchise dominance led by the genre, one we still find ourselves in. At that time the market for superhero movies was already seen as oversaturated. David Zucker of Airplane! and Top Secret! fame even produced the spoof Superhero Movie, which lampooned the ubiquitous genre (and was directed by Craig Mazin, who’s now better known for HBO prestige dramas like Chernobyl and The Last of Us).
Rewind a little to the turn of the millennium, Marvel Comics characters finally started to appear in quality adaptations, such as the first two X-Men and Spider-Man films. Batman, the caped crusader of competing DC Comics, had been a fixture at the multiplex even longer. After four live action installments between 1989 and 1997, director Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise with Batman Begins in 2005, which was received warmly by critics and fans alike. However, the true gamechangers for both Marvel and DC arrived in 2008.
Iron Man came out that May and surprised with its overperformance at the box office. Few expected a movie about a second string Marvel hero starring a historically chaotic lead actor to end up as the second highest grossing movie of the year at the domestic box office. Absolutely no one could have predicted its long-term effects. 2025’s Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four: First Steps are the 36th and 37th entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that began with Iron Man. Hollywood has attempted and largely failed to copy the MCU’s success. Even Disney (which owns Marvel Studios) has struggled to keep up quality control since the MCU’s unicorn run from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame. Say what you will about Marvel’s descent into mediocrity since then; they haven’t reached the lows of their competition.
The Dark Knight was the highest grossing film of 2008 at the domestic box office. Its success was less of a surprise; the hype was as high as it gets. Friends of mine camped out at the West Acres 14 in Fargo for a night and a day leading up to the first midnight screening. (I elected to sleep in my own bed and join them in the afternoon. They were kind enough to save me a place in line.) The film was received with ecstatic enthusiasm by fans (me and my friends included) and glowing reviews by critics. Many thought this reception meant the film would surely be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, the first superhero film to do so. That didn’t happen, and the ensuing backlash led the Academy to expand the pool for Best Picture from five to ten nominees, which remains in place today.
After The Dark Knight’s success, Warner Brothers (which owns DC Studios) watched on as Marvel started building up its franchise with a string of successful releases. Their answer was to hand the reins of a new DC Extended Universe (the DCEU) to director Zack Snyder, who saw Nolan’s darker direction and thought “What if we sap all joy from this?” The grim films that resulted have their fans, but I am not among them. There are gems in the DCEU run, none directed by Snyder: the first Wonder Woman (good movie), the first Aquaman (wild movie), and I’m a defender of Wonder Woman 1984 (coo-coo bananas movie). This year, James Gunn restarted the franchise with his take on Superman, which represents a huge shift in direction, balancing a classic take on the character set in a modern, very 2025 world. It features a Noah and the Whale needle drop, which would have blown 2008 Andrew’s mind. (It kind of blew 2025 Andrew’s mind.)
Part III – Streaming ruins changes everything
The way we watch movies started to shift around 2008. Netflix launched its streaming platform in 2007, which coexisted with its original DVD rental by mail option. Netflix’s first major competitor in the online streaming biz, Hulu, appeared on the scene in 2008, offering “100 full-length movies” in addition to numerous TV shows on its nascent, free-to-watch platform. This was small potatoes compared to Netflix, which had launched its streaming service with around 1,000 titles. These beginnings appear so humble now, when you boot up your Roku only to be greeted by a host of streaming services with endless options and nonsense names like Tubi, Mubi, Fubo, and Freevee. (I didn’t make up any of these, I swear.)
Streamers have proven stiff competition for theaters. While there are those like you and me who cherish the theater-going experience, patronizing the multiplexes for new releases and repertory houses like the Trylon for catalog titles, the box office stats don’t reflect our enthusiasm. In 2008, the gross domestic box office was $9.7 billion, which adjusted for inflation is $14.6 billion. In 2024, the domestic gross was $8.6 billion, a difference of over 40%.
Attendance hasn’t been the same since pandemic lockdowns. According to a 2025 Variety article, an estimated 15% to 20% of moviegoers stopped going to theaters after lockdown ended. A Gallup poll in 2021 asked Americans how many movies, if any, they had attended in a theater in the past 12 months. The average from 2001-2007 was 4.8. The 2021 average was 1.4. If you’re looking around for hope, look to the youth! The 2021 average among young adults aged 18-29 was more than double the overall average at 3.2. The poll does not, however, ask how many had their phones out in the theater. If we’re looking for a silver lining, it’s probably best not to know. We don’t want to make Melvin Van Peebles mad.
As we stumble into the conclusion of this past and present comparison, let’s speed through a few more amusing points connecting 2008 and 2025:
- In 2008, there were heaps of comedies released in theaters. Highlights include Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, and Tropic Thunder. Big event releases like the latest from Marvel and DC have largely elbowed these kinds of movies out of business in recent years. However, 2025 has seen a handful of successful and well received comedies like One of Them Days, Friendship, The Naked Gun reheat, and Freakier Friday. Perhaps these successes may yield more variety at the multiplex?
- Video game adaptations have leveled up. In 2008, the biggest one was Max Payne, the gritty cop-gone-rogue shoot-em-up starring Mark Wahlberg that we’ve collectively chosen to forget. (Sorry for reminding you.) 2025 proffered A Minecraft Movie, which young audiences embraced with reckless abandon, much to the chagrin of movie theater employees who had to clean up after them.
- Speaking of Minecraft, its star, the tenacious Jack Black, has proved his lasting appeal. In 2008, he starred in the first Kung Fu Panda as the titular panda who does kung fu. That film has grown into its own four-film franchise. Ski-doosh!
- There are great directors who released movies in 2008 that have new releases this year to look forward to. The inimitable Spike Lee, who made the WWII-set Miracle at St. Anna in 2008, is reteaming with Denzel Washington for Highest 2 Lowest. Kelly Reichardt, who gave us the devastating Wendy and Lucy, is returning with The Mastermind. And my friend Guillermo del Toro, who unleashed Hellboy II: The Golden Army back then, is finally releasing his long-gestating Frankenstein adaptation.
- If you’ve watched this year’s unexpected Netflix breakout (and my current favorite film of the year), KPop Demon Hunters, you may draw a connection to another cinematic anime-fueled pop-art explosion: the Wachowskis’ 2008 masterpiece, Speed Racer. If more filmmakers are looking to Speed Racer as inspiration for high energy, precisely executed, and emotionally resonant action filmmaking, we’re gonna be golden, my friends.
We’ve covered many ways the year in film 2008 continues to reverberate through the present, and yet some things don’t need to be taken forward or repeated. Tom Cruise probably won’t play a Nazi again, nor should he! Valkyrie is a strange relic of its time, and we as cinephiles can watch it and consider it within that context. 17 years ago, a studio would greenlight a movie that asked the audience to root for Nazis, and they cast one of the biggest movie stars in the world to lead it. If you pitched Valkyrie to a studio today, you’d be put in a capsule and shot into space. Because in 2025, we don’t root for Nazis. We punch those fuckers.
Edited by Olga Tchepikova-Treon