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Where Eagles Dare

During World War II, MI6 officers Colonel Turner and Admiral Rolland assemble a commando team to rescue American Brigadier General George Carnaby, a chief planner for the Western Front, who is a prisoner at Schloß Adler (Castle of the Eagles), an alpine mountaintop fortress in Bavaria, accessible only by cable car.

Disguised as German soldiers, the team—Major John Smith, Sergeants Harrod and MacPherson, Captains Lee Thomas, Ted Berkeley, and Olaf Christiansen, and US Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer—parachutes near the castle. Harrod is found dead with a broken neck, and Smith deduces he was murdered. Smith secretly meets with his lover, British agent Mary Ellison, but keeps her involvement from his men. Smith and his team infiltrate the village at the base of Schloß Adler where he meets undercover agent Heidi Schmidt in a tavern, who has arranged for Mary to work inside the castle. Smith discloses to Mary that Carnaby is actually an imposter, US Corporal Cartwright Jones, and his capture was staged by the British. Later, Smith discovers MacPherson dead.

When a German colonel arrives in the tavern with soldiers ostensibly searching for deserters, Smith realises he is really searching for his team, and surrenders to avoid an unwinnable fight. Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen are taken to the castle, while Smith and Schaffer escape and infiltrate the castle via cable car. Inside, they reunite with Mary and observe General Rosemeyer and Colonel Kramer interrogate Carnaby. Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen arrive, revealed to be German double agents.

Smith and Schaffer intrude, weapons drawn on the men. However, Smith then forces Schaffer to surrender his weapon and identifies himself as Major Johann Schmidt of the Schutzstaffel 's (SS) intelligence branch. He exposes Carnaby's identity and claims that Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen are MI6 agents impersonating German spies. Smith conveys proof of his identity by showing the name of Germany's top spy in Whitehall to Kramer, who silently affirms it, and challenges the double agents to prove themselves as German agents by providing the list of agents they set up across Britain.

With the list in his hand, Smith reveals the truth: believing German spies have extensively infiltrated British intelligence, MI6 identified Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as suspects, and launched the mission to prove this and obtain the identities of their agents and commander. Smith's ploy is interrupted by the arrival of SS Major von Hapen, who suspects everyone, but Smith causes a distraction which allows Schaffer to fatally shoot von Hapen, Kramer, and Rosemeyer. The team, including Mary and Carnaby, make their escape, taking Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as prisoners.

As alarms sound, Schaffer sets explosives around the castle while Smith radios Rolland for extraction. The group travel to the cable car station, sacrificing Thomas as a decoy. Berkeley and Christiansen attempt to escape on a cable car, but they are killed by Smith. The team escapes on the next cable car. Reunited with Heidi in the village, they use a bus to battle their way onto an airfield and escape aboard a Ju 52 transport, with Turner waiting onboard.

In the air, Smith reveals that Kramer identified Turner as Germany's top spy in Britain, confirming Rolland's suspicions. Turner chose Smith to lead the mission, believing he was a German double agent—unaware he was working undercover for Rolland. To ensure the mission's success, Smith secretly recruited Mary—his trusted ally—and Schaffer, who had no ties to the compromised MI6. To avoid a humiliating court martial and execution, Turner is permitted to jump from the aircraft to his death. As the exhausted operatives fly home, Schaffer wryly suggests that Smith keep his next mission "all-British".