The tragic story of the last soldier killed on the battlefield in WWI -- just as the guns go quiet -- and how a gung-ho U.S. Army reporter uncovers his former comrade's troubling secret: he didn't have to die. Based on true characters and events.

SYNOPSIS:

September 1917... A wide-eyed HARRY GUNTHER (22) has it all worked out. A

teller at Baltimore's National Bank, he sees a bright future with his

beautiful fiancée, OLGA GRUEBL (21). Until a draft notice changes his

life forever.

Harry's German-American parents -- LENA (50) and GEORGE (48) are against

the "Great War". But they warn their pacifist son never to appear

unAmerican. Anti-German hysteria is rife. German aliens and

German-Americans suspected of "disloyalty" are beaten -- even lynched --

by angry mobs fearful of a war back home.

At bootcamp Harry goes through the motions. But after word gets out he

won't kill Germans he's a target for harassment by undercover vigilantes

: His gas mask and rifle are sabotaged. A mysterious fire destroys the

regiment's supply hub where he's in charge.

A troubled Harry turns to his commander and spills his soul. But COL.

CLAUDE SWEEZEY (50) -- tone-deaf -- instead questions Harry's

patriotism.

Harry ships off to France in July 1918, angry and depressed. He writes

home and warns his kid brother to avoid the draft at all cost. U.S. Army

censors intercept the seditious letter. And Harry gets busted from

Sergeant to Buck Private — a fate as bad as death in the trenches.

Harry, despondent, turns to his Chaplain, who suggests he volunteer to

move messages over the front lines. "Running" is a dangerous job, but at

least he won't have to kill Germans. (Unless they try to kill him.)

November, 1918. Near Verdun. The Meuse-Argonne offensive to break

Germany's back is at full bore: artillery and mortars BLAST American

"doughboys" who advance on the German lines.

Harry shines in his new role. Seriously wounded in the arm, he refuses a

ticket home and is back on the lines within a week. His courage becomes

legend.

Until that cold, foggy morning of Armistice Day, 1918...

The field guns are silent. Both sides count the minutes when Harry stuns

his men and the Germans. He suddenly bounds forward — alone — firing

his rifle at an enemy machine-gun nest, despite repeated cries on both

sides to stop. A BURST kills Harry instantly. It’s 10:59 a.m. -- one

minute before peace. But why?

In a nearby trench Army reporter Pvt. JIM CAIN (26) fears something darker than bravery pushed his friend Harry over the edge.

After the war Jim's investigative reporting for the "Baltimore Sun" is a

bombshell: Harry was desperate to make good after his damaging letter

home and prove he wasn’t a German sympathizer -- before time ran out.

The story — that Harry commits treason and is shamed to death — shocks

his family. And emboldens some anti-German vigilantes: They burn down

the Gunther row house -- punishment for not being "loyal" to their

country.

September, 1921... Harry's remains finally come home to the land he

loved but who hadn't loved him. Time has passed. Some wounds have

healed, others not.

Lena comes to see Jim as a good, honest reporter who sought the truth. He melts in her forgiving arms at Harry's funeral.

In a flashback to November 11, 1918, two teary-eyed German soldiers carry

the man they HAD to kill back to his doughboys, where they learn that

Harry, too, was German from Bavaria... just like they were.

A bizarre death that ends a crazy war.