History NightmareFuel / SavingPrivateRyan

** Worse is how the drawn-out death plays out like a rape scene. You have the focus on the blade, the sound of ripping fabric giving way to a wet slip noise as the knife sinks in, Mellish's futile pleading "No, stop!", and the German getting close enough to kiss him and softly whispering for him to just stop fighting and let him get it over with. It's all so incredibly creepy.

** Upham was just a few meters away during the fight, and despite hearing them struggle, was too frightened to go help. Mellish was also desperately calling the other guy who was with him for help the whole time, not aware that he was already dying / dead.

* Upham realizes that the guy Miller spared ended up killing Cpt. Miller. The moment he notices hat, he instantly switches from his cowardly whimpering to a state of TranquilFury and simply makes sure he knows what he did before blowing him away. Within seconds, Upham's complete personality has shattered.

** After a flamethrower sets the German bunker on fire, several German soldiers scramble out on fire. An American soldier calls out "[[PayEvilUntoEvil Don't shoot!]] [[KillItWithFire Let 'em burn!"]] Yikes.

** One poor soldier has [[{{Gorn}} had his guts splattered from his stomach]]. As he's dying, the only thing he can do is call out "[[IWantMyMommy Momma! MOMMA!]]''" before screaming at the very top of his lungs in extreme agony.
** After a US soldier sets the German bunker on fire, several German soldiers scramble out on fire. A US soldier calls out "[[PayEvilUntoEvil Don't shoot!]] [[KillItWithFire Let 'em BURN!"]] Yikes.

** Those soldiers running into the battlefield ''[[ManOnFire on fire.]]'' It's so utterly surreal.

** While at the beach head, a soldier has his shoulder graphically shot open, screaming in agony while Wade tries to stop the bleeding. His screaming is terrifying even to the other soldiers. It doesn't help that the camera zooms in right up to his torn, profusely-bleeding wound.

* Jackson's death. He's sniping soldiers left and right, and has an open-topped Marder completely pinned down. Then he sees it: The remaining Marder tank destroyer has found his position and '''''[[YouAreAlreadyDead is elevating its main gun on him.]]''''' He barely has time to yell to his partner to get down before they're both killed. Even though it's quick, there's a shot of the side of his head ''caving in'' as the 75mm shell hits point-blank.

--->''That's quite a view.''

-->'''Oh my God, ''IT'S IN MY LIVER!'''''

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Understatement}} "That's quite a view."]]]]

** Captain Miller's HeroicBSOD. With a drop of the frame rate and the sound of the battle reducing into white noise, we're placed right into Miller's shock-stricken POV as he watches his troops getting cut down mercilessly. There's a shot of one soldier without his weapon, on the verge of tears, curling up behind the only cover he can find. Just before the sound comes back in, a private is screaming at Miller "What now, sir?!" It serves to set how utterly horrific the rest of the scene is.
** One poor soldier has [[{{Gorn}} had his guts splattered from his stomach]]. As he's dying, the only thing he can do is call out "[[IWantMyMommy Momma!]] ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath MOMMA!]]''" before screaming at the very top of his lungs in extreme agony.
** One soldier ends up wandering the beach in a daze, looking for his severed arm.

*** TruthInTelevision: Around 50% of the Wehrmacht troops defending on D-day were not Germans but were ''Ostlegionen'' troops, essentially glorified SlaveMooks conscripted from Eastern Europe (mostly Soviet or Polish [=POW=]s).

** While at the beach head, a soldier has his shoulder graphically shot open, screaming in agony while an MP tries to stop the bleeding. His screaming is terrifying even to the other soldiers. It doesn't help that the camera zooms in right up to his torn, profusely-bleeding wound.

'''MP:''' You're not gonna die! You're not gonna die! You're fine! ''Just don't look at it!''

* '''''The Omaha Beach opening.''''' It does not shy away from setting the WarIsHell tone immediately, and has become the film's SignatureScene for its unflinching, realistic brutality.

* Upham realizes that the guy Miller spared ended up killing Mellish and Miller. The moment he notices hat, he instantly switches from his cowardly whimpering to a state of TranquilFury and simply makes sure he knows what he did before blowing him away. Within seconds, Upham's complete personality has shattered.

* '''''The Omaha Beach opening.''''' It does not shy away from setting the WarIsHell tone immediately, and has become the film's SignatureScene for its sheer brutality.
** Captain Miller's HeroicBSOD. The sound almost entirely cuts out, and Miller watches his troops start getting cut down mercilessly. There's a shot of one soldier without his weapon, on the verge of tears, curling up behind the only cover he can find. Just before the sound comes back in, a private is screaming at Miller "What now, sir?!" It serves to set how utterly horrific the rest of the scene is.
** One poor soldier has [[{{Gorn}} had his guts splattered from his stomach]]. As he's dying, the only thing he can do is call out "[[IWantMyMommy Momma!]] ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath MOMMA!!]]''" before screaming at the very top of his lungs in extreme agony.

** The entire beach was one giant 'murder hole'. The utter failure to provide air or armor cover left the infantry completely out to dry on those beachheads.

*** Part of why it was such a carnage was because of a series of failures. [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy Naval artillery and aerial bombardment mostly missed]], so they inflicted minimal damage on German defenses, while most of the amphibious tanks that were supposed to provide support sank or were quickly destroyed. Men had to run at machineguns and mortars with no support except their own numbers.

** Even worse an armed Upham was just a few meters away hearing them struggle but too frightened to go help and that Mellish was also desperately calling the other guy who was with him for help, not aware that he was already dying / dead.

[[caption-width-right:350:"That's quite a view."]]

** One of the landing craft unknowingly drops its ramp right in front of an MG nest. Every man aboard is slaughtered in a matter of seconds without as much as touching the sand.
** [[{{Creator/JamesDoohan}} James "Scotty" Doohan]] is a D-Day vet who lost his right middle finger and was shot during the operation. In an interview, when asked about the D-Day sequence of this movie, he remarked "Yes, that's exactly what it was like." And then remember that the opening scene was a CompressedAdaptation. Instead of thirty minutes, it took three hours to capture the beach in real life. So real soldiers were in that nightmare for ''three straight hours.''
*** Bear in mind, Doohan was in the [[UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks Canadian Artillery]], who landed on Juno Beach, where the battle went more successfully than the bloody debacle that ensued with the American landings at Omaha Beach. Which, in turn, means that the reality for the Americans was probably even ''worse'' than the film depicts.

** Probably the worst part about the entire opening is that the landings were ultimately ''successful''. The bloody mess that we saw was still '''the best possible outcome.''' That is the reality of the Normandy Invasion; waves of men had to die assaulting defenses built specifically to kill them to secure those beaches. And the ones that lived still had to look upon all that carnage to really understand what had happened.
*** Part of why it was such a carnage was because of a series of failures. Naval artillery and aerial bombardment mostly missed, so they inflicted minimal damage on German defenses, while most of the amphibious tanks that were supposed to provide support sank or were quickly destroyed. Men had to run at machineguns and mortars with no support except their own numbers.

** Those telegrams didn't write themselves. After D-Day we see a closeup of a couple of women typing out those letters in a office. Then we see its a room with a hundred women typing them out all day every day.

*** Part of why it was such a carnage was because of a series of failures. Naval artillery and aerial bombardment mostly missed, so they inflicted minimal damage on German defenses, while most of the amphibious tanks that were supposed to provide support sank or were quickly destroyed.

** Probably the worst part about the entire opening is that the landings were ''successful''. The bloody mess that we saw was '''all according to plan.''' That is the reality of the Normandy Invasion; waves of men had to die just to secure those beaches. As seen in the movie, the ones that lived still had to look upon all that carnage to really understand what had happened.

* While the scene with Horvath and a SS soldier tossing their helmets at each other can be funny, it also further relays how desperate these soldiers are in battle. To come face to face with an enemy in the middle of combat can instantly get you on a fight-or-flight setting - and so you do ''damn well anything'' to incapacitate the target and get the upper hand, if just to survive long enough to shoot said tsrget.

* Irwin Wade goes out on a TearJerker, but his death is almost as disturbing. As Miller's team describes, the bullets went ''through'' his spine, specifically the small of it - the acorn-sized holes enough to cause massively bleeding wounds that, even as he lays on his back, ''continues pouring out more and more''. And then Wade finally realizes how bad the bullet wounds ''really'' are - '''his liver was punctured, and he can feel it.'''. Wade was already dead before he actually stopped breathing. With no hope to survive, he then asks his team to overdose him on morphine; because he was already a dead man breathing, and that the pain was so ''horrid'' that he couldn't take any more. And so the medic dies, whimpering for his mama - terrified, and in horrible agony. '''Holy hell.'''
** How terrifying is it to be shot at, and only realize several moments later that one bullet got into one of your vital organs? At first it may seem like it was just severe pain. You're shivering and barely able to speak, [[HopeSpot but that's just the shock of it, right?]] Then suddenly, you can feel something specific in your body. Something that shouldn't be hurting worse, yet it is...until suddenly it comes to you...

* Irwin Wade goes out on a TearJerker, but his death is almost as disturbing. As Miller's team describes, the bullets went ''through'' his spine, specifically the small of it - the acorn-sized holes enough to cause massively bleeding wounds that, even as he lays on his back, ''continues pouring out more and more''. And then Wade realizes how bad the bullet wounds ''really'' are - '''his liver was punctured'''. Wade was already dead, and so he asks his team to overdose him on morphine. And so the medic dies, whimpering for his mama - terrified, and in horrible agony.

* Irwin Wade goes out on a TearJerker, but his death is almost as disturbing. As Miller's team describes, the bullets went ''through'' his spine, specifically the small of it - the acorn-sized holes enough to cause massively bleeding wounds that, even as he lays on his back, ''continues pouring out more and more''. And then Wade realizes how bad the bullet wounds ''really'' are...
-->'''Wade:''' '''''[[YouAreAlreadyDead Oh my God, it's in my LIVER!]]'''''