Rated 4.1 out of 5 by AlloCiné viewers, it is one of the most spectacular series of the decade. Thanks to its record audience, Masters of the Air is also a huge success for Apple TV+, which paid a significant budget for this historical fiction.
Broadcasting since January 26, the Masters of the Air platform has come to an end only after posting the ninth and final episode online, which once again took the breath away of viewers who gave it a chance.
What is Masters of the Air?
Produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, this war saga follows two previous successes: Band of Brothers (Brothers in Arms in French) and The Pacific.
Producer and screenwriter John Orloff’s trilogy tells, this time, the story of the men of the 100th Bombardment Group (nicknamed the “Bloody Hundred” because of their significant losses) of the 8th US Air Force, responsible for bombing Nazi Germany and its Industrial and strategic weapons sites during World War II.
Mostly Donald L. Based on Miller’s eponymous book and the memoirs of true war heroes, Masters of the Air is an extraordinarily human and epic adventure carried out by a distinguished cast: Austin Balter, Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan, Nkuti Gatwa, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, Raf Lowe, Bel Powley and Joanna Kulig.
How does Masters of the Air end?
In the final episode of Masters of the Air, World War II ended in 1945. But our heroes are not out of the woods yet. On the one hand, Rosenthal (Nate Mann) crashes in the middle of an aerial mission. He escapes thanks to his parachute but falls between the trenches between the Germans and the Russians.
Apple TV+
He is miraculously picked up by the Russians, who rescue him and take him for safe transport back to the United Kingdom. But on the way back, Rosenthal experiences a major shock: he passes through concentration camps abandoned by the Germans and realizes the “hidden” atrocities of Nazi actions.
Back at the base, Rosenthal finds navigator Crosby (Anthony Boyle), who is suffering from post-traumatic stress. Poor Crosby needs to return to a normal life and it is with his pregnant wife that the navigator can try to rebuild himself.
Alongside the prisoners of war camps, Buck (Austin Butler), Bucky (Callum Turner) and the Tuskegee Airmen try to escape the German army which forces them to move from camp to camp in the cold, while trying to evade Allied forces. .
Apple TV+
Thanks to a plan, Buck manages to escape and is saved to return to base where he is welcomed as a hero. His friend Bucky is taken to a new prison camp, where he tries to survive as best he can, until the Allies arrive by plane to destroy the camp, eliminate the last Nazi soldiers and rescue the prisoners of war.
In a burst of hope, Bucky then recognizes the American flag and realizes that the war is finally over and that he will be able to find his comrades and his family.
Behind Masters of the Air, real heroes
The Masters of the Air series concludes with archival footage of real-life war heroes on which fictional characters created by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman are based.
We know that Harry Crosby left the US Air Force in 1945 and received a doctorate in literature from Stanford University in 1953 and then became a professor for several years. He published his memoirs about his experiences during World War II in 1993. He died in 2010 at the age of 91.
Apple TV+
Alexander Jefferson was a pilot in the United States Air Force for two years before putting his career on hold and becoming a science teacher. He also wrote his memoirs about his experience as a Tuskegee Airman and prisoner of war. He died in 2022 at the age of 100.
Richard Macon was promoted to captain and established a flight school in Alabama. He also earned a college degree in mathematics and joined Alexander Jefferson to teach in Detroit. He died in 2007 at the age of 86.
After the war, Robert Rosenthal helped prosecute many Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. He received numerous awards including the Croix de Guerre from France. The man who flew the most missions in the 100th Bombardment Group died in 2007 at the age of 89.
Apple TV+
Gale Klavan continued his career as a pilot in the United States Air Force and fought in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He later left the Army with the rank of colonel and earned college degrees from Harvard and Georgetown. He remained close friends with John Egan, best man at his wedding to Marjorie Spencer. He died in 2006 at the age of 87.
John Egan continued his career in the United States Air Force and fought in the Korean War. He became Director of Air Force Operations across the Pacific. He died of a heart attack in 1961 at the age of 45 while working at the Pentagon.
The Masters of the Air series is available on the Apple TV+ platform and in France via myCANAL.