Stories need stakes, something that the protagonist is either trying to make happen or working to avoid happening. Those can be big—think about any of the recent superhero movies where a giant sky laser is threatening to bring down (fill in the blank invading army)—or more personal, involving family, relationships, jobs and the like.

For more than 50 years, Nazis were a good go-to antagonist for movies. Not only were they unquestioningly evil, but the stakes were implied by their presence: World domination, mass extermination of those deemed “undesirable,” and the collapse of the Western world.

In the past 15 years or so, they’ve been replaced to some extent by Middle East terrorists, who provide similar built-in stakes and seemed more relevant to the moment. World War II, after all, ended over 70 years ago, and those who fought in that conflict are disappearing every day. Young people in America today primarily know a world where non-white people are the go-to enemy, both in politics and popular entertainment.

In light of (cough) recent events, it’s worth revisiting the trailers for six movies that made it clear that America’s preferred response to those violently espousing Nazi ideology was a swift punch in the jaw.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Inglourious Basterds

When Indiana Jones finds himself called into action by a pair of government operatives, he’s in a race against time to uncover a powerful weapon being sought by Adolf Hitler and his military. The trailer for Raiders of the Lost Ark makes it clear that Indy will be punching plenty of Nazis as he searches for the Ark of the Covenant before the bad guys can find it. Narration explains that it’s being sought by everyone, from those “who are good” (Indy and his allies) and “those who are evil” (the Nazis and their collaborators). While the main value proposition here is to sell the latest action/adventure tale from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, you can’t ignore the fact that operatives of the Third Reich are the bad guys.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Quentin Tarantino’s story of a ragtag group of American soldiers operating behind enemy lines in WWII escalated the response to Nazis and their ideology from a solid right hook to something much more drastic. That’s clear almost immediately in the trailer, as Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine explains to his recruits that their first and only job is killing Nazis in the most horrific manner possible. Their unit has a reputation for their violent methods, a reputation that’s soon shown to be 100 percent accurate. They’ve been harassing German soldiers for a while now and are moving from small one-off operations to a much bigger plan to take out German high command. There’s no negotiation or middle-ground. Lt. Raine wants his scalps and is happy to leave plenty of bodies in his wake.

The main villain in Captain America: The First Avenger is Hydra, the science division of Hitler’s Nazi army. That muddies the waters slightly, but not by much, as Hydra—through its main agent, the Red Skull—shares the same evil objectives for the world. The first trailer for the movie makes it clear that Steve Rogers is unwilling to sit on the sidelines because stopping Hydra and crippling its ability to help their cohorts is a moral imperative, something he must do.

The only way to beat an unstoppable army, we’re told, is with an unstoppable army of your own, and that’s what Captain America represents. “Stay who you are,” Rogers is told by the scientist responsible for his transformation, and that means staying someone who knows right from wrong.

The Rocketeer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd5cj9FeUAw