In the waning days of the Third Reich, the story begins in 1942, within the fortified walls of the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. Adolf Hitler, cloaked in his formidable authority, interviews young women for the coveted position of his personal secretary. Among the candidates stands Traudl Junge, brimming with youthful eagerness and ambition. To her astonishment and delight, she is chosen by Hitler himself—a decision that would entwine her life with the empire’s darkest days.
By April 1945, the Third Reich is in its death throes. The relentless shelling of Berlin by the Red Army marks the crumbling edges of Hitler’s reign. The Führer, now aged and disheveled at 56, spends his birthday not in celebration, but in the somber confines of the Führerbunker. As Berlin trembles, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler urges Hitler to abandon the capital and save himself, but Hitler stubbornly refuses. Even as Himmler secretly negotiates with the Allies, Hitler remains defiant, vowing to fight to the bitter end.
Above ground, the city’s streets are engulfed in chaos. Amidst the rubble, young Hitler Youth member Peter Kranz earns fleeting glory, destroying Soviet tanks and hailed as a hero of the Reich. Yet, his father pleads with him to abandon the senseless fight. Fueled by propaganda and indoctrinated zeal, Peter denounces his father as a coward. Meanwhile, within the bunker’s oppressive walls, Hitler meets with his crumbling chain of command. He orders the already decimated 9th Army to hold their ground and demands Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner’s nonexistent reinforcements launch a counterattack. His orders are met with silent dismay, for they are as impossible as they are delusional.
Inside the Führerbunker, tensions mount. Hitler awards Peter the Iron Cross, his hollow praise a stark contrast to his growing contempt for his generals, whom he berates as traitors and cowards. Armaments Minister Albert Speer voices concern over Hitler’s scorched-earth policy, warning of Germany’s total destruction. Unmoved, Hitler dismisses him, declaring the German people unworthy of survival for their failure to win. In another part of the bunker, Eva Braun, Hitler’s long-time companion, clings to defiance, hosting a party in the Reich Chancellery while artillery shells shatter the city above. Her brother-in-law, SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, begs her to flee, but she remains steadfast, tethered to Hitler’s fate.
On the front lines, General Helmuth Weidling is wrongly accused of retreating and sentenced to execution. Determined to clear his name, he confronts Hitler, whose unexpected admiration earns Weidling a promotion to oversee Berlin’s defenses. But Steiner’s failure to mount the counterattack enrages Hitler. In a furious tirade, he lashes out at his inner circle, acknowledging for the first time that the war is lost. Yet, he vows to die in Berlin rather than surrender.
As the Soviet noose tightens around the city, desperation spreads like wildfire. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, ever-loyal to Hitler, orders untrained boys and elderly men to their deaths, convinced that the German people deserve their suffering for electing the Nazis. Meanwhile, SS doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck bears witness to the merciless executions of those who refuse to fight, their bodies a grim testament to the regime’s collapse.
News of betrayal reaches Hitler when he learns of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s request to assume leadership. Enraged, Hitler brands Göring a traitor, ordering his arrest. Speer makes a final visit to the Führerbunker, admitting his defiance of Hitler’s orders to destroy Germany’s infrastructure. To his surprise, Hitler spares him and allows him to leave Berlin—a fleeting gesture of mercy amidst the madness.
As Hitler’s delusions deepen, the discovery of Himmler’s secret negotiations pushes him into another rage. He orders Himmler’s execution and, despite Eva’s pleas, has Fegelein executed for desertion. The walls of the Führerbunker close in as despair consumes its occupants. SS physician Ernst-Robert Grawitz requests permission to evacuate, fearing Allied reprisals. When Hitler refuses, Grawitz takes his own life, killing his family with grenades.
The final chapter begins. Hitler clings to a faint hope that Wenck’s 12th Army will deliver salvation, but reality crushes his illusions. Resigned to his fate, Hitler dictates his last will and testament before marrying Eva Braun in a brief and somber ceremony. The next morning, he bids farewell to his staff, poisons his dog Blondi to test the cyanide capsules, and retreats to his private quarters. There, he and Eva take their lives. Their bodies are carried into the Chancellery garden, doused in petrol, and burned, their ashes scattered amidst the ruins of Berlin.
In the aftermath, Goebbels assumes leadership but quickly abandons hope. When General Hans Krebs fails to negotiate a ceasefire with the Soviets, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, poison their six children before taking their own lives. The bunker’s occupants, one by one, succumb to despair, choosing death over capture. General Krebs, SS diplomat Walther Hewel, and others meet their ends in the bunker’s shadowed halls.
As Berlin falls, General Weidling announces the city’s unconditional surrender. Above the chaos, young Peter Kranz returns home, only to find his parents murdered by fanatical Nazis, their blind loyalty to the Reich consuming even their own. Those who remain in the Führerbunker attempt a desperate escape but are swiftly surrounded by Soviet troops. Only Traudl Junge manages to slip away, joined by Peter. Together, they navigate the bombed-out streets and evade Soviet patrols. Finding an abandoned bicycle, they flee the city that was once the epicenter of an empire now reduced to ash.
In the film’s final moments, Junge and Peter pedal away from the ruins of Berlin. Their faces reflect the weight of a crumbled world, yet their journey carries the faintest spark of hope—a future unshackled from the shadows of the past.
